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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : PIC32MZ and the Maximite
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| pito Newbie  Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: Posts: 25 |
Why do you insist on Harmony for MZ? There are other mips compilers available as well. |
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| JohnS Guru  Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4038 |
Without working silicon and at a daft price even for dev/eval boards, who cares about Harmony? Microchip need to get with it. Currently looks like Intel 432 or Itanium - utter disasters. John |
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Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3285 |
Harmony is not a compiler, it is a library of routines and device drivers for interfacing to the hardware components built into the chip. The PIC32MZ is a very complex device and you need this support to use most of the built in features. Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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Eugeneo Newbie Joined: 12/04/2015 Location: CanadaPosts: 20 |
Hi guys, Loaded Harmony a few days ago. Seems like a pretty steep learning curve. Bought a copy of AutoTRAX Dex. I'm trying to learn how build something with the MZ. I don't know what yet but it seems like a lot of fun. All that hardware is making this 24F controller guy drool.  Can I try the re-write of MMBasic? |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4038 |
Have a Search for the post, I guess Harmony should find it, but as I recall Geoff abandoned it. Your best bet is maybe the STM32 family instead. John |
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| Eugeneo Newbie Joined: 12/04/2015 Location: CanadaPosts: 20 |
Yup, he did mention that in his earlier posts but I'm still up for the challenge. Sounds like a great learning experience. |
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geraldfryjr Regular Member  Joined: 02/03/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 61 |
I just got a 32MZ2048!!! It would be great to see MMB ported to it even if it doesn't produce its own video!! jer  Keep on DIYin' !!!  |
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| Eugeneo Newbie Joined: 12/04/2015 Location: CanadaPosts: 20 |
jer, I've been slowly going through the Harmony framework. Wanna start a RTOS port me?  Can do like 640x480 in 256 colors with 308KB ram. |
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| geraldfryjr Regular Member Joined: 02/03/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 61 |
I have just recently started looking at the RTOS system and I think that it would be great!!! I am always up for a good project. My only fallback is that I am just now only starting to grasp the very basics of C programming , Hardware I have no issues with. I tried to follow along with the ARMmite project but I got behind with it because the work wasn't targeted for the STM32f4Discovery board that I do have (STM32f429Discovery). Mine has the TFT LCD already installed on it rather than trying to add one later. Anyhow I will get it working sometime as there are a few version's that are working just for that board. I just got the 32MZ2048 chips last week so I have yet to start on a board for it. I plan on making the Maximite First and then making a few adapter boards to try out some of the many 64 and 80 pin QFP Pic's that I do have. So, if this project does get under way you can count me in and I will help with what ever I can in testing or maybe some board design if I have enough time for it. jer :) Keep on DIYin' !!! |
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| Eugeneo Newbie Joined: 12/04/2015 Location: CanadaPosts: 20 |
Sounds great! Just thought we could start bouncing some ideas back and forth. Here's kind of what I was thinking for the color output hardware. Instead of going with a voltage divider and 3 opamps, why not go with 8 bit color using one 8 bit port with different types of diodes. 
We may need to 'tune' the resistors a bit. Let me know if you think this will work or not. |
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kiiid Guru Joined: 11/05/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 671 |
Just a suggestion: in 8-bit colour systems usually the mapping for RGB is 3-3-2, not 3-2-3, because the human eye is much more sensitive to green shades compared to blue. Then your resistor values are not correct in these figures. 120 ohm is too low (will generate 27.5mA load on the port), the rest should not be equal, but increasing my times two. Also the lowest value must be on the highest order bit. You could try these values: 2k/1k/510R for red and green, and 1k/510R for blue. Different diodes - personally I don't see any benefit, only risks. http://rittle.org -------------- |
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| geraldfryjr Regular Member Joined: 02/03/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 61 |
I think 8 bit is fine be it 256 color or 8 color 3 Bit style. I was thinking a 12 bit 4096 color system would be cool (providing there is enough memory and it is capable of such a format). High speed DAC's opamp's and/or resistors aren't an issue with me. My thinking with the purposed 640x480 256 color format to be composite video compatible even though that format is on its way out. I still have plenty of high qaulity TV's lying around here that need to be put to use!! For that format All you need I think is a 8 bit DAC and provide the Colorburst on the horizontal pulse as normal and you will have 256 color Composite video. Personally I would like to see 3 X 4bit format (4096 color) if it is possible this would also be very easy to implement to a VGA monitor. But what ever you should decide to use let me know, and I will try add it to the demo board when I start on it. Basically I am just planning on making a QFP carrier board with solder pads for the I/O connections and later when a working circuit evolve's as a whole then a complete board can be drawn up from that. This is basically how I am going to build my version of the Maximite anyhow. Then any of the component sections can just be added at will benchtop style. This will make it easier should an I/O section have to be moved to a different set of GPIO pins. jer :) Keep on DIYin' !!! |
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| geraldfryjr Regular Member Joined: 02/03/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 61 |
The Chip I have is a 100 pin version, the PIC32MZ2048ECG100-I/PF. Cheers !! jer Keep on DIYin' !!! |
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| Eugeneo Newbie Joined: 12/04/2015 Location: CanadaPosts: 20 |
Great input guys! We can go with 12 bit color but the memory requirements /DMA or parallel port output maybe an issue. I'll take a closer look and see if we can do. 640x480x12bit color is going to use 460.8k memory - how are we going to split the 12 bits. We would have to use an interrupt and reconstruct each byte. 
Any thoughts on this? If we went with a quad op-amp the output voltage would be more accurate. It does add an extra IC. Is it worth it? Good thoughts on the 3-2-3 color eye sensitivity. Here's a 3-3-2 color scheme. 
Power supply thoughts - We can do a sub 50 cent MC34063 switching regulator. It's a bipolar driver, but still much better than a 7805. Do you guys think this is overkill? Add host mode USB MMBasic commands (Harmony does have these built in features)? Anybody using AutoTrax EDA? (V4.05.81) Cheers! |
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| Eugeneo Newbie Joined: 12/04/2015 Location: CanadaPosts: 20 |
Have you fired that beast up yet? 
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9593 |
...just a very gentle reminder, that if you are going to spend any serious effort here to port MMBASIC to this chip, you will need Geoff's approval as per the conditions of his license. You may have already contacted him, in which case, you can totally ignore me. 
However, if you have not contacted him....... If you are doing a page-1 re-write and not using any of Geoff's code, and not going to call it a "Maximite" or "MMBASIC", then you are free to do whatever you like.
NOT trying to start a flame-war or anything like that, just making sure that I understand your work correctly!  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Eugeneo Newbie Joined: 12/04/2015 Location: CanadaPosts: 20 |
Hi Grogster, Absolutely understood. I'll contact him to let him know there may be interest by some of the forum members wanting to do this. |
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| geraldfryjr Regular Member Joined: 02/03/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 61 |
Yes, I completely understand as well!!
No I haven't got it fired up yet I have to make a board yet. It is on my list of thing to do first and next when it comes to making PCB's, That and a carrier for the 32MX795. Then I can use the same pattern for some of my PIC18 80pin chips as well and the 470's and 460's I will do later some time. jer Keep on DIYin' !!! |
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