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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : ColorMax Pre-order

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CircuitGizmos

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Joined: 08/09/2011
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Posted: 05:06am 13 Nov 2012
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  Lopezjm2001 said  
I am expecting that the price of the case will also be about the same price as the delivery to Australia. I would have liked to have been able to have ordered the PCB complete with case. I will probably end up paying more taking the cost of two separate deliveries into account despite your discount.


I'm open to suggestions to make this better.

Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite
 
James_From_Canb

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Joined: 19/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 265
Posted: 02:22pm 13 Nov 2012
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Well, the obvious solution is to wait until the case is available and ship the case and board together. That means a longer wait but lower total delivery cost.

If you want access to the board ASAP, grit your teeth and accept the extra cost of two deliveries.

A left field solution would be to bulk ship to one address in a city and everyone from that city picks up the case from the addressee (or a nearby coffee shop or restaurant). The shipping cost would be lower but replaced by travel costs. An advantage is that it would be a good excuse for users to meet each other.

James

My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention.

Hedley Lamarr, Blazing Saddles (1974)
 
CircuitGizmos

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Posted: 02:35pm 13 Nov 2012
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  James_From_Canb said  
A left field solution would be to bulk ship to one address in a city and everyone from that city picks up the case from the addressee (or a nearby coffee shop or restaurant). The shipping cost would be lower but replaced by travel costs. An advantage is that it would be a good excuse for users to meet each other.


Problem solved! I'll just ship everything to Melborne and y'all can drive there and pick it up. Shouldn't be more than a 15 minute car trip across the island. Right?

(Don McKenzie and I have for years had a running joke about some people's perception of Australia as a small island. That was for him.)

I don't even need to be aware of grouping, if anyone wants to get together in OZ and do that. If it is an order of 4 to one address to save costs and you split it to save money, that is groovy.
Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite
 
BobD

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Joined: 07/12/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 935
Posted: 03:48pm 13 Nov 2012
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Melborne for me, just 300km south down the road and the trip to see James in Canberra about 450 heading north. Not far away on this small island.
 
CircuitGizmos

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Posted: 04:29pm 13 Nov 2012
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  BobD said   Melborne for me, just 300km south down the road and the trip to see James in Canberra about 450 heading north. Not far away on this small island.


A km is something like a yard, so that isn't far at all!
Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite
 
Gizmo

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Posted: 05:10pm 13 Nov 2012
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Kilo = 1000

So 1km its more like 1000 yards

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now.
JAQ
 
James_From_Canb

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Joined: 19/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 265
Posted: 05:13pm 13 Nov 2012
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  CircuitGizmos said  
(Don McKenzie and I have for years had a running joke about some people's perception of Australia as a small island. That was for him.)


At least you didn't say we were Austria. That's another Australian running joke about the level of understanding that some US citizens have about geography outside the USA.
My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention.

Hedley Lamarr, Blazing Saddles (1974)
 
Wombat

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Joined: 27/05/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 72
Posted: 07:46pm 13 Nov 2012
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You can put me down for 2 in Melbourne.

Great idea and solution!

Russ

 
CircuitGizmos

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Posted: 04:44pm 14 Nov 2012
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Remember in Star Wars one of the characters saying in a menacing voice the phrase:

"Fully armed and operational battle station!"

Well it has been reported to me that production and shipping of CGCOLORMAX1 is armed and fully operational. Muwah-ha-haaa!

OK perhaps that shouldn't be so menacing.

But we are smoothly producing and shipping these. We are caught up on all orders now. Everything ordered has shipped.

So this pre-order price for TBS members? It will go away Friday evening or Saturday morning. Last chance for the fine people here to order at $49.99 US.
Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite
 
darthmite

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Joined: 20/11/2011
Location: France
Posts: 240
Posted: 01:31pm 23 Nov 2012
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I get mine yesterday ,
All is working as expected , i put the firmware v4.0b and start.
All my games are starting (no joystick or potentiometer) connected
actually for test the games itself.
Good work Gizmos

Cheers.
Theory is when we know everything but nothing work ...
Practice is when everything work but no one know why ;)
 
mariae71

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Joined: 22/08/2012
Location: Sweden
Posts: 43
Posted: 01:38pm 23 Nov 2012
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Lucky you, cannot wait until I get mine... :)
2 x DuinoMite Mega
1 x DuinoMite eMega
 
jman

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Joined: 12/06/2011
Location: New Zealand
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Posted: 04:20pm 23 Nov 2012
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Got mine today

Great work

Jman
 
CircuitGizmos

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Posted: 04:23pm 23 Nov 2012
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It shouldn't be long. All pre-order shipping was complete last week. France is a little over a week, Australia is about two.

