Nspire handheld with 84 keypad

[George Elizondo]

The testing center at my school currently allows students to use
TI-83/84’s but not Nspire handheld’s when taking tests in the center.
Is there any difference in functionality between a TI-84 and a TI
Nspire handheld equipped with the TI 84 keypad? Would a student with
an Nspire/84 keypad have any advantage over a student with a standard
TI-84 in the testing center environment?

Thanks!
George

[Jessica Kachur]

Absolutely not, once you put the 84 face plate in, it is completely an 84.  No nspire capabilities at all.  That being said, when you put the 84 faceplate at the bottom of the faceplate it says ti-84, but the top of the calculator says ti-Nspire..  that really confused the proctors when I took  the Illinois state math content exam this past weekend!  By the way, it really irritates me that I cant use my Npsire on this test!
 

Jess Kachur
Glenwood High School, Mathematics Teacher
T3 Regional Instructor
Muka, CGC, TDI, CL2, CL3-F, CL3-S, CL3-H, TN-O, WV-N
and
Jibay, Sandy Acres lil' Phantom, CGC, CL2, CL3-H

---

From: George Elizondo <gre...@gmail.com>
To: tinspire <tins...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 12:12:49 PM
Subject: [tinspire] Nspire handheld with 84 keypad

[Sean Bird]

The TI 84 keypad Nspire gives no advantage over the TI-84, except the text on the screen is just a bit larger. The usable screen size is 7.5 cm (diagonal) compared to 6.3 cm.

Visually impaired students could benefit from the TI-Nspire with the 84 plus keypad.

- Sean Bird

[Joe]

I wonder, do you know if putting the TI 84 keyboard on the snpire
allows full 84 programing capability including input and output
statements? Also, is there any posibility of developing some sort of
program for nspire cas that develops input and output programing
statements? With the economy in the dump and TI probably cost cutting
and the nspire design team gone, I am losing hope that the lack of
input and output programing statements will ever be addressed by TI,
so is it possible that there is some way that the OS could be modified
by a program to generate them? Thanks.

[lafacroft]

With the TI-84 Plus keyboard inserted, the TI-Nspire fully emulates a
TI-83 Plus Silver Edition. The only difference is it's a different
color and the "About" screen calls it a TI-Nspire. With the TI-84 Plus
keypad, the TI-Nspire has full I/O capabilities of the TI-84 Plus and
can run most programs.

I do think that TI still has an Nspire design team still, as the
operating system still has some features other than I/O commands that
could be added (such as non-CAS conversion operators for the non-CAS
model). I do also wish the operating system had support for other
programming languages such as C. However, I do not know whether or not
this possible due to my lack of knowledge on its hardware specifics.

I haven't heard about anyone hacking the TI-Nspire yet but I'm keeping
my fingers crossed that the Nspire will be the next TI-85...

[John Hanna]

YesYesYes to the programming! It will even remember programs after
swapping out the 84 keypad for the Nspire keypad and then putting back
the 84 keypad.

When the 84 keypad is in, it IS a TI-84 (sorry, not a TI-83Plus).

Also, look for a small, round serial I/O port on the bottom edge of
the 84 keypad so that you can use it with TI-Navigator or connect it
to other 83s and 84s and computers with a serial cable (with the plugs
that look like headphone jacks) rather than a USB cable (on the 84s
only).

So why would you want another TI-84 around when you have a TI-
Nspire???

- John H.

[Joe]

So why would you want another TI-84 around when you have a TI-
> Nspire???

Then there is the other question John. So why would you want to pay
for the 84 keyboard if you have 84's on hand. To pursue that logic,
perhaps the answer to that question is to have the 84 programing
capability in which case one would ask so why buy nspire then. I have
never understood why TI didn't make nspire programing downward
compatable with 84 programs. Is there a good reason? Perhaps some
sort of technical incompatability that can't be solved?

[alcoonslists]

Why a TI-84/Nspire?

1) Because each of our students must own a TI-84 and we certainly are
not ready to convert all of our classes at one time to the Nspire. In
courses rich with the use of technology, coverting just one course to
the Nspire has enormous overhead. For example, the hundreds of data
sets we use in AP Statistics and Precalculus are not yet available.
Nor are the Sketchpad routines from Geometry. Nor can be bring all
teachers up to required level of sophistication quickly.

2) That having been said, we require that all new calculators that
students buy to be Nspires so that all classes as presently configured
go seemlessly with TI-84s and TI-84/Nspires. As we begin bringing
Nspire courses online, we will be all set.

