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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Micromite MkII - V4.6 Final Version

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Geoffg

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Joined: 06/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 3165
Posted: 08:02pm 19 Dec 2014
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The January issue of Silicon Chip is about to hit the streets and it contains the article introducing the Micromite MkII. The beta test period has been a great success with many bugs found and squashed and as a result I feel that the firmware is quite solid. Accordingly I need to terminate the beta test program.

The final version (V4.6) is now up on my website (http://geoffg.net/micromite.html) and available for download. The Silicon Chip website will also have it for download.

In all there were 46 beta testers and I would like to thank everyone for their help. The interpreter would be much poorer without so many people pushing it and trying out things in a different way that I did during my testing.

In particular I would like to thank Phil (WhiteWizzard) who gave me one of his 44-pin modules with a MX170 chip on it when I was not able to get the chip from Microchip. I used this module all through the development and without it the Micromite MkII would still be a concept only.

Also great thanks to Peter (G8JCF) who pushed for a versatile CFunction feature and ended up doing a huge amount of testing on them as well as writing his CFunGen program and tutorial. Also thanks to Peter (matherp) who pushed the Micromite MkII to its limits and found a huge number of bugs. Similarly Jimmy (jimbotron) who also went on a dedicated search for bugs.

This was a joint development and I would like to thank all who were involved.

Geoff

Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net
 
vasi

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Joined: 23/03/2007
Location: Romania
Posts: 1697
Posted: 09:49pm 19 Dec 2014
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Wow! Congratulations Geoff and the team! Finally, a worth DIY "PICAXE like" (considering what PICAXE meant for beginners) micro.
Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton
Elvish name: Mablung Miriel
Beyound Arduino Lang
 
viscomjim
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Joined: 08/01/2014
Location: United States
Posts: 925
Posted: 03:37am 20 Dec 2014
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I have a feeling that this could be big. If all of us uMiters started to post some of our projects on sites like hack a day and instructables, the MKII could definitely grow some legs out there and become very popular as a "get'er done" type embedded controller. So simple, yet so powerful in both the 28 and 44 pin version.
A Gigantic THANK YOU to you Geoff!!!
 
Oldbitcollector

Senior Member

Joined: 16/05/2014
Location: United States
Posts: 172
Posted: 06:36am 20 Dec 2014
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An amazing effort, pushed to completion!!

Thank you Geoff for all that you are doing with the Micromite!

I have a feeling that 2015 is about to be an interesting year for this project!

Jeff
My Propeller/Micromite mini-computer project.
 
matherp
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Joined: 11/12/2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 8582
Posted: 08:37am 21 Dec 2014
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  Quote  I have a feeling that 2015 is about to be an interesting year for this project!I[/quote]


I totally agree but it is also important that MM edit is included when discussing the Micromite "package". Without it development of larger programs is not really do-able. It is an excellent IPE for the Micromite and Jim's work will be critical for Micromite to really take off.Edited by matherp 2014-12-22
 
Grogster

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Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9063
Posted: 01:25pm 21 Dec 2014
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I would have to agree with that. MMEDIT has made my life so much easier. It is a beautiful bit of programming, and as you say - development of larger programs would be much harder then it is without MMEDIT. I await my January issue of Silicon Chip with anticipation.
Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
 
G8JCF

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Joined: 15/05/2014
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 676
Posted: 04:37pm 21 Dec 2014
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To echo @matherp's post, MMEdit is critically important to writing complex uMite MMBasic applications.

MMEdit's "Auto-Crunch on load" enables the application developer to properly comment/document/indent the code WITHOUT concern for the impact on the runtime memory footprint. Without "Auto-Crunch on load" one is forced to resort to creating "write-only" code.

I would strongly urge anyone creating code for the uMite to download and install MMEdit , and use MMEdit as the IDE for uMite MMBasic.

@geoff - thank you; it was a real delight to help you make the uMite the most approachable, quickly learned, and cost-effective 32bit MCU environment available.

It is to be hoped that MMBasic 4.6 with CFunctions will provide the very best of both worlds; ie the simplicity, ease of use and approachability of BASIC, together with the sheer power, and flexibility of C - very little if anything should be off-limits to the uMite with 4.6

PeterEdited by G8JCF 2014-12-23
The only Konstant is Change
 
plasma
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Joined: 08/04/2012
Location: Germany
Posts: 437
Posted: 12:21pm 22 Dec 2014
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no bug found yet , well done geoff .


