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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : PM: 5" TFT dual-PM based PCB...
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| lizby Guru  Joined: 17/05/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 3378 |
Here is a thread illustrating several methods, including one in which the second PicoMite has no user program on it at all, just the MMBasic firmware. In that case, the controlling program acts like a user typing at the ">" prompt and then processing what it has told the second program to print. More conventional messaging between serially-connected devices can also be used if the second PicoMite runs a program which reads sensors and/or activates outputs under the control of the primary PicoMite (typically the one with the VGA output in Grogster's design). The headline controller is MMB4W, but as I mentioned in the thread, I also tested it with a Picomite as controller. These methods are derived from Geoff's original design using I2C to communicate between two MX170s. ~ Edited 2022-09-11 00:44 by lizby PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed |
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| TrevorH Senior Member  Joined: 06/04/2018 Location: United KingdomPosts: 145 |
@lizby Thanks for the link, I will read with great interest. |
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| lizby Guru Joined: 17/05/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 3378 |
(By the way, I meant SSD1963 display, not VGA--but the same would work on Mick's PicoPear PCB with VGA.) PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed |
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9610 |
You didn't.  I did not mean to suggest that to you either. It was Kabron's post and vegipete's yikes comment that annoyed me, simply because I have seen this time and time again whenever I or anyone else posts a board design. Posting a board design can be something of a minefield I have found, cos no matter what, someone will have an issue with it or want changes and you get drawn into the design-by-committee thing, trying to please everyone, which is just about impossible most of the time. Your suggestion of the pin-header was fine. I had no issue with that. Neither did I with Volhout's comment about the different LPF, once Peter made me aware that there was a different one that I did not know about. I have just seen this kind of thing happen on so many other boards, it was a case of "Here we go again!" when I read the above two posts. I probably should have waited till today before I replied, but I was having a bit of a stressful day yesterday anyway(very painful gout), and that was probably the worst time to reply as my foot pain meant that I was probably running on empty as far as tolerance was concerned.  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9610 |
The audio jacks I use are these ones here. 9 cents US each, gold-plated(or so they say!) On special now, 29% off, so 6 cents each + US$1.60 shipping. These are not the same footprint as the ones used on the CMM1 or CMM2 boards. I used these ones, cos I have 100+ of them in stock - again, board designed for me by me.  But that link will get you some of the sockets I use, and I have used lots of these so far, and despite them being so cheap, they have never let me down yet. eBay also sell them if you prefer using them, but eBay prices are a little more expensive for the same thing. Here is a link to the eBay ones. EDIT: Oh, BTW, just for Mixtel90(cos he mentioned that box-headers are cheap), here are the D sockets I use - 19 cents US each + postage. D sockets link I usually buy 20 at a time, cos the postage only increases US$1.15 for 20 vs 10 pcs. I use female ones on the board, and male line plugs, but you could swap that around and use a male on the PCB(the footprint is the same), and that would allow you to use the female-to-female Dupont wires. I have both female-female and male-female Dupont leads, so plugging a male Dupont into one of the D's female holes is easy. Err....this is starting to sound a bit kinky....  Edited 2022-09-11 13:23 by Grogster Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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lew247 Guru Joined: 23/12/2015 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1702 |
The only missing thing that could be useful is a header/pins whatever for an ESP8266, or ideally an ESP32 that has wifi and bluetooth onboard (Yes I know the board is for your use ) |
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Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 7937 |
@Grogster Thanks for those links. I've not seen those 3.5mm jack sockets before. I'm a bit torn about using them personally as I use so few that any price advantage is pretty unimportant, especially if I need other bits from RS anyway. The price on those D connectors is just silly! I wonder if the pins rust? lol @lew I'm seriously considering putting all RF boards on a daughter board plugged into a pin header on my future designs. It's clunky and entirely your own problem if you want an external antenna (unless your board is in a screened metal box they are usually illegal in the UK anyway), but it would make my life easier and everyone could choose their own favourite. ;) Why not plug a daughter board into H1? It has GND, 3V3, a COM port and a couple of extra GP pins. If you need 5V then a flying lead would be needed too. Not insurmountable, takes up no extra PCB and is only there if someone needs it. Edited 2022-09-11 16:36 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: 2170 |
I quite like that idea, a standard set of pins and the daughter board just routes them according to it's idiosyncracy. At the risk of drawing into the "design by committee"... RF tends to be juicy. Consider including a "Powerdown" pin. I'm doing this a lot on my projects now (with a hi-side MOSFET circuit), not always applicable but you choose your battles. Although modules tend to have sleep modes, this means anything on the daughter board can be put to sleep when not needed. my 2p Edited 2022-09-11 20:07 by CaptainBoing |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9610 |
