Parallel link cable for Texas Instruments handhelds =================================================== Author: Romain Lievin Homepage: http://lpg.ticalc.org/prj_tidev/index.html INTRODUCTION: This is a driver for the very common home-made parallel link cable, a cable designed for connecting TI8x/9x graphing calculators (handhelds) to a computer or workstation (Alpha, Sparc). Given that driver is built on parport, the parallel port abstraction layer, this driver is architecture-independent. It can also be used with another device plugged on the same port (such as a ZIP drive). I have a 100MB ZIP and both of them work fine! If you need more information, please visit the 'TI drivers' homepage at the URL above. WHAT YOU NEED: A TI calculator and a program capable of communicating with your calculator. TiLP will work for sure (since I am its developer!). yal92 may be able to use it by changing tidev for tipar (may require some hacking...). HOW TO USE IT: You must have first compiled parport support (CONFIG_PARPORT_DEV): either compiled in your kernel, either as a module. Next, (as root): modprobe parport modprobe tipar If it is not already there (it usually is), create the device: mknod /dev/tipar0 c 115 0 mknod /dev/tipar1 c 115 1 mknod /dev/tipar2 c 115 2 You will have to set permissions on this device to allow you to read/write from it: chmod 666 /dev/tipar[0..2] Now you are ready to run a linking program such as TiLP. Be sure to configure it properly (RTFM). MODULE PARAMETERS: You can set these with: modprobe tipar NAME=VALUE There is currently no way to set these on a per-cable basis. NAME: timeout TYPE: integer DEFAULT: 15 DESC: Timeout value in tenth of seconds. If no data is available once this time has expired then the driver will return with a timeout error. NAME: delay TYPE: integer DEFAULT: 10 DESC: Inter-bit delay in micro-seconds. A lower value gives an higher data rate but makes transmission less reliable. These parameters can be changed at run time by any program via ioctl(2) calls as listed in ./include/linux/ticable.h. Rather than write 50 pages describing the ioctl() and so on, it is perhaps more useful you look at ticables library (dev_link.c) that demonstrates how to use them, and demonstrates the features of the driver. This is probably a lot more useful to people interested in writing applications that will be using this driver. QUIRKS/BUGS: None. HOW TO CONTACT US: You can email me at roms@lpg.ticalc.org. Please prefix the subject line with "TIPAR: " so that I am certain to notice your message. You can also mail JB at jb@jblache.org. He packaged these drivers for Debian. CREDITS: The code is based on tidev.c & parport.c. The driver has been developed independently of Texas Instruments.