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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : DuinoMite, a Maximite Compat from Olimex
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Xiongmao Regular Member  Joined: 25/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 48 |
The Royal or the Private? |
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donmck Guru  Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
Royal, and they are a great bunch too. I had Doctor Don. 
Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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sparkey Senior Member  Joined: 15/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 819 |
i had all my work done at the royal too ...your new mite board ..is it going to be able to handle a ethernet add on regards sparkey... technicians do it with least resistance |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
should be able to handle anything that a standard Maximite handles Sparkey, however the pin allocation will be different. Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
That is not a problem. A very well designed pin allocation (in terms of usefulness and peripherals availability) can surpass any existing standard. If a Basic interpreter can offer an easy hardware peripheral access, then that one can be more successful than a more popular one with basic hardware access, and can gain the community of the last one (all important applications will be ported by users to the new Basic and hardware). Geoff can offer (and must) the right hardware platform even if will differ than the first one. Otherwise, Maximite will be obsoleted (in fact, it is already). Of course, that will depend on the success or failure of MMBasic or, eventually, Dk-Basic (which is BSD licensed) implementation on Don's/Olimex hardware. Vasi Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
Unless something way out of left field takes place and there is a change, here are the Dontronics prices for the new Olimex DuinoMite boards. http://www.dontronics-shop.com/the-maximite-computer.html Prices in AUD, USD, and Euros. Australians must add 10% GST However it may still be November-December 2011, before they are available. Boxes for the Mega boards may be delayed further, as there will be some fiddly fitting to get the laser cuts correct after the first production boards are finally available. Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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elproducts Senior Member Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 282 |
Wow, If that pricing holds I think you and Olimex will have a home run. Why buy the kit for more money when you can get an assembled unit for less. I hope they have them out before Christmas. Please let us know when you have them in stock. I'll send people your way. www.elproducts.com |
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Dinosaur Guru Joined: 12/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 311 |
Hi All Don , I think the prices are good as well. Is there any place where we can see and compare the differences between the maxiMite and the DuinoMite ? I know that is probably a bit delicate, but taking the Devil's advocate position, and looking at both, why would I buy one over the other. ? (other then Price) Regards Regards Hervey Bay Qld. |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
Eventually we hope to have some simpler look up tables which will assist greatly with the difference in the schematics, but in two words "Arduino Shield". That is why we headed in this direction. We simply made a better match of the available signals of the PIC32 to suit the "Arduino Shield". For instance, there are two real UARTS used on the DuinoMite. One connects to the shield on the pins that are allocated for the RX-TX pins. Another is available on the UEXT connector, and many boards are already available for this serial I/O connector. We have some very cheap Real Time I2C clocks on the way. MM-Basic currently bit bangs for UART operation. Provision is there now to use two real UARTs, but this will require code modifications to MM-Basic. More info on the UEXT connector in PDF format: http://olimex.com/dev/OTHER/UEXT.pdf Here is a snippet of the last email message I received from Tsvetan of Olimex: ======================================= High resolution pictures are on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/olimex/sets/72157627735411380/ I dont know if you have seen this slide http://www.slideshare.net/arduinoteam/open-source-hardware-s ummit-speech-2011?from=ss_embed page 16-17 are interesting :) I believe MaxiMite have the same potential as Arduino, next year the 1 000 000 th Arduino will be sold (not counting all clones and derivates) making this project most successful development board in history and if we can build the same community the MaxiMite could be no less successful, every day I have e-mails from all around the world asking when the boards will be available for sale and tell me how they want to connect to internet or GSM some of their projects and Basic seems to them easier to use than any other language. ========================= So far, we have had an A, B, and C revision board, trying to get this right. Hope this helps explain why we went the DuinoMite direction. Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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Bryan1 Guru Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1344 |
Wow Don, Looking at the pricing on the Olminex boards I can see what my xmas pressie will be of my young girls. I reckon I'll go for the maxi board so as soon as you get them in would mind putting one aside for me and I'll grab it the minute you say it's here. Regards Bryan |
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| elproducts Senior Member Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 282 |
