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Topics - critor

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91
News / MMC card reader traces TI-Nspire Navigator Access Point
« on: August 16, 2012, 08:21:20 am »
Two years ago, we found some traces of some traces of a SD memory card support in the TI-Nspire Diagnostics software:

That mysterious SD card was needed  for NAND reflashing.

But no such reader was present in the TI-Nspire.



Fortunately, we then found a photo of a TI Nspire development board:


And an SD card reader is present in the bottom left-hand part of the image.

As development board are designed to test development builds of the TI-Nspire Boot2 and OS which might be buggy, the SD card accessed from the Diagnostics software can help TI developpers reprogramming the NAND of  a development board which won't boot anymore.

So TI might have developped some way of plugging an external SD card reader to TI-Nspire handhelds, either through the dock connector (J01) either through the internal J04 connector (unsoldered on production models, but present on prototypes).

We've got no evidence of the existence of such an external reader up to now, and SD card might only be used on TI-Nspire development boards.



But we've just found out something interesting ;)

For back to school 2012, TI has released a new access point for the TI-Nspire.

And just check what's inside,  in the bottom left-hand corner this time:

Yes, an unsoldered rectangular place (J4) for an MMC card reader! ;D



As there are no keys to launch the diagnostics software on the TI-Navigator access points and as they are usually running Linux and U-Boot, using the MMC card might be a little different.

I suppose that U-Boot tries to boot from the MMC card if present, before trying to boot from the NAND.





Source:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10235

92
News / nCleaner: even more free space on your TI-Nspire
« on: August 13, 2012, 03:55:45 pm »
In a previous news, we released nTNOC, a wonderful tool to clean up your TI-Nspire OS main file (/phoenix/install/TI-Nspire.tnc) and gain 3MB on your TI-Nspire, and even 5MB if you were downgrading from OS 3.2.


But there are other useless things we can clean up on the TI-Nspire, like the hidden system folders extracted when you install a new OS.





For example, on non-CAS TI-Nspire and TI-Nspire TouchPad, there's a 1.5MB backup for the TI-84+SE emulator.

It does include all preinstalled apps.
If you don't use that emulator, if you don't even own the special removable keypad necessary to launch it (not included with the TI-Nspire TouchPad), or if you just don't care about the preinstalled apps, then that's useless!



Big surprise, the filesystem does also include two TI-Nspire software skins taking something like 275KB! :o

Those are the SVG image files used on the TI-Nspire Computer softwares, and they're totally useless on the TI-Nspire handheld.



You also get data for the 15 supported languages in many subfolders, especially for the chinese languages.

If you don't speak 15 languages then again...



And you also get the OS extensions (the only one released up to now is the chinese-english dictionnary) which cannot be removed officially.





Anyway, the problem is now solved this evening, thanks to the new tool by RayQuaza59 and myself: nCleaner! ;D

You just have to choose what you want to remove:






But wait, that's not all...

Even after removing the TI-84+SE backup, you can still use the TI-84+SE emulator. ;D
It will just start with an empty memory, and recreate the 1.5MB backup once you turn off your handheld.

Even after removing all 15 languages locales, you can still set your OS in all 15 languages! :crazy:
Yes, I tried everyting... rebooting and all... those files are just useless, maybe only needed by the TI-Nspire softwares, included and extracted by mistake from the OS file like the skins.



Using nCleaner, you can free up to 6.5MB! ;D


You get even more free space by using nCleaner together with nTNOC!






You can get as much as:
  • 20MB free space on non-CAS TI-Nspire
  • 20.6MB on TI-Nspire CAS
  • 108MB on non-CAS TI-Nspire CX
  • 107.7MB on TI-Nspire CX CAS





Do you often reinstall the OS?
Of course, this is going to recreate all useless files...

But nCleaner does remember your settings, and can even clean up everything automatically and silently if moved to the Ndless startup folder. ;D





Source:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=10225&p=128144#p128129

Downloads:
nCleaner
nTNOC

93
News / Size and uninstallation of the Nspire CX-C dictionnary
« on: August 11, 2012, 12:35:17 pm »
In a previous news, we learned together how to transform your TI-Nspire CX into a TI-Nspire CX-C and how to install the chinese-english dictionnary OS extension.



