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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: David Pike
Date: 2019 Nov 20, 09:29 -0800
Frank you wrote: "Hit your local Walmart. Buy a Casio fx260 Solar calculator. Much cheaper than any trig-capable slide rule. Orders of magnitude more accurate. Easily fits inside your sextant case. And no batteries required."
Only one fx-260 Solar is advertised on Amazon for £85.69, but it’s apparent successor the fx-260 SolarII sells for £12.03 including postage. Can they really be effectively the same calculator, or has the original fx-260 simply become a rarity?
Both these calculators specify a battery. If you took the battery out, would they still work (in the light of course) on just the photocells? I didn’t feel like unscrewing the back to remove battery from my fx-992s to try it.
I suppose you could ask what would happen if your fx-260 got seriously splashed or wet for some reason, but wouldn’t that be like suggesting your slide rule cursor might accidentally slid off one dark and stormy night and get accidentally trodden on (I’m sure it’s happened)? DaveP