[Quote]I believe MaxiMite have the same potential as Arduino, next year the 1 000 000 th Arduino will be sold (not counting all clones and derivates) making this project most successful development board in history and if we can build the same community the MaxiMite could be no less successful, every day I have e-mails from all around the world asking when the boards will be available for sale and tell me how they want to connect to internet or GSM some of their projects and Basic seems to them easier to use than any other language. [/Quote] I believe many of us feel the same way about the potential for Maximite and its ability to stand on the shoulders of the Arduino success through the various shields available. And to think 6 months ago many on this list had never heard of Arduino and now many on this list will help support the biggest competition to Arduino. As has been stated many times here, the fact you don't need a computer to program Maximite is one of it's biggest selling points over Arduino. An old CRT VGA monitor (which can be picked up anywhere practically for free) and a keyboard which can be found anywhere or even purchased new for under $5 (in USA anyway) plus your Maximite and your programming. Nothing to install, no drivers or ports to configure, just power up and go. www.elproducts.com |
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| elproducts Senior Member Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 282 |
Don, I assume this new pin allocation will require a unique MMBasic build for the new I/O structure? Will there be two versions now; one for Maximite and one for DuinoMite? If yes, Who will maintain the DuinoMite version? www.elproducts.com |
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| vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
Ken Segler of course, as is stated on the DuinoMite boards. ___________________________________________________________ It will be interesting to watch the MMBasic evolution and what decisions will take Geoff regarding to the new hardware (Maximite Mark II) considering that he is already developing on a UBW32 (100pin) hardware (I guess he will have plenty of time after launch of 2.7 version). Vasi Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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CircuitGizmos Guru Joined: 08/09/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 1425 |
How do I get in touch? Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite |
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ksdesigns Senior Member Joined: 25/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 143 |
right here |
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| CircuitGizmos Guru Joined: 08/09/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 1425 |
Ah! (Was looking through the member lists to no avail) Will send a PM. Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
Will do Bryan. Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
Yes, there will be two builds. One for MM, one for DM. It is hoped that we will release V2.7 firmware at the same time as Geoff does. After this, we envisage that there will only be minimal changes to MM-Basic as time goes by. Geoff has been very supportive of the DM boards, and has a set of prototypes in his possession. Geoff can't directly support a product that isn't his, and can't be expected to. This has been made clear right from the word go on the DuinoMite project. As the DM project is open source, the same as MM, then it is up to users to provide their own ongoing support. Ken Segler has offered to migrate the firmware across. I think he has V2.6 operating now, and it should be V2.7 sometime in November it appears. What involvement Ken has after that date is really up to him, but I know he has a very keen interest in the MM and DM boards, as he has emulated TRS-80, TRSDOS, CPM, etc, so I see his role as ongoing, but again it is up to Ken. Ken is doing this only for the enjoyment of the project, which is precisely why Geoff got into the Maximite in the first place. Being an open source software (and hardware) product, it leaves the door open for anyone to get involved and change the code to suit their requirements. After all, that is what open source is about. To summarize: DuinoMite was designed to cater for Arduino Shields on a Maximite. To do this, it was decided that the schematic needed to be changed, to produce a better match between the PIC32 I/O and the shield footprint, making the DuinoMite boards Maximite compatibles. Because it is possible at a realistic price, Olimex has added many items to the standard Maximite circuit. Much of this will not be supported in standard MM-Basic. DuinoMite MM-Basic will take some time to evolve to its full potential, however I feel most of the I/O can be bit banged initially at a speed throughput cost. And if this is not to your liking, I see the DM boards being a candidate for the Pinquino suite of C software already available for Arduino operation on the PIC32. With the projected price of the boards, I think it is hard to go too far wrong. Personal Note: I am still waiting to pass a Kidney Stone, and going into hospital tomorrow for a couple of days, for a shoulder operation. Hope I don't miss out on too much.
Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2914 |
Gday elproducts, The MMbasic DOES need to be rewritten to adjust for the physical differences so YES there will be a different hex file for the DuinoMite range. The bottom line is that the BASIC code would still run the same as the MaxiMite... i.e. Pin(1) etc performs the same way as pin(1) on MM.. so no changes needed to the basic code... Because of the extra benefits that the DM will have over the MM the reverse `may not' be the same (if the code is written to support the extra features) If Geoff (or anyone else) releases a new firmware it would need someone to `recode' it to suit the DM, Don and Olimex currently have this in control.. It `might' be possible, in the future, for some coder to simply set a compile time switch to direct the output HEX file to be either MM or DM hardware, which would make official versions immediately available for both platforms, but initially it would have to be adapted manually. Regards, Mick Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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| Bryan1 Guru Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1344 |
G'day Guy's, I was studying the DM's last night and I notice at the end of one of the headers are the ICSP pin's. Now with having that onboard the DM anyone with a pickit3 wouldn't need a bootloader as for each update just stick the pickit3 on the header and program the new hex file. While I'm on this post I seen some threads where MM has been used for RE and I feel it would be good if a new thread was made strictly to cater for RE projects. I'm quite sure when the DM's do come out if there is some ready made RE projects then the RE world will take it by storm. Once I get my DM I don't mind doing a plug on the Fieldlines Forum and hopefully the guys there will see just how good it really is. Regards Bryan |
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