Re: TI-H: Comments on List, and other things...(Please read.)


[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Re: TI-H: Comments on List, and other things...(Please read.)




I've been subscribed to this list for several weeks, and this thread seems a
good place to inject my opinions.

[snip comments on mac/pc jihad]

> Now, to the subject of this list. With 3494 in my TI-H folder. (first
>message is dated 4/17/98) I find this mailing list intriguing. It is
>filled with Mac/PC wars, and seems to have lost sight of its topic. I
>admit, I've fueled the fire on off topic discussions, but it seems that
>is what this list is mainly consisted of. Most projects proposed are of
>either impractibility, or unnecessary. The most fruitful discussion on
>this list I've seen is the internal memory expansion.


Projects need be neither practical nor necessary to be valuable. That is the
beauty of being an 'amateur' in the best sense of the word: we can do the
projects that we want because they are interesting, and because we learn
something by doing them, and we can teach others from our experience. And
many times a silly project leads to others which *do* have practical value.
Nonetheless, I have these suggestions for practical projects, some of which
I'm going to do 'when I get the time':

- A true RS232 interface for the TI92. This opens up all kinds of
possibilities for connecting my 92 to other devices.
- An IRDA interface. This is a standard infrared interface that is
increasingly used by PCs and palmtops. It would be nice to be able to
connect my 92 to my PC without messing with the wire.
- A parallel printer interface. Unlike the HP calculators, the TI has no
standard printer. A parallel printer interface allows me to use a cheap PC
printer for hardcopy output.
- An RF interface. RF transciever modules are dropping like crazy in price,
for example, see the Parallax site.
- An I/O box for the 92. This connects to the link port and provides digital
I/O, analog inputs & outputs, and period and frequency measurement. This
will be similar to TI's CBL, but provide many more features. I'm most likely
going to use a Basic STAMP.

> To this specific line of discussion, not only is this idea highly
>impractical, it is also unnecessary. The benifit of adding USB support
>to the TI-8x is minimal at best, and truely non-existant.

I agree with this point only to the state of hardware right now. But: it
would be fun! And there will be more and more USB peripherals in the future.
Whoever does the USB will learn a lot about it, which will be valuable to
them. There are USB data acquisition systems available now, and I expect to
see USB printers very soon. In fact, it would be smart (but unlikely) for TI
to use the USB interface standard in their calculators.

> To Grant Stockly in specific. If you would be so inclined to focus your
>ability towards hardware projects to the greater good of the TI-8x
>calculators. The portable MP3 player is a great idea, and as I figured,
>you are using a MPEG decoder chip. There is no great mystery to how a
>MP3 decoder could be made with a premade chip.

Again: maybe not critically useful to the TI community, but still well worth
doing.

>An internal memory
>expansion would be a good project for you. An idea on how this could be
>accomplished is as follows. I do not know the intimate workings of the
>TI-8x, but here is my idea.

[snip memory expansion ideas]

More memory is always good. But the TI92 Plus module goes a long way towards
relieving the problem.

>Thanks for reading my long post. :)
>Adam

You're welcome. It is the kind of post that does the group the most good:
calm, focused, with genuine suggestions. Please keep it up!

Doug


Follow-Ups: