Published by KermMartian on September 23, 2017 at 9:14:08 AM CST | Discuss this article (1)

This weekend, Cemetech is back at World Maker Faire in New York City, introducing people to learning coding and electronics with graphing calculators. This is our sixth annual presence at World Maker Faire, ever since our first visit five years ago with rudimentary displays. In the interim, we have gone through many iterations of our demos and displays, I've been joined by dedicated Cemetechians Alec "qazz42" Szigeti, Tim "geekboy1011" Keller, Thomas "elfprince13" Dickerson, and Nathaniel "Eeems" van Diepen, who have volunteered their time, effort, and money to help make our Maker Faire booth a success. We have garnered some modest press coverage, we have collected a few new Cemetech members and reconnected with old ones, but most importantly, we have introduced thousands of Faire visitors to the fact that they can learn programming, electronics, and other STEM subjects with their graphing calculators. We're excited to continue that mission this weekend.

This year, we're bringing back all of our proven displays, plus one new one that we (specifically, geekboy1011 and Iambian) created. Here's what we're displaying:

• TI-DCC (Calculator-Controlled Model Trains): This evolution of a few-years-old project to control model trains with graphing calculators no longer requires an Arduino. Thanks to hard work by geekboy1011 and Iambian, TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition calculators can directly bitbang the DCC (Direct Cab Control) protocol, allowing the calculator to control a train through a simple H-bridge motor driver.
  
• Whack-a-Mole: Built with a TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, a TI MSP432 Launchpad, and lots of RGB LEDs and light sensors, the Whack-a-Mole project was a hit at World Maker Faire 2015 and T^3 2016.
  
• CALCnet Networking Demo: Four TI-83 Plus calculators connected via CALCnet, running the Flourish demo, showing how you can build and test a complex communication protocol with just the hardware your calculators provide, plus a few wires.
  
• GPS Demo: A version of the GPS for graphing calculators project, allowing a calculator to communicate with a GPS module to get its latitude, longitude, altitude, the current time, and more.
  
• SimpleI/O Demo: First displayed this year at T^3 2016, the SimpleI/O demo illustrates how easy it is to connect an Arduino to a graphing calculator. It shows how a calculator can read the state of pins on an Arduino to see if you're pressing a button or toggling a switch, and how the calculator can in turn control LEDs, motors, and more.
  
• Sound Demo: A TI-84 Plus Silver Edition with mobileTunes and songs by Alec "qazz42" Szigeti and Thomas "elfprince13" Dickerson, plus my floppy drive music with a TI-83 Plus project.
  
• Interactive calculators for games: a TI-84 Plus CE, TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, and if any of them are still working, a Casio Prizm, with games and other programs loaded.
  
• "Using the TI-84 Plus" and "Programming the TI-83 Plus/TI-84 Plus": As has become traditional, we brought copies of my books as examples of written reference material that new learners could explore outside of Cemetech. "Programming the TI-83 Plus/TI-84 Plus" teaches programming concepts to beginners via TI graphing calculators, giving them a toolbox of programming knowledge they can bring to any programming language. "Using the TI-84 Plus" is the missing manual: a gentle guide to the vast array of math and science features available on TI graphing calculators, grounded in plenty of examples just like the ones students might see in class or on the SATs.
  
• Learn to Program demo: A giant calculator emulator, with key entry from a real TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition calculator. Aims to teach visitors to write a simple guessing game in 60 seconds.

If you're in New York City, we encourage you to hop on the 7 train to 111th Street in Queens and come visit World Maker at the New York Hall of Science. We'll be there 10am to 6pm this Saturday and Sunday, September 23rd and 24th; our table is in the Maker Annex section of the Faire, in Zone 3. See you there!

Cemetech's contingent last year: Eeems, geekboy1011, Kerm Martian, and qazz42


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Published by Alex on September 5, 2017 at 9:44:59 PM CST | Discuss this article (1)

By far the most popular graphing calculator this year on Cemetech was the TI-84 Plus CE. To celebrate this, we've compiled a list of the popular games. School just started and you have a few weeks to get settled in to your classes. For those of you that started this last week, may the odds be forever in your favor. When you're passing time between classes, or riding to and from school, we know that you probably have explored games on your calculator. To help you, here is a list of 7 popular games for the TI-84+CE calculator that were released - not updated - this year. I've excluded the entries from the contests we've held, since those may have seen inflated numbers from the publicity. They are still wonderful programs, so check out the topics for the three contests we have wrapped up this year: Contest 18, Contest 19, and the recently finished Contest 20. We are looking forward to more contests this year and in the coming years, spanning calculators and computers, so enjoy these games and hopefully you'll be inspired to start making your own and consequently motivated to participate in future contests! Without further ado, here's our lists and check out the full forum topic to read more about them!

