Interesting new (non graphing) Casio calculator slated for a release in China. Aimed at scientists and engineering professionals? Programmable, IO/SD card, moisture resistant.
Lookup: fx-FD10_Pro
Best,
Carl
Looks like a very nice concept for outdoor use. Includes programmability, communication, and a reasonable display size (though quite crammed display layout). Didn't see anything about its dimensions nor could I read the keyboard in detail.
d:-?
(03-27-2014 07:13 PM)CR Haeger Wrote: [ -> ]Aimed at scientists and engineering professionals? Programmable, IO/SD card, moisture resistant.
I don't think scientists and engineering professionals are any moister than other people.
The "new" device seems to be more or less a reincarnation of the fx-9860 series, expanded to support Unicode for the Chinese market. The case design is new and seems well thought out, but the internals are "good old Casio" style. 64Kb of RAM is kind of ridiculous, as is the number of variables (A-Z, r, θ).
Looks like Casio gives their (Asian) surveyor market what they were asking for. A more rugged device with USB. As there are several surveying programs available for their older platforms I don't think they felt the need to change radically their environment.
(edit)
Yep, looks like it after searching for images:
http://www.cncalc.org/forum.php?mod=view...&tid=10088 If that was a brochure, apparently it supports CSV and USB/SD card are meant to interact with the station.
(03-27-2014 10:12 PM)Manolo Sobrino Wrote: [ -> ]Looks like Casio gives their (Asian) surveyor market what they were asking for. A more rugged device with USB. As there are several surveying programs available for their older platforms I don't think they felt the need to change radically their environment.
Yep, looks like it after searching for images: http://www.cncalc.org/forum.php?mod=view...&tid=10088 If that was a brochure, apparently it supports CSV and USB/SD card are meant to interact with the station.
Manolo;
From the parameters in the two examples on that page it looks like their program supports un-equal tangent vertical curves. That's so unusual that i can only think of one other example of it's implementation on a handheld. It's not very common on big iron either - so that's a feather in it's cap.
The small number of keys is forgiveable with menus because it leaves more room for a big screen on a small platform. Most users run canned programs the lions share of the time anyway, Me included. I like the clip for a lanyard too. What isn't forgiveable is the lack of RPN. I wonder if the keys are clicky. Many of the high end American data collectors, such as the Husky, have HP style keys.
What is the gun the have it working with? It looks like a Leica - in an ad for a Japanese calculator for the Chinese market.
(03-28-2014 12:04 AM)Den Belillo (Martinez Ca.) Wrote: [ -> ]Manolo;
From the parameters in the two examples on that page it looks like their program supports un-equal tangent vertical curves. That's so unusual that i can only think of one other example of it's implementation on a handheld. It's not very common on big iron either - so that's a feather in it's cap.
The small number of keys is forgiveable with menus because it leaves more room for a big screen on a small platform. Most users run canned programs the lions share of the time anyway, Me included. I like the clip for a lanyard too. What isn't forgiveable is the lack of RPN. I wonder if the keys are clicky. Many of the high end American data collectors, such as the Husky, have HP style keys.
What is the gun the have it working with? It looks like a Leica - in an ad for a Japanese calculator for the Chinese market.
Den, you got me. I'm a physicist (a lapsed particle phenomenologist I guess, doing mostly other unrelated things now). I know how Surveying looks like, but the details are some sort of voodoo to me (anyway, when I found out that you are using clothoids -we call that Cornu spirals- and why you would do that I said "Yes!", it was so cool that I had to tell all my pals about it.)
I just found lots of surveying programs for the 603P, 4850P, 5800P years ago when I was looking for information about them, as well as people using them complaining about the fragility of the 5800P hinges and it's lack of proper IO (you can't). I'm aware that many surveyors are still clinging to the 850P/880P in my area (I have one), and the lack of a standard PC interface (FA-6 is quite exotic) is an old trouble.
China appears to be an algebraic country, and there's little to do about it. That would be the first RPN Casio too, correct me if I'm wrong, so that's not really unexpected.
It looks like a smart move from Casio, apparently they're building highways over there like there's no tomorrow and then there are the staggering numbers of Chinese graduates every year, it might sell well.
I don't know about the keys, they should at least work, as Casio already has rugged phones, rugged cameras and the G-Shocks.