@ mmedit

to be honest ,
i use mmedit but found it not really intuitive

for me is mmbasic a little bit to overdrived , id like to see a spartan version .

maybe iam a purist , whats all

 
viscomjim
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Joined: 08/01/2014
Location: United States
Posts: 925
Posted: 12:43pm 22 Dec 2014
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I agree, MMEdit is awesome and makes my life a lot easier. I can not thank Jim enough for all the effort he put into this!!!!
 
redrok

Senior Member

Joined: 15/09/2014
Location: United States
Posts: 209
Posted: 06:36am 30 Dec 2014
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Thank you Geoff;

I just got the email yesterday announcing this upgrade to the '170 chip.
I was prepared by getting 10 of the 28 pin chips.
I already had a small plugboard wired for the '150s.
Flashing uMBasic with a PicKit3 was flawless.
Using TeraTerm and my PropPlug USB to Serial adapter, I immediately started programming some simple test programs.

Very cool.

Onward and upward!!!

Here are a couple of images showing a 10uF ceramic cap directly soldered to the processor pins.

And an LP2950 3.3V low drop out regulator, also with a 10uF ceramic cap directly soldered to the processor pins.
This is a very handy regulator to use with quick projects.


Thanks!
redrok
 
PicFan
Senior Member

Joined: 18/03/2014
Location: Austria
Posts: 133
Posted: 11:54am 30 Dec 2014
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Hi Geoff !

A happy new year and thank you very much for your excelent and perfect work !

Wolfgang
 
CircuitGizmos

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Joined: 08/09/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 1421
Posted: 04:08pm 30 Dec 2014
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Page for CGMICROMITE2 Micromite MK II

http://www.circuitgizmos.com/products/cgmicromite2/cgmicromi te2.shtml Edited by CircuitGizmos 2015-01-01
Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite
 
JohnS
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Joined: 18/11/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3659
Posted: 10:52pm 30 Dec 2014
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CG - the image is missing from that page :(

John
 
Geoffg

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Joined: 06/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 3165
Posted: 12:03am 31 Dec 2014
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Also the description is for the old MX150 (ie, 20K flash for programs).

However, it is great to see that you have it up for sale - so many people do not want the hassle of programming the chip. I hope that you sell lots.

Geoff
Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net
 
Grogster

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Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9063
Posted: 12:10am 31 Dec 2014
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  Geoffg said  so many people do not want the hassle of programming the chip.


Really? If you are prepared to take the chip and hook up switches or other external devices using I2C, Serial, SPI etc, then it is only one really simple step from there, to programming the firmware. I am surprised to hear that people don't want to be bothered programming the firmware.

I guess to be fair, not all users will have a PICkit programming device.

I have my January 2014 issue of Silicon Chip - nice article about the latest model.

EDIT: Make that January 2015! Edited by Grogster 2015-01-01
Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
 
CircuitGizmos

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Joined: 08/09/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 1421
Posted: 05:26am 31 Dec 2014
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  JohnS said   CG - the image is missing from that page :(

John



  Geoffg said   Also the description is for the old MX150 (ie, 20K flash for programs).

However, it is great to see that you have it up for sale - so many people do not want the hassle of programming the chip. I hope that you sell lots.

Geoff



Grr! Update tool failure. I'll get that fixed shortly.

Thank you, Geoff! I certainly appreciate all that you have done and all that you keep doing!
Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite
 
CircuitGizmos

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Joined: 08/09/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 1421
Posted: 05:32am 31 Dec 2014
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I hear what you are saying, Grogster, but for some people this may be their very first step into microcontroller use. Buying pre-programmed Micromites means that several steps where something could go wrong have been done for them.

Also their investment in making a circuit that blinks LEDs is under $10 or so.Edited by CircuitGizmos 2015-01-01
Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite
 
factus10
Regular Member

Joined: 30/12/2014
Location: United States
Posts: 45
Posted: 06:43am 31 Dec 2014
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  CircuitGizmos said  Buying pre-programmed Micromites means that several steps where something could go wrong have been done for them.


This is why I buy a pre-programmed device. This isn't my first go at the microcontroller rodeo but it's great to buy an off-the-shelf device (or chip) and start working immediately. I may decide I want to make scads of devices with Micromites as their heart and if I do, I'll invest in a programmer. For now, however, a pre-programmed device and the bootloader for updates is just fine.
 
factus10
Regular Member

Joined: 30/12/2014
Location: United States
Posts: 45
Posted: 06:37am 01 Jan 2015
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Geoff,

Will 4.6 be coming to the maximites and DOS?

Thanks!
David
 
Geoffg

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Joined: 06/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 3165
Posted: 11:48am 01 Jan 2015
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It is my plan to eventually move a lot of the features from the Maximite version into the other versions - but it will not be done immediately as I have some other jobs that must be attended to first.
Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net
 
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