TI Connect Cable and Software Basics

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How-to Videos

Note: This information is dated (updated: May 29, 2009 ). This page describes how to use the TI Connect USB cable with a TI-73, 83, or 84 calculator (and others). Texas Instruments frequently comes out with new products.

Hardware Needed

TI-73, 83, or 84 Plus calculator and the TI Connect USB cable (which is silver).

Steps for Downloading Software from TI (click here ►►)

1. Don't plug in the USB cable yet.
2. Go to http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/productDetail/us_ti_connect.html to download the TI Connect Software. You will save a .exe file to your computer's hard drive. Then run the .exe file to install the TI Connect Software. This is a program that will run on your computer. Reboot. (The home site at TI is http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/homePage/index.html.)
3. After your computer reboots, plug in the USB (silver) Cable and hook it to your TI-83 Plus. Your computer should be able to find the correct driver (cross your fingers for good measure).
4. Turn on your TI-83 Plus (and get something interesting on the screen). Run TI Connect software and try a screen capture. This should work and is a nice test to see if the cable is working (more details below).
5. Reward yourself with a cold drink.

Steps for Getting a Screen Capture from the TI-83 to Your Computer (click here ►►)

1. Connect the USB cable to the computer and to your calculator. Get the calculator screen to what you want to capture.
2. Run TI Connect software. Click TI Screen Capture.
3. There are many nice options, including adding a border, copy to clipboard, launch in Paint, and save the picture to your hard drive (HD) as a .jpg or .bmp.
4. Once you've copied or saved to your HD, you can go over to another piece of software (e.g., PowerPoint, Word, Netscape Composer) and paste or insert your screen shot.

How to Transfer Data from the TI Calculator to the Computer(click here ►►)

This is useful when you collect data using one of the probes (for example, the temperature probe) and would like the data in the computer so it can be put into Excell, Word, PowerPoint, Etc.. The data is typically stored in the lists, L₁, L₂, etc.

1. Connect the USB cable to the computer and to your calculator. (We assume the data is already in the lists.)
2. Run TI Connect software.
3. Click (run) the TI Data Editor.
4. Click (run) the TI Device Explorer. (The "device" is the calculator.) This program allows you to "explore" (look at) the contents of the calculator--such as the variables, data lists, programs, etc.
   1. Click the little plus sign next to List.
   2. Double-click L₁. This will send L₁ to the TI Data Editor.
5. In TI Data Editor, click the top of the L₁ list (this highlights the list). Edit|Copy (or use control-C).
6. Swith over to Excell (or any software), Edit|Paste (or use control-V).

How to Enter Data (Lists or Matrices) via the Computer and Put it into the TI-83 (click here ►►)

1. Connect the USB cable to the computer and to your calculator.
2. Run TI Connect software. Click TI DataEditor.
3. Enter the information - it's pretty self-explanatory if you've gotten this far. (The data can be saved to the HD, but this is not required.)
4. Click (send file) and the data is transferred to the calculator.

More Information

More information can be found at TI Graphics Calculator Tips, or education.ti.com.