Author Topic: Modded Calculator?  (Read 12703 times)

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Offline Gale

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Modded Calculator?
« on: March 15, 2010, 09:27:55 pm »
I was browsing ticalc's site, and found a section on "overclocking your calculator" to dramatically increase the speed. I was curious, has anybody here ever done that with their calculator? If so, how did it turn out?

http://www.ticalc.org/hardware/overclocking/
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Offline calc84maniac

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Re: Modded Calculator?
« Reply #1 on: March 15, 2010, 09:41:09 pm »
Apparently the 83+SE, 84+, and 84+SE 15MHz mode is already overclocking, just officially by TI.
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Offline meishe91

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Re: Modded Calculator?
« Reply #2 on: March 15, 2010, 09:42:39 pm »
I don't think many people have (at least I don't think so). It's a really risky thing to do, especially if you don't know what you're doing. I personally don't see any point in it though.

Apparently the 83+SE, 84+, and 84+SE 15MHz mode is already overclocking, just officially by TI.

Really? I've never heard of that. I just always figured that it was that it was better software that was causing the speed boosts.
« Last Edit: March 15, 2010, 09:45:06 pm by meishe91 »
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Modded Calculator?
« Reply #3 on: March 15, 2010, 09:58:51 pm »
I heard some ppl did it, but many discourage this technique, as you could brick your calc and void your warranty. You have to use the right transistors and stuff.

I believe one of our old Omnimaga staff had his 83+ have a switch on the side so he could turn it in 6 or 15 MHz mode. What I wonder is: does it mess up ASM programs? Some LCD routines needs 6 MHz mode to run I think, like xLIB. Otherwise, the screen becomes all wavy. I remember this because I was beta tester of xLIB app in 2005 and got this when running one of the beta on a SE

Offline meishe91

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Re: Modded Calculator?
« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2010, 11:20:12 pm »
What exactly is the whole 8Mhz, 15Mhz, etc. thing? I can't seem to figure out what you guys are talking about.
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Modded Calculator?
« Reply #5 on: March 15, 2010, 11:42:03 pm »
The TI-83 Plus has a Zilog 80 processor running at 6 MHz (it's a 8 MHz one, but TI slowed it down to 6 for power reason). The 83+SE, 84+ and 84+SE have Zilog 80 processors running at 15 MHz. However, on the SE, most ASM games are slowed down to 6 or 8 MHz during execution. There are commands to make them run at full speed, though.

Offline meishe91

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Re: Modded Calculator?
« Reply #6 on: March 16, 2010, 12:10:14 am »
Ah, ok. Thanks.
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Offline Gale

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Re: Modded Calculator?
« Reply #7 on: March 16, 2010, 03:26:29 pm »
yeah, i just figured that modded calcs would be slightly common in this community, kinda like modding controllers for systems such as xbox360 and ps3
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Re: Modded Calculator?
« Reply #8 on: March 16, 2010, 03:35:12 pm »
if Geocities still existed outside Japan, I would show you pics of Jim_e's modified calculator. He had a backlight and all. There's also another topic here called Glow In The Calc, involving calc modding. It used to be much more common to mod your calc back in the '90s and 2000s, though. I remember stuff such as the ability to use AA batteries instead of the expensive AAA's and power supplies, and even adding more RAM to your calc (or archive), altough the later was unstable, IIRC, and unreliable since if you made programs requiring that many RAM, everyone who wanted to use them had to modify their calc :/

Offline Gale

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Re: Modded Calculator?
« Reply #9 on: March 16, 2010, 03:45:56 pm »
ahh. yeah, i would assume it would take a lot of guts and engineering knowledge to know how to properly install backlights and such, but i would definitely do it if i had the abilities.

i was just looking on ebay, and yeah, couldn't find one modded one there. only modded faceplates :P
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Modded Calculator?
« Reply #10 on: March 16, 2010, 03:48:05 pm »
Actually, certain methods, such as increasing the calc archive (to 229 KB, specifically) requires no modding, but the way it has to be done seems quite hackish, plus on the french site in question they mention the calc becomes unstable with it if you garbage collect and you can't send apps. For other files you can only send one at once. Also this tutorial was written back before Windows XP came out, I think, so idk if it works with newer link softwares. I think for example TI Connect will not work.

Offline meishe91

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Re: Modded Calculator?
« Reply #11 on: March 16, 2010, 03:49:18 pm »
Well it only really takes some basic physic knowledge (electrical physics, not the kind of physics we know from Builderboy :P). You would just need to be good with your hands. But over at UTI there is a whole topic, I believe, about modding your calc if you wanna check that out here.
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: Modded Calculator?
« Reply #12 on: March 16, 2010, 03:51:56 pm »
True. Personally, if you are not good with your hands that that kind of stuff or dislike manipulating electronic, wires, do soldering, etc, it's best you don't do it.

Offline meishe91

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Re: Modded Calculator?
« Reply #13 on: March 16, 2010, 04:04:12 pm »
Ya. Agreed.
Personally, I've always wanted to get a junk 83+ or something and just see how much I could do with it. It'd be fun :) (I still have a Mac on my floor that I need to take apart...>.>)
« Last Edit: March 16, 2010, 04:05:10 pm by meishe91 »
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Offline ztrumpet

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Re: Modded Calculator?
« Reply #14 on: March 16, 2010, 04:13:40 pm »
I like the idea of a backlight, but I doubt if I'd do it.  I think I'd mess something up (or drop a chair on it), so I don't think I'll mod my calc.   There are some really cool ideas out there, though! ;D

I also (remember this is my opinion) would not overclock my calc, because then all regular programs run too fast. :D