Omnimaga
Calculator Community => Other Calculators => Topic started by: Gale on March 15, 2010, 09:27:55 pm
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I was browsing ticalc's site, and found a section on "overclocking your calculator" to dramatically increase the speed. I was curious, has anybody here ever done that with their calculator? If so, how did it turn out?
http://www.ticalc.org/hardware/overclocking/
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Apparently the 83+SE, 84+, and 84+SE 15MHz mode is already overclocking, just officially by TI.
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I don't think many people have (at least I don't think so). It's a really risky thing to do, especially if you don't know what you're doing. I personally don't see any point in it though.
Apparently the 83+SE, 84+, and 84+SE 15MHz mode is already overclocking, just officially by TI.
Really? I've never heard of that. I just always figured that it was that it was better software that was causing the speed boosts.
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I heard some ppl did it, but many discourage this technique, as you could brick your calc and void your warranty. You have to use the right transistors and stuff.
I believe one of our old Omnimaga staff had his 83+ have a switch on the side so he could turn it in 6 or 15 MHz mode. What I wonder is: does it mess up ASM programs? Some LCD routines needs 6 MHz mode to run I think, like xLIB. Otherwise, the screen becomes all wavy. I remember this because I was beta tester of xLIB app in 2005 and got this when running one of the beta on a SE
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What exactly is the whole 8Mhz, 15Mhz, etc. thing? I can't seem to figure out what you guys are talking about.
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The TI-83 Plus has a Zilog 80 processor running at 6 MHz (it's a 8 MHz one, but TI slowed it down to 6 for power reason). The 83+SE, 84+ and 84+SE have Zilog 80 processors running at 15 MHz. However, on the SE, most ASM games are slowed down to 6 or 8 MHz during execution. There are commands to make them run at full speed, though.
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Ah, ok. Thanks.
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yeah, i just figured that modded calcs would be slightly common in this community, kinda like modding controllers for systems such as xbox360 and ps3
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if Geocities still existed outside Japan, I would show you pics of Jim_e's modified calculator. He had a backlight and all. There's also another topic here called Glow In The Calc, involving calc modding. It used to be much more common to mod your calc back in the '90s and 2000s, though. I remember stuff such as the ability to use AA batteries instead of the expensive AAA's and power supplies, and even adding more RAM to your calc (or archive), altough the later was unstable, IIRC, and unreliable since if you made programs requiring that many RAM, everyone who wanted to use them had to modify their calc :/
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ahh. yeah, i would assume it would take a lot of guts and engineering knowledge to know how to properly install backlights and such, but i would definitely do it if i had the abilities.
i was just looking on ebay, and yeah, couldn't find one modded one there. only modded faceplates :P
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Actually, certain methods, such as increasing the calc archive (to 229 KB, specifically) requires no modding, but the way it has to be done seems quite hackish, plus on the french site in question they mention the calc becomes unstable with it if you garbage collect and you can't send apps. For other files you can only send one at once. Also this tutorial was written back before Windows XP came out, I think, so idk if it works with newer link softwares. I think for example TI Connect will not work.
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Well it only really takes some basic physic knowledge (electrical physics, not the kind of physics we know from Builderboy :P). You would just need to be good with your hands. But over at UTI there is a whole topic, I believe, about modding your calc if you wanna check that out here (http://www.unitedti.org/forum/index.php?s=e5111a53bb42fc29b8d06f8a9f079272&showforum=22).
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True. Personally, if you are not good with your hands that that kind of stuff or dislike manipulating electronic, wires, do soldering, etc, it's best you don't do it.
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Ya. Agreed.
Personally, I've always wanted to get a junk 83+ or something and just see how much I could do with it. It'd be fun :) (I still have a Mac on my floor that I need to take apart...>.>)
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I like the idea of a backlight, but I doubt if I'd do it. I think I'd mess something up (or drop a chair on it), so I don't think I'll mod my calc. There are some really cool ideas out there, though! ;D
I also (remember this is my opinion) would not overclock my calc, because then all regular programs run too fast. :D
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well, i think the overclocking mod would include adding a switch to switch speeds from 6 to 15 mHz and back
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Wouldn,t a backlight also eat batteries a lot? I heard the GBA SP eaten batteries like crazy compared to the older GBA
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Yes, it probably would. However, How cool would it be to program in the dark! ;D
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Lol, woudlN,t it be easy for parents to notice, though? If it's completly dark in the house and your parents come to check and see some small light under the door
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Depending on the type of light you're using it might not take very much. Plus if you got the point of modding your calculator to have a back light you could just add a seperate battery thing for the light. Just a thought :)
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Now if only WabbitDS was finished and fully functional, this could have been a good alternative for Nintendo DS homebrew users
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I'm guessing WabbitDS is a DS emulator?
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yeah, it was in the works during the Nintendo DS homebrew craze of 2007 in the TI community, but it seems to have died.
The subforum in question is at http://www.revsoft.org/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=34
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Aren't there already DS emulators out there though?
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Wait, no, this is not a DS emulator, it's a Nintendo DS port of WabbitEmu. I guess the fact now several of their softwares starts with Wabbit instead of just WabbitEmu makes it less clear it's WabbitEmu-related x.x
In other word, it's an homebrew app to have a TI-8x emu inside your DS, which, unfortunately, is much less complete than WabbitEmu, from what I heard.
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So instead of DS on calc...its a calc on DS?
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Yeah :P
Mhmm... I have doubts about a DS emu on calc >.>, plus it would be hard with only one screen and no touch screen x.x
On the Nspire I guess the two screens could be scaled down to fit one screen and the nspire d-pad used as some sort of mouse cursor and middle button as touchscreen stuff, but given how the Nspire can't even emulate a TI-89 at full speed, imagine with a Nintendo DS emu, now :P
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What about the Ultimate Calculators over at Cemetech? Didn't one have a touch screen pad?
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I don't remember, I haven't checked this one in a while. You would need to check further into it.
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Hmmm, well I thought I read on the second one that it had a touch screen pad thing. Don't think the third one is done...to lazy to check though. Oh well :P
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KermMaritan is a lot into hardware modding, though, same for Benryves. I don't remember if it's Kerm but someone on Cemetech had a 3 color display on their calc. I wonder if it used a Casio CFX-9850G screen...
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Hmmm, I don't know. I did see that the first Ultimate Calculator has a RBG backlight on it, but I don't think it works with changing to fit the game (maybe it was the second one...)
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The least risky mod I have seen (and one of the more practical) was the AAA to AA mod, as it only modified your battery cover. You never had to open your calculator, so there was no risk of bricking.
I believe the motivation was that AAs are cheaper and have a longer life than AAAs, but are larger.
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Oh I remember that. It was on the Richfiles I think, before Geocities shutted down. Pretty cool thing if you're into electronics. It saved A LOT of money, unless you bought your AAA's at the dollar store, where they were the exact same price as AA's. I never understood why tr1p1ea's were often twice more expensive than d0ub1ea's...
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Most likely has to do with the manufacturing process and the materials used. Also, the fact that they aren't used as much so when people do need them they have to pay more.
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Mhmm the later would most likely do the opposite. When something isn't used as much or sells poorly, it's usually cheaper unless the material used is considerably more expensive. However if it's produced far less and made rarer, that can help boost prices. This is why music albums tend to get more expensive 3 years after their releases in stores, since they're still sold well, but not produced as much as the artist's newest albums.