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Author Topic: Nspire CAS Touchpad Prototype Discovered  (Read 5144 times)

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Offline chsi

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Nspire CAS Touchpad Prototype Discovered
« on: December 18, 2012, 09:02:49 am »
Hi there, I'm the co-founder of cnCalc.org, the Chinese Language calculator community.

Recently one of our members acquired a (supposedly) pre-owned Nspire CAS Touchpad from an e-waste seller/salvager here. Upon closer examination, the machine turned out to be a DVT, and the keyboard is not properly functional (apparently with some keys mis-mapped, pending further verification. The keyboard test failed, and the touchpad doesn't work at all). In comparison to many previous prototypes discovered, this DVT didn't come with an OS installed. The owner managed to upgrade it to the latest OS without any difficulties, as per normal with the mass-produced version.

The e-waste seller claims to have a whole container of similar handhelds, but the batch of stock is currently stuck at the Chinese custom and doesn't appear to be very well-received by the custom officials. In other words, the rest of the machines could be confiscated and sadly end up in the incinerator (or landfill, as the case may be :P).

Attached are some sneak-peak photos. More is coming in a few days or so, including that of the PCB.

The back cover is quite different from the MP version, with the absence of the battery cover. It comes in one piece secured by six T6 scews.








« Last Edit: December 18, 2012, 09:48:25 am by chsi »
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Offline ElementCoder

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Re: Nspire CAS Touchpad Prototype Discovered
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2012, 11:45:15 am »
Very interesting. I like the "not for sale" product ID on the back :P It seems to be pretty old, judging on the 2009 date and the indication DEV BUILD. So what do you think about this adriweb (I reckon you have more useful things to say than I)?
« Last Edit: December 18, 2012, 11:49:17 am by ElementCoder »
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Offline critor

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Re: Nspire CAS Touchpad Prototype Discovered
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2012, 12:33:24 pm »
Hi chsi!


It seems you currently get lots of very interesting prototypes in China ;)
Thanks for taking the time to inform us.


Quote from: chsi on December 18, 2012, 09:02:49 am
In comparison to many previous prototypes discovered, this DVT didn't come with an OS installed. The owner managed to upgrade it to the latest OS without any difficulties, as per normal with the mass-produced version.

So it seems this prototype has been flashed with production versions of the Boot1 and Boot2.

Could you ask for the Boot1 and Boot2 versions?
(home+5+4)
« Last Edit: December 18, 2012, 12:37:26 pm by critor »
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Offline flyingfisch

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Re: Nspire CAS Touchpad Prototype Discovered
« Reply #3 on: December 18, 2012, 12:49:16 pm »
Does casio release prototypes? Why is it that we see so much about TI prototypes and no casio prototypes?
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Offline Adriweb

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Re: Nspire CAS Touchpad Prototype Discovered
« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2012, 01:16:43 pm »
Quote from: ElementCoder on December 18, 2012, 11:45:15 am
Very interesting. I like the "not for sale" product ID on the back :P It seems to be pretty old, judging on the 2009 date and the indication DEV BUILD. So what do you think about this adriweb (I reckon you have more useful things to say than I)?
Well, it's interesting, but Critor is still way ahead of me in prototypes-knowledge :)
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Offline chsi

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Re: Nspire CAS Touchpad Prototype Discovered
« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2012, 10:37:59 am »
Update:

The keypad mapping is completely messed up. Only Menu, esc, tab, enter?7, 4, 1, 9, 6 and 3 are working normally. Doc key functions as Home when pressed, and the real Doc key can only be triggered by Ctrl+Doc.  (This resembles the Touchpad 1.x Downgrade problems reported at http://ourl.ca/8505). The touchpad doesn't work at all and several keys are mapped to Clickpad-only keys, such as Cos showing up when B is pressed.  This greatly complicated the process, but the Boot1 version has nonetheless been determined successfully to be 1.0.1.8916. The Boot1/2 and Diag dump is also done. The dump image and the new photos can be found at http://www.cncalc.org/thread-8263-1-1.html.
« Last Edit: December 19, 2012, 10:40:02 am by chsi »
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Offline critor

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Re: Nspire CAS Touchpad Prototype Discovered
« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2012, 03:18:21 pm »
Quote from: chsi on December 19, 2012, 10:37:59 am
Update:

The keypad mapping is completely messed up. Only Menu, esc, tab, enter?7, 4, 1, 9, 6 and 3 are working normally. Doc key functions as Home when pressed, and the real Doc key can only be triggered by Ctrl+Doc.  (This resembles the Touchpad 1.x Downgrade problems reported at http://ourl.ca/8505). The touchpad doesn't work at all and several keys are mapped to Clickpad-only keys, such as Cos showing up when B is pressed.

Yes - for some reason, your TouchPad keypad is considered as a ClickPad keypad.
« Last Edit: December 19, 2012, 03:18:45 pm by critor »
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Offline chsi

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Re: Nspire CAS Touchpad Prototype Discovered
« Reply #7 on: December 30, 2012, 06:28:19 am »
Quote from: critor on December 19, 2012, 03:18:21 pm
Quote from: chsi on December 19, 2012, 10:37:59 am
Update:

The keypad mapping is completely messed up. Only Menu, esc, tab, enter?7, 4, 1, 9, 6 and 3 are working normally. Doc key functions as Home when pressed, and the real Doc key can only be triggered by Ctrl+Doc.  (This resembles the Touchpad 1.x Downgrade problems reported at http://ourl.ca/8505). The touchpad doesn't work at all and several keys are mapped to Clickpad-only keys, such as Cos showing up when B is pressed.

Yes - for some reason, your TouchPad keypad is considered as a ClickPad keypad.

Yup that's right, all keys function according to the clickpad keypad map exactly. It was suspected that the problem is caused by hardware differences (if any) between the DVT and production keypads, but replacing the keypad with a production version didn't help at all. Could anyone suggest on what basis does the machine determine the type of keypad installed?

Thanks in advance =)
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Offline critor

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Re: Nspire CAS Touchpad Prototype Discovered
« Reply #8 on: December 30, 2012, 09:17:44 am »
I remember that Goplat had a specific prototype TouchPad keypad mode in nspire_emu, which wasn't working with production OSes.

He might be able to tell you more.


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Offline Johny007

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Re: Nspire CAS Touchpad Prototype Discovered
« Reply #9 on: January 22, 2013, 04:38:13 pm »
TLDR version: Touchpad prototype works fine with TI-NspireCAS-2.0.1.60 OS.

I also have this prototype. I got it yesterday, didn't notice the "not for sale" and started updating to OS 3.1. I refused to update, so I thought hey, maybe too low memory. So I tried to delete user files. Where I discovered folder "Developer Unit" with some certificate, but I was not able to transfer it from calculator, so I formatted the whole calculator in maintenance menu. After that I uploaded 3.1 OS that responded to Touchpad keyboard as it was a Clickpad. I also foolishly let it update the boot2, so the rest of the day I spend fiddling with RS232 and recovering boot2 to downgrade. Even with boot2 ver 1.4 I was not able to downgrade, but luckily there is nLaunch which let me downgrade back to TI-NspireCAS-2.0.1.60 which works recognizes Touchpad keyboard correctly. So I'm stuck with this OS for now.
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