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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Basic for the Pic32
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Bryan1 Guru  Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1344 |
G'day Guy's, I reckon this thread MAY stomp on a few feet but last night I downloaded the MikroeE basic for the pic32. Now the free version is limited to 2K of memory but man does this bit of software have some power. Just about everything one can think of is included as a library file and the help file is one of the best I've seen to date. Fair enough the maximite does provide a basic approach but to get the full horsepower these pic32 chips can deliver I have to say software is way up there. Cheers Bryan |
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Dinosaur Guru Joined: 12/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 311 |
Hi all Bryan, I have also been looking and learning about this. There are a few obstacles though, which Geoff has overcome already. 1. You have to write code for the VGA 2. You have to write code for the Flash drive 3. The echoing of Print to usb. 4. Learning much more detail about the Pic32 before you can implement the mikrobasic program. 5. The Kbd code has to be written. I have spent a good day reading about this compiler, and I am equally impressed. But I would much prefer not to have to do all that work, and get expanded functionality out of MMBasic. For example I was looking at using the mm for the clocking of stepper motor controllers. Currently I am using the Paralel port for this and timing it manually.However mikrobasic has a library to handle this. Then I went looking to see if I can create a clocked output on the mm, but the best resolution is 1.5mSec if I do it manually. So, lots of plusses and minuses. Regards Regards Hervey Bay Qld. |
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vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
Hi Bryan, You're right, if is about real time, it can be achieved only that way. But don't scare the beginners right now. Let them come inside and when they will be in need of more power and speed, show them the alternatives in a easy way. Hi Dinosaur, I). Walking on Bryan's path, those obstacles are easily overcome. 1. The code for VGA was already written in the book for PIC32 programming - just need to be translated as a library of functions for mikroBasic and you will use just calls . 2. There is already a library with functions for FAT16 MMC/SD cards and a FAT32 library is underway (examples are included): [quote]Two months ago, two more guys joined our Software Deparment, working as Library developers. Since then we have already introduced DSP libraries for PIC32, CAN library for AVR, and are now working on revising Ethernet and FAT16 libraries. Today we'll quickly overview what has been done in the new FAT16 library. We have introduced useful new functions: Mmc_Fat_Dir - Returns the content of current directory. Mmc_Fat_MakeDir - Creates a new directory in current path. Mmc_Fat_RemoveDir - Renames the directory. Mmc_Fat_ChangeDir - Changes the current direktory Mmc_Fat_Exists - Returns whether file exists or not. Mmc_Fat_Rename - Renames the file. Mmc_Fat_Tell - Returns the current cursor position within the file. Mmc_Fat_Seek - Positions the cursor in the file. Mmc_Fat_Rewrite - Overwrites the file content from the current cursor position. We are currently working on introducing FAT32 libraries as well, with the same function prototypes. We expect these revised libraries to be finished for the next releases of all mikroElektronika compilers. We can't make definite promises, but this should be in the late August 2011.[/quote] 3. Here are some problems because mikroElektronika have support only for HID USB (a little bit hard for beginners), CDC is not on their agenda. But with the help of the community, you can have also that library. 4. Libraries for PS/2 keyboard are everywhere, so check this one to. II). Walking on Don's path is even easier. His board will be supported by Pinguino IDE and you will take the advantage of a large base of already written applications from where you will learn a lot in incredibly short time. This is why anyone (manufacturers and users) try so hard to enter in the Arduino family. Vasi P.S. My wife is in town now, she will not believe me if I will tell her that I talked with a Dinosaur. And I bet she will not need to use my DS18B20 temperature sensor to see if I have fever  . Just a joke, hope you don't mind.Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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| vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
Thought you may see in time that you will not need the VGA on every automated application. And then you will see how fast will be your application without it. In some applications using a huge, power hungry VGA when you need only a small graphic LCD (even a TFT one) is silly. Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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| vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
A practical example appeared today on Arduino blog (source included): Landruino Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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| vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
Bryan, the limit is a little up than 2K: [quote]Download and try out the software - FOR FREE! Software is equipped with fully functional demo license with up to 8192 bytes of output code size which can be just enough for simple applications.[/quote] Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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| Dinosaur Guru Joined: 12/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 311 |
Hi all vasi the Dinosaur title was given to me at a conference, when someone discovered that I program in x86 assemby, and hated C in every form. That was 30 years ago, it sort of stuck. I agree that you must make it easy for beginners, and once they are hooked they will themselves look for the next step up the ladder.For that reason the vga is essential.Soldering boards together is not everyone's cup of Tea.I myself have gone full circle. My first machine had a Master cpu board that communicated with a number of slaves.(on an 8 bit bashing bus).The Master had the display and the slaves didn't. BUT, I could connect a display for debugging and testing. Now some 25 years later I am back to the same concept, only because the slaves can perform time critical tasks without worrying about a nice gui. As I said on another post, the MM is a brilliant idea, and if the upgrade path is provided easily (compiled Basic,Vga, ethernet etc) then it will have a long life. After reading a lot about MikroBasic, it is not that easy to start with. Every example you compile works, but the moment you try something yourself, a string of red lines show the error's. Although the help is extensive, finding out why or what is missing takes hours. Regards Regards Hervey Bay Qld. |
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donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
https://groups.google.com/group/pinguinocard/browse_thread/t hread/2b49c0d5d96db1df?pli=1 The above link has an interesting thread, Dinosaur and Vasi, 
I think MM Basic will find a spot in Pinguino family nicely. The correct board is only 1-2 months away. Doing proto runs this week. Interesting comments on MikroBasic, and why MM Basic may be better suited to a larger audience. Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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| vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
 me, always trying to make lobby for things which I consider them worthy...
Good to see project is on track Don, really curious to see what is about. As for Pinguino 8bit, I suffer because we don't have a better open-source C compiler than SDCC  . No Australian there willing to make a better C compiler? Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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haiqu Senior Member  Joined: 30/07/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 152 |
Been there, done that. I did a 32-bit compiler for the DOS box in Windows with a view to moving it over eventually to DOS/32. Nobody cared. Might have to resurrect that project one day but seriously, writing a linker and assembler for the PIC? Naah, don't have the patience (or time) any longer. Rob unzip, strip, touch, finger, grep, mount, fsck, more, yes, fsck, fsck, fsck, umount, sleep |
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| vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
Even if is only for 18F2550/4550 and using the gputils as linker/assembler (as "great cow basic", PMP, SDCC and cpik are doing)? BTW, cpik is written from the ground up for PIC18 microcntrollers but the one man project stopped. Just pushing the note but I understand you. Vasi Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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| Dinosaur Guru Joined: 12/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 311 |
Hi all The only additional comment I make about MikroBasic, is that their Forum is very unfriendly. I wondered why there were so few topics, until I joined and posted. Every post has to be approved by the moderator. That means discussion is discouraged. I don't have problems with paying for a good product and support, and at the moment if I want to go compiled (which I don't at the moment) there is no alternative. Regards Regards Hervey Bay Qld. |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
Moderated? That's a shame! I am a dealer for MikroElektronika, and of course for their version of Basic. In Australia we don't sell too much, but I wasn't aware of this moderated system. I feel MM-Basic will go from strength to strength. We have several good coders in the members ranks, and I fear the biggest problem will be for Geoff to have control over the growth and integration of MM-Basic. I just hope there is some sort of mechanism to allow users to roll their own firmware out of libraries. Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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