fx-CG series
OS Update for Ver.2.02
Handheld OS Update
*Version 2.02(for Windows)
*What's New
Examination mode
E-CON3
Statistics calculation improvement
More details/speculations about next version etc on ti-planet (in French)
The emulator software with the new OS does not appear to be available for download yet, nor could I find the manual with the new functionality described - but the French authors seem to have referenced the manual.
Any feedback on how to find more info and if any of the previously developed add-ins are still fine is welcome
Do you have a download link for the new OS from Casio's website? I'd be curious to try it out and see what that Examination mode is like. I'd assume it's similar to TI's Press-to-Test.
Casio have inconvenient navigation for downloads and besides being slow the end link shows as
https://edu.casio.com/download_service/en/download/index.html which I suspect does not make direct download work.
I uploaded it here
http://s.lowendshare.com/11/1449786680.89.fx-cg1020_update_202_2.zip
I think overall Casio is on the right path on how they implement Exam Mode as they only disable things and not physically remove them (or at least I did not see what may have been removed) – once the exam mode is over you don’t need to go through the pain of reloading everything you had – very fair and secure in my opinion.
Option to trigger the exam mode from Link->Exam menu would be nice just to avoid the stress of explaining power off and simultaneous button presses etc sequences.
In the exam mode there is no way to look up user info in settings and this info no longer shows at the power off screen so will be a problem identifying calculator after exam should you mix them up or forget them in the room (unless you have access to the necessary hardware to get out of exam mode or stickers etc identifying your calculator or wait 12 hours for the calculator to unlock)
I hope Casio will also consider not blocking some of their own add-ins in the exam mode – just like TI exam mode permits a few TI own apps – this would be only fair and many of those add-ins were designed and appeared promoted as allowable for exams in question.
Blinking R sign in the status bar is super distracting – the pace of blinking changes sometimes making you pause thinking the calculator is performing some calculation because it sits close to where the hour glass would spin… I think Casio shall remove this as the exam mode is indicated by the green frame already. I believe Casio only put it in as a temporary solution before they update the Prizm hardware to have a LED at the top part of the case facing away from the user similarly to exam LED on TI CE but for now have this half backed solution – it even blocks some of the icons in financial modes – I think Casio shall remove it completely, or at least make it stop blinking, or perhaps offer small hardware 3pin plug with LED on the outer end – so when it is plugged into the 3-pin port Casio powers the LED outside to blinks for examiners to clearly see that the exam mode is on.
Speaking about future hardware development I wonder if Casio will be able to refresh Prizm hardware to be as slim as new TI CE family…
Theoretically they could leave the front half of the calculator unchanged and just give it rechargeable battery ability incorporated into a much thinner back casing together with LED indicator for exam mode. If necessary they could just remove the 3-pin connector putting the exam/charging LED there and replace mini-USB port with micro-USB one to make the back of the calculator even slimmer and more compatible with mobile chargers…
I hope Casio will find this feedback useful
For students, the fact that they're killing vector computations while in exam mode is very unfair, compared to other manufacturers' calculators. Casio is shooting themselves in the foot.
I agree: they should allow at least what competition/other manufacturers allow
Actually my exam mode allows mat/vct functiontionality via f3 and input of mat/vct and operations with them via math f4 button under run matrix. The only thing restricted was csv button under matrix. Sorry if I misunderstood something but now I don't know what casio means by listing this restriction, maybe it's miscommunication by them... Or my ignorance. Apologies if I'm causing confusion in this case
Programming is also forbidden while in exam mode, on the latest OS versions for the Prizm and Graph 75+E / fx-9860GII. On TI-Planet, three days ago, critor covered the reduction in functionality that matters to students:
https://ti-pla.net/t17637
Found English manual but it was not easy. Going though US or British sites was not giving the latest manual but picking English in other countries worked, Will upload when I can. Pages 9 onward deal in detail with the Examination mode.
