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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Micromite V4.7 Beta 2 *NEW*

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CircuitGizmos

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Posted: 07:56am 20 May 2015
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Tested on 1.44" ILI9163 display:



Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite
 
CircuitGizmos

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Posted: 08:25am 20 May 2015
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Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite
 
kiiid

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Posted: 10:49pm 20 May 2015
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Geoff, this is no "scarping" as you called it last time. I am just asking - did you give up completely on the 32MZ port?

http://rittle.org

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Geoffg

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Posted: 04:22am 21 May 2015
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A bunch of questions and I will try to answer them in one batch.

  Quote  Can we have an interrupt on touch down?

I will have a look at this but the MX170 is now VERY low on flash. I have used a number of techniques to squeeze the new code in without impacting speed or the memory available to programs but there is very little space left. So, some things will have to be left out. The MX470 version (still under development) has a lot more flash so it will support interrupts on both touch down and up.

  Quote  Probably better, is it just possible to remove the protection on the T_IRQ

Good idea, it might be the solution. I will investigate. Thanks.

  Quote  why is it that OPTION LCDPANEL ... and OPTION TOUCH ... are implemented such that they can only be issued from the command line and are persistent?

In the future MX470 version you will be able to use the LCD as the console output and for this to work properly the LCD needs to be set up at startup, so the option had to be persistent. Also, it was difficult to dynamically setup and disable the LCD panel within a program and produce the correct error messages over I/O pin conflicts without using up a lot of code and flash space (see the first issue). Lastly, what is wrong with setting the option once at the command line? I can see why people have got used to using PeterM's similar command in a program but it is not critical that it should remain as part of a program.

BTW probably no one has noticed but the Micromite actually goes through a reboot after both the OPTION LCDPANEL and OPTION TOUCH commands.

  Quote  Can the SPI channel be made available to BASIC programs?

Yes, and this is something I plan to do soon. There are a couple of technical issues but they should not be an issue.

One point that might not be obvious is that eventually the MX170 version will be the "little sister" to the MX470 version which will have a much more extended set of features. So, a lot of the features which are missing in the MX170 at present will be available in the MX470 version. Also, I needed to make the syntax compatible between the two versions and this had an influence on the syntax used in this MX170 version.

Geoff
Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net
 
paceman
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Posted: 04:24am 21 May 2015
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OK I've got the ILI9341 2.4" Touch screen going with the clock test program as well on V1.7 beta3.

Minor documentation typo:
pp 19: The read only variables MM.HRES will return the width of the display in pixels and MM.HRES the height.

The second HRES should be VRES.

Greg
 
Geoffg

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Posted: 04:25am 21 May 2015
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  kiiid said   Geoff, this is no "scarping" as you called it last time. I am just asking - did you give up completely on the 32MZ port?

I thought that we had buried that hatchet but anyway... the short answer is yes, for the long answer see this post.Edited by Geoffg 2015-05-22
Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net
 
Geoffg

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Posted: 04:29am 21 May 2015
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  paceman said  Minor documentation typo:
pp 19: The read only variables MM.HRES will return the width of the display in pixels and MM.HRES the height.

The second HRES should be VRES.

Thanks Greg
Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net
 
kiiid

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Posted: 04:34am 21 May 2015
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  Geoffg said  
I thought that we had buried that hatchet but anyway... the short answer is yes, for the long answer see this post.


There has never been a hatchet. Thanks for the update, that's what I wanted to know.
http://rittle.org

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robert.rozee
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Joined: 31/12/2012
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Posted: 05:12am 21 May 2015
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  Geoffg said  ... the MX170 is now VERY low on flash. I have used a number of techniques to squeeze the new code in without impacting speed or the memory available to programs but there is very little space left. So, some things will have to be left out.
Geoff


i'm going to ask what will most certainly be a contentious and unpopular question: given the intended purpose of the micromite MX170 as an embedded controller, is the native support of a colour LCD justified - given that it may be at the expense of not including other features?

i can see a small number of users exploiting the colour LCD support, and many of those could be catered for just as well by the existing custom functions that have been written. and many other potential features exist that may be more widely used if available: charlieplexed keyboard (quite difficult to manage in basic), native GPS module support, improvements to the onboard editor, etc.

if one wishes native support for colour LCD, the micromite MX470 may be a batter choice of device. and the micromite 'ecosystem' may further be better served by having a higher level of commonality between MX470 and MX170 versions with support for colour LCD through custom functions on the MX170.

note that i am not strongly advocating any particular position on this, just raising the question so that others can debate the issue. but i am well aware that the micromite MX150 was quite severely limited by the lack of flash space.


cheers,
rob :-)Edited by robert.rozee 2015-05-22
 
viscomjim
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Posted: 06:05am 21 May 2015
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It is nice to be able to use these displays on a low pin count micro. Being able to use a 28 pin unit (and a dip for that matter) for a relatively simple controller with a GREAT user interface will definitely come in handy without having to resort to a 64 or 100 pin chip.

I also agree with what you are saying, and I want the best of both worlds. I know something will have to give, but I love what is happening now. I know that Geoff will be the ultimate decider of things, but being here since beta days (uMite), I can not complain at all about how things are panning out. (I know you are not complaining either.)

Most of my projects (small controllers of some kind) that have a display use the 1602 or 2004 character displays with either switches or a small keyboard. Having a color display and touch keys on my little 28 pinner is SO Totally awesome without having to deal with cfunctions. (maybe some day, I'll get into it.) And I can't say enough about how much better and more "professional" they look.

