Why can't my calculator connect to my MacBook Pro?

I wrote TI support using George's letter as a template. I'll reply back if anything of value surfaces.

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Hello,

I'm running Mac OS X 10.6.8. My calculator's specs are listed below:

Device Model: TI-84 Plus Silver Edition

Device OS: 2.41

Product #: 0A-3-02-29

ID #: 0A32F-65FAA-925C

The problem: Upon turning on my calculator and plugging it into my computer using the packaged Mini-B USB to USB cable with TI Connect X and Device Explorer running, nothing happens. When I turn the calculator off and then on while plugged in, or remove and re-insert the USB cable, I receive this alert from TI Device Explorer:

Alert

A device was detected, but we could not communicate with it for some reason.

(As shown in this screenshot: http://g.zcr.me/RrwL)

Interestingly, my computer's System Profiler application shows a successful connection with the calculator, so it's not the USB port's fault.

This Apple Support thread shows that a number of people are having the same issue: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3045539

A fellow user with the identical issue has tried three different cables (which apparently all work fine when used with other Mini-USB devices), and plugged each cable into different USB ports to see if that would fix the issue. Unfortunately, the problem is always the same.

My understanding is that TI Connect X was last successfully tested by the TI corporation on Mac OS X 10.6.4. I am writing to ask if the software is yet compatible with newer Mac software and I can simply download a driver. If this is not possible, then I would like to kindly submit a request for it to be updated with compatibility for the latest Mac operating system; many people would greatly benefit from this update as illustrated in the Apple Support thread above.

I have no access to computers running an older OS version, nor can I afford to purchase a Windows license at this time. Thus, I have no way to access my calculator's filesystem until this is resolved, which is a concern as I expected to be able to use the full extent of my calculator purchase, and the calculator's packaging clearly labels software later than Mac OS X 10.2 and greater being compatible.

Thank you!

TI responded, with almost the exact same content that alrobles received a year ago. Looks like they're just copying/pasting from old e-mails, which is unfortunate; I really hoped something might've changed.

That's that, anyway. Strong recommendation against purchasing a TI calculator if you only have a Mac and plan to connect with it. 😟

Finally, some good news from the developers! I wrote in a stern complaint, and this is the message I recieved:

Thank you for contacting Texas Instruments.

It is unfortunate that you are having difficulties trying to connect your Texas Instruments graphing calculator to your Macintosh. I will be more than happy to answer your concerns.

While we will continue to troubleshoot any issues that may arise I am not able to guarantee that a solution may be available. As of now, a newer version of TI Connect is scheduled to be released sometime this Spring, and it will be compatible up through OSX version 10.7.

If uninstalling and reinstalling the software did not resolve the issue, please be aware that the newer version of TI Connect should fix issues up through 10.7. Unfortunately, I do not have specific date as to when this update may become available, just know that it is coming. I apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

So at least we know the software's coming for us Snow Leopard and Lion users. They're still a bit out of date, and the update was postponed far too long, but when spring comes I'll finally be able to do some programming on my TI-84 Plus!

Thanks, sageamagoo. That's good news!

Meanwhile, for devloping programs and capturing screen shots for documents, I've been using the WabbitEMU emulator (with a T-84 +SE rom image I used a PC to capture). The emulator is really good and is open source — nice price: free.

Well, that is great news!!

So somewhere around my finals I can finally add programs to my calculator. It can be before, but it will probably be after my finals T_T

What a pro's!

I just reinstalled the software on my mac running mountain lion and it started working. I thing that they changed the software because a few things look different. I had origanaly installed it a few weeks ago.

Thanks, amacdona. I just checked TI's website: TI Connect is now at version 4.0 with an "update date" of 3/5/2013. The page is:

http://education.ti.com/en/us/software/search/computer-software#view=connectivit y-software

I'm not seeing that kind of result. I haven't updated to Mountain Lion and have continued to use Snow Leopard. The problem that I've experienced all along is that the TI Connect app does not reconize the USB connection of my Macbook Pro, no matter what OS is being used. I have Windows running with Bootcamp and without difference: Windows or the Mac OS the app still isn't performing as it did prior to the OS 10.6 upgrade. Have you done something diffrent with the install?

No I just uninstalled it and then went to their website and downloaded and installed it again

So this error has been bugging me for years now. And I've finally figured it out.

Im not sure why it happens, but the way I've worked around it is as follows.

You need to 1: Log out of your user file and log back in.

2: Before opening Ti-Connect/Explorer etc. Connect your TI-89 while it is already turned on.

3. You can then proceed to open Ti-explorer.

If at somestage your calculator turns off/sleeps. Annoyingly you need to close Ti-explorer, log out and log back in and repeat the process. That is Plug in the turned on calculator in via USB before opening TI-explorer.

Hope this helps you. 🙂

thanks! it worked for me!

I tried this but it didn't work for me. I have a TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, and when I first connected it yesterday, it worked fine with the TI Connect software. However, today I plugged my calculator back into my MacBook and, nothing. Even though my calculator starts charging, the TI Device Explorer doesn't show my calculator anymore. I have spent the last 3 hours trying to get it to work again to no avail. I have a test on Monday and really wanted to put a particular app on my calculator that would help me. I'm about to return the ******* thing if I can't get it to connect anymore. Sorry for my language, I'm just really frustrated.

Hey guys, it's nice to see some other people are still having similar issues.

I hooked up my TI-89 this morning to transfer some programs over to it for the first time since buying a newer Macbook and since I installed Mavericks.

Immediately, I noticed the "send to device" button in the File menu of TI Data Editor was greyed out, which is an issue. TI Device Explorere recognized my device, so I proceeded to just drag & drop the files from my desktop onto the device explorere, which actually worked great.

After waiting a few minutes, my calculator turned off, and when I turned it back on the Device Explorer notified me that a device was detected, but that it could not connect. This is likely due to no termination signals being sent by the calculator or no zombie-process handling by TI. TI makes some nice hardware, but I've never been a fan of their software.

If you want to fix this issue, follow the following steps:

1. Close ALL TI programs open, unplug calculator from computer (leave it on)
2. Open Activity Monitor
3. Do a search for "TI Connect"
4. You should see "TI Connect Manager X"
5. Force quit this process
6. Plug the calculator back in, open TI Device Explorer, and it should detect fine.

This works great every time for me, which points to TI's inability to manage connections between a periperal and their software.

thank you so much mcescalante! it worked~

FIXED, THIS WORKED!!!

Hello,

After several hours of trying to connect my brand-new TI 84+ C Silver Edition to my New 2014 version MacBook Air, I almost gave up. Then with a creative Google search for the term "macbook air connect to ti-84 plus C" the very first Google Search result came back with this discussion "Why can't my calculator connect to my MacBook Pro?". THANKS, mcescalante!! Your solution was very clear to follow, and worked like a charm. I hope that all of the other people over the years could not get this to work have that opportunity of reading the update to this thread.

🙂