Here's a straight list of the Top 7.

1. Oiram
2. Geometry Dash
3. Color Switch CE
4. Donkey Kong CE
5. Boxman CE

Honorable Mentions

1. SnakeCE
2. Sqrxz CE

There are dozens of other programs that were released this year and there will be more by the end of the year. So keep checking the archives! Graphing calculators is a wonderful way to be introduced into programming, it's always on you and is capable of running programs written on the calculator itself, written in a variant of the BASIC language. You can then go further and branch into ASM or C which will get you ready for programming on computers or mobile devices such as Android or iOS. We've got a wonderful community that will help you with questions about programming your own games or programs on a bunch of platforms. Hopefully we'll see you programs on the next list we do! Now, that you've seen the top 7 programs from this year here are the top 10 programs that were released since the TI-84 Plus CE was released.

1. Pac-Man
2. FlappyBird
3. Tetric A (Tetris)
4. 2048
5. Portal Returns CE
6. Calcuzap 1042
7. CMonster 1202
8. Spaze Invaders
9. Ultimate Pong
10. ADVENTUR - A Game About Choice

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Calcuzapp 2042 | Oiram | Sqrxz CE

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Published by KermMartian on September 3, 2017 at 7:31:33 PM CST | Discuss this article (16)

Nine months ago in December of 2016, long-time Cemetechian Peter "PT_" Tillema was promoted to Global Moderator. PT_ had long been a particularly enthusiastic Cemetech member, both in his projects and in his work to promote and manage the community. He was already a moderator of three subfora, and had shown the leadership potential beyond his technical prowess for which we look in our moderation team. Since then, PT_ has continued his hard work, writing news articles, creating the ICE language, working on PHP and HTML backend work for Cemetech, and actively participating in behind-the-scenes work to keep Cemetech active and lively. The administration team has unanimously decided to promote PT_ to the rank of full Administrator. PT_ is also the first of our administrators to be based in Europe; we anticipate this will help ensure that Cemetech stays as relevant as possible to our European members and visitors. We look forward to continuing to work with PT_, and if you have any questions, concerns, bug reports, or ideas for Cemetech, don't hesitate to give him a shout!



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Published by jonbush on August 20, 2017 at 5:08:20 PM CST | Discuss this article (8)

Now that Cemetech Contest 20: Transit Time has ended, it is time to announce the prize winners.



As you may know, the contest was divided into three parts: land, water, and air (or space). Contestants were challenged to create programs related to transport on or through these media. Overall, this six-week challenge resulted in the making of twenty new programs, most of which are available for download in the Cemetech Archives. I would like to give special congratulations to dankcalculatorbro, Iambian, _iPhoenix_, and OldNewTimer, all of whom created a program for each of the three categories.

At the conclusion of each two-week contest segment, Cemetech members were asked to select their favorite entry for that category. The results of these polls decided the winner for each category:

• Land: commandblockguy, with Taxi Simulator
  
• Water: Iambian, with 20,000 Loon Under the Sea
  
• Air: OldNewTimer, with The Plain Plane Game
  

Each of these contestants will receive a $10 Steam credit (or equivalent).

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After painstakingly reviewing the entries submitted, the grand prize winner has also been selected. I am pleased to announce that the overall quality and entertaining gameplay presented by Iambian's loony games has earned him top honors in this contest. Along with Land Loons and 20,000 Loons Under the Sea, I have greatly enjoyed playing Loonar Lander, where the operator attempts to carefully land on the moon without malfunctioning.



In the way of prizes, Iambian will be receiving a commemorative CC20 plaque, and an additional $20 Steam gift card (for a total of $30).

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In addition to the programs listed above, other notable entries include:

• Escape The Buoy! by OldNewTimer
• Calculator Controlled Boat using ArTICL by deuteriumoxide
• Electric Circuit by PT_
• Plane Mania! by _iPhoenix_

I sincerely hope that everyone who participated in the contest had a good time and an educational experience, and I look forward to administering more Cemetech contests in the future.

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