BTW What do you think of the backlit keyboard? I've never seen anything like that in a calculator. Besides the cool factor, is night Surveying that common?
(Un-equal tangent vertical curves, now I have to look it up... Damn, this forum makes procrastination too easy!)
Manolo;
The only spirals I'm familiar with are Barnet spirals, used in railroads and some highways. Maybe these are a sub-class of your Cornu spirals? Barnets were chosen because the guys in the field in the 1800's could calculate the layout for construction without needing transcendental functions. Many things needed trig tables, but points on center line could be done with an algebraic formula and the degree of curvature. That's a plus when Indians are slinging arrows at you and bears are biting your behind.
A lot of surveying is retracement, AKA: "yes; what he said". A strange result of this is that as the land got subdivided, lots of deeds got written with calls like ".....along said line which is 40 feet easterly of the centerline of the ATSF RR...." or other nonsense like that. The result is that some of property boundaries have spiral curves in them even if the railroad is long gone. Today's surveyor has to "retrace the footsteps of the original surveyor", so he uses the same formula, which was as you know, chosen to eliminate wear and squeaking wheels.
I didn't catch the backlit screen. I don't read Congi so i was cheating by skimming the comments and replies. I guess i missed one. Night surveying - and the need to shoot Polaris, or to do very long triangulation with lighted sites to eliminate daytime heat waves - went out when GPS came in. A lot of art has died in the last 20 years.
Un-equal tangent vertical curves are only used in cases with real funkey existing conditions. Let's say you need to align a freeway offramp over a live 9ft sewer pipe but staying under an overpass, all while making a smooth transition and not leaving the driver's stomach in his throat or under his seat. I never had to do that but I have a program for the 11C for it. Aren't HP calculators wonderful? - db
It's official, there you go:
http://www.casio-intl.com/asia-mea/en/ca...pro/field/
(03-28-2014 03:31 AM)Den Belillo (Martinez Ca.) Wrote: [ -> ]Manolo;
The only spirals I'm familiar with are Barnet spirals, used in railroads and some highways. Maybe these are a sub-class of your Cornu spirals? Barnets were chosen because the guys in the field in the 1800's could calculate the layout for construction without needing transcendental functions. Many things needed trig tables, but points on center line could be done with an algebraic formula and the degree of curvature. That's a plus when Indians are slinging arrows at you and bears are biting your behind.
A lot of surveying is retracement, AKA: "yes; what he said". A strange result of this is that as the land got subdivided, lots of deeds got written with calls like ".....along said line which is 40 feet easterly of the centerline of the ATSF RR...." or other nonsense like that. The result is that some of property boundaries have spiral curves in them even if the railroad is long gone. Today's surveyor has to "retrace the footsteps of the original surveyor", so he uses the same formula, which was as you know, chosen to eliminate wear and squeaking wheels.
I didn't catch the backlit screen. I don't read Congi so i was cheating by skimming the comments and replies. I guess i missed one. Night surveying - and the need to shoot Polaris, or to do very long triangulation with lighted sites to eliminate daytime heat waves - went out when GPS came in. A lot of art has died in the last 20 years.
Un-equal tangent vertical curves are only used in cases with real funkey existing conditions. Let's say you need to align a freeway offramp over a live 9ft sewer pipe but staying under an overpass, all while making a smooth transition and not leaving the driver's stomach in his throat or under his seat. I never had to do that but I have a program for the 11C for it. Aren't HP calculators wonderful? - db
Yes, they are indeed.
Den, that is fascinating. I've never thought of the effects of temperature, but it makes a lot of sense because light in an stratified medium (as density changes with temperature, hence index of refraction) doesn't follow straight paths, very nice.
In Spain, the current (2000) standard specifications for construction of roads only allow clothoids as the transition curves. That is
Euler spirals - Cornu spirals... Maybe those are the same as the railroad transition spirals. I've noticed that there is an often quoted (U.S. Government Printing Office) 1938 book from Barnett that describes such spirals for highways, I haven't seen it yet.
Then there is the
"railroad taper" too and so many others... It gets very interesting from here (but alas, it'll have to wait). Thank you!
Good old Casio strikes again. It looks a nice calculator for harsh environments (IPX4 and 5) - good to work under rain, but not for under water for now
What do You think about the advertized memory specs? It looks like an error:
User memory program area:
62,000 Mbytes
Storage memory:
1 MBytes ...?