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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : DuinoMite Firmware Announcement .
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donmck Guru  Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
================================================ As I am the person that thought up the DuinoMite concept, and gathered the individual team members together, I feel it is up to me to make this announcement. Announcement 6-June-2012 ======================== It has become apparent that there has been no advancement of the DuinoMite Firmware for many months, and I believe it is time to announce that all BASIC firmware development has ceased. The DM-Basic source code and hex file is posted to: https://github.com/OLIMEX/DuinoMite/ This will allow individuals to use the C source code for their own projects, or if they wish to, add or alter DM-Basic for themselves. Many new features were added that were DuinoMite specific to control the shared pins, as well as the MSD (Mass Storage Device) that allows the DuinoMite SD-card to appear as an extra drive on your PC. Special Thanks ============== All of the software development was done by non paid volunteers, who had special interest in the DuinoMite. Ken Segler did most of the migration and major features, as well as supplied the KSD Forum, however Ken had to provide for his family as a top priority, as his employment situation changed dramatically recently. Gerard Sexton, and Ingmar Meins also contributed to the source, and Tsvetan of Olimex did a final sort out of the serial ports to get them into working shape. My thanks also to my friend Mick Gulovsen for supporting me during this process, and also of course to Geoff Graham, who came up with the brilliant MaxiMite software and hardware design in the first place. Known Remaining Bugs ==================== The firmware is working fine and virtually equivalent to V2.7a of the MaxiMite firmware, however a few minor problems remain. Two pins for freq/count/period have been accidentally disabled. The interrupts L-H and H-L are out of shape. Some are correct, some aren't. And it appears that the MOD-RTC clock module has the day of week incorrect since the 29th of Feb 2012, which I believe is in the DuinoMite source code. If we were able to fix these remaining issues, I feel the DuinoMite would function fully in the manner that it was designed to do. DuinoMite Hardware ================== Everyone including Geoff Graham admit that the hardware design is top quality, as it uses industrial quality components, has battery backup on most designs, takes advantage of the PIC32 architecture, as well as having the Arduino shield footprint. The price of course is unmatched by any other company currently selling an equivalent unit, as Olimex have produced these at rock bottom prices. The Future ========== Unless someone dives in and is prepared to fix the outstanding bugs, and possibly continue on with development, then not much is going to happen with DM-Basic. MaxiMite Alternative for the DuinoMite ====================================== The alternative is to sacrifice a few pins and turn it into a MaxiMite, at possibly a third of the price of what MaxiMite kits are currently selling for. Quoting from Geoff Graham's page: http://geoffg.net/DuinoMite.html For someone new to the world of the Maximite this is how I would summarise the DuinoMite: It is a high quality product and very cheap. When used as a straight Maximite (with limited I/O pins) it works very well. This includes all the standard Maximite features like VGA, USB, SD card support and so on. There are issues related to accessing more than ten I/O pins and some of the unique DuinoMite hardware features. You need to be technically adept and be prepared to experiment if you wish to use these extra features. DuinoMite MMBasic 3.X does not attempt to resolve these hardware issues. It supports all the hardware features of the DuinoMite that can work without confusing trade-offs or by disabling important features - details are in the documentation included with the download. Other than this, the DuinoMite running MMBasic 3.X will work just the same as a standard Maximite and it makes an excellent, ready to run alternative to the Maximite kit. Open Source =========== Geoff closed his source at the V2.7a stage. I don't believe that this had anything to do with the slow development of the DuinoMite. As I say, we still have a few bugs to fix before we could call it up to the V2.7a standard. I would at this stage encourage Geoff to open his source code again, as I feel it may be damaging the progress of the Maximite. My personal view only. Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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| Bugs2 Newbie  Joined: 18/05/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 29 |
Its a pity that the Maximite project seemed to get bogged down in hardware specifics for a while. The original microcomputer format was great idea and certainly generated a lot of initial interest. However, I think what may have been overlooked was the potential for a Maximite microcontroller. A sort of update for the old Intel 8051 for those applications that need more speed, floating point maths, SD card support and maybe even graphics. Just imagine how useful the new 28-pin DIL versions of the PIC32 would be running Maximite Basic! |
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elproducts Senior Member  Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 282 |
It would be great but the 28 pin PIC32 in DIP package max out at 128k so the code won't fit without giving up a bunch of features. Geoff's Mini Maximite kind of fits what you describe. www.elproducts.com |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3801 |
The Maximite is interesting but unlike the DM does not meet my needs. Closed source also does not meet my needs so I move to C or move boards (probably both). Still, it was interesting for a while. John |
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djuqa Guru Joined: 23/11/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 447 |
The DMBasic source is still OPENsource licensed as is the original MMBasic 2.x Version. All that is happening is there is no development planned for moving the DMBasic 2.7x forward (at present) VK4MU MicroController Units |
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| Bugs2 Newbie Joined: 18/05/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 29 |
Elproducts, The PIC32 based breakout boards would find it difficult to compete with a 28-pin microcontroller on size and price. Geoff stated that the MMB core fits within a few tens of Mbytes of storage. Therefore, by dropping features like graphics, and assuming all development would be done using the USB link, it maybe possible to create a useful 28-pin microcontroller with DIL pinout. |
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| elproducts Senior Member Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 282 |
I agree. I'd love to see Maximite running on a 28 pin DIP PIC32. Geoff has told me the same thing that with removing some of the features you describe, it could possibly be done. I just don't have the time to create what you describe. But until that is created, the mini Maximite is the smallest I know of. I'd use a 28 pin PIC32 DIP Maximite in a lot of projects if it were ever created. www.elproducts.com |
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