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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
randomperson Account Info

While we were talking about expansion of memory, that brings mind an idea ive been trying to bring to fruitition: make a castlevania game for the 89 in TIGCC. I only just started learning C, so my knowledge of it is rudimentary at best. However, i persevered and tried to use the source for The Incredible Adventure, the only C platformer to my knowlegde.

1. compiling even the normal source doesnt even work- there are WAY too many bugs

2. that game is very buggy and tends to give an adress error when the area has too many things in it- too many being like 5 enemies

3. with all this i tried putting in castlevania sprites, but when i was finally done with that, it wouldnt compile.

Does anyone know of any other C platformers? Thanks.
And does anyone know of anyone attempting a castlevania C game for the 89?

PS: sorry this is a bit off topic but i dont know where else to put this.

Reply to this comment    10 June 2004, 03:32 GMT


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

yes and no. I was working on a metroid game, but i didnt really know what i was doing. However, since then i have stopped that project indefinitely, but know quite a bit more about platformers. There are few complete C platformers, but quite a few in progress. Email me or find me on AIM, ICQ, YIM, or MSN within the next 24 hours and I'll help you out more, but after about 24 hours i wont have ANY time at all to do anything until mid-august. And for future reference, this question belongs in the mailing lists.

Reply to this comment    10 June 2004, 05:42 GMT

¥ not 83/83+?
Nick_S  Account Info

The 85 IS a Z80 calc so why doesn't anyone do this for any of the calcs 82--84+S.E.? Can't someone do some porting? Id liek a few siomple answers, as extra mem is always nice

Reply to this comment    11 June 2004, 02:41 GMT


Re: ¥ not 83/83+?
Joey Gannon  Account Info
(Web Page)

No one has done it yet because the website has been down for years. Now that it's back, maybe someone will do it, but I doubt it. A very, very small number of people will actually build these. However, if we can find someone who will build and sell these, then maybe someone will port the drivers, too. We'll see.

Reply to this comment    11 June 2004, 03:17 GMT

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

hey anyone find the link o this guys site to www.calclinks.net. they have a part where they are selling the expander 2 and it was last updated less then 3 monthes ago. maybe they still have a few!

Reply to this comment    11 June 2004, 16:05 GMT


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

I believe that is the way that I finally found Bryan. They are not selling them any more. Someone could make some serious money off selling htese, once you learn how to make them they shouldn't be to hard too reproduce.

Reply to this comment    11 June 2004, 16:43 GMT


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

I'm in the process of putting the drivers on the 82,83, and 83+/84+, so nobody fret :-) Also, plans to mass producre an improved E2 are in progress. Details will be posted when available at Really Bored Productions 2.

Reply to this comment    11 June 2004, 17:15 GMT


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

Really Bored Productions. Wow, that sounds encouraging.

Reply to this comment    12 June 2004, 01:30 GMT


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

That had better not be sarcasm... Here's a stauts update: The original 86 version is terrribly unoptimized, but it now compiles error free with Assembly Studio 8X 4.0 (all ZShell calls removed). the most redundant coding is with text display, which can be quickl fixed. To the original author: "WTF were you thinking! You're obviously more skilled than the souce lets on." :-)By teh way, Really Bored Productions is well established in the TI community (3 years in Nov), but has yet to prodyce anything especially memorable.

Reply to this comment    12 June 2004, 13:21 GMT

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

IMO the radio link for the ti-89 was the coolest thing ever made for calculators...wanted to bad to cheat with those on a test with friends but we never got em and decided notes and programs written by either ourselves or downloaded were more effective...amen to calc ebooks...can copy with like no limit anything you ever needed written on the calcs...like annoying definitions...only thing missing was image support for diagrams :P...

Reply to this comment    11 June 2004, 20:01 GMT


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

Is the radio link a transmitter and receiver or just receiver? If the radio output was higher then you could probably get away with just an antenae.

Reply to this comment    12 June 2004, 01:34 GMT

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

Just curious if anyone else is bothered by the fact that the 92 prog is nothing but a basic prog that looks like this:

:e2()
:Prgm
:EndPrgm

If not, I will not bring this up again.

-W-

Reply to this comment    12 June 2004, 20:24 GMT


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

Oh, nevermind, I am an idoit, that is a 92 program, not a 92+ program. Please forgive.