Any way new Link->Exam->App help lists the following Applications and Functions as restricted:
eActivity
E-con3
Memory
Program
Add-In
and
Vector Calculations
and I actually don't see what besides CSV functionality was restricted for "Vector Calculations" but I may have checked for it in the wrong place or is Casio not explaining it well.
eActivity and Program I can understand they would want to restrict but not 100% how it is handled by the competition - I think TestGuard on TI can be set up to leave programs working but I have not tested it...
Add-ins - I think Casio is unnecessary restricting even those official ones which came with the calculator - it seems unfair to how TI can leave selected own apps unrestricted so Casio should make at least some of their own ones also available.
Strangely Casio does not list as restricted but disables some of the settings, I only remember like power off ones and user info being disabled. Restricting user info section even from viewing seems unhelpful as I already commented about.
Given how Casio continues to support even older models of their calculators I hope they will consider fixing such issues soon
Can someone run Utilities in a calculator with this new OS version installed and post the info shown in the System Information screen, please? I'd like to update the wiki page on OS versions:
http://prizm.cemetech.net/index.php/Versions_and_versioning
EDIT: meanwhile, I updated
http://prizmid.tny.im to offer the new version as an option.
The System Information looks like the following:
This is very interesting. I will install this on my calculator some time.
JcM productions wrote:
The System Information looks like the following:
I get the same info but most of the time I have some irregular characters attached which seem to be read from memory addresses after the strings CASIOWIN or CASIOABS (so CASIOWIN 25X02.02.0000 will show as one line or E, of F gets appended after CASIOABS)
It gets cleaner after main memory reset, etc but not completely - I performed erasing flash data to restore the calculator to default settings too - after loading the add-ins and running utilities add-in the garbage remained - will try no other add-ins at some point to see if helps or reinstall OS via emergency route)
amazonka, that probably has to do with the way Utilities is reading the values. It expects some strings to be null-terminated, but apparently that's not always the case (perhaps only starting with OS 02.02, and only on certain calculators?). I didn't want to make the reads fixed-size in case the strings increased in length some day (i.e. if they ever called it "CASIOLOSE").
Thanks for the information JcM, I will update the wiki shortly.
That is really mysterious:
I tested the same again on another calculator and this also had some random letters behind the strings. After turning on by going into the Testmode, the random letters disappered.
Maybe it was random too. Since then I saw the letters never again.
Thanks gbl08ma, for documenting new things on prizm wiki.
Given statistics calculations and other improvement - why is Casio not updating the emulator to version 2.02?
I noticed a couple or so of existing add-ins need small tweaks to work properly on the 2.02 - so having an emulator would help with debugging them and future add-ins - so hope Casio will release new update for their fx-CG Manager Plus software for that.
Is there any way of updating their fx-CG Manager Plus to 2.02 from 2.00 by using the OS updater for the hardware calculator itself? How did their previous update from 1.04 or similar to 2.00 work please? I could find some previous update download specifically for fx-cg manager but didn't have an older emulator installed to run the update successfully. So wonder if they are planning a similar approach for 2.02...
I've already created an external device which is able to transmit Eact files using the 3 pin serial cable back to the calculator after resetting, which I documented and reported to casio a year ago. But with the new exam mode they basically blocked my solution.
In exam mode there is a green border around the display. I think I found a way to leave the exam mode using a small piece of external hardware, but I still need to do some testing. Do you think it is possible to fake the green border to pretend that the calculator is still in examination mode? In this case I think they would argue that the teacher could easily see if exam mode has been left, so it would be interesting to fake after leaving.
Cat and mouse games would begin - better not to release anything like this - developers will be locked out by manufacturers etc = less options, less freedom and less progress for us, but eventually the manufactures will be the biggest losers as their products will be less attractive to both general users and white hat hackers
Casio did good job with their exam mode - it's much more than green border, and i like how nothing is erased but simply disabled during exam mode. I only wished they allowed some of their own add-ins during axam mode like their competitors do, and other small things which they unnecessary disabled like user info etc
My hope is Casio will be supportive of enhancements our community does to their products here and that Casio will never feel pushed into locking their system from such developments