Calculator Community > UberGraphX
UberGraphX - Ubercalculator
jnesselr:
What hardware are you planning to use for this (as a base system)?
I would look at the otcalc project sub-forums. (Which starts again this summer, hopefully)
uberspire:
--- Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on January 24, 2011, 06:59:43 pm ---This looks quite nice so far. The only suggestion I have would be to make the bottom bar a bit smaller so the icons won't look pixelated. This is an ambitious project so I hope it works out well. Have you managed to find where to get all the hardware you will need?
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I have a board being manufactured in China right now. I'm waiting for the board to arrive (around the end of January) here so I can start assembling it and soldering all the components. It'll take me a while (a couple of weeks) to solder the board since there are a lot of components and they're really small. I also have a couple of LCD's for experimentation (5" monochrome touchscreen and a 3" color touchscreen)
--- Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on January 24, 2011, 06:59:43 pm ---Also a suggestion for the OS would be to put an emphasis on maths, such as making all math tools visible first along with programs. That way it is still seen as a calculator rather than just an handheld. That said, if that works out, it would really rule if the price is not too high either, as it could even compete against some tablets/mobile devices and not just calcs.
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I agree, there needs to be a strong emphasis on math. Instead of having to wrote most of the software ourselves, I was thinking that we can already use free powerful math software available (like Maxima or Octave) and have them be packaged with the calculator/mathematical PDA.
--- Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on January 24, 2011, 06:59:43 pm ---That said, if that works out, it would really rule if the price is not too high either, as it could even compete against some tablets/mobile devices and not just calcs.
Also, if you go for a touchpad, make sure it's responsive but not annoying to use like on a laptop. Touchscreen would be ok, or clickpad if a touchscreen is too expensive. Clickpad should really be to the right or left, though, not in the middle like the TI-Nspire.
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Touchscreen would make the project considerably cheaper (device will be more compact, no need to manufacturer keypad and buttons, and less PCB area). In fact, I could probably build the board and case for around $100. But there are already a lot of PDA's like that on the market and in that price range already.
My vision is that this calculator to have the power of a PDA, but in the form a traditional graphing calculator. Touchscreen would also mean that this calculator would be instantly banned from school testing.
--- Quote from: graphmastur on January 24, 2011, 07:15:34 pm ---What hardware are you planning to use for this (as a base system)?
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The hardware is all designed by myself. The calculator uses a ARM9 processor @ 450MHz which has the ARMv5TEJ instruction set. There are versions of Ubuntu (xubuntu) designed to run with that architecture, but I'm pretty sure it'll bog down the processor and is probably complete overkill for a $140 mathematical PDA/uber graphing calculator.
Someone on another forum asked for pictures or drawings of the hardware. I'll be happy to take pictures of the hardware when it's working, but I'm really hesitant releasing schematics. Some Chinese company could rip off the project and make cheap clones, which would then make my time and the money I spent in this project a waste. The closest I'll ever show of the hardware internals is a routed PCB design of my development board:
On the left, this board has a TV output jack. That's just for me to play around with. It's most likely not gonna end up in the final design. The main goals of this board:
1) See if it powers up
2) Boot the kernel
3) If the kernel works, try to test the peripherals (LCD, TV output, audio, USB mini port, SD card, etc.)
After I checked off those things, I'll make revisions to the board and then have another board created. I plan for the hardware to be finalized by this June.
EDIT: And if anyone is wandering where the LCD is connected to on the board, this board is a development board I designed. I have the LCD on a breakout board with 0.1" pin spacings. The LCD is attached to the pin headers on the board.
EDIT:
--- Quote from: Binder News on January 24, 2011, 06:47:27 am ---Wow! I this the first time you are making your own calc/computer? It seems like a pretty big project. But good luck!
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I have built some calculators before, but really simple ones just for fun. I'm a second year computer engineer in college and I just thought, even if it doesn't make it to the market, it'll still be an awesome senior project.
nemo:
whoa, this is crazy how far you've gotten. if you need anything written in java/any help in java don't hesitate to ask me i could chip in with some software. this looks amazing, good luck with the rest of it
ruler501:
If you need any python code I'll help you out this looks great!. Good Luck
*ruler goes to try to sell idea to chinese companies ^-^
uberspire:
Thanks, any programming help would be grateful.
I just got an email today about an inventions contest being held by my university and the timing couldn't be any better. I don't know if it's plain chance or faith, but this is probably the big break that Project Paradise needs that will enable it to be pushed into a real product that will compete against TI, Casio and HP. The judges are investors looking for good commercial ideas and I believe this project has a good chance at winning this contest (or at least a spot, so my project can receive some funding) just as long as I can show that this project makes business sense. They want a working prototype finished and a presentation ready by April (which is two months earlier than I planned for the hardware to be finalized), so I have to speed up everything and I'm in a frenzy now. These next two months will probably determine whether this project makes it or breaks it.
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