>

Al
-------------------------
Albert Coons
al_c...@bbns.org
Buckingham Browne & Nichols School
Gerry's Landing Road
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 800-2264

AP Statistics Web Site: www.bbn-school.org/us/math/ap_stats

[Joe]

Ok, but why didn't TI make nspire programing compatable with 84
programs. Wouldn't that be preferable?

On May 1, 1:30 pm, alcoonslists <alcoonsli...@verizon.net> wrote:
> Why a TI-84/Nspire?
>
> 1)  Because each of our students must own a TI-84 and we certainly are  
> not ready to convert all of our classes at one time to the Nspire.  In  
> courses rich with the use of technology, coverting just one course to  
> the Nspire has enormous overhead.  For example, the hundreds of data  
> sets we use in AP Statistics and Precalculus are not yet available.    
> Nor are the Sketchpad routines from Geometry.  Nor can be bring all  
> teachers up to required level of sophistication quickly.
>
> 2)  That having been said, we require that all new calculators that  
> students buy to be Nspires so that all classes as presently configured  
> go seemlessly with TI-84s and TI-84/Nspires.  As we begin bringing  
> Nspire courses online, we will be all set.
>
>
>
> Al
> -------------------------
> Albert Coons

> al_co...@bbns.org

[Corey Andreasen]

The nSpire is built on a whole different platform. It would be nice if 84 data could be shared, but the programming is just too different. I consulted briefly on the Data&Statistics App and even getting that to do what it should is difficult. It was done by Bill Finzer, creator of Fathom (it's no coincidence that D&S looks like Fathom!) and a bunch of things from Fathom couldn't be done because the of the spreadsheet format of Lists&Spreadsheets. Spreadsheets act very different from lists, the dynamic nature of the geometry page is a whole new animal. I don't know how the programs from the 84 could be compatible.

Corey

----- Original Message ----
From: Joe <wjb...@yahoo.com>
To: tinspire <tins...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, May 1, 2009 10:00:51 PM
Subject: [tinspire] Re: Nspire handheld with 84 keypad

Ok, but why didn't TI make nspire programing compatable with 84

[Eagle-Man]

Re: Programming and the 84.

As was mentioned, the Nspire is completely different software, built
on completely different processor chips, which provides a much more
powerful (but also more complex) language. However, we've already
discussed this to death without reaching a consensus, so I suggest we
drop it before it starts again.

Re: 84 Keypad I/O

"I wonder, do you know if putting the TI 84 keyboard on the snpire
allows full 84 programing capability including input and output
statements? Also, is there any posibility of developing some sort of
program for nspire cas that develops input and output programing

statements?...so is it possible that there is some way that the OS

could be modified by a program to generate them?"

Yes, the 84 Keypad allows for programming with Input. The Nspire
keypad contains a chip that has the Nspire OS. The 84 Keypad contains
a chip with the 84 OS on it. In summary, when the 84 keypad is in,
your calculator IS a TI84 with a slightly larger screen. However, I'm
pretty sure all the files are stored on the keypad, too, since they
both use different file system structures (well, the 84 doesn't really
have one at all), so you cannot access 84 programs with the Nspire
keypad in, and vice versa. They wouldn't run anyway.

There is still a possibility for all sorts of changes because (to my
knowledge), TI is still working on the Nspire, and plans to release
2-3 OS updates each year (and they have so far). No one knows what
their plan is for priority of updates, or even what's on the list, but
they know that input is preferred. It's one of the things I talked to
them about when I first got my Nspire at a T3 institute.

And finally, no, there is no was to make it input, unless someone
wants to decompile the OS software (slightly illegal), spend countless
hours trying to decipher it, modify it to accept input (a huge task),
and recompile it. And this would have to be done with each official
update. It's not that easy to make an operating system. I've tried.
Give them some time. Most of the current programming options didn't
come out until v1.4, so it may take a little while.

--Eric F.

[Joe]

Thanks for the excellent explanation. So changing the keyboard
changes the stored OS. I have suspected that the processor is also
changed and perhaps both the nspire and TI-84 processors are in the
main body of the calculator. In any case I think that would be vastly
easier than emulating the 84 processor with the nspire processor which
may not be possible. How does that sound to you? I am not trying to
revive the conversation you don't want to get into. I am just trying
to confirm my suspecion that nspire is actually two calculators in one
housing which would explain the much higher price.

> >> AP Statistics Web Site:  www.bbn-school.org/us/math/ap_stats- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Eagle-Man]

Hmm...that could be. I'm not entirely sure. All I know is that they
use their own respective OSs, hence the "progress bar" when you first
turn it on after changing pads. It's loading the new OS.