I know I might regret this, but I could make some holes for a daughterboard that would stack above the LCD controlling PM module and the RTC. I could also route a 5v pin to this header at the same time so you would have 5v, 3v3 via the 3940 LDO, ground and a handful of GPIO pins. Is that something people would like? I've already made changes to allow for the header for the audio, the improved audio LPF arrangement, RC filter for the uSD card socket and silkscreen labels etc, so I guess it would be easy enough to move a few tracks to allow for a reasonably sized daughterboard that could be added for those who wanted that. ....why am I doing this to myself?...(rhetorical)  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| lizby Guru Joined: 17/05/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 3378 |
Here's an already existing ESP-01 module that I like: ESP-01 adapter Feed it 5V--it has its own regulator. PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 7937 |
It's neat, but it won't take a ESP32, JDY-40, HC-12.... ;) A range of little daughter boards could take most common RF modules, or even RS-485 simplex for those who prefer wires. Incidentally, The HC12 may need a 1N4007 or similar in series with VCC if it's powered from more than 4.5V and is transmitting for long periods. If it was powered at 3V3 (which is within spec, it's supposed to be able to go down to 3V2) then you don't need level shifters. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9610 |
Mick - the HC12 comments, yes, you are correct with the diode IF you are likely to transmit more then sporadically. In 99% of the cases, people just transmit the data packet they want, and it's done, so the module sees something along the lines of a 10%(or less) transmit-to-rest ratio. I can put a space for a diode in there, and label the silkscreen I guess, but is it really an issue? As to the supply voltage, yes again, you are correct that the MANUAL says you can run them down to 3v2, but at 3v3, I have had issues with even the genuine ones, so I always run HC12's at 5v by default now. The issues I had were with transmit reliability. I don't recall there ever being an issue while receiving, so they would probably work just fine if used as a receive-only node at 3v3, but with the minimum being 3v2, if you run them at 3v3 and your supply rail is not EXTREMELY stable, if it dips more then 100mV during a transmit cycle, the HC12 sees a brown-out effect, which seems to crash the MCU on the module. That is what I have found, anyway. Run them at 5v, and you never have any problems. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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vegipete Guru Joined: 29/01/2013 Location: CanadaPosts: 1132 |
I apologize for my use of the word "yikes". It wasn't meant to be interpreted negatively. I avoid using the d connector shell for critical signals because 'standard' cables pretty much never connect to it. D connectors are nice and robust, and beyond the ability of most to plug in backwards. There's even the neat trick of mounting a solder cup d connector (2 row only) to the edge of the PCB with a suitable set of surface mount pads on each side of the board. Thank you for sharing your design. I like to file all such designs so I can use them as references and benefit from the tricks, techniques and experience of others. Visit Vegipete's *Mite Library for cool programs. |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9610 |
It's OK Pete. My gout was killing me when I posted my reply - I should have just waited till I had had a chance to nuke it with some of my napalm.(Naproxen) That is indeed a valid point, and had that been pointed out in your post, I probably would have seen what you were getting at more with your comment, as in MY case, I solder a ground wire to the shell of a line-plug myself, so you have a point in retrospect. In future, I will refrain from posting if I am not feeling well, as I don't really control my tolerance or temper very much when I am in pain or unwell. I expect many people probably would be the same.  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Tinine Guru Joined: 30/03/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1646 |
Coolest E-100 feature....Click sockets  Craig |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9610 |
Yes, the Click sockets were a unique feature(among everything else!) on the E100. If we adopt the daughterboard idea, we could always design a DB with a Click socket or two on it. However, the PCB "Stack" would start to be getting rather tall and ugly by that point I would think. It would work fine though, and if hidden behind a panel or in an enclosure, then..... Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Tinine Guru Joined: 30/03/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1646 |
I have made Click my standard. If I need a one-off for a particular project, just grab a Click module. I have done this with RS232, Bluetooth and the "Click Counter" for quadrature-decode/counting. I use the official Mikroe sockets because they add a professional touch Edit: Ever growing list Craig Edited 2022-09-14 16:14 by Tinine |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 5090 |
@Mixtel90 Mick, you are very into new board designs for the pico. You even created a PLC based on the pico (1 pico per IO board). Just brainstorming.... How do you see the feasibility of a single picoVGA combined with 3 (or 4) Click footprints. Many of the pins of the click footprint can be shared (in the microbus design most are not, but we may get away with sharing SPI, I2C, and -maybe- UART (*)) This would create a very universal platform for experimenting. There are soo many click modules, that any small size project could be made. You could (not) populate the VGA/PS2 and use these pins for the 3'rd or 4'th socket. Choice VGA+2sockets -or- non-VGA and 4 sockets -or- LCD + 2 sockets. Of coarse some modules may not be supported from MMBasic. Or they may need CSUB development or PIO development. But it could be a nice platform. @Craig: would this be to any use for you ? Or do you already have a platform you are familiar with that you would never replace with picomite.?? What type of click modules do you frequently use ? Can these be supported from MMBasic (E100 ?) Volhout_ (*) you could limit the design to only 1 or 2 sockets wit UART. Edited 2022-09-14 17:01 by Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 7937 |
I abandoned Click for the PicoMite as it doesn't have enough ports for Click to be really useful, I don't think. I may have misunderstood the system though - the documentation isn't great. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 5090 |
Mick, That is a fair comment. When you can only support 1 click footprint it is of limited use. Thanks for answering.. Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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