TheBackShed.com

Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : The Maximite

Page 3 of 3

Author

Message

Bryan1

Guru

Joined: 22/02/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 1395

Posted: 11:36am 06 Jun 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

G'day guy's,
Well after hand drill bit in and broke one of my fingers today it does look like I have some time to get my Maximite board finished. I just need to get the mini sd card dongle out of an old mp4 player and hash up a usb hack then I'm ready to load up the firmware. By using the kiwacan 64/80 pin board and the proto board above I still have plenty of room to add circuits if and when they are needed. Having a few old computers here turned out to be a bonus as the header wire thats used on the front panel are purfect for jumper wires. I'll see how I go tomorrow and hopefully I can get it going.

Cheers Bryan

vasi

Guru

Joined: 23/03/2007
Location: Romania
Posts: 1697

Posted: 01:02pm 06 Jun 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

You know what is amazing at this board (comparing to ZX-Spectrum and other old 8bit personal computers)? It is ONE chip computer! No RAM chips, no video-RAM chips, no peripheral chip, no EPROM, etc.
It is a little BASIC computer, with an wonderful extra: a simple interface to peripherals (again, compared to the old computers).

I tried in the past to build an ZX_Spectrum compatible (COBRA 2, never completed but I still have some components as Z80 CPU, Z80 PIO, 8255, etc.) and I know the difference.

VasiEdited by vasi 2011-06-07

Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton
Elvish name: Mablung Miriel
Beyound Arduino Lang

VK4AYQ
Guru

Joined: 02/12/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 2539

Posted: 01:05pm 06 Jun 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Hi Bryan

Watch out for the high tech tools coming from China you cant trust them. or for that matter a mans best friend can sometimes cause computer problems also.

Wife on a spring cleaning spree without her glassed on is also a hazard to to the construction of small electronic projects. So make sure all is finished before spring.

All the best

Bob

Foolin Around

Xmaswiz
Regular Member

Joined: 14/04/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 69

Posted: 03:44pm 06 Jun 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

VK4AYQ said Hi Bryan

Watch out for the high tech tools coming from China you cant trust them. or for that matter a mans best friend can sometimes cause computer problems also.

Wife on a spring cleaning spree without her glassed on is also a hazard to to the construction of small electronic projects. So make sure all is finished before spring.

All the best

Bob

too funny

Santa Maria, CA.
Noel

Geoffg

Guru

Joined: 06/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 3269

Posted: 08:51am 07 Jun 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Bryan1 said G'day guys,
It does look from the maximite schematic the card detect is grounded when the card is present, is this correct ?

Yes, correct. +3.3V = no card. 0V = card inserted.

Geoff

Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net

Talbit
Senior Member

Joined: 07/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 210

Posted: 12:13pm 07 Jun 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Geoff,
I recon there is an error in the circuit for the 16 * 2 LCD display. Line 10160 has it right - pins 13 to 16 are D4 to D7 but the circuit is the wrong way around. The program seems to support line 10160.
The Maximite is a great unit.
Regards
Talbit

Talbit

Geoffg

Guru

Joined: 06/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 3269

Posted: 12:09am 08 Jun 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Talbit said I recon there is an error in the circuit for the 16 * 2 LCD display. Line 10160 has it right - pins 13 to 16 are D4 to D7 but the circuit is the wrong way around. The program seems to support line 10160.

Yes, you are right - pin 13 goes to D4, 14 to D5, etc.
Thanks for the advice and I will fix the documentation ASAP
Geoff

Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net

rhamer
Senior Member

Joined: 06/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 174

Posted: 02:38am 08 Jun 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Hi everybody,

Just letting you know that V2 of the maximite expander is on it's way soon.

This version has the hardware to support RS232 when the firmware is updated.

