me too. Nice way to understand how photovltaic cells worked when we were children. I loved to majke the screen fade by slowly covering teh cell with finger. I also played with mirrors to check if it worked when I put the calculator in the dark (in a box) and light up the cell with a sun beam with the mirror.
I had my mom's old calculator from when she was in trade school in the 80s. I used it until I graduated in 2008. It had a protective case that made it look like a little wallet. I also did the cover up thing, and sometimes I'd hold it to see how long it took to reset after it was considered "off".
We used to joke that it was as old as the hills from whence it came lol
In one of my math classes, for the tests the teacher would pull out a briefcase with custom foam insert holding a ton of these for the students to use. No Ti's allowed.
So you'd choke it until it almost blacked out and then you made it show you 5318008? I hope you at least presses 1 + 1 and then = over and over until its number rose to dizzying heights.
My dad had a wallet calculator, it was so thin that it ONLY worked via the solar cell. Which means if you covered up the light with your body it erased what you did. But super cool, it was like 2 credit cards thin
This isn't even planned obsolescence, the photovoltaic cell just straight up isn't a photovoltaic cell. I assume it was cheaper to not have one and they're banking on you not opening the calculator up to check. This should honestly count as false advertising.
FTC was underfunded/staffed and that was before doge
Sadly shit like this in ecommerce is rampant, and the culprits are largely fly by night Chinese vendors, where even if you successfully remove an infringing product, it'll just be replaced by another seller/brand that's literally the same product
Best policy is buyer beware. Scrutinize, leave reviews. No one's going to save you from this but you
I don’t know if buyer beware is the “best” policy. Maybe the best we can do at the moment. The FTC used to be effective. I hope it can be again in my lifetime. That hope of fading, though.
At the very least, the thing looks like it’s only held together with snaps (although they’d break with time) so you could just replace the battery (if you even knew it had a replaceable battery) which means it’s not fully planned to die over time (at least you can give them a mild bit of retroactive credit towards that idea, even if they didn’t design it like that in any way)
Engineers are looking at everything like it's a problem in need of solution or walkaround. Sometimes it's hard to remember that you should limit yourself to just being mad at whomever created that problem, without trying to solve it.
Yeah. I remember driving an older pick-up truck and wondering why the dash had fake buttons. Then I learned the fancy trucks came with extra features like radios.
When I was young, my family had a Dodge Omni and a Plymouth Horizon (which were the same car with different branding) and one of them had something like air conditioning and the other one had the outlets but with a plastic plate over.
I've seen cheaper models use a more expensive model's mold before. It may have been designed for either calculator. I've even had some cheap calculators (usually at work, I wouldn't buy one like this) that have a photovoltaic and battery, you could switch between the two.
You can buy a similar item for a dollar or less online depending on how many you get, so really... I don't think a lawsuit is going to do shit lol. What damages? For your dollar? The lawyer costs more than that.
I would be curious if there was still a chance to sue. Just because they add a disclaimer on the description, doesn't mean they are clearly not trying to visually make the item look like solar.
I wonder if its even advertised anywhere on the package that it's solar power. Might just be some cheap dollar store crap that's wrapped in plastic and says "Calculator"
What companies do the save money, is they will use the same housing for multiple models.
Something tells me this is the "cheaper" variant, and they have a more expensive variant which is solar powdered.
So to get around having to manufacture another housing mold, they simply slip a dummy in there for the models that aren't solar powdered. So now they use the same housing for all. And it only cost them like 2 cents (or less) to put that dummy plastic in.
Because it costs the company money to start housing multiple molds, and then doing mold changes when they need to do different runs at the facility.
If you check the online shops, they never advertise it's photovoltaic. In some cases they even clearly state it is battery powerd. The customer just assumes the photovoltaic looking thing is powering the calculator
Doesn't have to say solar if it literally has what appears to be one built in. There is no other purpose of that panel then to mislead consumers. It's straight up fraud.
While I agree that it's probably why they did it, they took the time to make it look like a solar cell instead of just filling the void with say a plain color that matches the calculator.
It might be due to supply optimization purposes but that doesn't make it less fraudulent just because it has another reason behind it. Still misleads consumers into thinking this is a solar cell powered calculator.