Some of you asked us how much space the dictionnary was taking. Let's finally answer that question today.



TI-Nspire OS extensions like the dictionnary are installed in a hidden part of the filesystem, the root folder "/extension":

As you can see, it takes 4.4MB.



Once you've finished playing with the chinese dictionnary, you'll probably ask yourself how to uninstall it and recover those 4.4MB free space.

And now, you just read that in the TI-Nspire CX-C guidebook, page 19:
Quote
Note: After the dictionary is installed, it cannot be deleted.

What?... Is it a joke?... ???
What's the point into handling OS extensions which can never be removed?



Calm down! ;)
What's stated in the guidebook is wrong to begin with:, you can perfectly remove the dictionnary with a whole filesystem reformat through the maintenance menu.
I perfectly know you won't like this solution so let's go on! ;)



Ndless programs have access to the whole filesystem. So, creating a Ndless tool which would cleanup the  "/extension" folder content is perfectly possible.
But guess what? It won't even be necessary! :P



Digging into the TI-Nspire OS, Levak has found something...
A dictionnary uninstallation program, launched by a specific dialog box! ;D

We don't understand why but it's an orphan dialog box: it's not called from any OS menu or shortcut.
But don't worry, you've now got an Ndless tool, delDico, which will launch this dialog box and let you remove the dictionnary on your TI-Nspire CX or TI-Nspire CX-C. ;D



The only remaining question is now... "WHY ?!!!" ???




Source:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10220

Download:
delDico

94
News / Patch your TI-Nspire OS version string
« on: August 08, 2012, 02:12:26 pm »
Yesterday, Tangrs had shown us a strange TI-Nspire capture with a 4.1.1.OS.

This was an example of his new code to temporary patch the TI-Nspire OS version string in RAM.



Levak (again) then worked very hard on a similar but more comprehensive code, even dealing with assembly, which has been integrated today in a new tool for your TI-Nspire: vPatch.

vPatch lets the user choose which OS version to set! ;D

vPatch not only patches the version string shown on the TI-Nspire about screen but also the one reported to TI-Nspire softwares on the computer! ;D



Stored in the Ndless startup folder, vPatch even restores silently the last version it was given at each boot. ;D



If you've decided to stay with OS 3.1, you can now get rid of the TI-Nspire softwares popups which were constantly reminding you to install SO 3.2 since late july each time you connect your TI-Nspire to the computer. ;D






Sources:
http://ourl.ca/16729/313095
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10204

Download:
vPatch

95
News / Transform your CX into a CX-C and install the dictionnary!
« on: August 07, 2012, 10:01:39 pm »
The TI-Nspire OS does support optional add-ins.
Together with its TI-Nspire softwares 3.1, TI had included english-chinese dictionnary add-ins for the TI-Nspire OS.



The add-in files look similar with OS files:








Unfortunately, it was impossible to install the dictionnary on our TI-Nspire CX.

You needed to own the chinese model: the TI-Nspire CX-C.

And knowing that CX and CX-C models were sharing the same OS, there was some verification somewhere...




Fortunately, Levak has developped some code this evening which has been included in a new tool, cx2cxc, and hot-patches your TI-Nspire CX OS, making it believe that your handheld is a TI-Nspire CX-C! ;D






No restriction! Unlike a real TI-Nspire CX-C, you can still choose between 15 languages instead of 4. ;D

But like a real TI-Nspire CX-C, the dictionnary shortcut is now active and available in the home screen, and you can install the english-chinese dictionnary! ;D















Source: http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10203&p=127989

Link:
cx2cxc (Ndless tool to transform a TI-Nspire CX into a TI-Nspire CX-C)

96
News / Launch of the TI-Nspire CM-C CAS
« on: August 05, 2012, 10:37:24 am »
In septembre 2011, we discovered a secret unreleased TI-Nspire model thanks to its OS which was updated together with the TI-Nspire CM-C one: the TI-Nspire CM-C CAS.

