Wireless Set and sending to one or to many

[mcjtom]

With wireless set it is possible to send a message or a poll one or more connected calculators, depending which of them are selected in Monitor Pane (to All if none is selected).

Same seems to go for Notes and Programmes: they can be send at will to all or some connected student calculators.

Exam mode is started in all connected calculators regardless if they are selected or not, I gather.

But how, for example, can I set Real variables A,B, and C to some set values on some or all calculators at once? I could manipulate variables one-by-one on each individual calculator (using connectivity Kit calculator pane), but that's less than ideal. Is there a better way?

Another interesting observation with notes is that right-clicking on a calculator in a Monitor Panel allows to sent a regular message to this calculator, but the message doesn't appear on the Messages panel log.

[Tim Wessman]

1. I believe the way it currently works is that having certain units, or a set of units selected in the monitor window will determine which receives the data/communication. There definitely could be some UI improvements to make that clear for certain.

I thought exam mode was the same, but it is possible it is not. The thinking may have been to have the START/STOP buttons do everything by default so you couldn't "accidentally" not start it for everyone. Perhpas dragging/dropping the exam mode to send it will do it selectively?

Currently, I don't think there is a way to do that. I think I'd like to split apart all the objects in order to support doing so at some point. If nothing else, I feel it would be more consistent.

Good observation on the message pane. I've noted that down as it definitely does need to be there in some way.

[mcjtom]

There is a video from HHC 2013 where a list is created (on the local emulator? on the wireless kit data?) and then apparently sent to all the calculators in class.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF70-uu3x5g

I can't figure out how to do that...

[mcjtom]

I just discovered that it is possible to send the following items from one calulator (e.g. the emulator) to many others, but dragging them to the Monitor panel:

- Any App - so for instance dragging Stats 1 or Stats 2 to the Calculators panel will overwrite, among other things, the C1-C0 and D1-D0 lists on all connected calculators (if none is selected). This can circumvent the inconvenience of not being able to broadcast lists to many calculators. Real numbers can be conceivably sent as messages... (the only problem is that I don't know how to copy those values from messages received by calculators and paste it to stack or some application).

I've just tried to do it again, and I'm no longer sure what it does - it seems to be copying something but the data on the connected calculators don't seem to change anymore - mystery....

- One can drag individual Matrices, Notes or Programmes to multiple calculators, but not Lists, Complex or Real, probably since they all have collective editors in connectivity kit.

- All the objects that can be dragged from Calculator pane to Monitor pane can be also dragged to Content pane, and thus stored locally, I believe, and then broadcast again... I think...

[mcjtom]

Now dragging standard apps from Calculator pane to Monitor pane seems to work again (i.e. it sends the data to all calculators). Maybe there is something that triggers it (such as refreshing the calculator in Calculator pane or physically turning the calculator off and on again).

On related topic: one can drag a calculator (including the Emulator), to the Monitor pane as well. It does something but it doesn't seem to clone the calculator to all the others...

[mcjtom]

One side comment to wireless connectivity and many calculators in class: students pressing the Help button to gain attention of the instructor is a great idea, I think. But the "?" sign on the Connectivity Kit's Monitor panel is really hard to see. Perhaps making it red would help?

Cheers!