Modder hacks ChatGPT, other apps onto TI-84 calculator, creates 'The Ultimate Cheating Device'

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An extensive hardware modification, but the stealthy integration works well.

ChatGPT on a calculator
ChatGPT on a calculator (Image credit: ChromaLock on YouTube)

Earlier this month, YouTuber ChromaLock uploaded a video showcasing his "ultimate cheating device," which is almost indistinguishable from a TI-84 calculator. However, there are hardware modifications and an open-source suite of software modified for the TI-84 that he made, allowing the user to run ChatGPT. The software for the mod is shared on GitHub under the TI-32 repository, which is described as "A mod for the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition and TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition calculators to give them Internet access and add other features, like test mode breakout and camera support". And yes, these features include ChatGPT functionality.

I Made The Ultimate Cheating Device - YouTube I Made The Ultimate Cheating Device - YouTube
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Besides software modification, the hardware needed to truly complete this "ultimate cheating device" was a microcontroller small enough to fit inside the TI-84 shell with its original components. This is because all the best TI-84 software features require you to use the link port to connect to bulky external devices, and thus would be too conspicuous otherwise. A correctly selected Wi-Fi-enabled microcontroller, in this case, the Seeed Studio XIAO-ESP32-C3, modded into the calculator with the TI-32 PCB and suite of software installed is all you really need to get up and running.

In the full video, ChromaLock demonstrates exactly that functionality after tweaking voltages and adding his own 1K resistors between the microcontroller and link port appropriately. He designs a PCB for the TI-32 project which also makes the microcontroller able to impersonate another TI-84 for more easily sending communications and data to the real TI-84 calculator in your hands.

Before the video is complete, ChromaLock demonstrates the invisible nature of the modification and its varied functionality. This includes a chat function, a monochrome image viewer, and a ChatGPT input window. These all seem to work perfectly — and may not be the end of the project. A long list of "Features to be Added" on the GitHub page includes various improvements to GPT functionality, the addition of web browsing, email functionality, video playing, and even Discord access. If you want to get audacious with a TI-84 hacked in this manner, it seems the sky is the limit — though of course, none of those experiences are going to be better run on a calculator than a smartphone or actual PC.

Christopher Harper
Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

23 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bit_user
    I can't believe graphing calculators are still using that monochrome, low-res display. Even for just its core functions, a lot is gained by having higher-res and colors.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    bit_user said:
    I can't believe graphing calculators are still using that monochrome, low-res display. Even for just its core functions, a lot is gained by having higher-res and colors.
    Battery power.

    Same reason my Kindle needs recharge twice a month, vs the phone, once a day.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    USAFRet said:
    Battery power.
    Perhaps your concerned about color LCDs needing a backlight? Okay, but I'm not convinced they could've have gone to a higher-res display, like 320x240.

    USAFRet said:
    Same reason my Kindle needs recharge twice a month, vs the phone, once a day.
    Modern e-Ink display tech would be great for graphing calculators. Traditionally, the display technology has perhaps been too sluggish for that sort of interactive use, but I think more recent versions of the tech can refresh a few times per second.

    BTW, it's quite misleading to compare these with your smart phone. They differ in much more significant ways than just the display. Also, I wasn't imagining a huge, whole-device, 1440p-class screen like they have. Just upgrading the 100x60 res mono display to something that can comfortably fit more text and better-resolution graphs.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    bit_user said:
    Perhaps your concerned about color LCDs needing a backlight? Okay, but I'm not convinced they could've have gone to a higher-res display, like 320x240.


    Modern e-Ink display tech would be great for graphing calculators. Traditionally, the display technology has perhaps been too sluggish for that sort of interactive use, but I think more recent versions of the tech can refresh a few times per second.

    BTW, it's quite misleading to compare these with your smart phone. They differ in much more significant ways than just the display. Also, I wasn't imagining a huge, whole-device, 1440p-class screen like they have. Just upgrading the 100x60 res mono display to something that can comfortably fit more text and better-resolution graphs.
    Could this functionality be built into something better than the Ti-84?
    Color e-ink, etc.
    Almost certainly, yes.

    But then it wouldn't be a Ti-84.

