2 Parallel link cable for Texas Instruments handhelds
3 ===================================================
7 Homepage: http://lpg.ticalc.org/prj_dev
12 This is a driver for the very common home-made parallel link cable, a cable
13 designed for connecting TI8x/9x graphing calculators (handhelds) to a computer
14 or workstation (Alpha, Sparc). Given that driver is built on parport, the
15 parallel port abstraction layer, this driver is independent of the platform.
17 It can also be used with another device plugged on the same port (such as a
18 ZIP drive). I have a 100MB ZIP and both of them work fine !
20 If you need more information, please visit the 'TI drivers' homepage at the URL
25 A TI calculator of course and a program capable to communicate with your
27 TiLP will work for sure (since I am his developer !). yal92 may be able to use
28 it by changing tidev for tipar (may require some hacking...).
32 You must have first compiled parport support (CONFIG_PARPORT_DEV): either
33 compiled in your kernel, either as a module.
34 This driver supports the new device hierarchy (devfs).
36 Next, (as root) from your appropriate modules directory (lib/modules/2.5.XX):
41 If it is not already there (it usually is), create the device:
43 mknod /dev/tipar0 c 115 0
44 mknod /dev/tipar1 c 115 1
45 mknod /dev/tipar2 c 115 2
47 You will have to set permissions on this device to allow you to read/write
52 Now you are ready to run a linking program such as TiLP. Be sure to configure
57 You can set these with: insmod tipar NAME=VALUE
58 There is currently no way to set these on a per-cable basis.
63 DESC: Timeout value in tenth of seconds. If no data is available once this
64 time has expired then the driver will return with a timeout error.
69 DESC: Inter-bit delay in micro-seconds. An lower value gives an higher data
70 rate but makes transmission less reliable.
72 These parameters can be changed at run time by any program via ioctl(2) calls
73 as listed in ./include/linux/ticable.h
74 Rather than write 50 pages describing the ioctl() and so on, it is
75 perhaps more useful you look at ticables library (dev_link.c) that demonstrates
76 how to use them, and demonstrates the features of the driver. This is
77 probably a lot more useful to people interested in writing applications
78 that will be using this driver.
86 You can email me at roms@lpg.ticalc.org. Please prefix the subject line
87 with "TIPAR: " so that I am certain to notice your message.
88 You can also mail JB at jb@jblache.org. He packaged these drivers for Debian.
92 The code is based on tidev.c & parport.c.
93 The driver has been developed independently of Texas Instruments.