In novembre 2011, we even extracted its 2D skin hidden in the TI-Nspire software/OS, giving you an idea of how it would look like:



Today, TI-China has finally created the TI-Nspire CM-C CAS product page, together with the first 3D images! ;D




The TI-Nspire CM-C CAS is allmost identical with the TI-Nspire CM-C, except that you get the additional CAS engine.

There are some differences with the TI-Nspire CX:
  • chinese localised keypad
  • OS stuck in 4 languages: both english languages 'en' and 'en_GB', and both chinese languages 'zh_CN' and 'zh_TW'
  • only 32MB SDRAM like the old TI-Nspire ClickPad/TouchPad instead of 64MB
  • no dock or wifi connector, so no wireless TI-Nspire Navigator network connectivity - sensors can still be used but only with the mini-USB plug
  • use of an inferior battery: 800mAh instead of 1060mAh on TI-Nspire CX or 1230mAh on the optional battery for TI-Nspire TouchPad

Unlike the TI-Nspire CX-C, you can't install the english-chinese dictionaries.










Source:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10195

97
News / Game Boy Advance emulation reaches TI-Nspire CX
« on: August 02, 2012, 08:16:49 pm »
Calc84maniac has posted today in this Omnimaga topic a first alpha build of his Game Boy Advance emulator for the TI-Nspire CX.





Yes, no support for older Nspire models but they are limited by their 32MB RAM chip filled by the OS and I had allready found out that you couldn't malloc more than 4MB on those. Allmost no commercial GBA ROM is going to fit in that. And anyway, you woudn't have been able to see anything on the crappy screen! :P

On TI-Nspire CX with the 64MB RAM chip you can malloc up to 33-34MB, so even 32MB GBA ROMs should fit! ;D





Named gpSP-Nspire, the emulator is a port of a GBA emulator for the Sony PSP, one of the rare GBA emulators written in C Ansi (as Ndless doesn't currently support C++).





The TI-Nspire CX screen is so awesome to render GBA games, much better than the Game Boy Advance SP one! ;D






Now about speed, as you can see in the following video tests, GBA games are perfectly playable but slightly slower than the real hardware.

But the emulator can run allmost on par with a real Game Boy Advance if you give your TI-Nspire CX a little overclocking boost with Nover.




You can check a french tutorial about how to safely search and reach the best config for your TI-Nspire CX with Nover there:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=9014




Have a nice summer with gpSP-Nspire! :love:

98
News / nPatch: fix your Ndlessed TI-Nspire OS
« on: August 02, 2012, 07:23:32 pm »
You probably have noticed that once you install Ndless on your calculator, you can't send the OS to another handheld :(

In a previous news, while developping nTNOC, the tool to free up to 5MB on your TI-Nspire, I had figured out the problem.



The Ndless installer does inject some code in your hidden OS file (/phoenix/install/TI-Nspire.tnc) as you could notice in nTNOC:

But it does not update the file size in the header:

So the receiving unit is announced a file size which does not match, and rejects the OS at the end of the transfer.



nTNOC was fixing the problem while modifying your OS file, but only if your OS could be optimized.
There was no way to fix an allready optimized OS :(



That's why I've just released for you a very light version of nTNOC code called nPatch.
It just checks the size in your OS file header and fixes it if it's wrong :)




You can now send your Ndlessed OS to other TI-Nspire :)





Source with additional informations:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10183

Download:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/archives_voir.php?id=6616

99
TI-Nspire / nPatch: fix your Ndlessed TI-Nspire OS
« on: August 02, 2012, 07:18:43 pm »
You probably have noticed that once you install Ndless on your calculator, you can't send the OS to another handheld :(

In a previous news, while developping nTNOC, the tool to free up to 5MB on your TI-Nspire, I had figured out the problem.