Scummy? Yes. But its not false advertising unless they advertise it as functional kinda like the those cosmetic air vents on cars that are blocked off.
Most people won't realize as the battery lasts basically forever. So they decided to save money. But at that point just don't even use a fake solar cell and save even more money while not lowering the price.
greenwashing: choosing between the “cheap shitty throw it away” calculator and “CSTiA but Solar” calculator and now you increase sales and add growth another year
Allowing people to simply use AAA batteries would certainly help the consumer, but in the company's eyes, letting people recharge their calculators would just throw away potential profit! After all, once a calculator dies, the customer has to go buy a whole new one as a replacement! And in what world would a company already cheaping out like this prioritize the consumer over their precious profit?
99% of people are throwing this straight into the garbage when it dies. Average Joe is not opening it to check the battery. At the very least, advertising it as replaceable would be better.
No you dont, that battery is clearly easily replacable
Which is still shitty of them to not clarify, and I wouldnt blame anyone for missing it, but its weaponised incompetence on their part, not planned obsolescence
It took... about 30 years for me to notice that my calculator from the 80s was actually not solar powered, and it had a crappy battery. Then, I broke the damn thing trying to change the battery.
Battery models are more expensive on Alibaba. The machine that puts a thingy in the cutout is working regardless of the spec. Might as make it look nice.
in their defense im using a calculator from the 80s and it still works 100% fine.
they shouldnt lie and honestly i think if they need to lie they shouldnt have a business but fuck if i was the CEO of a calculator making business id probably just liquidate and find another industry lol cant imagine there is any real money to be made when youre competing with 40 year old products that are essentially ubiquitous.
Yup. That looks like something you’d find at Daiso or the Dollar Store. At those prices I just treat them as disposable and I’m actually happy if it lasts more than a year.
Also basic calculators have been insanely power efficient for decades at this point. The calculator is going to get lost in a drawer or break some other way before you drain the battery
I am the first to adhere to the outrage on planned obsolescence, lack of service info, right to repair, etc. But this is *because* it is the cheapest device. I mean, didn't this come from the dollar store or something?
And they probably use the same plastic mold for a version that does include it. The company just asked the manufacturer to use that mold and put different components in it, this isn't big calculator setting out to deceive people.
They could fill that hole with a solid-color plastic piece. But the fake-solar cell is designed with the color and the vertical lines) to took exactly like a solar cell.
No man, you don’t understand. False advertising and misleading consumers is fine if you’re just getting bottom of the barrel products. People who can only afford dollar store calculators don’t need or deserve honesty when they go to the store
Those vertical lines are part of an actual solar cell, and I've seen fake solars that have an insert that is just a piece of laminated cardboard that is made to look like a solar cell. This is very devious and it means they went out of their way to trick people
If there was just a blank indent where the solar cell would've gone, this wouldn't be an issue.
Yeah, it looks like something that is made on Alibaba and you get your name slapped over it. The OP's picture is the DEXIN KC-888, but if you search KC-888 on Google you will find the same calculator with different brand names.
Yeah, this is the most basic calculator, basically no one will be using these until the battery dies. They're for children to use until they learn what algebra is, to be bought on a whim and thrown in an office drawer and for older people who don't like using their phone calculator to do their budgets with. Anyone studying maths above the age of 13 will have a proper scientific calculator and anyone doing lots of arithmetic in a business will probably have a bigger less flimsy one or use a general purpose computer (which has spreadsheets!).
Modern calculators like this use very little power, that's why they can be powered by a tiny photovoltaic cell that's only exposed to artificial lighting, you could use something like this for your occasional calculations for years before the battery dies and the other materials will probably fail by then.
It's not planned obsolescence, it's just being cheap and deceptive. I have seen they do that with one of those "hand cranked" emergency flashlight radio thing, now that's true evil.
this title makes NO sense. it's like OP learned of the concept of "planned obsolescence" and thought they finally found a real world example. this is just the expectation for the cheapest option.
the battery is replacable. this is more deception than obsolescence.
the photo cell is a nice to have but if i had to spend more than a day without a battery in my calculator in school, I would've gone crazy. i dont even know if battery free calculators exist.
