You already know the keys.
There is no secret button. The unit is driven with keys that have been on the TI-84 for twenty years, in an order the calculator has always accepted. That is the whole trick, and it is why nothing about the outside had to change.
Setting it up, once
The unit answers over your phone's hotspot. Turn the hotspot on, keep the phone somewhere near the calculator rather than across the room, and it stays in your pocket from then on. The calculator does the rest.
It also has a settings dashboard of its own, which is where your API key lives and where you choose which model answers. Reaching it takes about a minute and the steps ship with the calculator. Support will walk you through it if you would rather be talked through it.
Without a network the unit is a calculator. Everything below assumes it has joined one.
Asking it something
Four presses, all of them ordinary. Nothing here is a key combination that a stock TI-84 would refuse.
- Store a value into CType your value, press STO, then ALPHA and PRGM for the letter C. The screen reads 5→C. Press ENTER and the calculator answers 5, because that is all it has been asked to do so far.
- Open the catalog and find Send(2nd then 0 opens CATALOG. Scroll down to Send(, which is a stock TI function for talking to a linked device, and press ENTER to paste it.
- Send itALPHA and PRGM again for the C, so the line reads Send(C. Press ENTER and the calculator comes back Done. The value is now with the hardware inside.
- Run the programPRGM, select CHATGPT, ENTER. The unit's own menu comes up on the display, and from there you ask a question and read the answer.
What the unit's menu offers
Once the program is running the display shows seven entries: ASK AI, SEND MSG, INBOX, STATUS, CLEAR CHAT, SETTINGS and EXIT. Two of them matter day to day.
- Ask AI
- Type a question on the keypad. The answer renders on the calculator screen.
- Model
- Choose which model answers. Any provider, any model you want, including the newest ones as they are released.
- Mode
- Fast, Calc, Phys, Chem, Check or Gen. Check verifies work you have already done, instead of answering the question from scratch.
- Status
- Network address, signal, active mode, active model, memory and uptime, on one screen.
The camera flow
If your unit is the 5MP Camera Calculator, there is a second way to ask. Aim the back of the calculator at the problem, hold it roughly six to twelve inches from the paper, and press the hidden capture button. One press takes the photo and sends it. The answer arrives on the same screen, a little slower than typing because the image has to be read first.
That unit is not released yet. Until it is, every unit sold is the typing one.
What you cannot see
From the outside the typing unit is a TI-84 Plus. No extra buttons, no ports, no lights, no markings, and a rear shell with nothing added to it. The camera unit carries a single pinhole on the back that is deliberately hard to spot.
Units are secondhand, so the chassis colour and the cosmetic condition vary. Scuffs and button wear are normal and expected.
Your 8 digit identification number arrives by email at purchase. It is an order reference, not a serial number on the calculator, and it is how we find your order if you need support. Keep it somewhere safe.
Which unit should I get?
Only one is for sale right now. The Typing Calculator has nothing added to the outside at all, which is the strongest version of the argument for owning one. The camera unit saves you typing the question, at the cost of a small pinhole on the rear.
Ready? Look at the unit. Questions first? The FAQ covers most of them.