The Ndless installer does inject some code in your hidden OS file (/phoenix/install/TI-Nspire.tnc) as you could notice in nTNOC:

But it does not update the file size in the header:

So the receiving unit is announced a file size which does not match, and rejects the OS at the end of the transfer.



nTNOC was fixing the problem while modifying your OS file, but only if your OS could be optimized.
There was no way to fix an allready optimized OS :(



That's why I've just released for you a very light version of nTNOC code called nPatch.
It just checks the size in your OS file header and fixes it if it's wrong :)




You can now send your Ndlessed OS to other TI-Nspire :)





Source with additional informations:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10183

Download:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/archives_voir.php?id=6616

100
News / New nDoom 2.2 now fully supports TI-Nspire CX
« on: July 31, 2012, 10:58:14 am »
nDoom has been updated to version 2.2 and now fully supports the TI-Nspire CX hardware! ;D





The random bug which was randomly shifting nDoom display 16pixels to the right on the CX has been fixed! ;D

This was coming from the different ARM PrimeCell PL111 LCD controller on the CX, which only supports screen buffers at a double-word aligned address (divisible by 8 ).

Now benefit from a full 320 pixels wide display on your CX! ;D




In the last version, it was possible to directly run Doom/Doom2 game WAD files from your TI-Nspire document browser. But this required the 'ndless.cfg.tns' file, which many users forget to transfer. So, nDoom now automatically creates or patches your 'ndless.cfg.tns'! ;D

Just run nDoom one time and then you can directly run WAD files! ;D





Animations are now supported on the CX! ;D
This includes:
  • screen transitions at the start of a level :)
  • the Marines taking out his weapon at the start of a level ;)
  • end of episode / end of game screens with text appearing like typed on a typewriter machine and scrolling :D
Original code from Mrakoplatz was using the 2nd TI-Nspire timer, which is completely different on the TI-Nspire CX. So in my original port, such specific code was just ignored on the CX: screen transitions were allmost skipped, and end of episode / end of game screens were frozen.

With such animations now supported, nDoom is getting a more and more accurate port on your TI-Nspire CX! ;D






Just enjoy:








Source: (with additional technical information and 2 other exciting videos for your viewing pleasure)
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10179

Download:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/archives_voir.php?id=3889

101
News / New mViewer CX 3.2 adds JPEG support
« on: July 28, 2012, 11:10:09 pm »
mViewer is an image reader for all TI-Nspire.
Unlike the OS, it lets you open images bigger than the screen, zoom in, zoom out, and scroll them.




The latest main improvements were TI-Nspire CX support and PNG images support thanks to a port of zlib and libPNG libraries for the TI-Nspire by JayTe.



mViewer CX 3.2 now includes a port of the libJPEG library for the TI-Nspire by myself, adding JPEG images support. :thumbsup:

You can now open BMP, PNG and JPEG images. :thumbsup:



There has also been speed improvements and many memory improvements which should help you opening bigger images on non-CX TI-Nspire which are limited in RAM (32MB SDRAM, allmost filled by the OS). :thumbsup:






Source: http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=10171
Download: http://tiplanet.org/forum/archives_voir.php?id=6601

102
TI-Nspire OS installation files are PKZIP archives. They include several useless big files which will reduce your TI-Nspire free space:
  • boot2.img and boot2.cer: a Boot2 image between 1 and 1.5MB useful for the Boot2 update (meaning useful 1 time in your TI-Nspire life...)
  • samples.zip: sample documents in 15 different versions between 1 and 2MB (one version for each Nspire supported language, although you'll probably won't be using more than 3 languages - only useful the first times you turn on your TI-Nspire in your life)



Levak had allready released the computer tool TNOC which let you remove those useless files from your TI-Nspire OS installation file.

But you needed a computer, you needed to install the modified file, and you needed to redo this for each OS installation/update on your handheld...



Now here comes my new Ndless 3.1 program: nTNOC!
It does the same thing as TNOC, but directly on the calculator! ;D

It automatically determines and removes useless files from the installed Nspire OS file.



Did you upgrade to 3.2 ?
Just downgrade to 3.1 and you'll get an additional 2MB free space! ;D
Then install Ndless 3.1, launch nTNOC and you'll get another 3MB additional free space! ;D
You're not dreaming: you can gain up to 5MB! ;D


On TI-Nspire ClickPad and TouchPad with a 32MB chip and 27.8MB usable, it's awesome! ;D



Do you think it's useless on TI-Nspire CX with the 128MB chip and 115.2MB usable?
I don't ;)
5 MB more mean:
  • dozens of additional PNG images for mViewer ;D
  • dozens of additional Game Boy, Game Boy Color or NES ROMs ;D
  • 1 to 5 additional Game Boy Advance ROMs ;D



If you often install / update / remove OS 3.1 or Ndless, you can also put nTNOC in the Ndless startup folder, so that it will clean up the freshly installed/updated OS automatically and silently at boot time if necessary. ;D





But there is another wonder with nTNOC... ;)

Up to now, you couldn't send an OS from an Ndlessed calculator, although it was working when I was testing the alpha versions. The remove calculator just refuses the received Ndlessed OS.