-W-

Reply to this comment    12 June 2004, 20:27 GMT

Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
dogman6400  Account Info

Has anyhbody here actually made/bought an E2 for their 85, 86, or 92?

Reply to this comment    13 June 2004, 18:20 GMT


Re: Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
code Suidae  Account Info

Sure, I built one for my 85's way back when I was still reading the TI-Hardware mailing list. I sold it to a friend long ago, but I still have one of the flash chips used by the E2 (AT45D041JC), unused in my parts box, along with about a dozen AT90S1200's in various sizes, and and old STK200 programmer. So I suppose I could breadboard up an E2 pretty quickly, but I'd rather wait and see what Really Board Productions comes up with. I'd like to see an ATTiny based design, the AT90S1200's are too much work (small space, no SRAM, etc. Sure, you _can_ use them, but there are better devices for the same price now).

Reply to this comment    18 June 2004, 15:18 GMT

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

Wow.... Who would have thought that people would still be interested in this crap 7 years later =). Don't the latest calcs have enough memory for you all? Everyone should be using real PDAs to play games in math class anyway =). FYI, I have some historical info on the first expander here: http://www.mtsai.net/random.html

About the USB memory keys for an "expander 3"... I wouldn't bother. The USB host controller and required file system software is just not worth the trouble, trust me.

Sup bryan...

-Mel

Reply to this comment    26 June 2004, 09:36 GMT

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

Don't under estimate your project, Mel. I built and used one from your design, and found it immensely useful. Now that I've moved from an 85 to an 89 (get this, it's for real work in my Engineering career), I would love to have it back. If no one else has, perhaps it's time to port the driver.
-Patrick Sweeney
psweeney@hullbreach.com

Reply to this comment    5 July 2004, 15:33 GMT


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

I've still got my serial memory chip for the E1 around that I bought way the heck ago. I never did finish the expander, nor did I port the software to my 82.

If someone wants to buy the old chip (it's unused still), for some sort of outdated hardware collection, I could probably put it up on eBay.

Reply to this comment    7 July 2004, 04:24 GMT

Re: Expander 2 Re-Released
jzelinski007  Account Info

Does anyone know where to buy one? Can anyone make me one?

Reply to this comment    24 November 2004, 22:58 GMT

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

THE LINKS ARE BROKEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reply to this comment    6 February 2005, 05:00 GMT

Expander 2 Links
Math_Nerd_Needs_TOYS Account Info

Hello, after a long and intriguing time reading all of the responses/comments About The Expander 2. Hopefully this response by me might help. Noticing that the original links to get to the already archived webpage, of the Expander II, were broken. So I went into an extensive search to see if I could possibly find the original schematic to The Expander II. After weeks and weeks of searching, I found out that the original archived webpage was in a database of archived webpages on a specific URL. I also found out that the site the database was on ran into a hardship, and was soon removed off the face of the internet(as far as I know). SO ... that was a huge downer on my adventurous search for The Expander II schematic. But a couple of hours away from my computer I thought "What about other database archives?" So my search continued on for the following month, and I finally found my goal. One archive database had the broken link, so now I will share the link with you. Remember two things, First: This took two months to find... So appreciate it before this link goes corrupt also. Second: the database I found also restored all of the hyperlinks (As of this date: 1-20-11; other than that I would not know) so all is well and working, not just the homepage.
-Cheers, Nate

URL - http:// web.archive.org/ web/ 20040611052308/ http:// staidm.org/ old/ horizon/ e2/ plans.html
(Remove the spaces behind the back-slashes)

P.S. - Bryan R, this is how appreciated your work is. Just look at this page. You will never know what your impact did on the calculator world. I will never take any of your work for granted. Don't forget it Bryan.

Reply to this comment    21 January 2011, 00:39 GMT


Re: Expander 2 Links
read_harder  Account Info

Dear TI people.

My email is john.morris.beck@gmail.com and I think I can fundimentally design the expander.

I wrote a very long detailed explanation of how it would work but then this silly website decided it was too long of a post so unfortunately I can't post it. I am however willing to work with any enthusiasts of the TI in terms of making new expanders. I am pretty sure I can do it with some help and some pizza.

Reply to this comment    21 July 2018, 00:03 GMT

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