TheBackShed.com

Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Micromite - totally new, looking to learn

Author

Message

PBearer
Newbie

Joined: 22/01/2021
Location: United States
Posts: 2

Posted: 03:07am 22 Jan 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

So an Engineer at work just turned me on to the micromite Explore 64. I'm super excited. I've got a lot of background in Visual Basic so I'm looking to transpose that knowledge into Basic programming. Primarily I'm interested in interfacing a lot of different I2C bus sensors and displaying their data on a large TFT display.

Where do I start?

No wrong answers. Total newb here.

hitsware2

Guru

Joined: 03/08/2019
Location: United States
Posts: 734

Posted: 03:26am 22 Jan 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Here ?

And here ?

my site

Grogster

Admin Group

Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9755

Posted: 07:11am 22 Jan 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Welcome.

The E64(shorthand for "Micromite Plus Explore 64") is my design, but with full control over that design by Geoff, naturally.(the creator of the Micromite and Micromite Plus series of chips.)

Do you already have an E64 module?
If not, you can purchase one on my website - LINK.
Scroll down about three quarters of the way down the page, and you will find the 1E version of the E64 module.

You will also need a 5" or 7" SSD1963 controller-based LCD module.
These can be had on eBay for about US$50 to about US$80.

You will also need lots of female-to-female linking wires, often referred to as "Dupont" connectors to connect the pins on the E64 module, to the pins on the LCD module. They also, can be had very cheaply ready-made from eBay.

Let us know what you have now, and then we can help further.

Edited 2021-01-22 17:14 by Grogster

Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!

CaptainBoing

Guru

Joined: 07/09/2016
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 2171

Posted: 08:37am 22 Jan 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

PBearer said ...background in Visual Basic
...
Where do I start?

Welcome aboard to a world of genuinely powerful micro controllers & personal computers in a range of capabilities all with an easy interface and a great language. This forum is about the friendliest most helpful place you could wish for with a combined experience base probably best measured in millennia for all matters micro-controller. I have been using MMs for about 4 years now and they have taken over as my GoTo for real-world applications.

Language-wise, you'll feel right at home coming from VB, there is a lot of look & feel similarity (designed that way) between MMBasic and VB generally - I have taken lots of my VBS code and moved it across with little or no modification.

I also come from a heavy VB(A&S) background (professionally for 26 years), I and several members of this forum have spent some time writing Subs & Functions to augment the language with the often-used functionality of VB that is "missing" natively from MMBasic - you can find them in the wiki here .

Important to remember that you aren't dealing with multi-gigabyte systems so compromises have to be made in some places (huge arrays & strings, objects, variants) but you'll get the picture.

buckle up!

lizby
Guru

Joined: 17/05/2016
Location: United States
Posts: 3477

Posted: 02:04pm 22 Jan 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Also from VB and VBA here--you should have no trouble with the basics (as it were) with MMBasic, other than that you have so many pins and other features that you can control.

Another module comparable to the E64 but with some additional features (built-in connector for LCD) is the Armmite F4 using the STM32F407VET6 module

For info, search the forum (subject, all) for Armmite F4.

The initial thread (which doesn't include "Armmite F4" in the subject, is here

~
Edited 2021-01-23 00:06 by lizby

PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed

PBearer
Newbie

Joined: 22/01/2021
Location: United States
Posts: 2

Posted: 04:13pm 22 Jan 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Wow. Thanks everyone.

Yeah, I already ordered a Maximite Explore 64 from a seller in AU. Maybe that was you? I also ordered

"3.5inch 480x320 SPI TFT LCD Serial Module Display Screen Touch Panel IC ILI9488"

Maybe that wasn't the right one.

I've got a slew of i2c sensors coming from Adafruit as well.

1 x Adafruit BME280 I2C or SPI Temperature Humidity Pressure Sensor (STEMMA
QT) [ID:2652] = $14.95
1 x Adafruit I2S MEMS Microphone Breakout - SPH0645LM4H[ID:3421] = $6.95
1 x Adafruit AMG8833 IR Thermal Camera Breakout[ID:3538] = $44.95
1 x Adafruit 9-DOF Accel/Mag/Gyro+Temp Breakout Board - LSM9DS1[ID:3387] =
$14.95
1 x Adafruit Triple-axis Magnetometer - LIS2MDL (STEMMA QT / Qwiic)
[ID:4488] = $5.95
1 x Large Solderless Breadboard[ID:443] = $19.95
1 x Premium Male/Male Jumper Wires - 40 x 3" (75mm)[ID:759] = $3.95
1 x Premium Male/Male Jumper Wires - 40 x 6" (150mm)[ID:758] = $3.95
1 x 5V 2A (2000mA) switching power supply - UL Listed[ID:276] = $7.95
1 x Adjustable breadboard power supply kit (v1.0) [ID:184] = $14.95
1 x Adafruit Perma-Proto Half-sized Breadboard PCB - Single[ID:1609] = $0.00

That STM32F407VET6 module looks pretty crazy. I'll have to pick one up.

The whole gist of my project is for a bunch different sensors to provide some new devices for "Paranormal Societies". I see a lot of hokey devices and think that there are way better ways to provide actual factual data than just waving an analog gauss meter around.

The largest Array I plan on doing is a 64x64 for the IR camera and and possibly a 3 dimensional array for the triple axis gauss meter.

I haven't done much bread boarding or micro controller work since tech school and college but I worked with the good ol Z80 and motorola 68HC series back in the day.

I'm really excited about all of this.
Edited 2021-01-23 02:14 by PBearer

lizby
Guru

Joined: 17/05/2016
Location: United States
Posts: 3477

Posted: 05:02pm 22 Jan 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

For more sensor fun.