Programming a calculator...

[Amedeo602]

If anyone's interested in programming the TI-85 graphing calculator, shoot me an email. I've been programming them for years and it uses a version of BASIC. While it may seem useless to program calculators, they can come in handy during tests

My calculus prof was AMAZED with what I've managed to program into mine.

Some of my more recent works: C&C, Poker, Blackjack, Euler's method, Differential Equations, Sequences/Series, and various calculus-related programs.


You'd be surprised what a few IF statements can do

 

[phiber]

hey thats real cool i have been trying to program for a while and then somebody stole my calculator at camp

 

[Amedeo602]

i had mine stole too...luckily i knew who stole it and i got it back

 

[Ridenow]

I let the batteries run out, so I lost some cool stuff. I had a Tic-Tac-Toe that played against you, the Towers of Hanoi, Sticks, a number base converter and a very accurate integration program based on Rungi-Cutta (SP?). A friend had Tetris, that was really impressive. It had 10 levels, everything but the music. Another friend wrote one that did derivatives and *showed the steps*, very useful.

 

[Allan Nielsen]

I've made some small programs for my TI-83. Nothing big, just made life a bit easier in math class, lol.

 

[cyberey66]

I just bought a TI-85 and would like to learn how to program it. If anyone has links please post.

I am a very fresh newbie to programing I tried learning C++ but switched to learning visual basic first then C then C++.

 

[vimal]

Programming clacs is a great way to pass time in classes (but only if you are already familiar with the material)

You can overclock calculators as well - supposedly the Z80 based calcs (TI-82, 83, 85, 86) can be boosted from 6MHz to 24MHz, the 68K based calcs (TI-89, 92) have 10MHz and 12MHz versions that can be boosted to 20MHz and 24MHz, and the Saturn based calcs (HP48, HP49) can be boosted from 4MHz to 6 MHz.

If anybody has successfully performed one of the calculator mods, please do let us know.

<<begin flame bait>>
HP's rule! Though the TI-89 is pretty cool too.
<<end flame bait>>

 

[Amedeo602]

I haven't overclocked my calculator [yet], but I did see some articles about how to do it in CyberArmy.com's armoury.

 

[Allan Nielsen]

Vimal:
HP is pretty cool I'll admit, my brother has the HP 48 G.

 

[cyberey66]

That's it. I have a TI-85 and I'm going to overclock it just to say I accualy overclocked my calculator

 

[PolyPill]

I overclocked my ti-86, you just replace a capacitor. I put in a switch so I could return to norma when I want to. It's quite a drain on the batteries, and I noticed every once in a while large computations turn out wrong because of it's instability. So don't overclock on a test, learned that the hard way. At least I'm blaming it on my calculator.

If you're going to program BASIC is neat, but you can accomplish a lot more if you learn assembly for your calc. I think the 86 is the best for programming, I have an 89 and used an 85, but you need to run a shell to get anything accomplished because assembly programming isn't built in.

I think I would have went insane in highschool without my calculator to keep me busy.

 

[cyberey66]

Damn the calcs are fun to program and easy to learn. I played with mine for 2 days and was able to write a simple trig program. All it does is fill in the missing values when you give it a triangle's angle and side. But it was first program ever and I accually planed and thought out the prog myself. Well I'm taking trig honors next year in HS so I'll should be able to write a prog I can use by then.
Does anyone have any cool programs or links that a HS student can use for trig based calc-progs. I have a ti-83+ not the common 85.
Well anyway I want to accually learn to program. Would you recomend c/c++ or visual basic first. I would rather learn C but which is better for beginners?

Thanks,

 

[Gonzo]

I have had an 85 for 4 years now and have made some simple programs for it. I just got an 89 sence I am taking some higher level math classes in college and the 89 is allowed on all standerdized tests. I am hoping to learn some assembly programming for the 89. If anyone is in HS or low level college math classes I have some very simple math programs that are easy to code, but are huge time savers for lengthy math problems. some of the programs are the quadratic formula, midpoint formula, distance between two points, and 3 trig triangle formulas that ask for 3 parts of the triangle and give the rest of the triangle, side/angle/side, angle/side/angle, and 3 sides. If anyone is interested let me know and I will give you the code, or if you have a graph link I can send you the program. It atleast gives any beginners some examples to look at.

Has anyone had any luck building a homemade link cable? I tried 3 different types of serial link cables and every one of them just froze my calculator. I finally broke down and bought a graphlink cable from TI.

 

[cyberey66]

Well, I wrote a simple trig. program with all the sin/cos/tan formulas. I'm taking algebra2/trig honors next year in HS so I thought to start writing programs now. About the homemade link I wanted to make one. But for simple programs I shoud be able to manage to write them myself.

One quick question;
Is thier a way to make the calculator give answers with keeping pi and square roots not multiplied out. I would give example but can't make pi and root signs. I hope someone knows what i'm saying.

 

[Amedeo602]

for square roots i had the program use the radical sign then put the number that would be under the radical under the radical

for example, to display a radical 63, instead of 7.9 (or whatever it is), i would do this

outpt (1,1," ") (the radical sign would be in quotations
outpt (1,2,"63")

or if you wanted, say, the determinant from the quadratic formula (the part under the radical) you could do this

outpt (1,1," ") (rad sign in quotes)
outpt (1,2,b^2-(4*a*c))

This would put a radical sign out front and then whatever the B squared minus 4 AC part under it.

 

[Superman53142]

Now if you could get it to display in simplest radical form, that would be cool. For instance: SQRT(44)=SQRT(11)*SQRT(4)=2*SQRT(11)

Then I wouldn't have to do any work.

 

[Amedeo602]

I believe the TI-89 does this automatically. I do know for a fact that instead of displaying 3.xxxx it would show the square root of 15.
However, I don't know if it would break down...say...(sq.rt.)20 to be 2 radical 5. That would be interesting . . .