Omnimaga
Calculator Community => Major Community Projects => The Axe Parser Project => Topic started by: Quigibo on August 01, 2010, 08:13:52 pm
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I've finished the link routines, and they work very nicely but I know there are slight differences between the hardware and I need to make sure I am leaving enough room for variations. To make the routine as fast as possible and therefore usable in realtime games that have a lot of data to send, the routine is time based instead of confirmation based. There is a minimum threshold of 10 T-states (1.7 microseconds) which is enough to give me 100% error free byte sending on 2 linked 84+'s and should be enough between all z80 calcs, but unfortunately the Nspire emulation is too slow. Not sure if there's anything I can do about that.
Anyway, I just need to confirm that this works. If you have an I/O cable and 2 calculators, preferably 2 different types for example: TI-83+ and TI-84+SE, then please help me test this. The receiver should run program A which just relays to the screen and then have the other calculator run program B which sends a random byte. Make sure both the numbers are the same on both calculators and repeat a bunch of times and then switch the roles of sender and receiver.
If there is an inconsistency, let me know which calculator was the receiver, which one was the sender, and the numbers that show up on each screen, thanks!
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The strange thing is that my Supersonic Ball game seems to run at the exact same speed on my Nspire as it does on my 83+. If it's faster or slower, I can hardly see a difference. However, it could maybe just be my game. I heard some stuff run much faster on the Nspire.
Also older Nspire OSes emulates 84+ ASM much slower than 2.0.x. This could pose problems for people who got Ndless and are stuck on OS 1.1. I wonder if Nspire linking is possible x.x
Good luck, though!
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Well, those with Ndless might have access to a better emulator in the future so that could actually be an advantage. However, you can still link an Nspire with another Nspire if they're both running the same OS version since I think the speeds would be close enough in that case.
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Yeah. Sadly Calc84maniac lost the entire source code for that emulator (as well as all his other Nspire projects), though, and nobody even figured out how to open the link port yet :(
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If only I had two calcs... And yeah, too bad that we've been unable to discover how to work the link port.
Good luck with the routine, though! :)
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Okay, I'll try between an 83+, 83+se, and 84+se. I'll let you know my results later today. :)
EDIT: Here are my results:
LinkA - 84+SE OS 2.43
LinkB - 83+ OS 1.19
Failed some of the time. Here are the numbers that it failed on for me:
A B
79 159
62 124
12 24
34 69
73 147
106 213
120 241
78 156
127 255
46 93
97 195
116 232
88 176
98 196
LinkA - 83+ OS 1.19
LinkB - 84+SE OS 2.43
Never failed.
LinkA - 84+SE OS 2.43
LinkB - 83+SE OS 1.19
Failed some of the time. Here are the numbers that it failed on for me:
A B
100 201
20 41
77 154
23 46
77 154
102 205
90 181
1 2
12 25
108 217
88 177
60 120
LinkA - 84+SE OS 2.43
LinkB - 83+ OS 1.19
Never failed.
LinkA - 83+SE OS 1.19
LinkB - 83+ OS 1.19
Failed some of the time. Here are the numbers that it failed on for me:
A B
69 138
126 253
88 161
110 220
99 199
91 182
93 187
114 229
112 224
LinkA - 83+ OS 1.19
LinkB - 83+SE OS 1.19
Never failed.
It appears that each time it isn't receiving the highest bit. Keep in mind that it worked around 95% of the time, though. :) I even had some numbers that worked fine some times, but not others. ;D
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Thanks ztrumpet! I'm working on fixing them right now. Those results are kind of interesting. Seems the 83+ never failed as the receiver and most of the errors were bit shifts. That probably means the receiving routine is a little too fast.
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I tried it just a minute ago, and when I run Asm(prgmA on one of my TI84+'es, I see frozen marching ants, which disappear when you press clear. This is the only thing I got the program to do, even when I connected my other TI84+ and run Asm(prgmB on it. It shows the numbers, but does not affect the other calc, on which prgmA is running.
what could be the problem?
EDIT: is it perhaps that I don't have an I/O cable, but an USB connection?
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Yeah, this is for the I/O cable only.
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is USB more difficult than I/O? or will you implement USB linking soon in a jiffy?
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USB linking is incredibly complicated. I don't think its ever been done before in a game, the routines would be MASSIVE and the speed would be way too slow for anything realtime. It doesn't help either that TI never documented any of the USB functionality so all the information we currently have on it is from hackers and disassembly.
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Not to mention the fact that only the 84+'s have them.
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okay, so probably it's never gonna be implemented? or could it be done in the far future perhaps? I would appreciate it very much, since the most of the people in my area have a 84+, without a I/O cable (just like me)
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Does Ti not package the new calculators with link cables anymore?
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I think 83+'s still come with I/O cables, but I believe that 84+'s come with a mini-USB to mini-USB cable.
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I think 83+'s still come with I/O cables, but I believe that 84+'s come with a mini-USB to mini-USB cable.
This is correct. I've actually lost my IO cable twice, and I just asked my math teacher for a replacement. Maybe that'll work for you guys too. ;D
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On a partially-related note: does this mean that X-Link (which I've never tried) only supports I/O linking as well?
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I think 83+'s still come with I/O cables, but I believe that 84+'s come with a mini-USB to mini-USB cable.
This is correct. I've actually lost my IO cable twice, and I just asked my math teacher for a replacement. Maybe that'll work for you guys too. ;D
I'll try that too, and else I'm going to create one myself. How did your teacher get the cables, btw?
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How did your teacher get the cables, btw?
The school has a bunch of 82s (I think that's where they came from) and so there's a lot of cables. ;D
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I never got an I/O cable either, I made one myself spliced from 2 other cables. But I needed it like that anyway to hook it up to breadboards for sound and voltage testing.
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okay, I thought my school hasn't, but I'll see. ;)
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I had a link cable with my 83+, my bro's 83+, my 83+SE and my TI-Nspire, but I kept losing almost all of them and I accidentally my TI-Nspire link cable under two calcs, so it's still working, but only if held in certain ways, and looks like it's in terrible shape now.
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I had a link cable with my 83+, my bro's 83+, my 83+SE and my TI-Nspire, but I kept losing almost all of them and I accidentally my TI-Nspire link cable under two calcs, so it's still working, but only if held in certain ways, and looks like it's in terrible shape now.
You accidentally the whole link cable?
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Parts of it. :P Parts of the rubber/plastic surrounding the wire are missing
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At my school, I have a friend who got very lucky.
He had to make up some citizenship grades with service hours, so he helped the math teachers move (school remodeled) and they had 20 ti-82s, 2 ti-presenters and 3 ti-83+s they just gave to him!
he gave me one of the presenters though :P. I don't have a calc for them though.
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@ All: I see. It is very odd that the 84s don't come packaged with 2.5mm cables. You can however purchase them on TI's site and probably from ebay as well. Just FYI. :)