Connecting TI-84 and TI-89 via Graphlink

[Jeffrey Flynt]

Hi, I'm not sure if anyone is even reading these messages anymore, but I am trying to connect my TI-84 and TI-89 to my Windows PC via a the black Graph-link cable. Here is the rub... My Windows PC has no serial or parallel ports. So I purchased a Sabrent USB 2.0 to serial cable adapter. Windows 7 sees it, and I can assign it to various ports, but I cannot get it to work. Graph-link complains that it cannot open the port. So I tried installing Tilp instead, but I've had no luck with it either although I can tell something is happening. The calculator takes a while before it recognizes keypresses for example. Has anyone tried this and got it to work before I spend a lot of time trying to make something work that might never work? I can use TI-Connect but it has no program editor. And I can work with Graphlink then save a file then import it with TI-Connect, but I need to get a file off the calculator now and TI-Connect doesn't see it because it is locked. I am thinking to buy another peice of hardware to install a serial port via the PCI bus, but if this will work I would rather not. Thanks for any help you can give!

[Lionel Debroux]

Hi,

* you should put your BlackLink to rest for good, and buy a SilverLink
("TI Graph-Link USB", USB A <-> silver box <-> proprietary 2.5mm stereo
jack). The vast majority of USB / DB9 adapters do not provide the kind
of low-level access to the wire state that the BlackLink / $4 cable
require (as a consequence of TI's peculiar protocol).

* I'd advise against buying a PCI card for adding serial ports to your
computer (if you plan on using it just for the purpose of trying to
communicate with your calculators, that is): some of those cards / their
drivers use non-standard ports, and will fail to work at least with TILP.

* communication with your 84+ is faster through standard USB A <->
mini-B cable ("DirectLink" in libti*/tilp) than through SilverLink. If
your 89 were Titanium, you wouldn't _need_ a SilverLink;

* there's a program editor in old versions of TI-Connect; Daisuke Basic
Edit is a decent third-party program editor, AFAICT.


Hope that this helps :)


Bye,
Lionel.

[Jeffrey Flynt]

Thanks for the info! I'll see about returning these items to Amazon.

[jalind]

An ancient thread but I will echo this five years later in 2019 . . .

Bottom Line:

• Use a USB cable if the calculator has a USB port (e.g. TI-89T, TI-84 family, or Nspire family).
• For all others without a USB port, use the "Silver" USB link cable with a USB port on the computer and the calculator's 2.5mm link port.
• The older TI-82 and TI-85 will need TiLP software to communicate with them; TI-Connect won't (via any cable).
• Newer calculators starting with the TI-86 are compatible with the current TI-Connect software and TiLP.

All the RS-232 serial and other parallel cables, including the homemade versions, should be retired to the shelf of objects destined for the Smithsonian (if they want them). I've got the old gray RS-232 GraphLink cable made for the TI-82/TI-85, and the newer black RS-232 GraphLink cable made for the TI-86 and newer models. Only the gray one could be made to work through a RS-232 to USB adapter cable. The black one is incompatible with the TI-82 and TI-85 and will not work with them. The black cable failed with every newer calculator when combined with the RS-232 to USB adapter cable for the reasons already mentioned. The RS-232 to USB adapter doesn't handle the black cable's required port control signals properly. The gray cable has electronics for this built into it (powered by the RS-232 port which doesn't provide much, unlike a USB port). Nevertheless, there's no point in fussing around with the gray cable, an RS-232c to USB adapter, and significantly lower data transfer rates.

For those calculators that have a USB port on them, such as a TI-89 Titanium, use a USB cable. Much simpler and much easier with much faster data transfer. I use a USB cable with a TI-89 Titanium and Nspire CXii CAS. TI-Connect has no problem communicating with them, nor does the 3rd Party TiLP software.

For those that only have TI's 2.5mm "stereo" jack for their proprietary data transfer protocol, use TI's "silver" cable with the 2.5mm plug on one end for the calculator, and a full size USB 2.0 type "A" plug on the other end, with an encapsulated module between them. It's called "silver" because the cable insulation and encapsulation around the module are clear, giving the "silver" appearance. I now use this with a TI-85, TI-86 and Voyage 200. The current TI-Connect software will communicate with all but the TI-85, and the issue isn't the cable, it's TI-Connect which doesn't support the slightly different port control signalling required by the TI-82 and TI-85. All of them communicate just fine with TiLP, including the TI-85.

John