Is there an advantage to using the TSE Compiler over the far superior TextPad + TASM + linker setup?

I like textpad because it has tools, syntax highlighting, and it has an infinate trial period!

or is there a reason why someone couldn't just write the appropriate output plugin for asm studio 8x?

Maybe it's a competition thing... I could see that. (except there's no real reason to compete if you're givin it away)

I don't know, but I automatically like anything that has to do with TSE. :-)

you know where i could get a good .syn file for z80 asm sources?

The Void Productions (http://void.calc.org) is having their third Z80 Programming Contest. The object is to write the smallest Bucketsort routine possible. There are more details at the site. This actually started a week ago but I guess it wasn't newsworthy enough to make it onto the front page. :) But there's still another week left before the contest ends so all you wannabe Z80 gurus hurry up and get cracking! :) Good luck to anyone who enters!

Ahh darn it, we need a 68k contest around here. =-)

i just got the radiolinc (433mhz) in the mail last week, i soldered all the wires onto it so i can connect it externally for now, but the problem is that it won't work. i didn't know if there is any quick fixes anyone found for the radiolinc. i used a ti link plug (i cut an extra link cable in half and used half on each set of receivers and transmitters. any info would be appreciated!

Perhaps there are fat people in the way?

That seems to be one of the fixes in this new version .. ;)

From what i heard and what i did, i know that the radiolink DOES NOT WORK AT ALL!!! Their manuel was screwy, full of misspelled words, bad grammer usage, and finally, their instructions to install it were very vague, almost nonexistant. As in their ad, it is the size of a quarter, just a bit larger, but what does size matter if it does not work? I took my 89 open, but i could not find any space to slip it in. Mabye i could slip one behind the batteries, but i could not find space to fit the other one. Then i tried wiring it, as usual, and it did not work. I was sure that the plug was official Ti, and the wires were routed correctly. It still did not work. I tried the tips and tricks from other sites, such as try to wrap the wires together, keep the wires short, wrap the ground against the others, download special software, flash your calc again. None of it worked.

I'm not buying anything from fussion after the stuff i have heard about it. Reading previous posts, i see people complaining the documentation is all screwy and there is no way that you can make it internal. I havent seen a decent pic of the thing yet. Nobody wants this thing more than me, but I want assurences that this will work!

I have done everything in my power to get the freakin radioLincs to work and have come up with nothing but a few wasted trips to Radio Shack and $55 in the hole. What a waste!!! I know of one person who got it to work, I don't know how but he did it. Not only that but if you are seriously thinking about purchasing these things you can get them from Ramsey Electronics for cheaper. FissionLabs tried to black out all the part numbers but I managed to decipher them and look them up in the catalog. Even some of the manual is direct from Ramsey!!! The parts of the manual that fission wrote have misspelled words and crap like that. I wouldn't mess with these things if I were you.

Has anyone else had any good/bad luck with the radio links? As much as I would like to get a set, I want to know that they will work first.

Thanks!

I havent heard anything GOOD about these radio links except from fission, now they are PATENING their creation! take a look on their site the schmactics are not available now!! "Due to pending patent pending status, we are not offering them at this time." What other links have been patented besides TI's? NONE! Not only are they patenting these things, they STINK too! I have one word to describe this company: PHONEY. I said this earlier but im so mad i want to bring it up again: their companies name is fusion2 yet their URL is www.fission2.com! another company has a URL www.fusion2.com which is into the same webdesign market that fission2 is into! whats up with that?

does it occour to anyone that anything that anyone tries to sell, hardware or software in the
TI community is ridiculed severely? I recall that in the last year, 2 kids that were about 16 or 17 made a program for the 83 that allows you to cheat on the SAT. They said that that was perfecly within the rules of the SAT, which is true. The rules allow graphing calcs and anything that is on them. They sold the thing for 30$!!! They even gave "free samples" which were scraps of code for the more complex systems, and all it was was just an extension of the 83's mathamatical capabilities, nothing more.
Later this year, Norland Research(www.smallrobot.com) released the "CalcBot" a 80 dollar thing that you assemble your self and use your 83 to interface with it. The thing was disliked by almost everyone. It was just like giving 3 wheels and a sensor to your 83. In their advritisement they said stuff like "It is better than other robots because it is programmable, at only 80 dollars you get a fully programmable robot with a large, readable LCD" and the like. What they DIDN'T consider was that the 83 costs another 80 dollars, making the price parallel to some better robot kits that could do more, and could be programmed by your computer. The LEGO MINDSTORMS kit for example, costs just about the same price as the combo and it features 1. a 700 piece LEGO kit, 2. a complex RCX that had 6 input and 6 output slots, 3. a fully computer compatable IR link, 4. fully customisible software that is functional AND easy to use.

I hope i had made my point clear that you CANNOT SELL IDEAS AND PATENT them in the Ti community!!!

Hmmm... yeaaaah... im just going to kind of have to... disagre with you on that one(office space). I think that in some cases, you can sell stuff to the TI community. I would buy this link but from what i hear about it, its absolute trash; its hard to put together, its large, the "company" lies about it and doesnt respond to e-mails, and the instructions are all mixed up. Most people who make things for the TI community let others improve upon their work by making things open source, these people are looking to make a profit first, a quality product later.

