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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Beta Testers Wanted
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| MOBI Guru  Joined: 02/12/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 819 |
@ Geoff The eyesight is not the best these days - I guess I skipped a line or two and went straight to the list. Looks like you have an "Active Camper" They are great. I made my own to fit a tray top Colorado. Did WA and FNQ in it last year. PS - where was the gorge? Looks familiar. David M. |
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Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3196 |
Yes, it is an Active Camper and the photo was taken at Kalgan Pool in the Pilbara. If you have seen the movie "Japanese Story", that was where he dived into the pool and broke his neck. Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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| JohnL Senior Member  Joined: 10/01/2014 Location: SeychellesPosts: 128 |
Gday guys, Have been lurking for a while and hoping that Geoff would come up with the single chip MMBasic for embedded controlling applications. Well done Geoff, ('  ')
This is exactly what many of us have been waiting for. Geoff was kind enough to email me a beta testing firmware earlier today. I had some PIC32MX150F128B-I/SP chips, and I can report that firmware installed without any problems using PICKIT 3 as per Geoffs instructions. I have succesfully connected the chip to PC USB port via a cheap USB to RS232 (TTL) converter (similar to one that Geoff has listed in instructions). Appears to be communicating OK with Tera Term and Putty terminals. Inbuilt Editor appears to function OK. But as others have said, external editor (MMEdit) with download provision would be a great addition. Will do more testing in due course. Once again Thanks Very Much Geoff, keep up the great work. Best Regards to Mick and hope you get well soon. |
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| paceman Guru Joined: 07/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1329 |
Hi Geoff, as Grog's said, this has got to be a a major challenge to Picaxe - all of MMBasic's capability on a $3.60 PIC32 DIP chip with low power (battery) capability. As far as needing a PicKit 3 to set it up goes, I can't see that that should be a big problem - clone's are available on e-Bay for $30 and the loading procedure is pretty hassle free. I have a PicKit 3 and would be happy to do some testing although my programming capability is pretty amateur. I guess it would be possible to set it up on the GPS Tracker 250 chip? And Mick - as the others have said - good luck with your problem, I was wondering recently why we hadn't heard from you for a while. With a bit of luck the heart bit may not be a big issue but as someone who has had a couple of stents and four pacemaker/defibs in the past twelve years I can tell you it hasn't been that bad. I can't play squash anymore but function pretty normally otherwise. Greg |
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MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
And here i was thinking that it was an old post asking for beta testers for the CMM version. WOW, impressive production rate, puts to shame many software companies. The small chip will open lots of new possibilities. Don't have time to beta test unfortunately, currently very busy opening a makerspace and i have exactly 4 days to be ready. 
Once that is done i am sure that members would jump on this, i will surely promote it, i will have a few MMBasic's on display. Frankly MMBasic is the best place to start learning how to program microcontrollers, PIcaxe, Arduino and raspberry pi are completely blown away. Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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jman Guru Joined: 12/06/2011 Location: New ZealandPosts: 711 |
This is FANTASTIC can hardly wait to try this out Well done Geoff Those of you with a PicKit2 will also be able to program these chips Pic32Prog Regards John |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3816 |
Presumably yet another version (er, sorry! I mean one day not right now) would work on boards like ones used for Pinguino project - Pinguino32 etc? Actually they make some DIY ones too incl an MX250 I think. John |
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9308 |
Not to speak ill of PICAXE, as I have used heaps of them over the years, and they really are a great product for what they do, but an MM version of the same kind of embedded controller concept is a really beaut idea from Geoff. I was just suggesting that he did not have a Christmas, cos he spent all of the last month or two squeezing MMBasic into the chip for the Beta testing, if I may paraphrase his first post a little for a moment... 
But the fact that the new MM chip will be 28-pin DIL, and have 40KB of memory for programs and data vs the 2KB/4KB of the PICAXE is really amazing, and a great selling point - tons of program space. Even the more juicy of the PICAXE chips(any of the X2 series and the big-momma - the 40-pin X2) have only 4KB of program memory. Well, they do have "Slots", allowing more then one program to be stored, and you can flip between them, so I suppose you could argue that the X2 parts have a total of 16KB of program space, but you cannot write a single code larger then any one slot, and that limits you to 4KB. With the new MM beast Geoff has come up with, 40KB is standard - ten times the memory of the X2 PICAXE chips, and it can be all one code. 
