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Does the Link Port Work in Axe?

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ClainBill:
My motivation is fuelled by niche desires, and my current interest is making a multiplayer interactive game (thingy) on two TI calculators that released before I was born because I am partially insane.

Anyways, does it work? I have a TI84+SE and my brother has a TI84+, I have a 2.5mm link cable (I'm not sure where it came from) and yet I can't get any response from either calculator using the Get( Send( or just port commands in Axe.
I also noticed that Multiplayer in the Smash Bros game on doesn't work on my calcs - although I assume that may never have been fully implemented in the first place

I have also tried using Wabbitemu to see if it was my calculators or the link cable that was the issue, but no avail (I do recognise that Wabbitemu could also have not properly implemented the emulated link between calculators or that I am misusing it).

Anyways, any pointers would be appreciated. As a side note I have recently found Google to be profoundly useless as I can no longer find specific pages on forums such as this that I could normally pull from the search engine within seconds - e.g. it literally took me about 30 minutes to find the download to BuilderBoy's Portal Prelude. Something I have been able to locate and download numerous times in the past within seconds. So if there is already some comprehensive post somewhere that has a guide to using the link port that I silly-ly couldn't find, I blame Google

E37:
@ClainBill
The first question is how sure are you that your link cable is good? I wouldn't be surprised if a cable not designed for linking doesn't work. I had a generic cable years ago (and lost it) but was never able to get it to work. A good way to verify this is using the built-in linking tools. Ti-OS has functions like GetCalc( which lets you send variables from one calc to another over a link cable. Or you could use 2nd-X to open the link menu on both calcs and use that to transfer something. If you can send a variable from one calc to another, the cable and link ports are good. If you can't, then there isn't any point in continuing further.

If you are familiar with assembly, you can use Port 0 and try setting a line low on one calc and see if it is pulled low on the other calc. If you aren't, I can write you some simple hex to use it in Axe once you verify the cable can actually transfer data with Ti-OS.

ClainBill:
Oh, I didn't know the I/O port could transfer files as well...
Yeah, that doesn't work. I also have the USB to USB connector, and that successfully transfers files, so it's probably the I/O cable or port.

Okay, so I did some additional testing on wabbit and I have actually got a successful (very crude) link in axe, but the file transfer has the same error my actual calcs have.

I'll use the exact same program on my real calculators and see if I get it working later. Hopefully, my previous implementations were just wrong

*update
hmm, I tested it on the calcs and still no joy. It wouldn't matter that one is an 84+SE and the other is plain 84+ would it?
I guess I just gotta try some real link cables

E37:
@ClainBill
I don't know for a fact that the link port can transfer files. But the Ti-83 has a link menu and no USB port so I assume it can send files over the link port. Looking at some BCALLs, it looks like you can send variables over the link port. Again, I'm not 100% positive, but I can't imagine why a Ti-84+ to Ti-84+ SE link wouldn't work. From the documentation, it seems like the link cable is just 2 lines that either calc can pull low. Since you can put the same OS on a Ti-84+ and a Ti-84+ SE the communication code would be the same. With such basic hardware and identical software, I think it is pretty safe to say that isn't the issue. (And I can't imagine why TI would put a link port on a Ti-84+ if it wasn't compatible with a Ti-83+ too)

Since you have a USB cable, you might be able to do your communications over that. WikiTi is the best documentation you can get for low level stuff like that. There is a lot of ports related to USB and they are poorly documented so unless you really feel like digging, you should probably stick to the link port. If you decide to go for it, I can help you with asm <-> Axe conversions and some guesswork but it will likely be very difficult. But, if you succeed, you could make a super cool Axiom for USB linking for future Axe programmers.

ClainBill:
That would be pretty epic if I could get communication over USB, it seems much more capable than I/O, but that's probably outside my league right now.

I ordered a link cable that supposedly was designed for the TI I/O port, so when that arrives I shall do more testing.

Just as a bit of background I just finished my A Levels studying Computer Science which was all in Python, so I don't really have much experience with low-level coding or coding in general, but I have dabbled in C# and (very little) C++, and I've made some basic websites from scratch.

I am planning on learning ASM using the Sean McLaughlin Z80 in 28 Days website.

E37 Can I ask how you learned assembly? Just curious how you got to be so proficient at it. I do think dedicating my time to creating some USB Axiom would be a worthwhile thing, especially as it would benefit future developers whatwith the link cable being so iffy, but I obviously need to learn some asm first  ;D

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