MiniTune Player for TI-83 Plus
a Spitfire/calc83plus Production by Ben Ryves
| What is it? |
| You could look at it as being a media player for TI-83 Plus. What it does is takes some music files and plays them with as much grace as a mobile-phone ring tone. You might have seen 'CalcMod' or 'TiJukebox' - CalcMod produces Stereo sound, (mine produces mono) - but there is a distinct lack of music for it. I found some 74 songs for the original TI-83 Program (written by Dhordain Florent) - but the player was for TI-83 and I didn't have one. I have taken his code, put a GUI around it and made it 83+ compatible. A few lines of VB code and a recompile of his songs added the new header for the songs that my program requires. I have also included some resources for the easy writing of your own songs. |
| Installing |
| All you need to do is copy the program to your calculator! Use the ION version if you have ION installed, and the MirageOS version if you have MirageOS installed... |
| Producing Sound |
| How do you actually get sound out of a TI-handheld? Well, it's quite easy. All you need is either an AM radio or some form of 2.5mm headphones. For best results, use the headphones - I use a Nokia-compatible hands free kit plugged into my linkport. Note, don't plug in the headphones in until you are in the shell or my program, otherwise your calculator will try and 'communicate' with your headphones (which just won't work). Email me if you have any troubles! If you don't have either a hands free kit, 2.5mm to 3.5mm jack or any other kind of headphone orientated hardware, you can use an AM radio. Switch it on, and tune into a quiet spot. Now, hold your calculator screen near to the aerial - you should get pretty rubbish sound, but it does work. If you have an old radio with an exposed aerial, plug in your short link cable to the calculator and touch the tip to your aerial - this should provide slightly better sound. |
| Using my Program |
| Run it from your shell and a simple GUI will appear. If you have no songs on your calculator, it will quit instantly after a quick search. Otherwise, the caption of your first song will appear. Pressing 'Alpha' will skip to the next song, '2nd' will play the current song, and 'Clear' will exit. There, nice and simple! You will find some sample songs in the folder 'Songs'. These are the original ones that Dhordain 'shipped' his player for the 83 with. |
| Writing Your Own | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
This is made easier through
an include file that I have 'stolen' (from Paul Marks). Make a blank ASM
file, and put in it the lines:
It's not too difficult, is it! All you need to do is fill in which notes to play... Have a look in the 'MakeOwn' folder for a demo (and all the required compiling tools). |
Ben Ryves 2003 - Spitfire Productions (www.spitfireproductions.tk) - calc83plus (www.calc83plus.tk)