    Almost certainly someone else will build this into a more modern small platform.
    Reply
  • TCA_ChinChin
    bit_user said:
    I can't believe graphing calculators are still using that monochrome, low-res display. Even for just its core functions, a lot is gained by having higher-res and colors.
    There are models with color digital screens. I remember using both the standard Ti-84s with monochrome ones have digital screens with color. I think one thing that was a drawback was that the models with color screens took longer to render due to using the same processor but having a significantly more demanding display. It was a pretty small but consistent delay compared to the monochrome ones. Also remember using TI-inspires that had more functionality, a better digital display, and overall better. This was all like a decade ago so I imagine color Ti calculators are more prevalent now, but I imagine that the basic models are used just cause they're cheap and they still work fine.
    Reply
  • jg.millirem
    Another engineering project with no social good. It helps kids cheat on tests, just great.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    TCA_ChinChin said:
    I think one thing that was a drawback was that the models with color screens took longer to render due to using the same processor but having a significantly more demanding display. It was a pretty small but consistent delay compared to the monochrome ones.
    Was that new enough that it featured internet access, as the one in the article reportedly does? That's specifically what I'm talking about. If you go back far enough, clearly there was a point when color wouldn't have been very feasible or without significant tradeoffs.
    Reply
  • wakuwaku
    bit_user said:
    I can't believe graphing calculators are still using that monochrome, low-res display. Even for just its core functions, a lot is gained by having higher-res and colors.
    I can't believe people nowadays despite being on the internet regularly still being ignorant of the world.

    https://education.ti.com/en/products/calculators/graphing-calculators/ti-84-plus-ce-python
    Also are YOU going to fund the entire worlds education by sponsoring calculators? Color screens is one thing, but e-ink? How about using your brains a little instead of relying on computers. The main issue with e-ink, besides its price, is the fact it burns in and requires the screen to flash at regular intervals to prevent that. A calculator will need a more power hungry and more expensive display driver and/or soc to do more unnecessary non calculator functions. Not to mention the regular flickering will be downright annoying in an exam or research environment with high amounts of concentration.

    Why don't you prove that a regular calculator can indeed benefit from the advantages of an e-ink to the point where its drawbacks can be ignored?
    Reply
  • Medic329
    bit_user said:
    I can't believe graphing calculators are still using that monochrome, low-res display. Even for just its core functions, a lot is gained by having higher-res and colors.
    The CE version, which a lot of better funded schools use, has a rechargable battery, more programmability and a multicolor, higher res screen, for a higher price, of course. There's also the inspire, which is pretty much a computer, and plenty of alternative knockoffs that can do similar.

    The Ti-84+ is just an old standard that you know is accepted anywhere and has a lot of guides on how to use. It's by no means good, or good value. But it's common. And it still exists off that alone.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    wakuwaku said:
    I can't believe people nowadays despite being on the internet regularly still being ignorant of the world.
    I was commenting on the unit pictured in the article, which was new enough to be internet-enabled.

    I didn't think there were no graphing calculators with higher res or color screens. I was just apalled by low res of the one use for the hack.

    wakuwaku said:
    Also are YOU going to fund the entire worlds education by sponsoring calculators?
    We live in a world of sub-$100 tablets that have high-res touch color screens, wifi, and a multi-core processor with probably a couple gigs of RAM and 32 GB flash.

    Contrast that with the time I was in highschool, when I paid $200 for a graphing calculator. Adjusting for inflation, it's over $400 now.

    Face it: modestly high-res (again, I'm only talking like 320x240) color displays are commodity components for a while, as is the processing power needed to drive them. My graphing calculator had a 2 MHz single-bit (oops, seems it had an 8-bit datapath and 20-bit data registers) microcontroller with 128 kiB of memory (the cheap version had only 32 kiB), which acted both as RAM and storage. It wasn't fast, but it was usable.

    wakuwaku said:
    The main issue with e-ink, besides its price, is the fact it burns in and requires the screen to flash at regular intervals to prevent that.
    I got an e-ink reader 6-7 years ago. I haven't noticed the flashing you're talking about. It does have two page-flipping modes, one of which is higher-quality but takes longer.

    Anyway, disregard the point about e-ink. It was just a side-comment. I'm not very knowledgeable about it, especially concerning more recent developments in the technology. My main point was really just that the pictured calculator was still using such a horrendously low-res mono display. Even if you stick with mono, they could at least have used a better resolution.

    P.S. RPN rulez! TI is for suckaz!
    ; )
    Reply