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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : The Colour Maximite Is Released
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Geoffg Guru  Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3194 |
Finally the Colour Maximite is released after three months of development. The Colour Maximite is described in the September issue of Silicon Chip magazine which will be available from newsagents in Australia during this coming week. Early next month you should also be able to purchase the article on the Silicon Chip website and in a couple of weeks http://futurlec.com should also have this issue on sale. Part 2 of the article will be in the October issue. I have updated my website (http://geoffg.net/maximite.html) to cover both the Colour Maximite and the original (monochrome) Maximite but if you are interested in the Colour Maximite I recommend that you also read the magazine article as it provides a more complete description than my website. At this time there are no kits available but I understand that both Altronics and Jaycar will produce a kit so you just need to regularly search their sites looking for the word Maximite. You can also download the construction pack from my website, get the printed circuit board made (the design files are in the construction pack) and build your own Colour Maximite. None of the parts are propriety so you should be able to easily source them. All the details are on my website. Another alternative is to build a Colour Maximite around the UBW32 board. As you guessed... details are on my website. The new features in the Colour Maximite can be summarised as colour, stereo sound, battery backed clock and an Arduino connector. While these do not sound much they add a lot to the basic Maximite. Colour in particular makes everything far more vivid and interesting. One of the great features of this new design is that it does not remove any features of the original Maximite. It is still based on a single low cost chip, it still has the original 26 pin I/O connector (plus the Arduino connector) and, if you put it into monochrome mode, it is compatible with the monochrome Maximite including the speed and memory that is available. I hope that a lot of people have fun with it. Big thanks to Dr Kilian Singer at the University of Mainz in Germany who demonstrated that colour and sound was possible, Pascal Piazzalunga (France) who wrote the audio synthesiser, Nick Marentes (Australia) who designed the Colour Maximite logo and the BLIT/SPRITE syntax, Darthmite (France) who has put the design to the test by writing a sequence of great colour games and last but not least, the many people who built a Colour Maximite from a UBW32 and provided valuable feedback. Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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OA47 Guru Joined: 11/04/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 926 |
Thankyou Geoff and others, I have been eagerly awaiting the release. |
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djuqa Guru Joined: 23/11/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 447 |
Great news geoff on new unit and matching Firmware. Maximite.com.au will be offering an Kit Assembly service and Pre-built units for those that don't feel confident to assemble one themselves.. VK4MU MicroController Units |
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CircuitGizmos Guru Joined: 08/09/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 1425 |
CircuitGizmos will have an assembled ColorMax in surface mount. They will be available for pre-order in less than a week. Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite |
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elproducts Senior Member  Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 282 |
I'm like a kid at Christmas. This is fantastic. Maximite just got even better. I've been going through the documentation and get more excited as I read it. I am so excited to see it also include the Arduino connector in this design. I feel it makes a great connection between all the old TRS80 style BASIC programmers and the modern Arduino style plug in shield types. I continue to be amazed at your design skills Geoff. I really like the new box which I can get almost anywhere and easy modify the insert panels. I see C10 is now a surface mount. This addresses the low ESR Vcap startup issue. The SD card socket is easier to get though I could not find that part number 19607 at 4UCON. And to see the various resellers popping up is great news for the Maximite community. One suggestion for future improvement, not that it really needs any. The standard Arduino connector has PWM output on pins 3,5,6,9,10 and 11. Would it be possible to have some kind of PWM connection to those pins or at least some of them? The Arduino motor shield uses 3 and 11, while others use 5 and 6. Even a software PWM may be nice. There are several shields that rely on that feature for motor control. www.elproducts.com |
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vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
Yes, I like this new board, congratulations! Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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| Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3194 |
That might be possible but it would have to be software PWM. What would the minimum acceptable frequency be? 1KHz? 10KHz? Interestingly, I think that we are reaching the limits of what the PIC32 chip can handle. I ran into a number of timing issues related to the number of interrupts and other activity going on within the chip. For example, with colour the chip has to pump the video data out at 60 Mbits/sec while still handling the keyboard/USB/etc and running your BASIC program with synthesised music playing in the background. It is a very busy chip. Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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| djuqa Guru Joined: 23/11/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 447 |
All I can say is:- Don't be asking or be disappointed because it can't do something, BE AMAZED at what it DOES!. VK4MU MicroController Units |
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| elproducts Senior Member Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 282 |