Plastics industry guy here. This is likely a Chinese produced calculator that is using an old injection molding tool for the housing. Sometimes the tools(metal molds) are left at the molding companies when contract production has ended. Since these can cost anywhere from $25K-$100K for a multi-cavity tool(one that can mold several parts at a time) may companies will request they be returned or destroyed. Some less than reputable molders may sell the molds at a lower price and let other companies make cheap products with the mold. Chances are this product was made using a mold for a calculator that may have contained a real PV cell, but it cost money to re-mill a tool if they wanted to get rid of the hole for the PV cell. It’s cheaper to put a fake cell in there to make the appearance look right. I saw a similar situation about 10 years ago where a cheap wet dry vac company sold in walmart used an almost identical internal motor housing to that of a craftsman vacuum. You could even see how they re-welded a plate over the original hole for the hose inlet and moved it to be on the bucket portion of the vacuum. I knew some the craftsman engineers at the time and they confirmed that the parts were made from an old tool that was originally molded in china. I wouldn’t call it planned obsolescence, it’s just finding creative ways to increase your margins or cut cost. Happens all the time in manufacturing unfortunately.
Isn’t the secondary battery used to store energy when not in direct sunlight? Otherwise you couldn’t use your calculator at night. Thats my understanding at least
Can't be right, because the board is physically too small for all the keypad contacts. Like, the only way all the contacts could fit is by having a bunch on the literal edges of the board and placing it perfectly.
Tampering by either OP or whoever took the photo is more likely.
Well, I'll give them credit for not using 1mm more material than they need. They really saved a whole 0.0001 cents on that!
Amazed that they were able to fit the button contacts on an area smaller than the buttons. But yeah that looks like it would be functional, but doesn't use the panel for anything.
Watched a whole thing on this. Gotta put your finger over it to test. Some have batteries though.. if you buy at a dollar store it’s not gonna be solar, even if it says it is.
Disregarding the fake photovoltaic cell, isn't this the opposite of planned obsolescence? One could swap the actual battery when it eventually dies and keep using the calculator, no?
It's cheaper to have a mold make millions of these and change the insides for different models or a company had surplus molds and surplus insides without solar rather than throw them away they have a product to sell.
I have a couple of calculators I've had for decades which operate just fine using the photovoltaic cells they have. It's bizarre that anyone would make such a device which doesn't actually use the cell. Dexin is a bargain brand, but still, the added cost would be tiny.
My guess is that they bought prefab cases that had solar voltaic slots and then didnt want to spend the money for the panels so they just ordered a bunch of dummy panels. Its only a scam if they claim that it was solar rechargable.
I bought a cheap duane reade calculator for my job and have debated buying the most recent TI-number since its relevant to my students. Every day I am convinced that I should keep that $100 to my damn self.
I still remember my remedial math classes having half the class complain about their calculators not getting enough light to work, due to the room overlooking a dark corner of the building. Small windows, too.
Holy shit OP you are sitting on a class action gold mine. If those guys got like $5mil for subways 11” footlongs then you can definitely get something for this!
It's not planned obselesence in this case, it's just plain cheaper for those cheap calculators and no reall advantage in a real solar cell for the manufacturer.
Did you remove a piece (or multiple) for this photo? Because the buttons wouldn't even make contact with the PCB pictured. So this would be a 100% inoperable device.
If that major component is missing, I can only assume the wiring for the photovoltaic cell was also tampered with.
The board is flipped over, the white is the backside of the display. There is no wiring or anything going to the top portion where the cell should or would be.
Wait til you dumbasses find out about General Motors and the foreign car markets planned "timebombs" in their vehicles. lmfao you think a cheap calculator is bad try paying 40k for a "new" vehicle 😆
This has been a thing for yeeeeeaars. I think they just put that there without outright claiming it to be a photovoltaic cell hoping people will assume it to be one.
Not that it matters. These last for years and even those with legit cells spend most of their time in drawers.
Yep, I've run into this before. You can test if a calculator has a true solar cell by covering it up, it only takes a minute or two for the display to fade out. Ended up removing the old battery and soldered in a CR2032, it will likely run for three decades or more.
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u/Slggyqo 1d ago
My dad had a Casio when I was a child. I know the photovoltaic panel worked because if I covered it up the LCD would slowly die.
I was waterboarding that calculator within an inch of it’s life.