Surely we could come up with some of our own plans for radio links! How hard could it be? Supposedly, the links came from www.ramseyelectronics.com , and you can see them here: http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/ * cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key= * RF-Links (you have to take out the spaces and *'s)
I emailed Ramsey Electronics, and they said that hooking up the links to a TI calculator shouldn't be that hard, but we would have to work around the fact that they can only transmit at 4800 bps, where the TI link cable gets 9600 bps, I think. If anyone has any ideas/comments/flames, post away.

Fission 2, fussion 2 who knows. This "company" has gone well beyond my patience at this point. I for a long time have been working on a means of using radio technology to communicate among ti calculators. To tell you the truth i was very surprised to see fission 2 come up with what appears to be such an easy solution. Having been working on my own radio communication system for some time, i could not understand how this system would work. None the less i had only been doing the work so i could enjoy the use of wireless ti connections. For this reason i put aside my work, and ordered their product when it hit the market. The whole thing was an issue for the start. It took them four weeks to send me a piece of equiptment and the parts which were supposed to be accompanying it. As most have noted the "manual" is the most rediculous thing ever created, and i think i've seen 6 year olds who could have done a better job. At this point it should be no surprise to you that these links did not work when i installed them. And, to this day that is still the case. I have contacted them, as much as they would respond, several times. They have failed to help me yet. I should note that i am fairly proficcient in assembling electronics, and have never had this type of problem in the past. Phone calls to their "office" are useless, as no one exists at the other end. You simply reach a voice mail system that is never checked, or if you dial the help line, a never ending busy signal. Throughout my frustrations, i've been making, or often trying to make contact with these people via email. I have in my posession an extensive log of messages sent from both myself and to myself from them regarding my issues with their product. I have undoubtably covered every issue here thoughout the course of my correspondances with them. I, like others was shocked when the parts i recieved matched exactly what i'd seen in the lattest issue of the ramsey catalog. Ramsey is infact printed on the back of the board. Looks to me like fission 2 worked damn hard on this. I quite honestly don't understand what fission 2 could possibly be trying to patent. To tell you the truth i don't think their trying to patent this product at all. What exactly would they be trying to patent? Their terrible manual? I might like to remind fission 2 that claiming a patent pending or a patent at all without this status is to my knowledge illegal. Certainly their business practices are questionable in all aspects. The last two messages which i have emailed to them were regarding professional installation. Since they were unable to help me, or seemingly anyone else, get these things working, i wanted a means by which to get them working. I was hoping they would atleast be able to install them for me. I even offered to pay for their services as if the whole transaction to this point were my fault. I have of course yet to hear from fission 2. I am currently in the process of gathering and organizing all information and records of my bussiness with fission 2 in regards to this matter. What i've been witness to is in my opinion no longer a simple matter of customer dissatisfaction, but fraud. I am no lawyer, but at this point it seems necessary to consider the possible use of legal action. My time working on a working radio link has been taken from me, and i regret having stopped working on the project. I will resume my efforts, and hope that at some point a working link system will be available to the ti community.

Well if you had any dealings with this company through US mail contact you local postal inspector and file a complaint. I have done this before in the past and had good results in resolving problems with people. most people dont want to be fined and/or put in jail for a few months, and have a large man named buba for a cell-mate!

also i found another email address for the "ceo" of this company
cwbunting@yahoo.com.

also as a side note to all this, these guys had a message board on the fusion website for the rf-link some time back. i posted a message that this would not work, and the reasons why. they shut the board down the next day! hmm.. i wonder why?

as for trying to patent this "invention" they came up with, they wont do that. it will just cost to much money plus to patent somthing the idea and device must be origional! as far as i can tell they just took somthing from ramesy kits and "repackeged" it with crapy instructions. i bet John Ramesy would like to hear this, he actualy has a legit company and has lawyers.

hope you get your money back,

Bryan Fields

The TI 99/4 and 4A were computers, not calculators. Thought I'd mention that. :)

The 4A was actually my very first computer, and I just recently got my hands on one (after 18 years)!

Hey, I also have a ti99 4/A, One of them is black and the other is this off-white color.
Try programming it in basic, you can create some mad multi-color sprite games.
The greatest thing is all of the cartridges that can be used.
(it's fun paying $5 for what originally cost more than $1000)
All i can say is... The ti99 4/a is a great calc/computer.
but no graphing?!

How much interference can be expected if someone's on a 900MHz cordless phone nearby? I marvel at this technology, but the band of EM spectrum used may cause a problem in transmitting/receiving.

And on a side note, do these guys have FCC licenses...?

~ferich
http://www.hornygoat.org - let your dawgs out

How much interference is involved when two people are using two 900 mhz cordless phones? Little to none, because good 900 mhz phones use spread spectrum tech. This eliminates the phones from sending all of their data on one frequency, and instead sends it on numerous frequencies in a rotation. Thus, two phones will interfere only if they are sharing the same frequency, and even then, for only seconds. It'd be equivalent, in my opinion, to kinking the graphlink cable while transmitting.

I suppose the only way one could find out would be to try it out, though.