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?Overclocking? the TI-82

J

jthsmak

Senior member
First of all, I apologize for the lack of real pics, but I don?t have a camera so use your imagination.

You may ask, why overclock the TI-82? Well first of all, it is a TI-82 which is something of an older model. It is particularly slow at generating circles and graphing in general. Certain games such as gauntlet and Tetris aren?t hard enough either. If you?ve used up a lot of ram storing programs, this will also slow you down. The TI-82 doesn?t have the fast scroll option either, so if you?re going through a long program it takes forever.

Materials
1 TI-82 Calculator
1 NPO Capacitor
Dremel
1 2-way switch
Screw driver
Wire
Soldering iron
Knife
Total cost: $2 (I had all the other tools already and the TI-82 was [edit]found[/edit])

In actuality, we are not overclocking the CPU; we are just fixing a bottleneck within the calculator by replacing a capacitor. I ordered the capacitor from this site, http://leaven.com/ti/ti82.htm, and it also has some basic instructions. It cost me $2 and I risked it by sending cash. They claim it will make your calculator 4X faster. Yay! Finally you can keep up with the nerdy ti-92 crowd.

First I unscrewed the two screws on the rear of the calculator and the backup battery screw, and then removed the back plate with several hundred pounds of pressure. I seriously thought I was gonna break it. Behind the back plate, there is a little bit of foil. I took that out, and never put it back in. Then I unscrewed the LCD. It?s connected to the chip by a ribbon, and it just sort of flops around after you unscrew it. Next I located the C7 capacitor in this diagram, http://leaven.com/ti/gifs/ti82.jpg and removed it with the soldering iron. I decided to use the 2-way switch methods to throttle speed, so it?s not as easy as just replacing it. I soldered on wire to the old location of the capacitor and attached one end to the center connector on the switch. Both capacitors share the other wire in a dual soldering job. This can be seen in this diagram. http://leaven.com/ti/gifs/switch.jpg Now I dremeled a small square out of the right side of the calculator, next to the + key. I affixed the switch here, with the help of the drill Dremel bit and the screws. Next, I closed it up and turned it on. It actually isn?t broken. It functions in both on and off positions.
Benchmarking:
I used this simple program to bench it:

:0 -> X
:LBl [A]
:X +1 -> X
:Goto A

and timed it for 5 minutes. At the end of the trials, I discovered that the value of X was relatively the same with both capacitors. Interesting. Maybe this improvement frees up more bandwidth for the video card and not the CPU. So I benched it with this program next:

:0 -> X
:LBl [A]
:Circle(1,1,1
:ClrDraw
:X + 1 ->X
:Goto A

Again, I found the X values to be strangely similar. I left it installed anyway and one day I hit some kid in the arm with it and the switch broke off.

Conclusions:
This mod does not improve the speed of the TI-82. Although, when people ask you why you have an extra switch on your calculator, you can tell them about the mod and they?ll know you?re l33t. Kinda like ricing.

In retrospect, I should not have bought into the hype and stuck with traditional tweaking methods, such as OC?ing the CPU, peltier cooling, or maybe adding some SDRAM.
 


<< Why not just save all that time and buy a Ti-83 (or an 89)? >>


See 'Total Cost' below the materials section. That's like asking, why don't you replace that Celeron?
 


<<

<< Why not just save all that time and buy a Ti-83 (or an 89)? >>


See 'Total Cost' below the materials section. That's like asking, why don't you replace that Celeron? >>

That's often one of the first things I ask people...
 
well i can understand overclocking it because it's slow but the Ti-82 only has like 128kb total memory dude

get a Ti-83+ for $130 Canadian (about $80 US), its faster and it has 24kb ram and 256kb archieve
i save a whole ton of graphs and i have a ton of games circulating around the school which adds up to about 150k total, you need more memory than a Ti-82
 
funny you should say that:

i got my braces adjusted 3 days ago and they hurt SO much that im takin like 6 advils per day, im getting a hard buzz from those advils during the day so i didn't bother going to school because i wouldn't learn anything
now that it is night time though (1:30AM) and my parents are asleep i can drink my beer WHICH I PAYED FOR WITH MY OWN MONEY from the fridge downstairs (i got 2 flats)
so right now i have 5 hours till i wake up, and i have 2 test tomorrow and i have to hand in an assignment i didnt do the final draft on so basicaly this is my last night of freedom, on my third beer right now and im only 120lbs lol!

Merry Drunkmas to all and to all a mild hangover!
 
It's wasn't deliberately stolen, I used that for lack of a better word. It was more lost and found, I do not know whose it was, and I'm pretty sure they do not want it back now. To clarify: I did not pay for the calculator and if it was yours I?m sorry.
 
i doubted that he stole it from somebody, but i was thinking more like the school had a bunch and he swiped one of those (no big deal, wasn't theirs, anyway). but lost and found is even better

what grade are you in, halogen?


plus, lol @ oc'ing a ti-82. further proof that it really isnt a hobby. its a way of life
 
my ti-86 was stolen by a taiwanese exchanged student the day before he went back to taiwan. i hope he overclocked it and it blew up in his face.

--jacob
 
man, this brings back memories... heh.. i never found a place that sold the capacitor, so i never tried OC my TI. heh. i didn't have enough soldering experience either... supposedly any more than a second on the capcitor could kill the board. i wasn't about to kill a calc that was mine 😛
 
I would like to say, for one, that this post had me laughing out loud.

Thanks for making my day a little more entertaining jthsmak. 🙂
 
Yeah well, this capacitor trick seems bogus. There must be overclocking options in the bios or at least jumpers. I think a blue orb would fit really well on that cpu if you carved out room for it.
 
well actually no, i have never had my calculator stole

on the other hand, one of my used to be 'friends' stole my skateboard so i stole his Sony Playstation in my backpack when i went over to his house, an eye for an eye i say. they cost about the same amount
 


<< well actually no, i have never had my calculator stole

on the other hand, one of my used to be 'friends' stole my skateboard so i stole his Sony Playstation in my backpack when i went over to his house, an eye for an eye i say. they cost about the same amount >>



You couldn't talk it over? How did the tests go btw?
 
It could not function without a working capacitor. That means that both the stock and theirs were functioning. Unless it is limited by hardware somewhere else, they are just raking in the saps, at $2 a pop.
 
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