OK, OK - if you take the PICAXE slots into account, that's 16KB vs 40KB - still two and a half times as much memory as the X2's and only about quarter the price. ...to say nothing of the super fast speed of the MM beast. PICAXE is 8MHz standard for the X2's, although you can ramp them up in speed too if you need to. Don't want to be too mean to the PICAXE chips - they have served me well. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2914 |
Geoff, Is there a possibility that there might be a version in a smaller 8pin (or 14,16pin) pic chip? I can see small building block 1 purpose `mechano' type possibilities.. i.e. This pic handles comms to a PC, This Pic will talk to an LCD, This Pic can drive a relay bank, this pic can read a keypad. etc etc. I understand that some application probably will lend themselves more to C based code but sometimes an application might just need to do a simple task and if there is a small package .. all the better. Not that it will always be practical for a big bunch of small pics but sometimes it can be useful. Regards, Mick PS. Thanks for all the good wishes, I have had a bypass (3way) and a stent in the past and basing on past experiences this is not as bad and I suspect another stent will be in order, well I hope that is all... Thanks again. Mik Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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| Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3196 |
Answering some questions: Yes, it will run on the same chip as used in the GPS Tracker project (although with only 17 I/O pins). Probably not. It was a huge squeeze getting it into the 28 pin 150/250 series of chips and the smaller chips just don't have the capacity. Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9308 |
Nice to see you on the forums, Mick.
I SUSPECT that the lightest version of the PIC32 is a 28-pin device. I imagine that the idea of having a 32-bit processor on a package with a small number of pins is not practical. My 2c only - I may be totally wrong, but Geoff would be able to say for sure. EDIT: He did in the above post! At the price of the 28-pin device, you could still do what you were talking about, but just with the 28-pin device for each of those tasks you mentioned - provided there was physical space for the IC, I guess. EDIT: ...and with Microchip producing all their chips in just about any footprint you can think of, there is a SOIC version of this chip available, which is only 7.5mm wide by 17.9mm long - small enough to fit in just about anything(if the full-size DIL is too big), yet not so small as being hard to solder, as SOIC has pin spacing of 1.27mm, which is solderable by most people competent with a soldering iron.  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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elproducts Senior Member Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 282 |
With micromite using serial to communicate, I'm thinking an Arduino shield would be great for this. 
(Concept design) Just plug it into your color maximite and one maximite can program another through serial connection. 
(Replace demo-shield with programming shield) All we would need is a terminal program to run on the main maximite. Any reasons why this idea wouldn't work? www.elproducts.com |
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James_From_Canb Senior Member Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 265 |
I can see the advantage of mounting the micromite on a board so it could use Arduino shields. Is the aim of the above to replace a PC with a colour maximite for communicating with the micromite? If it is, what would be the advantage? My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention. Hedley Lamarr, Blazing Saddles (1974) |
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| elproducts Senior Member Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 282 |
Yeah, Exactly. What would be the disadvantage? The PC just acts as a terminal where the Maximite could be used to directly develop your code using its vast amount of I/O and easily save and merge sections of proven code via SD card plus you'll have extra pins for potential real time debugging (such as LCD or displaying run time data on VGA screen) and then when the design is proven, easily move it to a small chip with the plug in programming shield. It's a similar approach to the way Geoff describes the Maximite Mini. And do it all without ever touching a PC. It's a nice option to have in my mind. Plus schools can teach programming with a low cost Maximite computer rather than a series of more expensive PCs. Each kid can probably have there own Maximite vs sharing a PC. www.elproducts.com |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9308 |
That's certainly an option, if it is easy enough to do, and you have lots of chips you need to reprogram. I remember a thing called a Smartloader that came with about 100 TV sets we installed in a floor of a hotel. You'd set the smartloader up with one TV, then use the smartloader to copy the settings to each of the other TV sets. Allows quick and easy setting of things like hotel-mode and such. So there is certainly a time where that kind of thing is useful. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2914 |
Lads, If its just for multi programming I think this might suit the job Ebay Link Whilst it doesnt actually have a 28pin socket I believe (Not 100% sure) that they can be programmed in the 40pin socket. If you dont have a pickit3 the package can be bought fairly cheaply also. See Ebay link Regards, Mick Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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| hitsware Guru Joined: 23/11/2012 Location: United StatesPosts: 535 |
Does it have the hardware uart like the Duinomite ? I.E. serout @ 31250 baud for Midi .......... Actually that would be nice on the ColorMaximite too ... :) |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9308 |
Yes. According to the manual Geoff sent me along with the Beta firmware. [quote]COM1: is implemented using the onboard UART in the PIC32 while COM2: is implemented in software and therefore cannot run as fast. The maximum speed for both COM ports is limited by the CPU's speed as listed below (the CPU speed can be changed with the CPU SPEED command)[/quote] The manual goes on to state that the maximum baud rate of the hardware UART is 230400 baud, and the maximum of the software COM port is 19200 baud. Both of these speeds assume you are running the device at 40MHz. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| hitsware Guru Joined: 23/11/2012 Location: United StatesPosts: 535 |
Nifty ! 2 channels TONE and PWM ? (like ColorMaximite) |
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BobD Guru Joined: 07/12/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 935 |
Mick The 40 pin sockets look to be 0.6 inches wide. The 28 pin PDIP version of the PIC32MX150/250 is 1.4 x 0.3 inches. It's narrow. |
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