Thanks for the report, Darth!
Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite
 
Zonker

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Joined: 18/08/2012
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Posted: 03:12pm 24 Nov 2012
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ColorMax Board and Monkey Box recieved Ok...

I got a 26 pin RA IDC connector and DC power jack fitted ok. Box looks good, but I need to expand the slot in back to fit-up the I/O connector (hello Mr. File)...

I did notice one thing, the RTC seems to not be responding... I did a firmware update to v4.0B to see if that would help, but no go... I remember reading on the forum that if the RTC battery is run down, the IC would not work properly, so I pulled the coin cell out and found that it is showing 2.88v.. maybe not enough to work right. I will try getting a new one and test it again. If OK, it should show up on the boot screen.

Thanks again for the nice toys..!!
 
paceman
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Joined: 07/10/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 1329
Posted: 10:28pm 26 Nov 2012
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  CircuitGizmos said   It shouldn't be long. All pre-order shipping was complete last week. France is a little over a week, Australia is about two.


Hi CG,

Received my board yesterday - it looks great - no box yet but I ordered that a bit later.
I soldered on the barrel connector and MMBasic V4 fired up nicely with a 9v supply and the VGA was rock solid - lovely colours with the demo programs. There are a couple of strange things though that are probably to do with MMBasic.

1. The first time I tried it using the USB supply but it didn't fire up. It's been fine on both 9v Vin and USB since though - maybe I didn't push the mini-USB plug fully home - the socket is tight (but not as tight as the PS2 socket).

2. I input date and time several times and each time powered down then back up but I couldn't get the RTC to hold date/time when it re-powered up. I powered down, removed the battery and checked voltage - it was 3.1v so I assumed that was OK. I put it back in again and this time it did hold the date/time properly after power down/up and then did so several more times till I powered down and went to bed.

3. This morning I decided to re-flash with V4.0B. I soldered on the pins (carefully!), put the jumper on, re-flashed with V4.0B. Everything came back up nicely - except the white screen characters are a bit fuzzy now and have a red front edge (one pixel but the full height of the character) on most of the left quarter of the screen. The red edge then tends to be white then blue across the screen. I ran the Colour-2 program and the colours mostly seem to all have a different coloured edge.

4. I checked the RTC again (still on V4.0B) and now it doesn't hold date/time again on power down/up. I thought maybe it was V4.0B so re-flashed back to V4 but unlike last night it now doesn't hold date/time on power down/up on V4. I powered down and removed the battery then put it back in (thinking it was maybe a reset thing in the 1307) but it still won't hold date/time.
It also now doesn't display the date/time under the Maximite logo as it did when the RTC was holding up OK after power down/up last night - neither with V4 nor V4.0B

4. The screen text with V4 though is now back to nice and crisp with no coloured edges as with V4.0B - looks like there may be a timing issue or something there with V4.0B.

MMIDE (latest)

As you mentioned, there's a problem with uploading files with MMIDE using XMODEM - the rest works fine though.

I'll connect the sound pins tomorrow - should be fun!

Greg
 
mariae71

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Joined: 22/08/2012
Location: Sweden
Posts: 43
Posted: 06:26am 27 Nov 2012
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I got mine yesterday, have only soldered the screw terminal and then tested that the board startup via usb. It's work so everything is super awesome. Thanks CircuitGizmos! :)
2 x DuinoMite Mega
1 x DuinoMite eMega
 
CircuitGizmos

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Posted: 09:09am 27 Nov 2012
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Zonker: "I need to expand the slot in back to fit-up the I/O connector (hello Mr. File)..."

Buyer beware. Yeah my monkey WAS drunk.

