Is it possible?
No way Dr. Frankenstein! (NO)
 60%  [ 15 ]
Plausible (MAYBE)
 40%  [ 10 ]
Total Votes : 25

I was wondering if it were possible to upgrade parts of my calculator, that's all. If there is a way to do so, could you lead me to a website that sells the parts?
-xM Razz
Everything is essentially on one PCB (besides the battery and the LCD), so not unless you count gutting the insides and using the outer casing as a costume for a completely different board.
Although I guess you could slap in a bigger battery very easily, but that's hardly an upgrade given the very reasonable battery life.
I was thinking about storage space
xMarminq_ wrote:
I was thinking about storage space

You cannot; even if you replace the flash chip with a larger one the OS wouldn't detect the extra space.
Could that be changed with an OS patch or is that a hardware restriction?
Um. The TIOS is closed source. If you wish to change it, it has to be done oncalc, and is reset every RAM reset, so essentially no. I dont think there is a hardware restriction, just that TI has made the OS not easily modified.

EDIT: Well... you can get the OS
LAX18 wrote:
Um. The TIOS is closed source. If you wish to change it, it has to be done oncalc, and is reset every RAM reset, so essentially no. I dont think there is a hardware restriction, just that TI has made the OS not easily modified.


um.
Firstly, the TI-OS can be modified on-calc, with a specific type of assembly program (to my knowledge), as it is possible to load another OS entirely, with said program.
Example: Free-OS by MateoConLechuga.

Secondly, the calculator can access a 24-bit adress space, according to the official eZ80 manual (UM0077.pdf), so it can hypothetically adress up to 16 megabytes, instead of the 4 that is on the hardware.

Thirdly, you'd probably have a much easier time just making an entirely new system IMO, as the board on the CE is already soddered and everything Wink so you'd probably just end up destroying your calculator. It would also be cheaper IIRC to just buy an eZ80 CPU, 16mb flash chip, and other necessary parts (a lot cheaper than having to buy another calculator, as TI makes these things expensive on purpose)

In conclusion, you would have to write an entirely new OS, and likely need to buy the parts and make an entirely new system. IMHO, not worth it unless you have a lot of time on your hands and knowledge of circuitry at your fingertips Wink
Just buy a RPi like everybody else Laughing
mr womp womp wrote:
Just buy a RPi like everybody else 0x5


Only if I had the spending money... Razz Sad
beckadamtheinventor wrote:

Secondly, the calculator can access a 24-bit adress space, according to the official eZ80 manual (UM0077.pdf), so it can hypothetically adress up to 16 megabytes, instead of the 4 that is on the hardware.

The CPU does have a 24-bits of address space, but doesn't mean there are actually 24 wires on the circuit board connecting the CPU to the memory, half of which are just sitting unconnected. TI doesn't actually use a plain ez80 CPU chip straight from zilog. Rather they use a custom ASIC which contains the CPU inside, so it wont expose more of the data bus then is necessary. Plus the memory controller inside the ASIC, which is responsible for "enabling" the memory chip being addressed, wont know that these "new" address also belong to the expanded address space of the new chip.

If you wanted to build simple z80 system, really you could get away with just 3 parts: the z80 CPU, a ram chip, and an one of those arduinos with 50ish pins. Wire up a data, address and control line bus between the z80, RAM, and arduinos pins. Then write a firmware for the arduino to send a z80 program to the RAM chip on startup, and generate a clock signal for the CPU. The arduino could be made to halt the CPU when it makes an IO request, and proxy it on to a PC or other device. (see https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14366 )
While it is technically possible, it is quite unlikely due to the closed nature of the hardware. Your best bet for extra storage would be via USB with some kind of software loader or shell support.
Maybe gut it out and put in a raspberry pi and install windows on it thru linux and get cemu and emulate the calc...?
xMarminq_ wrote:
Maybe gut it out and put in a raspberry pi and install windows on it thru linux and get cemu and emulate the calc...?

As if a pi could use CEmu.
MateoConLechuga wrote:
xMarminq_ wrote:
Maybe gut it out and put in a raspberry pi and install windows on it thru linux and get cemu and emulate the calc...?

As if a pi could use CEmu.

Unless I'm wrong, you could hypothetically re-compile the source code for Linux; as the source code is written in C. (you'd need to a lot of refactoring though)
beckadamtheinventor wrote:
MateoConLechuga wrote:
xMarminq_ wrote:
Maybe gut it out and put in a raspberry pi and install windows on it thru linux and get cemu and emulate the calc...?

As if a pi could use CEmu.

Unless I'm wrong, you could hypothetically re-compile the source code for Linux; as the source code is written in C. (you'd need to a lot of refactoring though)

Dude, that's the easiest part. CEmu is highly portable, and can go on pretty much any system. Getting it to run at a decent speed on a pi is the tricky part.
MateoConLechuga wrote:
beckadamtheinventor wrote:
MateoConLechuga wrote:
xMarminq_ wrote:
Maybe gut it out and put in a raspberry pi and install windows on it thru linux and get cemu and emulate the calc...?

As if a pi could use CEmu.

Unless I'm wrong, you could hypothetically re-compile the source code for Linux; as the source code is written in C. (you'd need to a lot of refactoring though)

Dude, that's the easiest part. CEmu is highly portable, and can go on pretty much any system. Getting it to run at a decent speed on a pi is the tricky part.

Not the older, cheaper models, but the rasperry pi 3 Model B+ has a 64-bit 1.4GHz CPU and 1GB of RAM. I'm pretty sure it can run CEmu.
Maybe this'll become my side project sooner or later... Smile
I think the way that beckadamtheinventor explained how to install CEmu is decent enough to be half feasible, but here is my issue. As Mateo said, Pi's do not have alot of memory. CEmu is emulating, that is not easy on memory. This IS a thread about upgrading your calc, not reworking the insides.

Furthermore, is it really still a upgrade with all of the work? To develop programs, Perhaps you can make it work. You would be able to use all of the tabs and debug tools, but with such a small screen to work with, how would it be useful?

Take into account sending variables to the emulator. Without a mouse, it would be incrediably difficult. I just figured you would attach the keyboard to the pins and assign each key a regular keyboard combination. I mean, sure you can SSH in and do it that way, but is that an improvement?

I guess what I am saying is how much will be improved by doing this? I see lots of possibilities for improvement, but they would require lots of work.

EDIT: I am going to shift my argument, this would not be an improvement to the CE but a creation of a CE like device. I personally would love to try this, create a CE out of a PI. There would be so many opportunities.
Would it be possible to overclock a CE/CE-T? I've seen tutorials about it on literally every other TI 80/90 series calculator, but not on this one. Is it not possible because of its screen? Because its more crammed than the old calculators?
If it IS possible, I'd like to do it as the clockspeed of this thing is not very high and I am wasting too much time on tests just waiting until it's done drawing.
You can change the wait states on it to make it faster. There is a great program in the archives by TheLastMillennial that allows you to change the wait states and has some great safety features.
  
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