I can not wait to get some of these displays in. Had to order from out of country so I have a bit of a wait. I was excited to see these displays working with the uMite before this beta, but I was a bit overwhelmed by the way it was implemented so I never ordered any. (Still a noob). That has just changed...Edited by viscomjim 2015-05-22
 
paceman
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Posted: 10:40pm 21 May 2015
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I think it's probably a bit early to worry about it Rob. There's the 470 coming and maybe the ARM still being developed and as yet nothing specific that Geoff's suggested be added to the 170 - though no doubt there's a fair list of possibilities. Why not just consider it when it comes up.

The same thing happened with the MX150 (or was it the Maximite?) and Geoff asked the forum for opinions about which capabilities they'd prefer. Either way it's his call and so far not many have been disappointed. Who knows - by the time Geoff needs to consider it Microchip may have a new DIP 28 pinner with twice the flash!

Greg
 
Geoffg

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Posted: 04:09pm 22 May 2015
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There has been a lot of comment on the loss of the SPI channel to the display/touch controller.

At this time I can see two options, one is to activate the second SPI channel on both the 28 and 44-pin chips which would have the side effect of disabling PWM 2A and 2B leaving just one PWM channel when a LCD panel is in use. The other is to figure out a way of sharing the main SPI channel with both BASIC programs and the display/touch controllers. It seems to me that the latter would be best.

It is a work in progress and it will be a couple of weeks before I have it sorted.

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

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Joined: 12/10/2011
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Posted: 04:42pm 22 May 2015
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Surely it doesn't matter haw many versions of the software there are the user can simply load the version that suits them.
Paul.
"It is better to be ignorant and ask a stupid question than to be plain Stupid and not ask at all"
 
centrex

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Joined: 13/11/2011
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Posted: 06:56pm 22 May 2015
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I am using the new 4.7 (beta) and before that Matherps excellent tft routines.
My question is, is there a simple means of determining where something is going to live on the screen, I have thought of a sheet of graph paper or just suck it and see as I have been doing.

Cliff
Cliff
 
paceman
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Posted: 08:39pm 22 May 2015
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Something like this Cliff? BTW that's the 2.4" screen, not graph paper



OPTION EXPLICIT
DIM INTEGER i
CLS rgb(white)
FOR i=0 TO 240 STEP 20
LINE 0,i,320,i,,rgb(blue)
text 2,i,STR$(i/10),m,,,rgb(black),rgb(white)
NEXT
FOR i=0 TO 320 STEP 20
LINE i,0,i,240,,rgb(blue)
text i,2,STR$(i/10),c,,,rgb(black),rgb(white)
NEXT
Edited by paceman 2015-05-24
 
OA47

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Posted: 11:44pm 22 May 2015
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@Geoffg I think I have found an issue with the beta in that I cannot get the STR$ to work on the LCD display.
eg
Text 5,1,STR$(HRS,2),LT,2,2,RGB(Cyan),RGB(Black)

Or maybe I am missing something?
GM
 
centrex

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Posted: 01:07am 23 May 2015
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paceman
Thanks for the graph paper works ok had to change it a bit as I am using PORTRAIT mode.

GM
I dont know what (HRS,2) is but the STR$ function works ok.
It is used in the "weather" above and in paceman "graph paper" no problem.

Or are you to close to the edge to display big characters.
There is no error message if you are outside the 240X320.

cliffEdited by centrex 2015-05-24
Cliff
 
viscomjim
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Posted: 11:35am 23 May 2015
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In the manual pages for the lcd panel, there is a slight "error" that messed me up, but not for long.

In the section that says "Configuring the LCD Panel", in the syntax it shows that 'controller' can be either IL19341 or ST7735S. If you are using the ST7735S controller then you must use "ST7735" not "ST7735S". Otherwise you will get the error... Error: Invalid display type.

Other than that, I am a happy camper as my first of several displays showed up today. Unfortunately its only the 1.8" one. The bigger ones are coming from china and will take a while. At least I have something to play with. THANKS GEOFF AND PETERS!!!!!
 
viscomjim
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Posted: 01:01pm 23 May 2015
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I am having an issue with the 1.8" ST7735 display. I am running beta 3.
OPTION LCDPANEL ST7735, L, 2, 4

OPTION EXPLICIT
CONST DBLUE = RGB(0,0,128)
COLOUR RGB(GREEN), RGB(BLACK)
FONT 1, 3
BOX 0, 0, MM.HRES-1, MM.VRES/2, 3, RGB(RED), DBLUE
RTC GETTIME
DO
TEXT MM.HRES/2, MM.VRES/4, TIME$, CM, 2, 1, RGB(CYAN), DBLUE
TEXT MM.HRES/2, MM.VRES*3/4, DATE$, CM
LOOP

'X = MM.HRES
'Y = MM.VRES
'PRINT X,Y


My display draws the box correctly but the text is very large as shown...




when I do the mm.hres and mm.vres it shows 160 x 128

EDIT...
I guess I should play with the font command and report back. DUH!

EDIT 2...
Yep! RTFM Jim. Here is new code for smaller display...

OPTION EXPLICIT
CONST DBLUE = RGB(0,0,128)
COLOUR RGB(GREEN), RGB(BLACK)
FONT 1, 2
BOX 0, 0, MM.HRES-1, MM.VRES/2, 3, RGB(RED), DBLUE
RTC GETTIME
DO
TEXT MM.HRES/2, MM.VRES/4, TIME$, CM, 1, 2, RGB(CYAN), DBLUE
TEXT MM.HRES/2, MM.VRES*3/4, DATE$, CM
LOOP

'X = MM.HRES
'Y = MM.VRES
'PRINT X,Y


and result...






Edited by viscomjim 2015-05-24
 
CircuitGizmos

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Posted: 01:25pm 23 May 2015
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I had to do the same for the 1.44" display.
Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite
 
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