More info at www.hamfield.com.au

Cheers

Rohan

Rohan Hamer
HAMFIELD Software & Hardware Solutions

Makers of the Maximite Expander.

http://www.hamfield.com.au

BobDevries

Senior Member

Joined: 08/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 266

Posted: 12:28am 10 Jun 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Hmm, I'm not sure what the protocol is for posting MMBASIC programmes here. Do I just include them in-line? I've just done a conversion from QBasic of an analog clock, and in the process discovered what may be a bug.

The unary negate does not appear to work. If I have this in my code:

Hr = -COS(angle)

the result is always 0 (actually -0)

If I change it to:

Hr = 0 - COS(angle)

it works as expected.

Regards,

Bob Devries
Dalby, QLD, Australia

Gizmo

Admin Group

Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: Australia
Posts: 5111

Posted: 02:03am 10 Jun 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

The forum has a function for displaying code. At the bottom of the reply window you'll see a link called Forum Codes. Its will display all the functions you can use within your post. The Code dunction lools like this

10 for I=1 to 10
20 print I
30 next I

Glenn

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

BobDevries

Senior Member

Joined: 08/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 266

Posted: 07:29am 12 Jun 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Yet another MMBasic command suggestion.....

I think that a COLOUR command would be useful.

Before everyone flames me because we don't have any colours, even with just colour 0 for black and colour 1 for white it could be useful.

I'm sure it would need a major revision of the code to implement this, since every command which puts something on the screen would be affected.

What it would allow, for instance, is to print in black characters on a white background, something which is not currently possible.

Regards,

Bob Devries
Dalby, QLD, Australia

Geoffg

Guru

Joined: 06/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 3269

Posted: 11:38am 12 Jun 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Hi Bob,

I was planning a FONT command. It would allow you to select a number of fonts of various sizes and also background colour (0 or 1) and foreground colour (same) and underline and anything else that I can fit in (blinking might be a bit hard).

I believe the larger fonts would be useful to someone building an embedded Maximite project with a small (say 3.5in screen) as they would not be able to read the normal font.

I have not checked how MSBasic did it (perhaps with a COLOUR command) but it would be hard to keep compatible as it did not have selectable fonts.

Also, thanks for the unary negate bug report. I will add it to the list.

Ah, so much to so and so little time !!!

Geoff

Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net

Geoffg

Guru

Joined: 06/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 3269

Posted: 12:20pm 12 Jun 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

The unary negate bug was easily fixed. So easy that it has left me worrying that it was too easy (what I have missed?)

You can try out the fix in yet another bug fix update:
http://geoffg.net/Downloads/Maximite/Maximite_Update_V2.3C.z ip

At this rate we will reach the suffix 'Z' before I can get out a proper 2.4 release.

Geoff

Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net

VK6MRG

Guru

Joined: 08/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 347

Posted: 02:10pm 13 Jun 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Quick question,
what is the difference between the 64 pin version and the 100 pin version and the 121 pin version of the PIC32MX795F512 chip?
Could a miximite be made with the 100 or 121 pin version assumming that it has more I/O pins?
Maybe give the maximite colour vga without taking up I/O's that could be used for other jobs.
I will print out the PICMX5XX/6XX/7XX Family Data Sheet and have a read (256 pages)

, so it may take me a while to find out the answer.

VK6MRG
Matthew

Its easier to ask forgiveness than to seek permission!

............VK6MRG.............VK3MGR............

vasi

Guru

Joined: 23/03/2007
Location: Romania
Posts: 1697

Posted: 07:46pm 13 Jun 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

I guess you only need to take a look at pinout diagram.

Vasi

Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton
Elvish name: Mablung Miriel
Beyound Arduino Lang

VK4AYQ
Guru

Joined: 02/12/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 2539

Posted: 02:44am 14 Jun 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Hi Guys

Have fun but don't get frustrated

All the best

Bob

Foolin Around

BobDevries

Senior Member

Joined: 08/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 266

Posted: 09:43pm 14 Jun 2011

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Here's a screen dump of the analog clock programme which I'm porting to the maximite.

Regards,

Bob Devries
Dalby, QLD, Australia

Page 3 of 3

Print this page

To reply to this topic, you need to log in.