The Graph-Link is a very useful piece of hardware. It is a cable that connects your calculator to your computer, allowing you to download games onto your calculator, store programs on your computer, write programs on the computer (you'll never have to use that awful calculator keypad again!), including assembly language programs.

You probably didn't get a Graphlink with your calculator.

There are two kinds: the gray cable and the black cable.

The gray cable is light gray, has a small unit in the middle. It comes with an adaptor for a PC's serial port. It is for the Mac and the PC. It costs about $50 and you can get it from TI's online store, TI-Store.com, or several select dealers.

The black cable is black (duh), has a serial port connector at one end, and a small thin black box at the end. You then plug a link cable into the other end of the box. Since it is for the PC only, it is cheaper, about $20, and can be found wherever TI graphing calculators are sold.

A USB version for the Macintosh is also available.

The gray cable | The black cable | The USB cable (Macintosh only)

If you want to make your own, you can check out Nick's TI Calculator Site, but I can't guarantee you it will work with TI's Graph-Link software. The parts are only about $5 and are available at Radio Shack, but many people prefer to use the real thing.

Installation is fairly simple: if you don't know how to plug something in, then you're really as dumb as a brick.

PC:
Take a look on the back of your computer. You should see at least one port that is shaped like a trapezoid, is about 3/4 of an inch wide, and has 9 holes in it. That's a serial port. For the black cable, take the end of it that looks like it would fit in there the easiest and stick it in there. Use the two screws on the sides of the plug to tighten it. For the gray cable, plug the 25 pin - 9 pin adapter (it's one solid unit, shown in the picture above at the extreme right) into the open end of the unit, and then plug the other end into the serial port. If you have a 25 pin serial port you can also plug the gray cable in there, but not the parallel port. A 25 pin serial port has pins in it, not holes.

Mac:
Along with your gray cable you should probably have an adapter that plugs into the Graph-Link unit and has a modem port plug on the other end (shown in the picture above at the bottom). Plug this into the open end of the Graph-Link unit and plug the other end into the modem port on your Mac (it's the one with the picture of the phone next to it). Then plug the other end into the linkport of your calculator. If you have an iMac or a Blue G3 and you have only USB ports, you can use a serial-to-USB adapter.

If you ever get a USB Graph-Link, simply plug it into a free USB port, and connect the Graph-Link to your calculator with a link cable.

Now that everything is plugged in, you have to install the software. You can unplug the calculator if you want. If you bought a Graph-Link, then insert the CD-ROM or floppy disk into the drive, and follow the directions for installing the software.

If you don't have the software, you can download the Graph-Link software from TI's Graph-Link page. But not all homemade cables work with this cable. Check out Nick's TI Calculator Site for more information.

Be sure to install the correct software for the kind of calculator you have.

Now that you've got the software installed, get into the program, however you may do that.

PC users have to do a bit of configuring.

On the Link menu, select the type of cable you are using and the com port your Graph-Link is hooked up to.

If you are not sure what com port the Graph-Link is hooked up to, go into the Start menu, go into Settings, and select Control Panel. Double-click on System, and click on the Device Manager tab. Then double-click on Communication Ports (COM & LPT) and it should list all communication ports on your computer and what Com number they are. Find the one for your serial port and that is the com port you use. It is likely COM2 or COM3, because COM1 is often used for modems, but since my modem is on COM2, my serial port is COM1. 

Now we test the Graph-Link to make sure everything is hooked up right. Go into the Link menu, and select Get Screen.... Make sure everything is plugged in all the way, and the calculator is on. Then click on Get Screen. After a couple of seconds, a screen shot of the calculator's screen should appear. If you get an error, you either have the wrong com port selected, wrong cable type selected, or there's something wrong with the connections.

You just got some awesome games off the internet, and now you want to put them on your calculator. If the files were zipped (in a .zip file), you will have to unzip them using PKZip. Then you'll have a whole bunch of files. Here's an explanation of the different file types:

File type	File extension (TI-83)	File extension (TI-83 Plus)
Complex number variable	.83c	.8xc
Graph database (GDB)	.83d	.8xd
Group of files	.83g	.8xg
List	.83l	.8xl
Matrix	.83m	.8xm
Picture	.83i	.8xi
Program	.83p	.8xp
Real number variable	.83n	.8xn
String	.83s	.8xs
Table Setup	.83t	.8xt
Window settings	.83w	.8xw
Y= Equation	.83y	.8xy
Zoom settings	.83z	.8xz

You can only edit complex number variables, GDB's, lists, matrices, programs, real number variables, strings, table setups, window settings, Y= equations, and zoom settings.

Anyway, make sure that the calculator is connected and turned on. Select Send... (or Send To... and RAM or Archive on the TI-83 Plus).

The TI-83 Plus screen is similar to this. Find the files you want to send, and double click them (or click on Add) to select them. The file's name will appear in the big white box labeled File Selected:. You can send as many files as the calculator can hold. When you are ready, click on OK.

