Quentin Lewis wrote:

> I know this is going to sound like a kludge....but what if you took one
> of these cheap "give-away" calculators and simply replaced the press of
> the buttons with output bits from the PIC or STAMP?
>
> That is, you could "press" the buttons by connecting some sort of
> "decoder" on stamp outputs, and wiring the outputs up in place of the
> push-buttons. One of the outputs could be the Clear button....so that
> you could "clear" the display.

  A version of the classic application whereby you use CMOS switches
(4066)
to press firstly the "1" then "+" buttons of the calculator, then use
the
"=" button to count events up to 2 or three a second.

  You know what really fouls up this plan?  Virtually all later model
calculators are "auto-off" after a certain number of minutes and the
only
way to get them back on is to use the "AC" button!  And there is no
keypress
which just keeps them alive without affecting the result.

  Cheers,
        Paul B.