Guess what? :P
If you use nTNOC with your Ndlessed OS, you can then transfer it between calculators without any problem! ;D
Meaning that you can now install Ndless without the need of a computer - which should healp spreading Ndless more widely in the world! ;D

It seems that the Ndless 3.1 installer has a little bug with a bad offset/size value written when it patches the OS PKZIP archive, and that nTNOC just fixes it ;)





Download:
nTNOC

Source:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=9655

103
News / TI-Navigator Access Point greatest secret
« on: July 05, 2012, 08:13:36 pm »
The TI-Navigator Access Point is the proprietary WiFi router used to build a wireless network of TI-Nspire handhelds in class. It connects to the host teacher computer through USB.



In a previous news, we were discovering the included motherboard together:



And I was telling you that there was something else in the TI-Navigator Access Point...

Just think it again:
  • it's written "power by NetGear" on the case, but the 'NetGear' word doesn't show up on the motherboard... ::)
  • there is a WiFi antenna on the case, but not on the motherboard... :o
  • the motherboard has an ethernet connector, but there is no external ethernet connector on the case...  ???
  • an ethernet cable is plugged... :banghead:



The propriety TI-Navigator Access Pointer router is just built around... a perfectly standard NetGear ProSafe WAG102 router! ;D






And what if you could now build your own TI-Nspire wireless network for cheap ? ;)



Other photos available in the TI-Planet news:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9629

104
News / A theme editor coming for Ndless 3.1
« on: July 05, 2012, 11:32:11 am »
On 3.x development OSes, TI had started to develop a theme editor.

But for some reason, that functionnality was totally removed from the released OSes.
All what is left is a hidden "theme.csv" file at the documents root with some RGB colors specifications, but which seems totally ignored by the OS as I've allready managed to modify it without getting anything special on the screen.


Fortunately, Levak has worked very hard on a theme editor/loader for Ndless 3.1.
Use your favorite colors or greys on your TI-Nspire!  ;D



Hundreds of widget elements can be customized:




Sources:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9639
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9628

Download:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/archives_voir.php?id=6070
http://tiplanet.org/forum/archives_voir.php?id=6101 (sample theme)

105
News / Extend your TI-89 display to 240x128 (TI-92 size)
« on: June 21, 2012, 10:17:33 am »
The TI-89 has a 160x100 LCD.
The TI-92 and TI-Voyage 200 have a 240x128 LCD.

But you can run TI-92 Plus assembly games on the TI-89 and their display won't be corrupt.
The only problem is that the display is cropped:


It means the all those calculators are sharing a 240x128 display buffer, which is partially displayed on the TI-89.



All those calculators accept a 240x128 TI-ViewScreen panel, usually used by teachers to show the display to the whole class.

In the case of a TI-89, only the top-left part of the panel is used with the OS:



In that case, what would happen if an assembly program wrote data in the screen buffer outside the 160x100 zone?
Success! Although the game display is cropped on the TI-89, the whole screen buffer is displayed on the external panel. ;D



But of course, this was a VSC version of the TI-89 with the additionnal proprietary  ViewScreen connector.
The panel can be plugged on every TI-89 Titanium using an adaptator for the mini-USB connector: the TI-89 Titanium Presentation Link.

So using this adapter, can this extended display been achieved on all TI-89 Titanium calculators?
Success, again! ;D



So it's quite interesting! :D
If someone has the time, it means we could develop an external 240x128 display for the TI-89 which would be plugged through the mini-USB port, the 1st step into performing some kind of an "upgrade" of the TI-89 into a TI-92 Plus / TI-Voyage 200. ;D



Credits for the idea of the experience go to Lionel Debroux.



Source with more information and images:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9511&p=125807

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