"so I pulled the coin cell out and found that it is showing 2.88v"

Lower than I would like to see. Perhaps there was a bad batch of batteries. I'm making notes for rev 2 of the ColorMax and I would like to fit a bigger battery onto the board.
Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite
 
CircuitGizmos

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Posts: 1425
Posted: 09:24am 27 Nov 2012
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  paceman said  
Received my board yesterday - it looks great - no box yet but I ordered that a bit later.
I soldered on the barrel connector and MMBasic V4 fired up nicely with a 9v supply and the VGA was rock solid - lovely colours with the demo programs. There are a couple of strange things though that are probably to do with MMBasic.


All ColorMaxs should be finding their way to their owners by now.


  paceman said  
1. The first time I tried it using the USB supply but it didn't fire up. It's been fine on both 9v Vin and USB since though - maybe I didn't push the mini-USB plug fully home - the socket is tight (but not as tight as the PS2 socket).


Perhaps that was it. I'll keep an eye open for connector troubles.

(I already dislike the VGA connector. Doesn't feel deep enough to me.)


  paceman said  
2. I input date and time several times and each time powered down then back up but I couldn't get the RTC to hold date/time when it re-powered up. I powered down, removed the battery and checked voltage - it was 3.1v so I assumed that was OK. I put it back in again and this time it did hold the date/time properly after power down/up and then did so several more times till I powered down and went to bed.


Hmmm. Second report of RTC problems. Thank you - I'll keep an eye on things. I'll test more here.


  paceman said  
3. This morning I decided to re-flash with V4.0B. I soldered on the pins (carefully!), put the jumper on, re-flashed with V4.0B. Everything came back up nicely - except the white screen characters are a bit fuzzy now and have a red front edge (one pixel but the full height of the character) on most of the left quarter of the screen. The red edge then tends to be white then blue across the screen. I ran the Colour-2 program and the colours mostly seem to all have a different coloured edge.


Now I see this, too. Has to be firmware. Timing problems with 4.0B?


  paceman said  
4. I checked the RTC again (still on V4.0B) and now it doesn't hold date/time again on power down/up. I thought maybe it was V4.0B so re-flashed back to V4 but unlike last night it now doesn't hold date/time on power down/up on V4. I powered down and removed the battery then put it back in (thinking it was maybe a reset thing in the 1307) but it still won't hold date/time.
It also now doesn't display the date/time under the Maximite logo as it did when the RTC was holding up OK after power down/up last night - neither with V4 nor V4.0B


I wonder if there are not startup issues with the RTC chip. Perhaps timing on powerup or something.


  paceman said  
MMIDE (latest)

As you mentioned, there's a problem with uploading files with MMIDE using XMODEM - the rest works fine though.

I'll connect the sound pins tomorrow - should be fun!

Greg


I hope to visit MMIDE3 this weekend.

Sound is fun!

Thank you so very much for the feedback!
Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite
 
hitsware
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Joined: 23/11/2012
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Posts: 535
Posted: 03:27am 28 Nov 2012
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Got mine up and running. Thank You Mr. Gizmo !
Great ! I've been looking for something like this for years :)

> I already dislike the VGA connector. Doesn't feel deep enough to me

The screws on my (Compaq) monitor connector don't reach the holes.

> Sound is fun!

Yes ! That's my main use. I was hoping for PWM on one channel while
TONE on the other, but can't have everything.

> I'm making notes for rev 2 of the ColorMax and I would like to fit
> a bigger battery onto the board.

Does the battery do anything except record the time of day ?

I'm missing ~ 1 pixel on the left side of the screen and my monitor
won't adjust it out (as mentioned somewhere) (unless I'm missing
something) ?



 
CircuitGizmos

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Posted: 08:41am 28 Nov 2012
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  Quote   The screws on my (Compaq) monitor connector don't reach the holes.


I think what is needed are the hex standoffs that are typically used with VGA connectors.

  Quote   Does the battery do anything except record the time of day ?


The battery preserves time and date through a power loss.

  Quote   I'm missing ~ 1 pixel on the left side of the screen and my monitor
won't adjust it out (as mentioned somewhere) (unless I'm missing
something) ?


I don't have an answer for that. I've been able to adjust.
Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite
 
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