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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Silly idea for a new (old) MMBasic port
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| matherp Guru  Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8578 |
The "Blackpill" has been around for some time and is a very cheap DIL module with an STM32 processor. There are a number of processors available but the interesting one is the STM32F411CEU6  Basically the same size as the Pico, a little bit dearer but a much more conventional chip (onboard flash, lots of timers, a great IDE, and I know the F4 inside-out) I've been playing with a mock-up of things I could do with this chip  The attached image shows it running a 640x480 VGA display using one resistor and one diode It would be possible with a relatively small amount of work, taking code from the ArmmiteF4 to create a first gen style computer but with a modern language running at a 100MHz clock speed. The Blackpill includes space on the underside for a flash chip which if fitted could be used as a file storage device with no need for a SDcard. This approach is already used on the ArmmiteL4. I would implement a PS2 keyboard (like the Maximite) so that you could program completely stand-alone or you could use a serial console as per the Micromite. Due to memory limitations in order to get a nice display it would be monochrome. There would be around 64K of variable memory and the same again for a program stored in the processor The 48-pin 411 supports 10 12-bit ADC and would probably have something like 2 or 3 uarts 2 SPI, 1 I2C 5 PWM and the usual count/frequency input/IR etc. The video generation as displayed is created using an SPI output under DMA so has very little impact on performance. This is my take on the sort of thing people have been discussing with the TTG-VGA but with some proper I/O available Thoughts ? |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3656 |
Is it this one ? Sounds like it would be great - they're very cheap and plentiful I think. John |
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Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 5723 |
If you want it to be *really* silly, how about it defaulting to "green screen" and looking a bit like CP/M, "loading" MMBasic on demand? (not really intended to be taken seriously!) I'm guessing it's this one... Edited 2021-11-10 06:13 by Mixtel90 Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3839 |
IMO if you are going to do this (though God knows why except for your own entertainment  ) then I would go silly: green screen, screechy binary noises for file transfers and PETSCII font. You may as well have (and provide) fun.Best wishes, Tom Edited 2021-11-10 06:00 by thwill Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 5723 |
hehe... Don't give us ideas, Tom. I might get even worse. :) EDIT: 10 Fer't Tally is 1 ter 10 20 Print "Nah then lads!" 30 Next Tally 40 Whoah! sorry... :) I'll make up for it. More info on board here. It looks like a nice little board. The PS/2 keyboard lovers would be happy, the VGA lovers would be 1/3 happy and the SDcard lovers might not be too happy. It would be handy having more analogue inputs than the PicoMite sometimes. A single I2C looks limiting at first, but you don't need one for a RTC in this case. Looks good. :) Edited 2021-11-10 07:46 by Mixtel90 Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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CaptainBoing Guru Joined: 07/09/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1985 |
now *this* could be a replacement for the '170... the Super Mk2... dare I say a MacroMite? non-USB console? Hardware FPU? double precision variables? long string support? interested |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8578 |
non-USB console? Yes Hardware FPU?Yes double precision variables?Yes long string support?Yes |
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| twofingers Guru Joined: 02/06/2014 Location: GermanyPosts: 1133 |
It is somewhat reminiscent of Hercules Graphic (but 720 x 348) ... I like it! Michael EDIT: a HercuMite!  Edited 2021-11-10 09:19 by twofingers |
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vegipete Guru Joined: 29/01/2013 Location: CanadaPosts: 1082 |
The world of "Blue Pills" suffers from fakes and semi-working copies. I haven't heard of "Black Pill" fakes yet but it is something to keep in mind. Otherwise, sounds useful. Is a CSub ISR sub-system possible? (To avoid MMBasic overhead.) The TTGO-VGA is of interest because it supports PS/2 keyboard and mouse. Visit Vegipete's *Mite Library for cool programs. |
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| gadgetjack Senior Member  Joined: 15/07/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 127 |
I think this is another great idea ! I might have a couple of these in a drawer somewhere. I look forward to see where this goes. I do have serious worries if you ever sleep , always coming up with these great projects. |
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| jaybek Newbie  Joined: 25/05/2020 Location: GreenlandPosts: 18 |
It's a WeAct Studio board, and they do struggle with fake copies. You can read aboute it on their GitHub page This is a fake board This appears to be genuine As a rule of thumb - if the seller doesn't show a picture of the bottom of the board, it's most likely a fake. #MeTo ZX81 |
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| lizby Guru Joined: 17/05/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 3015 |
How do you conclude that? Bottom of the board is shown further down the page. (I have no idea myself whether it is genuine or fake, or what the characteristics of a fake might be.) What's for sale there isn't even an F411. ~ Edited 2021-11-10 13:32 by lizby PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed |
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| jaybek Newbie Joined: 25/05/2020 Location: GreenlandPosts: 18 |
Yes, that's right it's shown - just not with right logo There are two different boards for sale. One of them is a F411 #MeTo ZX81 |
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TassyJim Guru Joined: 07/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5900 |
I think you have the fake and genuine back to front. The genuine should have V3.0 under the logo. But much safer to buy direct from the WeAct aliexpress store. That way Peter won't have to spend time chasing "special cases" Jim VK7JH MMedit MMBasic Help |
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hitsware2 Guru Joined: 03/08/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 705 |
Whatever or whichever the board..... What the world needs is a system where the keyboard on the host can interact with a running process on the board. I.E. ...The ' up - down ' arrows could control frequency and the ' left - right ' arrows control the level of TONE ( or whatever ) from a running loop . USB serial ... Monitor , keyboard , mouse ? ... on host machine controls the board . Hookup like a Pico ( with attendent simple upgrading ) my site |
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phil99 Guru Joined: 11/02/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1781 |
Very attractive idea. Like an MX170 and Geoff's ASCI terminal in one chip with bonus graphics. Before colour monitors arrived graphics just required a little more creativity. |
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Poppy Guru Joined: 25/07/2019 Location: GermanyPosts: 486 |
If I got this right, then this board could be perfect for starting with BASIC and MC-Electronics, as the original Maximite is not as easy available and not as cheap as well. At least for this reason it would be a great opportunity in my opinion. Just thinking of planning some social-work courses for naive children to start up, otherwise only the Duinomite would offer something alike but for being quite old it is not in production anymore and therefore no sustainable item. For keeping MMBASIC alive it needs such ports for the sake of easy accessibility and sustainability. So this is a great idea!   Andre ... such a GURU? | ||||
| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3656 |
I first met it via this post John |
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9060 |
+1 from me. I use terminals all the time, so I see this being a very nice self-contained terminal driving a VGA monitor. Basically, an "ASCII Terminal" with built-in MMBASIC. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 5723 |
Real or fake, I bet there are very few actual manufacturers of these boards. It's even possible that they might even all come out of a single factory but with slightly different build specs for different customers. The factory won't care. WeAct almost certainly aren't the manufacturer. If the chip is genuine or a good clone then the boards will be virtually identical, no matter what WeAct Studio say, as the board is basically the chip wired out. The main thing is that WeAct don't want a whole load of complaints about any bad clones making their product look bad, which is fair enough. The same thing has happened with the Arduino boards, you'll be hard pressed to find a Chinese clone that is any worse than an original Arduino. @hitsaware It's called "using interrupts". :) However, if you are trying to interrupt a running slave from a master device over a serial link of any sort there will always be a delay before the interrupt is serviced as you need time for the message to be transmitted before it's acted upon. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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