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<p><b>TI Link Protocol Guide </b>- Link cables </p>
<center>
<h2>
<hr align="center">Link Cables</h2>
</center>
<p>There are many types of link cables:
</p>
<ul>
  <li>The <a href="#greytigl">Grey TI Graph Link</a> (the first cable
designed by Texas Instruments) </li>
  <li>The <a href="#blacktigl">Black TI Graph Link</a> (the second
cable designed by Texas Instruments) </li>
  <li>The <a href="#par">"$5 home-made" parallel link cable</a> </li>
  <li>The <a href="#ser">"$4 home-made"' serial link cable</a> </li>
  <li>The <a href="#c85">"Connect-85" link cable</a> (deprecated) </li>
  <li>The <a href="#bcc">BCC Serial link cable</a> (deprecated) </li>
  <li>The <a href="#pic">PIClink</a> (deprecated) </li>
  <li>The <a href="#avr">fastAVRlink</a> (deprecated) </li>
  <li>The <a href="#bluetigl"> TIGraphLink USB (aka SilverLink) cable</a>
(the third cable designed by Texas Instruments)</li>
  <li>The <a href="#directusb">embedded USB port</a> (direct cable
of&nbsp; TI84+ and TI89 Titanium)<br>
  </li>
</ul>
<p>Additional information, schematics, pictures and building
instructions for these link cables can be found at
<a href="http://www.ticalc.org">http://www.ticalc.org/</a>.
</p>
<h4><a name="greytigl"></a>The Grey TI Graph Link cable</h4>
<p>This was the first link cable designed for connecting a TI
calculator to a computer (PC or Macintosh). It connects
to a serial port on the computer, either 25-pin or 9-pin (with an
adapter). This is one of three cables (the others
are the PIClink and the fastAVRlink) that work on Macintosh computers.</p>
<ul>
  <li>The PC uses a RS-232 compliant interface for the serial ports.
Most older PC's provide two serial ports: a 9-pin port and a 25-pin
port. Newer PC's use only the 9-pin ports, but are still compatible
with 25-pin cables through the use of an adapter. For the pin-out of a
RS232 connector, see <a
 href="http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/%7Etsinger/TI-86/misc/COMx.htm">COMx.htm</a>.
  </li>
  <li>The Macintosh uses a RS-422 compliant interface for the serial
ports. Macintosh serial ports are either the mini-DIN type (the small
round port) or 9-pin D-SUB ports. The main differences between RS-422
and RS-232 are that (1) the RS-422 does not have DTR/DSR lines, and (2)
the CTS line is replaced by the HSK (handshake) line in an RS-422
cable. </li>
</ul>
<p>The Grey TIGraphLink cable does not use the hardware flow control to
communicate, but the DTR and RTS pins are
used to provide the power supply. These lines change from -9V to +9V
(values measured on my PC) when the TIGraphLink
software starts. At the same time, the CTS line jumps from 0 to -4V and
the DSR line changes from -9V to +9V. The
grey cable can therefore be detected by toggling the DTR and RTS lines,
then checking the state of the CTS and
DSR lines.</p>
<p><b>Characteristics:</b> 9600 baud, no hardware flow control, 1 start
bit, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit and no parity.
</p>
<h4><a name="blacktigl"></a>The Black TI Graph Link Cable
("Windows-Only" or "Black link")</h4>
<p>This is the second link cable designed by Texas Instruments. The
most recent version of TI's Graph Link Software
includes support for this cable, which is compatible with the '$4
Serial Link'. It does not work on a Macintosh
computer.
</p>
<h4><a name="par"></a>The Home-Made Parallel Link Cable</h4>
<p>In our day and age, this was the first alternative to the expensive
Grey TI Graph Link. This cable has three
drawbacks: it works only on PC computers, it requires some CPU
computation since the hardware protocol is directly
managed by the processor, and TI's software does not support it.<br>
Nevertheless, it is cheap and easy to build, and more and more linking
programs are supporting it.</p>
<p><img src="graphics/parallel_link.gif"
 alt="[Parallel Cable Schematic]" align="bottom" border="0" height="511"
 width="341"></p>
<h4><a name="ser"></a>The Home-Made Serial Link Cable</h4>
<p>This was the second alternative to the expensive Grey TI Graph Link.
This cable also had the same drawbacks
as the Parallel Link, but TI recently added support for it in the TI
Graph Link software (since it is compatible
with the Black TI Graph Link). Again, it is cheap and easy to build and
supported by more programs.</p>
<p><br>
<table border="1" width="75%">
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td width="62%"><img src="graphics/serial_link.gif"
 alt="[Electrical schematic of $4 Serial Cable]" align="bottom"
 border="0" height="350" width="449"></td>
      <td width="38%"><img src="graphics/serial_link_pic.gif"
 alt="[Soldering Diagram of $4 Serial Cable]" align="bottom" border="0"
 height="470" width="500"></td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
</p>
<p></p>
<p>
</p>
<h4><a name="c85"></a>The 'Connect85' link cable</h4>
<p>I have no detailed information about this link cable. It was
designed by Magnus Hagander for the TI85 only.
