Re: A92: Link Port -- design flaw!
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Re: A92: Link Port -- design flaw!
Ditto. Although, that was before the screen broke :(
>This happened to my 92 as well, very early on. For a while I continued to
>use my 92 with the broken port, but it just got flakier and flakier until
>finally one of the metal pieces fell out. This happened around April '96
>(during the early development of Fargo). I opened up my 92 and decided to
>tear out the broken link port and create a makeshift one with small strips
>of metal taped to the board.
>
>This new jerry-rigged link port did work, though I often needed to fiddle
>with it to get a clean contact between it and the link plug. Now and then
>it would begin to require excessive fiddling, or it might stop working
>altogether; then I'd need to open up my 92 again and do maintainance on my
>makeshift link port.
>
>Of course this got increasingly annoying as time went on. The idea of
>getting a new TI-92 began to grow on me. Then around late December '97, I
>began to get heavily involved in the development of Fargo II. This is when
>I finally decided to go out and get a new 92. So I did. Which brings us
>up-to-date.
>
>If it isn't clear by now, the TI-92 has a major design flaw. The link port
>is attached to the main board, which is one large rectangle filling the
>whole case. So it has no way of absorbing shocks. The TI-8x series, on the
>other hand, solves this problem quite well: it places the link port on a
>small board that is detached from the main board and connected by wires.
>
>I think it would really be *great* if TI would redesign the TI-92 such that
>the link port is on a separate board. This would solve the problem once and
>for all...and would probably significantly reduce the number of replacement
>TI-92`s that TI sends out. It would also be without precedent -- to my
>knowledge, TI has never released a hardware revision of an existing
>calculator. But, given that fact that _so_ many TI-92 owners have had their
>link ports break, I think it is an idea worth giving serious consideration.
>
>P.S. - Rob Taylor's link port also broke sometime around April '96. I
>believe he got it working again by melting the thing with a solder gun.
>(Rob Taylor was one of my partners in the early development of Fargo.)
>
>
>---
>David Ellsworth
>davidell@earthling.net
>IRC: eXocomp
>ICQ: 2300673
>