The calculator does not need to be in Receive mode, in fact it must be at the home screen. The status of the files being sent is shown on the computer screen. If the computer encounters a file of the same name, you can overwrite all the files being sent (meaning that if any more files on the calculator have the same name as the files being sent they will automatically be overwritten.), overwrite that single file, rename the file being sent, omit it (skip it), or quit and end the transmission.

If you send a group of files (an .83g or 8xg file), you will see the status of each individual item in the group on the computer as they are being sent.

You can also transfer files from your calculator to the computer. Under the Link menu, select Receive.... The calculator must be plugged in and turned on.

As you can see, you can also receive files from and send files to a TI-83 with the TI-83 Plus software. It is fully backwards compatible. The only trouble arises when you try to send an 83+ file to an 83.

This screen on the TI-83 looks a little bit different but it is used the same way.

This works much like the sending process. Double-click the files you want to get from the calculator, or highlight them and click Add. When you are ready to receive click OK.

The status of the file(s) being received is shown on the computer.

On the TI-83 Plus, you are asked to choose a directory (folder) to put the files to be received before transmission takes place.

On the TI-83, the files are received, but in order to save them you must click Save when the transmission is done. They are saved to the current directory (folder) unless you specify otherwise by clicking Directory.

Sometimes when you download calculator stuff from the internet, if there are many calculator files involved, they will likely be grouped into a single .83g or .8xp file. You cannot open a group file, but you can ungroup the files. You can even make your own group files.

UNGROUPING FILES
To ungroup files, select Ungroup TI-83 Files... (or Ungroup and TI-83 Plus Files or TI-83 Files for the 83 Plus) from the Tools menu.

Select the group file you want to ungroup and click OK. Then select the directory (folder) where the ungrouped files will be stored. Click OK and you're set.

GROUPING FILES
There are two ways of squishing individual files together into a group file. You can choose to store files in a group when you receive files from the calculator, or group files already on the computer.

Storing files on the calculator to a group file on the computer:
Under the Link menu, select Receive.... The calculator must be plugged in and turned on. Select the files to be received as mentioned above, then click the Group or To Group checkbox. After the files have been received, if you click on Save you will be asked to enter a name for your group file. Type one and click OK. Remember you can click on Directory to change the folder the group file will be saved in.

Grouping files already on the computer:
Select Group TI-83 Files... (or Group and TI-83 Plus Files or TI-83 Files for the 83 Plus) from the Tools menu. Double-click on the files you want to add to the group or highlight them and click on Add. Click OK. Next you will be asked for a name for your group file. Enter a name and click on OK.

You can view files of almost any type (you can't view picture files), but the only ones you can create and save in a format the calculator will understand are programs. So this section should've been titled "Editing Programs". But since you edit files of other types, I didn't.

Select File \ Open... to open a file. Click on the file you want to open or type its name in and click OK. The file appears in the editing window which is on the right-hand side of the screen.

From now on we will only talk about program files since that is the only type of file you can edit, create, and save as a TI-83/83+ file.

To create a new program file select New from the File menu.

Type a name for the program (the name that will be used on the calculator) in the Name box. You can type a comment in the Comment box. This comment cannot be seen on a calculator. In the big window you may type out your program. You type everything out by hand, instead of selecting commands from menus.

However, you can select items from menus. On the left-hand side of the screen is a replica of the TI-83/83+ keyboard. Clicking on the buttons do exactly the same thing as what they would do on the calculator from within the program editor (except [CLEAR], the arrow keys, [ON], and other obvious ones.)

This means you can type the store symbol by clicking on STO>, you can access the commands in the VARS menu by clicking on VARS, etc.

You can also type some special characters by using these special shortcut keys:

 You can send a program written on the computer to the calculator by clicking on Send (or Send to RAM or Send to Archive for the 83+) in that editor window there.

You can also protect your programs so they cannot be edited on the calculator. If you check the Protected check box, your program will not be able to be edited on the calculator, but can be edited on a computer.

You can take snapshot of what's on your calculator's screen by going into the Link menu, and selecting Get Screen.... Make sure it is plugged in and click on Get Screen. After a couple of seconds, a screen shot of the calculator's screen should appear on the computer. Then you can either copy the screen to the clipboard, save it, or print it. You can change the size of a copied or printed picture by adjusting the Copy/Print ratio. You can save the picture as an EPS or TIFF file, but since those are primarily Mac formats, PC users are probably better off clipboarding them and pasting them into a drawing program where they can be saved in a more PC-friendly format.

If you want to take another screen shot, click on Clear, and click on Get Screen again. Click Done to exit.

Unfortunately, the Graph-Link can sometimes be a bitch to set up. If it doesn't work, make sure of the following: 

• The calculator is on and at the home screen.
• The cables are connected correctly
• The link is plugged into the calculator firmly
• The correct cable type is selected
• The correct com port is selected
• The calculator is not in Send or Receive mode
• Your Graph-Link isn't a piece of string with untwisted paper clips at the end

If it still doesn't work, try the TI-Calculator FAQ (tifaq.calc.org) or Texas Instruments' Graph-Link FAQ.