Information on this cable can be found at <a
 href="http://www.ticalc.org">http://www.ticalc.org/</a>. <br>
&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="graphics/c85sch.gif"
 alt="[Electrical Schematic of Connect85 Cable]" align="bottom"
 border="0" height="274" width="519">
</p>
<h4><a name="bcc"></a>The 'BCC' Serial Link cable</h4>
<p>The BCC Serial Link is a homemade version of TI's black graphlink
cable. The BCC Serial Link is compatible with
TI's graphlink software using the "black cable" setting. Like the Black
TI Graph Link, it cannot be used
on a Macintosh computer.</p>
<p><img src="graphics/bccsl_link.gif"
 alt="[Electrical Schematic of BCC Serial Cable]" align="bottom"
 border="0" height="480" width="640"><br>
</p>
<p>NPN : 2N4401<br>
PNP : 2N3906<br>
Diodes : 1N4148<font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><br>
</font></p>
<h4><a name="pic"></a>The PIClink</h4>
<p>This cable, designed by <a href="http://skhawam.ticalc.org">Sami
Khawam</a>, is the first home-made link cable
that is fully compatible with the Grey TIGraphLink. It should work on
the Macintosh, but it was never officially
tested.<br>
This link cable is a bit more complex than other home-made link cable
because it converts data between the protocol
used by the calc and the asynchronous RS232 protocol used by the
computer. Nevertheless, it is cheaper than the
Grey TIGraphLink. <br>
&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="graphics/piclink_link.gif"
 alt="[Electrical Schematic of PIClink Cable]" align="bottom" border="0"
 height="430" width="560"><br>
&nbsp;
</p>
<h4><a name="avr"></a>The fastAVRlink</h4>
<p>This cable, designed by <a
 href="http://lpg.ticalc.org/prj_gtktilink">Romain Li&eacute;vin</a>,
is the second
home-made link cable fully compatible with the Grey TIGraphLink. It
should work on Macintosh but it has never officially
been tested.<br>
This link cable is also a bit more complex than other home-made link
cable because, like the PIClink, it converts
data between the protocol used by the calc and the asynchronous RS232
protocol used by the computer. Nevertheless,
it is cheaper than the Grey TIGraphLink. <br>
This cable has some features that the PIClink does not have:
</p>
<ul>
  <li>It allows transmission of data up to 57600 baud (5 times as fast)
if the calculator can handle it. </li>
  <li>It is FLASH upgradeable (no specific programmer required). </li>
  <li>It is jumperless. </li>
</ul>
<p><br>
<img src="graphics/fastAVRlink_link.gif"
 alt="[Electrical Schematic of fastAVRlink Cable]" align="bottom"
 border="0" height="770" width="1165">
</p>
<h4>&nbsp;</h4>
<h4><a name="bluetigl"></a>The TI Graph Link USB (also known as
SilverLink)</h4>
<p>This is the third link cable designed by Texas Instruments. The TI's
Graph Link Software does not support this link cable. In the meanwhile,
TI released a new software called 'TI-Connect' which supports it. The
TI GraphLink USB is primarily sold for use with Macintosh, but it can
be used on any architecture that supports USB. This cable is faster
than any other currently available, including the FastAVRLink. It can
reach a maximum rate of 5.6 KBytes/s.</p>
<p>This link cable is based on a CY7C64013 microcontroller (&micro;C)
from Cypress Semiconductors. Cypress is well known for its USB devices
(mouse, hubs, ...).</p>
<p>The cable is a Full-Speed (FS, 12Mbit/s) device, USB1.1 compliant,
under a proprietary class. It does not fit into any existing class
(HID, printer, ...) and so it requires a specific device driver (you
can find a such driver for Windows/Linux/Mac OS-X on the <a
 href="http://lpg.ticalc.org">LPG</a> web site).</p>
<p>The device uses 'Bulk' mode for data transfers. There are two bulk
endpoints (IN &amp; OUT) and one control endpoint (mandatory).
Transfers are achieved by packets. The endpoints advertise a maximum
packet size of 32 bytes.<br>
</p>
<p>Technical informations: <a href="usbdevices/SilverLink%20USB.txt">here</a>.
From <a href="http://tilp.info/docu.html">http://tilp.info/docu.html</a>.<br>
</p>
<h4><a name="directusb"></a>The embedded USB port of TI84+ and TI89
Titanium (direct cable)</h4>
Current summer 2004, TI released 2 new handhelds with USB port.
Contrary to SilverLink which is a DBus/USB bridge, the USB controller
is embedded into the calculator. This&nbsp;<a
 href="cable.html#directusb"></a>is a full-speed (FS, 12Mbit/s) device,
USB2.0 and OTG (On The Go) compliant, under a proprietary class. It
does not fit into any existing class (HID, printer, ...) then it
requires a specific device driver.<br>
<br>
The device uses 'Bulk' mode for data transfers. There are two bulk
endpoints (IN &amp; OUT) and one control endpoint (mandatory).
Transfers are achieved by packets. The endpoints advertise a maximum
packet size of 64 bytes.<br>
<br>
Technical informations: <a href="usbdevices/TI84%20Plus%20USB.txt">TI84+</a>
and <a href="usbdevices/Ti89%20Titanium%20USB.txt">Titanium</a> and
this <a href="usbdevices">folder</a>. More technical informations can
be found in my SilverLink <a href="http://lpg.Ticalc.org/prj_usb">driver</a>
for Windows.<br>
<p> </p>
<p>
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<hr align="center"><i>Site maintained by Romain Li&eacute;vin (</i><a
 href="mailto:roms@tilp.info"><i>roms@tilp.info</i></a><i>)
and Tim Singer (</i><a href="mailto:tsinger@gladstone.uoregon.edu"><i>tsinger@gladstone.uoregon.edu</i></a><i>)</i>
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