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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Firmware Wish List
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stuarts Senior Member  Joined: 15/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 199 |
grrrrrrrrrrr, I vote for logical operators. Its a nightmare doing bit manipulations without. Stuart PS: forget all that, its there, I just missed it in the manual. Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. |
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| Gadget Regular Member  Joined: 22/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 70 |
i have been working on a peek and poke command, so far I have worked out how to do this to the display memory, for the main memory im not sure, but i'm thinking of leaving it at video memory and calling it vpoke and vpeek (video poke, video peek) to allow for improved graphics capability. extending this further i'm thinking of a method to grab a portion of the display and saving it to an array then being able to load this array to any point on the screen, hopefully using this i can create some nice animations and 'sprite' like effects. what are peoples thoughts. by the way i just assembled my maximite less than 1/2 hour ago, finally altronics are filling backorders |
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Nick Guru  Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 512 |
Yes! We need some direct access to video RAM and a GET/PUT command for animation. Pac-man on the Maximite anyone? :) |
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donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
Terry, I vote for vPeek and vPoke. But I can't help asking. You are into code crunching, and recompiling Geoff's original source code. And will obviously be a very valuable member of this self help group. I am wondering if our paths have crossed before. Most people are aware of, or know me, as I have been around since Charlie Chaplin was in short pants, into electronics and computers, and active since day 1 on the TRS-80 scene, but I would love to learn a little more about you. I know I popped this up in an open forum, so there is no need for a response whatsoever. Possibly unfair of me to ask, but if you don't ask, you get nothing. My grand pappy taught me that. 
Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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BobDevries Senior Member Joined: 08/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 266 |
Hey, Nick, I've started work on "Space Invaders" for MMBasic. It will take some time, though, since this is my first ever game programming project. Still, I've made a start.... Regards, Bob Devries Dalby, QLD, Australia |
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| Nick Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 512 |
That's great Bob! How are you doing the characters? MMbasic lacks any way of putting defined graphics on the screen in a fast and efficient manner. PSET is too slow for this, we need GET/PUT and DRAW commands like in Color Computer BASIC. I'm just putting the final touches on an ipod'like menu system for the MM. Nick |
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| BobDevries Senior Member Joined: 08/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 266 |
So far, I have a turret (gun) moving to keyboard control, and firing a missile. Believe it or not, I've used LINE commands to draw the turret. I used the SETTICK command to do a 10 mSec interrupt to service the missile and that will also do the alien movements. A long way to go yet :) Regards, PS: I, too am longing for the GET/PUT and other commands. Bob Devries Dalby, QLD, Australia |
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| Nick Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 512 |
The LINE (with box options) is the fastest way I found. Restricts the amount of detail though. PSET is just not fast enough. I guess the decoding of each pixel's X,Y co-ordinates in relation to the video memory is where the slow down occurs. That's why a faster way to do a bulk byte dump of video pixels is needed. The MM has the potential to do good games in BASIC if it had a few gfx commands to help. Even if the character set had a few predefined graphic objects (like the PET,C64) this would help. There's room in the character set. After my menu program, I'm thinking of having a crack at a CHIP-8 interpreter in BASIC. This will bring some memories of the Dream 6800!! :) |
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captainbill Newbie  Joined: 16/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 37 |
Howdy The wonderful trs80 ran its basic in rom. In several places it made calls into ram locations preloaded with return instructions. These hooks allowed additions to the language to be written. For example, the keyboard poll had such a had such a hook. I had added and additional bit to the character generator ram to give me upper and lower characters. I had to load the assembly routine blind each time I powered since the screen wasn't readable without the additional half dozen instructions or so. Maybe we could have hook for the MMB parse routine and also the run routine so we could roll our own instructions. There may be other useful hooks to be included. But of course we would need someone more clever than me to write an assembler for us. Bill Old school. Still interested. Head in the clouds. |
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| Gadget Regular Member Joined: 22/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 70 |
Hi Don, yes our paths have crossed before, I have ordered a few things from like the parallel port pic programmer board. I am working from re-compiling the original source code, have yet to download it into my unit, but i see there is a later rev (i was working from v2.1) so I have to start with the latest version. my first computer was the Dick Smith system 80, spent many hours (very early in the morning before school) learning the ins and out of this machine. once I have a working version I'll let everyone know, and work out where to post it. Cheers Terry |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
Sorry, we don't do refunds. 
Did you say parallel port? Must have been a while ago. And thanks for diving in Terry. I know others will assist you if they can. Good luck with it all. Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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| captainbill Newbie Joined: 16/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 37 |
Howdy With a usb hub or with a ps2 keyboard/mouse combiner cable we can have both inputs into a Maximite. We need firmware to make mouse movements available in MMB and perhaps for use in a possible full screen code editor. Might be usb mouse and ps2 keyboard. Some combination. The firmware can sort it out. Bill Old school. Still interested. Head in the clouds. |
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| BobDevries Senior Member Joined: 08/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 266 |
Actually, it would be fairly trivial to add a mouse/joystick to the Maximite. IMHO, the easiest option would be a mouse such as used on the Tandy Colour Computer, which is just a voltage divider. It should work fine on 3.3 volts. Then it would be just a maths calculation to convert from volts to the current screen resolution. Even a digital mouse should be do-able if we had a serial port, but the software is more complex. Regards, Bob Devries Dalby, QLD, Australia |
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| captainbill Newbie Joined: 16/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 37 |
Howdy The reason I would opt for a ps2 or usb mouse is because they are so readily and cheaply available. I don't exactly understand how the ps2 keyboard and mouse combine on the splitter cable. Never thought about it. Hopefully just software is required to demultiplex the signals as it was don on PCs. Bill Old school. Still interested. Head in the clouds. |
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| BobDevries Senior Member Joined: 08/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 266 |
Information about PS/2 pinout can be had here: PS/2 pinout on pinouts.ru The extra device is connected to two "spare" pins on the PS/2 socket. Regards, Bob Devries Dalby, QLD, Australia |
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sparkey Senior Member Joined: 15/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 819 |
how about a front panel switch to switch power sorce and a front panel boot lode pb switch technicians do it with least resistance |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
That is the sort of thing you can easily do yourself sparky. It really depends on how often you need to carry out these tasks. I would think the power would generally come from USB in the development mode, and external source when used as an end application. If Geoff is doing regular version upgrades, yes without it, you would need to crack open the case each time. On the Maximite SM1 we have used diodes to isolate internal and external power, so you can run one or the other, or both, without using links. Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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| captainbill Newbie Joined: 16/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 37 |
Howdy Regarding mouse support via ps2 connector, maybe a future hardware revision would connect 2 additional pic32 pins to the ps2 port so a keyboard and mouse could both be connected with a ps2 splitter cable. Firmware could then be written for ps2 or usb mouse. Bill Old school. Still interested. Head in the clouds. |
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| stuarts Senior Member Joined: 15/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 199 |
one feature I'd like to see with the addition of I2C is the ability to use it on whatever pins that the Maximite supports I2C on. This includes the pins that Richard has used on his Maximite SM1 board for the RTC that he has included on the Maximite SM1. He has used pins 4 and 5 which are unused on the original Maximite so were free to use without poaching any pins from the expansion connector. In short, I'd like to see I2C on any pins on the PIC32 that support I2C and aren't otherwise used on the Maximite. Stuart Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
Your Wish is my command: Wish 23: I2C on any pins on the PIC32 that support I2C and aren't otherwise used on the Maximite. http://www.themaximitecomputer.com/wish-list-priority-level- poll/ Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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