Numworks modding - Part 2 : N0100++

August 1, 2020

This article is a follow-up on that one. After taking a look inside my calculator, I wanted to add something to it. So, I decided to revisit TiPlanet’s N0100++ challenge.

Why ?

Epsilon is getting bigger and bigger, and Omega goes with it. You can see the evolution on the graph below. We had to use a clever trick to get Omega 1.20 into the N0100: Making the user select its language at install-time.

Evolution of the sizes of Epsilon and Omega

We hope to add support to Omega before Numworks drops the support of the N0100, to make it live longer. But first, the mods have to be made.

Getting the Hardware

I bought a SOIC-8 socket to be able to swap flashes easily. I also bought a FTSH-105-01-F-DV-P as a debug port, and the corresponding female ribbon cable, FFSD-05-D-03.50-01-N. I had a STLink v2 laying around, with the corresponding ribbon. I started by creating the debug cable, by soldering the two ribbons together. Critor from TiPlanet also sent me two flash chips: an Adesto AT25SF641 and a Winbond W25Q128JV, the first one being the one used on the N0110.

Time to solder

My soldering skills aren’t the best, but I managed to end up with something somewhat clean. After that, I put holes trough the case of the device, to access it from the outside.

SOIC-8 Socket soldered to the N0100's PCB Holes in my N0100

Software

As A first test, I used the steps zardam put together to put GIAC on the N0100, and it works well. I plan to adapt the newest versions of Epsilon to work with the N0100++.

What’s next ?

In the next episode on these hardware mods, we’ll add support of the external flash on the latest version of Omega, and PR Epsilon.