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Expander 2 Re-Released
Posted by Morgan on 9 June 2004, 22:01 GMT

For those of you who weren't here the first time around, the Expander 2 is an external memory expander device that adds 512K memory to any TI graphing calculator that has a link port and the appropriate driver software. Currently there are only drivers for the 85, 86, and 92. For many years this project was literally lost. ticalc.org's links to Bryan Rittmeyer's Expander 2 homepage were broken. When the original site went down the hole, subsequently all reference was removed from ticalc.org.

Recently, I tried to find Bryan and see where the state of the project lay and surprizingly enough I actually found him. Being the nice guy that Bryan is, he put up a historical web page with all the original information. Bryan has told me that he is not selling any more of these devices, but the plans to build them yourself are available. If some of you guys are looking for a project this summer, you could look into porting the drivers to other calculators or even building and selling the devices yourself. All reference to the Expander 2 has been added back to ticalc.org. Thank you, Bryan.

On a side note, if you want to get more involved in the community outside of IRC, there is a new Google 2 Group called TI-calculators. Feel free to check it out!

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The comments below are written by ticalc.org visitors. Their views are not necessarily those of ticalc.org, and ticalc.org takes no responsibility for their content.


Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Sam3.14 Account Info
(Web Page)

This is interesting. Does it retain its memory after you unplug it? How big is it?

Reply to this comment    9 June 2004, 22:09 GMT

Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Travis Evans Account Info

I've read about these on the mailing list archives a long time ago. I believe they either use Flash ROM, or some type of power source so that they keep their power when unplugged.

Reply to this comment    9 June 2004, 22:53 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Travis Evans Account Info

Oops, I meant that I believe they keep their /memory contents/.

From now on I'm going to wait five seconds longer before hitting the 'Post' button.

Reply to this comment    9 June 2004, 22:55 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
The Muffin Man Account Info
(Web Page)

Bleh, EPROMs and PIC programmers are so expensive where I am. So much so that it would be cheaper to get the 89Ti *almost*
Are there any programs out there that can recieve programs from a USB Thumbdrive? (83+ in particular / USTORAGE device)???

Reply to this comment    10 June 2004, 06:25 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Cullen Logan  Account Info
(Web Page)

This should be doable. Most thumb drives use USB Mass Storage drivers on the PC so the command structure is well known. The problem will be creating the illusion that the thumb drive is connected to a host. This would require a USB host chip. They are now available with the new USB OTG (On The Go) specification emarging, but they are not standalone chips. Another microcontroller would have to be used to control that chip, so it looks like this is the best there is now. Other options do exist. MMC cards have a good potential for use in an application like this. The only problem is that they use an SPI bus. This bus has more wires than the calc does so once again another chip will be needed externally. If you got an EEPROM that was sufficiently large and that used the Philips I2C bus then you could do something like this with only a calculator and power source. The EEPROMs that I have seen to this date do not get as large as I would like to consider doing this as a project.

Reply to this comment    10 June 2004, 19:12 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
W Hibdon  Account Info
(Web Page)

I am confused, why would an mp3 mass storage device not work? All you should have to do is make an on calc program, no? And if not, why not?

-W-

Reply to this comment    12 June 2004, 20:15 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Rob van Wijk  Account Info

Because if the way the USB hardware works. When you use the good old unit-to-unit cable, all you're really doing is connecting three wires of one calc to three wires of another calc. Once the wires are hooked up, TI-OS can start sending and receiving data.
With USB however, connecting the wires isn't sufficient; USB needs a root hub to work. Now the problem is that the calc doesn't have a root hub. Therefore it is not possible (on the hardware level) to connect an USB stick to the calc.

Reply to this comment    13 June 2004, 19:30 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Brad Denning  Account Info

Where can I find more information about USB hardware and what it takes to connect a device to another.

Reply to this comment    18 June 2004, 18:25 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
danbert23  Account Info

Would the TI-89 titanium be able to use a USB memory-expansion device? It has a built-in USB port. . .

Reply to this comment    14 July 2004, 14:08 GMT


Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
William Shipley  Account Info

Hey, I know I'm reviving an old thread, but the new site is down too. Does anyone have the plans for the Expander II anymore? I would appreciate them very much.

Reply to this comment    31 October 2009, 07:05 GMT

Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
CajunLuke Account Info

What sbout the firmware chip? His site says to contact him, but he is having no more to do with the project… .

Reply to this comment    9 June 2004, 22:41 GMT

Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Morgan Davies  Account Info
(Web Page)

He also says on his site that all the super large font is content has only recently added. Meaning that where it says to contact him was what he wrote a long time ago.

