Guru
Joined: 16/09/2019
Location: United KingdomPosts: 4220
| Posted: 02:19pm 12 Mar 2025 |
Hi folks,
The GPIO looks very limited but I doubt Peter would find it that difficult to port MMBasic to run on it and then I suspect it will blow most home-brew Pico handhelds into next week.
https://www.clockworkpi.com/?cid=6ed6d3b8-93c8-48d0-862e-f1ad3f64dc6
Note that I "have no skin in this game".
I do have experience with their earlier DevTerm which I run MMB4L on, but that's a different kettle of fish being a full (in my case) Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 running Raspberry Pi OS.
Build quality of the latter is pretty good, delivery time was sort of ok, but there have been some stories of long waits on their forum.
Best wishes,
Tom
Guru
Joined: 11/12/2012
Location: United KingdomPosts: 9957
| Posted: 02:55pm 12 Mar 2025 |
Looks suspiciously like a pico running MMbasic or at least with remarkably similar syntax
Guru
Joined: 05/03/2018
Location: NetherlandsPosts: 4809
| Posted: 03:01pm 12 Mar 2025 |
Indeed...
Guru
Joined: 02/06/2014
Location: GermanyPosts: 1501
| Posted: 03:42pm 12 Mar 2025 |
That was my first thought too.
Guru
Joined: 16/09/2019
Location: United KingdomPosts: 4220
| Posted: 03:55pm 12 Mar 2025 |
They don't appear to have pushed any schematics or firmware/software to their https://github.com/orgs/clockworkpi/repositories yet.
Only two things really cry out MMBasic to me:
- Color RGB(128, 128, 128) ... but that is a relatively obvious construct to add.
- "PRESS ANY KEY ...", which is what MMBasic would prompt for the LIST command ... but again that's not beyond coincidence.
I'll grab some popcorn and watch with interest.
Best wishes,
Tom
Guru
Joined: 07/09/2016
Location: United KingdomPosts: 2133
| Posted: 04:07pm 12 Mar 2025 |
would be interesting to see the start-up message
Guru
Joined: 25/06/2022
Location: United KingdomPosts: 2384
| Posted: 04:16pm 12 Mar 2025 |
The i2c keyboard is interesting instead of usb. this wireless keyboard works but no fun typing anything. same for clockwork keyboard.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rii-K01X1-Mini-Wireless-Keyboard/dp/B01G6XGLQQ/ref=asc_df_B01G6XGLQQ
Guru
Joined: 31/07/2019
Location: AustraliaPosts: 547
| Posted: 04:13am 14 Mar 2025 |
Wondering about the keyboard, is it clicky-button + a membrane overlay ?
Odd that the blurb cites older Pico instead of Pico 2.
Regular Member
Joined: 29/04/2014
Location: FrancePosts: 71
| Posted: 03:53pm 14 Mar 2025 |
https://github.com/clockworkpi/PicoCalc/blob/master/Bin/PicoCalc_PicoMite_v1.0.uf2
Guru
Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New ZealandPosts: 2395
| Posted: 04:14pm 14 Mar 2025 |
the github repository also contains an MMbasic manual:
User Manual
MMBasic Ver 5.08.00
Revision 4
if it is the case that they are using modified MMbasic source code (based upon their naming of the .uf2 file as v1.0), would it be fair to say they really should be publishing said source code? i could see no sign of the source code on their github repository.
fyi, i've asked a question on github about the availability of either source code, or the portions of the source that have been modified.
cheers,
rob :-)
Guru
Joined: 11/12/2012
Location: United KingdomPosts: 9957
| Posted: 04:18pm 14 Mar 2025 |
Blatantly ignored
Guru
Joined: 29/01/2013
Location: CanadaPosts: 1119
| Posted: 04:20pm 14 Mar 2025 |
They've posted information to their Github repositories.
This includes the PicoMite user manual.
Edited 2025-03-15 02:23 by vegipete
Guru
Joined: 18/11/2011
Location: United KingdomPosts: 3979
| Posted: 04:23pm 14 Mar 2025 |
Deleted - beaten to it.
John
Edited 2025-03-15 02:24 by JohnS
Guru
Joined: 16/09/2019
Location: United KingdomPosts: 4220
| Posted: 04:31pm 14 Mar 2025 |
Let's just give them a moment, they've only just advertised its existence and started pushing to github.
Has anyone talked to them ?
Has anyone installed their firmware on a Pico and checked whether they have f**ked with the (c) message ?
Let's not jump to an assumption of evil or bad faith based on the incident with the original 'mite.
Best wishes,
Tom
Guru
Joined: 16/09/2019
Location: United KingdomPosts: 4220
| Posted: 05:10pm 14 Mar 2025 |
I would like to think we could look at this as an opportunity to add another couple of hundred software users/developers (not hardware hackers) to the MMBasic community.
It might involve a bit of tongue biting to not insinuate bad faith on their behalf but given there is no financial cost I think it is probable they can be persuaded to comply with the license terms.
Best wishes,
Tom
Edited 2025-03-15 03:15 by thwill
Senior Member
Joined: 08/06/2022
Location: AustriaPosts: 209
| Posted: 06:16pm 14 Mar 2025 |
looking at the image one easily finds the strings
PicoMite MMBasic Version 5.09.00RC5
Copyright 2011-2024 Geoff Graham
Copyright 2016-2024 Peter Mather
in the .uf2 file. So IMHO it is based on/or is MMBasic 5.09.00RC5
Guru
Joined: 11/12/2012
Location: United KingdomPosts: 9957
| Posted: 06:25pm 14 Mar 2025 |
Guru
Joined: 16/09/2019
Location: United KingdomPosts: 4220
| Posted: 06:57pm 14 Mar 2025 |
OK, so a point in their favour is they haven't filed off the copyright.
Their decision to label the utf as v1.0 probably makes sense from their side (it's the first version they've distributed) and it isn't exactly the same as the official 5.09.00RC5 because they've updated the OPTIONs ... don't know whether they've done that it in code, or more likely just grabbed an image from a configured Pico like I did for the Game*Mite.
I'm going to assume that Geoff and/or Peter are going to reach out to them to update their website/documentation to comply with the license.
Yes, they could have done better, but if I understand correctly from previously looking at their products and despite all the slickness of their website and mechanical construction they are still doing it for the love rather than the profit.
Best wishes,
Tom
Edited 2025-03-15 05:07 by thwill
Guru
Joined: 18/11/2011
Location: United KingdomPosts: 3979
| Posted: 07:25pm 14 Mar 2025 |
I get the feeling people are so used to long, complex, etc, copyright and licence notices that they often don't bother to read them.
Not good enough, obviously!
I suppose it's "never suspect malice where incompetence will do".
Akin to Tom I hope they'll be constructive and join in with all things MMBasic.
John
Guru
Joined: 06/06/2011
Location: AustraliaPosts: 3267
| Posted: 10:35pm 14 Mar 2025 |
I think that I know who is behind this. He is a brilliant engineer who designs innovative stuff (for profit) but, for some reason, believes that software (particularly MMBasic) involves zero effort and therefore should be free to use without acknowledgement.
We have had disputes in the past as he seems to like designing stuff around MMBasic - which makes it all the more strange that he views it as worthless. If he simply acknowledged the authors of the firmware then all would be good, but based on past performance, I doubt that will happen - in fact he will probably remove all reference to Peter and myself.
If you are planning on buying one of his gadgets, be aware that, in the past, he has not regarded after sales support as very important. It might look like a big enterprise, but assuming that he is who I think he is, it is just one guy who will inevitably move on to a new gadget with a different company name.
Geoff