Trekulator: A Reproduction of the 1977 Star Trek Themed Calculator
1 min read
Summary
A blog on hackaday.io has highlighted a project by Michael Gardi to emulate an original 1977 Trekulator calculator, from the classic science-fiction television series Star Trek.
The original Trekulator was a handheld calculator with a difference: its keys were divided into four groups, each one doubling as a counter that could be set to a different number, which could be added to the result of a calculation.
Onlyfinished prototypes of the original were ever made,but Gardi has made a working reproduction, and also created a “next-generation” version with a TFT display.
The original used four red LEDs, but Gardi’s versions have a whole TFT screen, something which in 1977 would have been seen as decadent.
Software for the ESP32 microcontroller was complex, as it had to handle audio, graphics, animations, keyboard input, the 7-segment display, and calculations.
Calculations are carried out using double-precision floating-point values and eight positions on the display.
