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USB Peripherals for the 84+
Posted by Michael on 16 August 2005, 17:07 GMT

A few weeks ago, the ever-famous Dan Englender released a revolutionary new flash application called usb8x. Usb8x is a driver that interfaces with the On-the-Go USB port in the TI-84 Plus and TI-84 Plus Silver Edition. It is designed to be used by other programmers to create drivers for a variety of USB peripherals. Dan has included demos for a USB mouse, keyboard, and a loopback test for the USB Silverlink. Theoretically this means that drivers can be written to support nearly any USB device (so long as it consumes 100 mA or less of bus power). Usb8x will open up an entirely new world of possibilities for graphing calculators. Congratulations to Dan on an extremely impressive achievement!

You may be thinking that ticalc.org is awfully slow in reporting this news, but due to the recent news drought, I thought I would hold off on this article until it could be as amazing as possible: I have been working on a driver that runs on top of Dan's to allow USB flash drives to connect to the calculator. Yesterday I finished FAT16 reading support and so I now present a demo video (4.4 MB), exclusively available on ticalc.org, of a movie playing off my 1 GB Lexar JumpDrive. You may recognize the clip as part of The Matrix's infamous lobby scene. There is no dithering or grayscale, although both are probably possible. There is still much more work to be done before we have utilities and file explorer-type programs at a level where general users can use their USB drives.

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Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
Trixter Account Info

I dont know if it would be posible but i think it would be to have some kind of USB powerd light so you can use your 84p in the dark. I was thinking something like my light for my old Game Boy Color.

Reply to this comment    20 August 2005, 02:51 GMT

Re: Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
James Montelongo Account Info
(Web Page)

I did something like that actually, GBA afterburner plus a battery pack and now I can WFRNG in the dark!!! :)

Link above.

Reply to this comment    20 August 2005, 03:26 GMT


Re: Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
Andy Janata  Account Info
(Web Page)

You could POSSIBLY just take a USB laptop light and plug it into a plug adapater and it SHOULD just work, they don't communicate to the host, just draw power from it. If it would draw too much power, it MIGHT crash the calculator. It's worth a shot if you already have an adapter and a light, otherwise I wouldn't bother.

*cough* and if i could get rights to a video (either the one y'all got or the program to make my own) (or hell just screw a video and direct them here... meh) then i'd fulfill my eating my words bit and i could test that *cough*

Reply to this comment    20 August 2005, 15:23 GMT


Re: Re: Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
jesse frey  Account Info

I hooked a LED up to the USB power on the calc and it only powered it for a short time. I think that it only suplys power if it is talking to the device

Reply to this comment    20 August 2005, 16:14 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
burntfuse  Account Info
(Web Page)

Yeah, and putting a microcontroller with a USB interface in the lamp to keep up a steady stream of data so the power would stay on would just be serious overkill. :-)

Reply to this comment    20 August 2005, 16:22 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
ExtendeD Account Info

<< I think that it only suplys power if it is talking to the device >>

No. This is because TIOS doesn't support the device, so it immediatly disconnects it from the bus. You will need to write a driver on top of usb8x, even if it is a dummy driver (no data transmission) in that case.

Reply to this comment    20 August 2005, 19:16 GMT

Did TI Mean for this to happen?
midgetmaster1  Account Info
(Web Page)

i was just wondering whether TI meant for this to happen? I mean the TI Links seamed perfectly capable... Then they came out with the USB port, perhaps they wanted to broaden their calcs capabilities?

Reply to this comment    20 August 2005, 20:39 GMT

Re: Did TI Mean for this to happen?
jesse frey  Account Info

or maybe to make people say "wow!! USB I should buy one even though it is basicly the same calc that I alredy have."

Reply to this comment    20 August 2005, 22:52 GMT


Re: Did TI Mean for this to happen?
ExtendeD Account Info

It's a new business model for Texas Instruments and its partners. For example see Vernier EasyTemp (http://www.vernier.com/ easy/easytemp.html) and EasyLink (http://www.vernier.com/ easy/easylink.html).

Reply to this comment    21 August 2005, 08:11 GMT

Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
Lewk Of Serthic  Account Info
(Web Page)

Wow! The Matrix Lobby Scene made it onto slashdot!

Reply to this comment    22 August 2005, 04:44 GMT


Re: Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
Michael Vincent  Account Info
(Web Page)

Yes but they missed the entire point of the article. The movie is meaningless. I don't plan to release a movie player; other more interested people can. The point was that a USB flash drive was working and reading FAT16. Oh well, that's slashdot for you.

Reply to this comment    22 August 2005, 06:04 GMT

Re: Re: Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
Harlan Holmes  Account Info

awesome, I'm cosidering starting a similar project to utilize the usb port on the 89 titanium. I'm also working on a device to have usb draw power from a seperate battery pack for the 84+

Reply to this comment    22 August 2005, 16:49 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
Lewk Of Serthic  Account Info
(Web Page)

ExtendeD is already working on it for the 89Ti. The external power supply is a good idea though.

Reply to this comment    22 August 2005, 17:12 GMT

Re: Re: Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
Lewk Of Serthic  Account Info
(Web Page)

They probably didn't even realize that it couldn't before. At least it's reconition...

Reply to this comment    22 August 2005, 17:04 GMT


Re: Re: Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
James Montelongo Account Info

Just out of curiosity, how fast can you pull useful data off the flash drive with your driver?

Reply to this comment    22 August 2005, 17:55 GMT

Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
Jonathan Pezzino  Account Info
(Web Page)

Just to clarify, is this the correct adapter cable (URL)?

Reply to this comment    22 August 2005, 19:56 GMT


Re: Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
ExtendeD Account Info

Yes.
BTW ticalc.org's URLs starting with https seem to be buggy.

Reply to this comment    22 August 2005, 20:56 GMT


Re: Re: Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
Jonathan Pezzino  Account Info
(Web Page)

No, that was just the URL itself. BTW, I did end up purchasing that cable and all went well. Awesome!

Reply to this comment    26 August 2005, 17:17 GMT

Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
Drantin  Account Info

A suggestion:

Try using the mini-A to mini-B cable to connect to a PSP ...

I've done it with my zaurus (Which also uses an otg usb port) using the cable...

Reply to this comment    27 August 2005, 04:07 GMT

Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
bob7  Account Info

Ok, what about splicing 2 USB cables? I have plenty of extras laying around and it would be kind of a waste to go hunt down the right type and order it when I could just throw one together at home.

Reply to this comment    28 August 2005, 17:22 GMT


Re: Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
Alex Forencich  Account Info
(Web Page)

If one of your cables has a MINI-A on one end and another has a FEMALE A on the other, it would work. You would need to get connector pinouts (wikipedia has an entry on USB with the pinouts), a multimeter, continuity tester, or ohmmeter to find which wire corresponds to each pin, and then a soldering iron to splice the cables.

Reply to this comment    31 August 2005, 23:29 GMT


Re: Re: Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
bob7  Account Info

I was thinking along the lines of splicing the female ends of 2 extension cables and using this as an 'adapter' on the provided TI cable.

I just tried this and it doesn't seem to work on my optical mouse. I checked continuity and pinouts, but nothing seems to work.

Reply to this comment    2 September 2005, 00:21 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: USB Peripherals for the 84+
Alex Forencich  Account Info
(Web Page)

Ya gotta have a male or else it won't work right.

Reply to this comment    14 September 2005, 02:46 GMT

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