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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Firmware Wish List
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BobDevries Senior Member  Joined: 08/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 266 |
Dave, Maybe you could amend that to read: Ability to draw elipses and arcs? If you can draw an elipse with a different height/width ratio, you can draw what appears to be a circle. The command can then be extended to include a start and end point to draw partial circles, i.e. arcs. Regards, Bob Devries Dalby, QLD, Australia |
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| Dave Everett Regular Member  Joined: 24/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 43 |
Yes that's good Bob. I really should delve into the video code and work out why the pixel size is not uniform. I am certain there is a good reason, but it would be nice to create dial indicators and other visual elements. Dave |
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donmck Guru  Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
Just had this one emailed to me: Wish 39: Upgrade the firmware from the SD card file image. and also added: Wish 40: Ability to draw elipses and arcs. http://www.themaximitecomputer.com/wish-list-priority-level- poll/ Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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Xiongmao Regular Member Joined: 25/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 48 |
It would be useful at some point to tally-up all of the wishes into a single list (and mark those already done). I suspect a number of wishes will fall into 'related groups', e.g. print formatting. This may make it clearer which areas could benefit the most from re-coding. What do you think? |
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CircuitGizmos Guru Joined: 08/09/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 1425 |
"Just had this one emailed to me: Wish 39: Upgrade the firmware from the SD card file image. " If the bootloader could load firmware from the SD card, then even hex files that are NOT MMBASIC could be loaded. Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
An interesting concept, yes? Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3194 |
The USB bootloader will already load any hex file, it is not restricted to MMBasic. The only caveat is that the hex file must be compiled to run at the same location as the bootloader will load it. This also applies to an SD card bootloader. I am not sure that there is a point in having an SD card bootloader for the Maximite. Currently all Maximites are shipped with my USB bootloader programmed into the chip (the bootloader is separate from MMBasic). To upgrade the firmware from an SD card you would need to replace it with an SD card bootloader. To do that you would need a programmer like the PICKit 3 (which only a few people have) - and if you have one of them you do not need a bootloader in the first place !! Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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| CircuitGizmos Guru Joined: 08/09/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 1425 |
I suppose that if a bootloader that will load from either the SD card or from USB were to be created (assuming it fits) then new boards could come with the new bootloader installed. An SD card bootload feature would likely come into play for a MM board that is in service away from a PC/laptop. This is nice if it happens - it would be convenient for me. I'm mainly commenting on it, not requesting it. (PAL/NTSC is something I can put to use sooner.) Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite |
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| Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3194 |
Unfortunately it would not. My USB bootloader and most other bootloaders fill the boot flash with only a few bytes to spare. Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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| CircuitGizmos Guru Joined: 08/09/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 1425 |
That is a solid 'no' then. Thanks for the answer. It makes a difference knowing there is no use asking for something that might just be impossible. Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite |
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| mookster1 Regular Member Joined: 10/06/2011 Location: New ZealandPosts: 81 |
Stuff I wish for: - End-of-file detection ("Simon says stop" at the end of a text file doesn't quite cut it in all cases) - Opening a file in BINARY mode, and the GET and PUT to go with it - USB flash drive support - Interfacing external RAM to the PIC32 The basis behind extra RAM is that while the PIC32 couldn't use it with running the MMBasic interpreter, bit-bashing on the I/O lines could let you use that RAM in your programs (i.e. less RAM on the PIC32 is allocated to string/variable storage and arrays, and more to graphics, possibly for colour.) This may only be viable for the 100-pin PIC32 if you still want some I/O pins to talk to something else, however. Capacitance is futile - roll on 2012! |
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| Talbit Senior Member Joined: 07/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 210 |
Here's a dumb question ! Is it possible to have two independent SETTICK commands running concurrently? Now that would be nice. Talbit Talbit |
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sparkey Senior Member Joined: 15/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 819 |
talbit as far as i have read on this topic you can only run one "settick statement per program if you really want the full rundown on this i would ask "gerard"seco61" he`s one of the master coders and he may have other ways around what you are trying to acommplish...regards sparkey... technicians do it with least resistance |
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| sparkey Senior Member Joined: 15/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 819 |
"mookstar1" i think that if you look back through the posts that "kdsdesign" ken was running flas drives of the usb port you may find some of his threads useful....regards sparkey... technicians do it with least resistance |
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| mookster1 Regular Member Joined: 10/06/2011 Location: New ZealandPosts: 81 |
One thing I forgot to mention that would be pretty neat is floating point (with more decimal places) available if needed (like 'DEFINE sandwiches AS DOUBLE', and just allocate more memory to the variable). The reason I mention this is that a project that I was thinking of doing was calculating sunrise and sunset times to calculate the Sun's position to aim a solar telescope at the sky, and in order to do this accurately more than 6d.p.'s are needed. I guess I could just use pre-calculated sunrise and sunset tables, and that I can just consider myself lucky that the PIC32 does any sort of floating point at all, but what's the fun in that? Capacitance is futile - roll on 2012! |
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vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
Go here and start reading from page 69. Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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| mookster1 Regular Member Joined: 10/06/2011 Location: New ZealandPosts: 81 |
Cheers vasi, I've only ever dealt with BASIC before (and am learning Java at the moment) and never used C, but will learn it. Thanks!  Capacitance is futile - roll on 2012! |
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| vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
Hi mookster, I only wanted to see the PIC32 floating point limitations , that's all. Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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| mookster1 Regular Member Joined: 10/06/2011 Location: New ZealandPosts: 81 |
In terms of floating point (in the case that the PIC32 is limited in terms of doing maths, which I guess having no FPU makes it fairly limited) I was thinking of building an external floating point unit that utilises external RAM. Basically how this would work is the Maximite stores the numbers to be crunched in external RAM (probably via a serial interface), then the floating point unit (I'm not too sure what to do here; somehow rat an old x87 Intel FPU from somewhere or use, say, another microcontroller to do the job) crunches the numbers, writes it back to RAM and triggers an interrupt to tell the Maximite that the number has been crunched. I've only used the PICAXE and programmed in BASIC before getting the Maximite so I'm for all intents and purposes a complete newbie when it comes to C so this would probably be a bit out of my reach at this stage. Capacitance is futile - roll on 2012! |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
this may give you a few clues: http://www.dontronics.com/copro.html Bear in mind, I was selling this in 1999, 12 years ago, so links etc, will be old. Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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