Valhalla Legends Archive

Programming => Advanced Programming => Topic started by: Banana fanna fo fanna on September 08, 2003, 04:04 PM

Title: Semi-OT, Wireless Graphing Calculator Link?
Post by: Banana fanna fo fanna on September 08, 2003, 04:04 PM
I have a Ti-83 Plus and I was thinking of any way to have it communicate via radio waves (not IR). I can buy an extra cable and cut it to get at the wires.

I can program the driver if required, but I'm pretty clueless about hardware. Anyone have any ideas? Is there something like a generic "modem" for wireless?
Title: Re:Semi-OT, Wireless Graphing Calculator Link?
Post by: DeeZ on September 08, 2003, 10:23 PM
A simple, but expensive solution can be found at http://www.moxa.com/
(that may have a tad more functionality than you want)


You could also use a dumb modem along with some RF transmitter/reciever (FM?).  It could be a tough hardware project, but it sounds fun- and it's a lot cheaper than the former.

Good luck.
Title: Re:Semi-OT, Wireless Graphing Calculator Link?
Post by: Camel on September 09, 2003, 01:31 AM
I would suggest starting out with a non-wireless link -- a couple of years ago I created a serial cable from a spare link cable. Then, you would be given the opportunity to write the driver. You could later enhance the project with a couple of RF transmitter/recievers.
Title: Re:Semi-OT, Wireless Graphing Calculator Link?
Post by: Adron on September 09, 2003, 11:17 AM
Serial and wireless are rather different - on wireless you have so much noise that you have to be aware of and handle.
Title: Re:Semi-OT, Wireless Graphing Calculator Link?
Post by: Camel on September 09, 2003, 04:48 PM
One can get a pre-made transmitter/reciever unit that could, in theory, be connected to a serial port on one end and the cable on the other. The idea behind this strategy is that St0rm will not be forced to purchase any hardware until he knows what he is getting into.
Title: Re:Semi-OT, Wireless Graphing Calculator Link?
Post by: Adron on September 10, 2003, 06:17 PM
Quote from: Camel on September 09, 2003, 04:48 PM
One can get a pre-made transmitter/reciever unit that could, in theory, be connected to a serial port on one end and the cable on the other. The idea behind this strategy is that St0rm will not be forced to purchase any hardware until he knows what he is getting into.

Just beware that once he hooks up the transmitter/receiver units, he'll start dropping bits/bytes and possibly getting garbage bits/bytes inserted.
Title: Re:Semi-OT, Wireless Graphing Calculator Link?
Post by: iago on September 10, 2003, 07:33 PM
You would need some program not unlike tcp, where lost packets could be detected, and bad ones could be checked and re-requested.  Sounds like fun :)
Title: Re:Semi-OT, Wireless Graphing Calculator Link?
Post by: Camel on September 10, 2003, 09:16 PM
Quote from: Adron on September 10, 2003, 06:17 PMJust beware that once he hooks up the transmitter/receiver units, he'll start dropping bits/bytes and possibly getting garbage bits/bytes inserted.
The unit is supposed to take care of that; I'm not talking about just a simple transmitter/reciever.
Title: Re:Semi-OT, Wireless Graphing Calculator Link?
Post by: Adron on September 11, 2003, 12:04 PM
Quote from: Camel on September 10, 2003, 09:16 PM
Quote from: Adron on September 10, 2003, 06:17 PMJust beware that once he hooks up the transmitter/receiver units, he'll start dropping bits/bytes and possibly getting garbage bits/bytes inserted.
The unit is supposed to take care of that; I'm not talking about just a simple transmitter/reciever.

Oh ok. Well, that unit will probably be rather expensive.
Title: Re:Semi-OT, Wireless Graphing Calculator Link?
Post by: iago on September 11, 2003, 12:18 PM
Which, I think, is why he recommended playing with a serial cable first :-)
Title: Re:Semi-OT, Wireless Graphing Calculator Link?
Post by: Adron on September 11, 2003, 05:24 PM
You could also go straight for a not-so-expensive receiver/transmitter and accept handling noise yourself.
Title: Re:Semi-OT, Wireless Graphing Calculator Link?
Post by: Banana fanna fo fanna on September 11, 2003, 05:27 PM
Was thinking of that route myself :)
Title: Re:Semi-OT, Wireless Graphing Calculator Link?
Post by: Skywing on September 14, 2003, 12:25 AM
Quote from: Adron on September 11, 2003, 05:24 PM
You could also go straight for a not-so-expensive receiver/transmitter and accept handling noise yourself.
Keep in mind that you have rather limited processing power on the calculator.  You may want to make sure that handling all of the error correction and noise processing won't be too much for the calculators CPU.
Title: Re:Semi-OT, Wireless Graphing Calculator Link?
Post by: Adron on September 14, 2003, 06:36 AM
Quote from: Skywing on September 14, 2003, 12:25 AM
Keep in mind that you have rather limited processing power on the calculator.  You may want to make sure that handling all of the error correction and noise processing won't be too much for the calculators CPU.

True, but if you adapt the signalling rate to the calculator's abilities, it shouldn't be much of a problem.
Title: Re:Semi-OT, Wireless Graphing Calculator Link?
Post by: Camel on September 14, 2003, 01:32 PM
Quote from: Adron on September 14, 2003, 06:36 AMTrue, but if you adapt the signalling rate to the calculator's abilities, it shouldn't be much of a problem.
In my experience, it's already slow as hell to get anything useful on my calculator. Last time I tried to transfer Mirage OS (which is under 40k) it took about five minutes.
Title: Re:Semi-OT, Wireless Graphing Calculator Link?
Post by: Skywing on September 14, 2003, 02:13 PM
Quote from: Camel on September 14, 2003, 01:32 PM
Quote from: Adron on September 14, 2003, 06:36 AMTrue, but if you adapt the signalling rate to the calculator's abilities, it shouldn't be much of a problem.
In my experience, it's already slow as hell to get anything useful on my calculator. Last time I tried to transfer Mirage OS (which is under 40k) it took about five minutes.
Which calculator do you have?  That took just a few seconds on my TI-83+ with their wired connector thingie.
Title: Re:Semi-OT, Wireless Graphing Calculator Link?
Post by: Camel on September 14, 2003, 04:12 PM
Same one.

[edit] Hrm, do you mean computer-calculator or calculator-calculator?