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TI Connect

iAAPL

iAAPL

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 31, 2010
128
0
Wisconsin
So I've been trying to copy files to my TI-84 +SE Graphing calculator, and update its firmware. The one thing I've learned over the past two days is that Texas Instruments sucks at writing software. I took the standard, "oh, typical company still living in the 90's that is too lazy to learn how to write decent software for the Mac" approach. I was proven wrong. I tried to run the same program on a separate Windows XP machine. It sucks even worse.

So here's the problem I'm having. I can launch the programs fine, it detects my calculator fine, and I can read everything on the calculator fine. When I go to "send file to device", it comes up with an error every time about the incorrect file type. I read the TI documentation, and it says you can definitely copy a BMP image to it. I've tried other file types, none of them will work. Then I tried to update the firmware on it. Apparently there are some new features they've added since this model came out 7 years ago. I can download the update files, but then halfway through, the TI Connect application just crashes. I've been looking online, and this is an extremely common issue. They say it has something to do with Snow Leopard and the 64 bit architecture. I tried to run this TI Connect program on an old XP machine, and it won't even recognize that my calculator is plugged in, and insists that it will be connected via "COM3", and not USB. This, too, is an extremely common issue.

So TI sucks. They aren't going to fix their software apparently. (C'mon, 10.6 has been out for 2 years. TI has a complete monopoly on all high school students in America. They can't hire a guy to fix these bugs?) My question is, does anyone know of a way to run Snow Leopard in 32 bit mode, OR, is there a way that I can just view the calculator as an attached drive?

Thanks.
 
dukebound85 said:
An 89. I have been able to send programs I have written, text files, TI applications, matrices, and more with no issues at all
Click to expand...

I have read that the 89 does work. The TI-84/83/Plus/SE just will not work. A lot of people have had the same issues on those Answer sites.
 
TI Connect

I'm running snow leopard (10.6.8) and I can't get TI Connect X (1.8) to work with any of my graphing calculators, TI-82, TI-83, TI-85, or TI-89. I just keep getting a message that says there was an error connecting with the TI Connection Manager X. I'm using the silver USB cable and I know that my mac is recognizing it is connected, but the software isn't working.
 
iAAPL said:
So I've been trying to copy files to my TI-84 +SE Graphing calculator, and update its firmware. The one thing I've learned over the past two days is that Texas Instruments sucks at writing software. I took the standard, "oh, typical company still living in the 90's that is too lazy to learn how to write decent software for the Mac" approach. I was proven wrong. I tried to run the same program on a separate Windows XP machine. It sucks even worse.

So here's the problem I'm having. I can launch the programs fine, it detects my calculator fine, and I can read everything on the calculator fine. When I go to "send file to device", it comes up with an error every time about the incorrect file type. I read the TI documentation, and it says you can definitely copy a BMP image to it. I've tried other file types, none of them will work. Then I tried to update the firmware on it. Apparently there are some new features they've added since this model came out 7 years ago. I can download the update files, but then halfway through, the TI Connect application just crashes. I've been looking online, and this is an extremely common issue. They say it has something to do with Snow Leopard and the 64 bit architecture. I tried to run this TI Connect program on an old XP machine, and it won't even recognize that my calculator is plugged in, and insists that it will be connected via "COM3", and not USB. This, too, is an extremely common issue.

So TI sucks. They aren't going to fix their software apparently. (C'mon, 10.6 has been out for 2 years. TI has a complete monopoly on all high school students in America. They can't hire a guy to fix these bugs?) My question is, does anyone know of a way to run Snow Leopard in 32 bit mode, OR, is there a way that I can just view the calculator as an attached drive?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I can't offer a solution but I completely sympathize. TI has HORRID software. I couldn't get mine to work on Windows machines either, I haven't tried on Mac.

For some reason people always defend the craptastic TI calculators that haven't changed since I was in high school (which was 11 years ago!). They are still not backlit, they are slow and cumbersome as hell (I can draw parabolas and curves faster than my calculator!) , have a horrid display, and are just all around unpleasant to use. Its a shame they are the "standard" because they don't deserve to be.
 
chrono1081 said:
I can't offer a solution but I completely sympathize. TI has HORRID software. I couldn't get mine to work on Windows machines either, I haven't tried on Mac.

For some reason people always defend the craptastic TI calculators that haven't changed since I was in high school (which was 11 years ago!). They are still not backlit, they are slow and cumbersome as hell (I can draw parabolas and curves faster than my calculator!) , have a horrid display, and are just all around unpleasant to use. Its a shame they are the "standard" because they don't deserve to be.
Click to expand...


I agree. I had to get a TI-84 Plus Silver Edition for my daughter because her school "specs" it. The calculator sucks compared to my old HP RPN. And no, the software TI Connect X 1.8 (1) / TI Device Explorer installed on OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 does give me the "A device was detected, but we could not communicate with it for some reason" error.
 
So, has anyone found a way around this?

I just recently upgraded to Snow Leopard and cannot connect my TI89 anymore..
 
On 04/30/2010, Texas Instruments seemed to have put v1.8 of TI Connect which is supposed to have support for 64-bit systems.

Downloaded and tried, still no luck.

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mahnd06 said:
I know that my mac is recognizing it is connected, but the software isn't working.
Click to expand...
Same here. I even used Apple's USB prober software and it confirmed that the calculator is connected. This is obviously TI's fault!

chrono1081 said:
For some reason people always defend the craptastic TI calculators that haven't changed since I was in high school (which was 11 years ago!). They are still not backlit, they are slow and cumbersome as hell (I can draw parabolas and curves faster than my calculator!) , have a horrid display, and are just all around unpleasant to use. Its a shame they are the "standard" because they don't deserve to be.
Click to expand...
I know what you mean... There are some days when I just look at my calculator and realize, "Hey! This thing is a complete piece of *****!" And they're obscenely overpriced to boot.

http://xkcd.com/768/
 
Has anyone compiled TILP for mac?
I mailed TI and still no updates.
I put a post on facebook to see if they move.If you can put a like or tell something to see if they move.
I paid a lot for my V200 and every time I must use it I must go to windows :S
 
update

Is there any update on this?
I have a ti84plus.
I am getting
"A device was detected, but we could not communicate with it for some reason."
Currently using 10.8
I got it working in windows 7 but no luck on my mac partition.
 
The software seems to be working properly on my older desktop running 10.4, where it is pretty easy to use, and works, but painfully, on windows 7 starter.

I've been having the same problem using osx 10.6.8. and received the following from TI:

"...Texas Instruments has not tested this software on Macintosh 10.6.8 OS. It was last updated to work with Macintosh 10.6.4 OS... ...please be aware that our software developers are working on possible solutions for a possible future update to the software. Unfortunately, I do not have an estimated time frame as to when this update may become available...."

So, yeah, they are aware of the problem, but I'm not terribly optimistic about the lack of a timeframe. As far as the complaints about the calculators themselves, I've foiund my TI-84+ to be nearly indestructable.
 
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