Reply to this comment    9 June 2004, 22:49 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
CajunLuke Account Info

That's what I mean. He said to get it from him a ling time ago. Can we still??

Reply to this comment    10 June 2004, 23:03 GMT

Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Sraphim Account Info

Is he making avaliable the code for the firmware, or is that something that we must all figure out?

Reply to this comment    9 June 2004, 23:09 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
bryanr Account Info
(Web Page)

The web link on this msg is the E2 AVR code. You can compile it and program the chip with tools from atmel.com or, in Linux, search freshmeat.net for AVR and/or google "avra"

Google "ba1fb" for cheap AVR programmer hardware.

-Bryan

Reply to this comment    10 June 2004, 01:34 GMT


Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Lewk Of Serthic Account Info
(Web Page)

Firmware chip?

Reply to this comment    10 June 2004, 00:17 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
KermMartian Account Info
(Web Page)

I'm pretty sure you just need a PIC chip, a PIC programmer interface, and te necessary I/O program(s)...

Reply to this comment    10 June 2004, 00:59 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Calcbert Account Info

The Atmel AVR is a different chip than the PIC, but they are both low end microcontrollers. It'd be fairly simple to port the code to a PIC I'm sure.

Reply to this comment    7 July 2004, 04:21 GMT

Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Ben Cherry  Account Info
(Web Page)

was there an expander I? I can find no mention of this on the website.

Reply to this comment    9 June 2004, 23:27 GMT

Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Morgan Davies  Account Info
(Web Page)

Most likely an earlier version of the same project.

FYI, to those of you interested in porting the "software" to other calculators the source code is available for all three caclulators on his author profile page linked in the article.

Reply to this comment    9 June 2004, 23:47 GMT


Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
bryanr Account Info
(Web Page)

OK kids its story time. ;-)

The original TI expander was called the Expander SF (Serial Flash) and was built by Mel Tsai. It was essentially just a serial memory chip connected directly to the TI link port. Supply dried up for the ESF chip and Mel moved on to other projects, so I built the Expander2 to scratch an itch. Mel's design was only for the TI-85 whereas the E2 grew to work on TI-85, TI-86 and TI-92.

I guess the E2 is now kind of like the ESF. The flash memory chip for it has also been discontinued. I'm hoping someone comes along and builds the E3 perhaps based on the old plans from my site.

-Bryan

Reply to this comment    10 June 2004, 00:27 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Ben Cherry  Account Info
(Web Page)

ooh, ooh, tell me another one! Pretty please...

Reply to this comment    10 June 2004, 00:40 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
cloudofstrife  Account Info

Here's my question: because it works on the 92, does that mean it works on a 92+? And if it were to work on a 92+, would it work on a V200?

Reply to this comment    10 June 2004, 01:27 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Morgan Davies  Account Info
(Web Page)

No, the program used on the 92 requires Fargo, a shell that was never used with the 92+. You would think it would be fairly simple to port it, but I could be wrong.

Reply to this comment    10 June 2004, 06:20 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Jeremiah Walgren  Account Info
(Web Page)

There's always this...

http://www.angelfire.com/ electronic2/ngdata/programing/ en/ti89/ticfrw.html

(Remove spaces, as always.)

Reply to this comment    10 June 2004, 23:22 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
mike White Account Info
(Web Page)

why did you put spaces in if you are just gana get rid of them???

Reply to this comment    11 June 2004, 00:33 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Tzazak Account Info

cause you can't post links on these forums.

Reply to this comment    11 June 2004, 00:53 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Jeremiah Walgren  Account Info
(Web Page)

Precisely. And it was just a tad too long to put it in the "(Web Page)" spot.

Reply to this comment    11 June 2004, 03:33 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
mike White Account Info
(Web Page)

what would happen if u just typed it in here as normal text?
Example: www.coolcals.tk (shamless plug)

Reply to this comment    11 June 2004, 04:33 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
Morgan Davies  Account Info
(Web Page)

There is a 40 character word limit. Thas the only rule. There isn't a rule that says you can't post URL's. its just that most of them are over 40 characters.

Reply to this comment    11 June 2004, 16:41 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
THPDG  Account Info
(Web Page)

Bryan,
I was one of probably only a few people who successfully built and used the original memory expander device, from Mel. Have you heard of anyone making development on it's driver? It was an amazing device, and I know yours is too. As you point on your page, memory has moved along so much, no flash isn't a stranger anymore. We use it every day. At that time, it was practically brand new.

Reply to this comment    5 July 2004, 15:30 GMT

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