DATAMATH

DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM

Texas Instruments Little Professor Solar (2020)

Date of introduction:	2020	Display technology:	LCD
New price:	$17.50 (SRP 2023)	Display size:	8
Size:	5.9" x 3.0" x 0.50" 150 x 75 x 13 mm³
Weight:	2.8 ounces, 79 grams	Serial No:
Batteries:	n.a.	Date of manufacture:	mth 08 year 2021 (B)
AC-Adapter:		Origin of manufacture:	Philippines (L)
Precision:		Integrated circuits:
Memories:
Program steps:		Courtesy of:	Joerg Woerner

Texas Instruments reintroduced the Little Professor Solar in September 2011 in some European countries, e.g. Austria, Germany, United Kingdom and The Netherlands.

At first glance it seems to be identical to the Solar Little Professor introduced already in 1997 but we noticed some minor differences:

• The name on the box and educational toy changed from
SOLAR "LITTLE PROFESSOR" to "LITTLE PROFESSOR" SOLAR.
• The internal construction changed slightly.

This Little Professor Solar caught our attention during a trip to Germany in July 2023 when we noticed the smaller solar cells on the sales box but we found later out that the actual product uses identical solar cells to the unit acquired in 2011.

Dismantling the featured Little Professor Solar manufactured in August 2021 by Kinpo Electronics in the Philippines reveals a well known internal construction. We know this type of design and even the housing from scientific calculators like the TI-36X Solar. Please remember that the very first models of the Little Professor family based on simple 4-functions calculators.

Inspecting the PCB of this Little Professor Solar calculator brought our attention to a small mark reading SR31-12, we noticed similar marks already with other Slide Rule calculators manufactured by Kinpo Electronics and started compiling a list of the PCB-Marks on calculators manufactured by OEMs for Texas Instruments.

If you have additions to the above article please email: a href="mailto:joerg@datamath.org">joerg@datamath.org.