Based on this below, 1Khz would be fine. Even 500 Hz if necessary. analogWrite() Description Writes an analog value (PWM wave) to a pin. Can be used to light a LED at varying brightnesses or drive a motor at various speeds. After a call to analogWrite(), the pin will generate a steady square wave of the specified duty cycle until the next call to analogWrite() (or a call to digitalRead() or digitalWrite() on the same pin). The frequency of the PWM signal is approximately 490 Hz. On most Arduino boards (those with the ATmega168 or ATmega328), this function works on pins 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11. On the Arduino Mega, it works on pins 2 through 13. Older Arduino boards with an ATmega8 only support analogWrite() on pins 9, 10, and 11. www.elproducts.com |
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Bill.b Senior Member Joined: 25/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 226 |
Hi Geoff Loaded Ver 4.0 into my original Altronics max Every thing OK of the first 3 seconds then it would appear that the horizontal sync is a bit haywire for about 20 sec then settles down but does not go away completely. There is a spike on all vertical lines. This is very evident when I loaded Maxman. Reloaded Ver 3.2, video worked thing OK. Bill In the interests of the environment, this post has been constructed entirely from recycled electrons. |
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Nick Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 512 |
I have installed the final 4.0 on my B/W Maximite and it works except for a very slight shimmer in the test. Almost unnoticeable. Maybe different LCD monitors? Try pressing the auto calibrate on the LCD after switching to 4.0. Nick |
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| ajkw Senior Member Joined: 29/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 290 |
Using TONE or PLAY MOD on my MM4.0 causes much screen jitter that does not stop when the TONE/MOD finishes or with their respective stop commands. I have to cycle to power to get a nice stable screen again. Anthony. |
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| Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3194 |
Both the TONE and PLAYMOD commands turn on the pulse width output on the sound output and (to avoid clicks) leave it running after. There is no software connection between the video and the pulse width output and I have a number of Maximites and DuinoMites that work fine with the TONE and PLAYMOD commands. It must be a hardware issue and I would go searching for a solder dry joint or a missing/incorrect capacitor on the power line. Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
I had some jitter when i used a breadboard ubw32 connected to a vga screen. After soldering wires with a shielding it went away. I tried to minimizes the effect on a breadboard first by having alternate ground lines between the signals, that helped a bit. Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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| ajkw Senior Member Joined: 29/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 290 |
Ok, have re-soldered all the joints and checked the caps. Still get the jitters after a playmod or tone but have found I can stop the jitters with a Sound command. I am not able to re-solder the Pic32 itself so I hope it is not a dry joint there. I also have my MM set for VGA only with the diode at the appropriate spot, does this make any difference? USB or Power Supply makes no difference. Anthony. |
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| Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3194 |
The SOUND command turns off the PWM when finished (I did not worry about clicks there) so all this proves is that somehow the PWM signal is finding its way into the video. The setup for VGA only would not cause that. It has to be something physical and to find it you will need some good old fault finding skills. Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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darthmite Senior Member Joined: 20/11/2011 Location: FrancePosts: 240 |
Hi 
I'm finally back to home and see Geoff don't wait on me for release the new ColourMM ... he he he ... Good to know that i can soon get a 'real' Maximite and put my proto like board in reserve for dangerous test 
I see some of you got video problems when using audio , here everything was ok on my UBW32 based ColourMM , nothing is shielded , just some cable put together as i show it in the 'Most ugly Maximite' thread 
You can see that all is going well on the some video i've done during the beta test. But , i have see that some interference can append in the audio output if one of the color or synch cable was too close to the audio cables. Cheers. Darth. Theory is when we know everything but nothing work ... Practice is when everything work but no one know why ;) |
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| ajkw Senior Member Joined: 29/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 290 |
Geoff/Darth, The interference on mine is also confirmed to be from the audio wiring. When I unplug my speaker the interference drops by a considerable amount but it is still present. I have previously modded my board to remove any components between the Pic and audio headers to get some volume going so I was considering reinstating things to normal tonight and retesting. There are some pictures of my MM elsewhere on the forum. Cheers, Anthony. |
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| Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3194 |
I have had one other report of something like this and it has me stumped. I have just gone over the video timing in detail using a digital oscilloscope and everything is spot on (the same as 3.2C). The only way that I can simulate a similar problem was by injecting a lot of 50Hz hum into the horiz sync but that does not explain why it changes with different versions. However it might be worth checking grounding, the VGA cable, testing a different monitor and cable, etc. One possible explanation is that 4.0 pushes the PIC32 harder and the current draw has gone up slightly. This also happened to one person in the switch over between versions 2.7 and 3.0 and the problem was tracked down to a power supply issue. I always suspect the 10uF connected to Vcap and my first action would be to replace it with a capacitor similar to that specified in the Colour Maximite. Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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| aargee Senior Member Joined: 21/08/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 255 |
Apart from checking the power supply as Geoff suggests, I'd also check where you are running your 0V or earth lines. Group the video earths to the one line and back to the 0V line and the same for the audio circuitry, try not to daisy chain the earth/0V lines from audio to video to 0V. Rob For crying out loud, all I wanted to do was flash this blasted LED. |
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