I have recently taken interest into brandonw's msd8x and usb8x drivers for the 84, and was wondering 2 things:

1. What kind of cable do I need? I have found this link https://serialio.com//store/product_info.php?cPath=54_61&products_id=141 many times, but I don't believe the product is the right one, its a USB-A Male to USB Micro-B Male...

2. I have a USB keyboard, and I understand USB8x has some keyboard drivers. Would I be able to hook up this USB keyboard with the same cable I need for above? And would I be able to type at any point in the OS?

Any Help would be greatly appreciated, considering the only mentions of this program I have seen are 2/3 years old.

USB A male to USB mini-B male.

Wait, what? Wouldn't the USB A have to be female?

Seconded, the USB A would absolutely have to be female, unless you want to cut up the cable and do it yourself.

right. this. I was thinking of the normal cable. For the calculator as the host, you want mini-A to A female.

Nice. Thanks.

Let us know how it goes; I've always wanted to play around with USB8x and MSD8x myself, but I've never quite gotten around to it.

The USB driver provided by USB8X isn't a driver in the sense that it lets TIOS know how to use new USB hardware. USB8X provides an API for assembly and BASIC programs to access the USB hardware. MSD8X is an application that uses the USB8X driver to read and write files on a flash drive. There are several demos that access the keyboard, and few that use the mouse, but there aren't actually any programs that use this support (yet). It might be possible to write a USB activity hook that lets the keyboard be used from the OS. That's actually something I've been planning to try, but won't get around to for a while yet.

Ahhh. I kinda figured it was too good to be true, considering TI wants $40 for their keyboard.

http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/productDetail/us_ti_keyboard.html

That's the link to it, after a close look at the picture, it connects to the I/O port, Not the usb as I initially thought, which sparked my USb keyboard thought.

Still, MSD8x makes it worth while, considering I would never have to use Ti connect again, except for my 89... Its too bad a version of that doesn't exist for the 89. Guess I just have to purchase some cables and try it out.

Definitely, I think it's worth it. Someone on SAX was talking about whether the Bluetooth project BrandonW was working on at one point was worth resurrecting, too.

MSD8X doesn't support loading apps. There's one version of it that supports one-page apps, but that's using an awful hack. Considering that we now have the universal flash unlock exploit, it might be time to fix that, though. Brandon Wilson is really the person to bug about this issue, as he known far more about how flash apps work and USB than I do. I'm more interested in tackling my current project, which has USB keyboard support as a goal in the future. Maybe I need people to bug me more about it.

I should mention that Dan Englender wrote usb8x, not me. Michael Vincent and I wrote msd8x.

Blue8x (the USB Bluetooth adapter driver project) is still going on. It has the ability to scan for nearby devices and connect to one, but that's about it right now.

USBTools has USB keyboard OS integration in it (so that you can use the USB keyboard anywhere in the OS), you might want to check that out.

Hey, I have made 4 cables and counting for calc->usb device. Instructions:

1. You need a (cable one) usb extention cord (or anything with a female end) and the (cable two) unit-unit usb cable that came with your calculator. You also need electrical tape, scotch tape will not do.
2. Cut both in half, leaving a sufficient length of wire on each end.
3. Discard the male end of cable one and the "B" end of cable two
4. On both cables, you should see a wire mesh wrapping the cable. Untangle this mesh and move it to the side. I reccomend using a thin object to pull out the tangles from the base of the mesh
5. Underneath the mesh is a protective sheet. Cut this off and discard.
6. This should expose the four data wires on each cable. Carefully strip these.
7. I reccomend bending each wire down and only working with one at a time. Twist together each same-colored wire, and cover each end with electrical tape. Be sure no metal is exposed.
8. When you have completed this, twist together the mesh on each wire.
9. Test this with msd8x. Note that not all flash drives will work, and your cable may be fine. If it doesn't work the first time, try a few of the demos in usbtools.
10. Once you have confirmed it works, wrap the whole assembly in electrical tape, making sure the power line (the mesh) is the only exposed metal.


Here's one of my completed cables, plugged into my TI-84+ running MSD8X.

The mesh is not a power line, it's the shielding that protects the cable from noise and interference. To do this correct, you should untwist the cable as little as possible, solder the splice, and heat-shrink it to prevent damage.

Then I have no idea whatsoever how I shocked myself touching it while testing the original. Which one is the power line? (And by the way, my cables have never failed, and I undo the mesh every time.)