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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : uMite Project: Propeller Mini Computer
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| WhiteWizzard Guru  Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2932 |
All, After several days of 'playing' with Jeff's MicroMite Companion I simply can't stress enough how much I love it. I know I posted similar before, but the more I 'play' with the MMC, the more I fall in love with it. Trust me when I say it really is a FUN device to play with (and no; I don't have any commercial tie in this project (unfortunately!!)) If you have a spare VGA monitor lying around, along with a spare PS2 keyboard, then the asking price of $59 (along with $12 shipping worldwide) is undoubtedly a very wise US$71 spend. Believe it or not, I am still mainly using it as a 'colour' MicroMite with file storage ability. I have been playing with some basic colour graphics and have also started experimenting with sprites. But with Jeff's future plans for this device then WOW this thing will rock. @Grogster - You will love it when yours arrives - contact me if you need any help getting started! For those of you thinking 'isn't it more a MaxiMite?', then yes it is - but with much better graphics capabilities. But it is also fundamentally a MicroMite; so you get the benefit of whatever you want it to be; all with MMBasic as its backbone. The only improvement I can suggest to Jeff is to include a reset switch for the MicroMite (pressing the onboard reset switch only resets the Propeller from what I can make out.) PLEASE take a look a Jeff's site[/URL] to find out why I love it so much! Off now to play with some more MicroMite controlled Sprites . . . WW |
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| hitsware Guru Joined: 23/11/2012 Location: United StatesPosts: 535 |
Sheesh .......... If I would have been aware of these a couple weeks earlier, I wouldn't have started on making the VT100 boards 
All parts are thru-hole right ? Even the SD holder ? |
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| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2932 |
Thats exactly why I 'postponed' my TermMite development - this seemed to offer more (albeit at a higher cost). All the parts are through hole EXCEPT for the SD cardholder. HOWEVER, this is very easy to solder as Jeff has selected one with large, spaced apart pins. Don't let this worry you - it is very easy to solder. One point worth noting, Jeff has done an excellent series of instructions for the construction of the MMC. BUT I would certainly solder all the ceramic 0.1uF capacitors first, and then the diode. This WILL help! WW |
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| hitsware Guru Joined: 23/11/2012 Location: United StatesPosts: 535 |
Both the MicroMite chip and the Propeller chip come programmed ? |
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| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2932 |
The MicroMite may not be supplied in the Kit (guess you've got a few 28-pin MicroMites at your disposal?). Jeff's original batch weren't supplied with a MicroMite - anyway enough people can now supply these if you need a pre-programmed one (I am shipping MX170 28-pins with v4.5D pre-installed). Jeff: Can you confirm if the MMC ships now with OR without a MicroMite! If it is included - please confirm if it is pre-programmed OR blank! - Thanks From my understanding with the Propeller, the program is actually stored in the EEPROM which comes pre-programmed and therefore the Propeller is just a 'virgin' chip. I may be corrected on this by a Propeller 'Expert' but that is my current understanding. Grogster has asked Jeff how we go about updating the 'Propeller' side of things - but as the kit is supplied, you will be able to start using it as soon as you add the 28-pin MicroMite (and have obviously soldered the MMC all together). It took me just under an hour to assemble by the way. Ensure you have a 2GB (or less) SD card and re-format it so it is 'blank'. The thing that took me the longest time during construction was caused by me using an 'ex' MaxiMite SD card which had MaxiMite .BAS files on which I had already backed up. The MMC just didn't boot up BUT as soon as I reformatted the SD card (on a Windows laptop) everything kicked into life. Hope the above helps answer your queries. . . . WW |
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Oldbitcollector Senior Member  Joined: 16/05/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 172 |
Great question! Thank you for asking it! There are currently two ways to update the EEPROM based firmware: 1) The purchase of a "Propplug" from Parallax.com. This device is a special USB-to-serial TTL adapter which contains the extra "reset" toggle that the Propeller is looking for for programming. Those cheap USB adapters on EBAY won't work without a great deal of modification. I think we've had one person get it working but he did some modification. Propellerpowered actually plans to bring out a PIC version of the adapter (but we've got another Micromite based board planned first.) 2) There is a .BIN program we've been using with our other PMC project which will allow you to copy the .eeprom file (renamed) and the sdloader.bin and use the BRUN command from Mode1 to update the EEPROM firmware. It isn't as fast as having the Propplug but works without having to purchase something more. All of the other "modes" .bin and .mde are updated by simply copying them to your SD card overwriting the old versions as we make improvements and add features. Jeff My Propeller/Micromite mini-computer project. |
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| Oldbitcollector Senior Member Joined: 16/05/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 172 |
I program the Propeller's EEPROM with the latest stable version of mode 1, Micromite Companion. You'll be able to tell you have everything working because like any good computer, it boots. :) Currently I'm shipping the PICs with Micromite 4.5C (The version prior to the one released). I'm tempted to leaves it with that version as it leaves you 2k, but I'm open to comments on that decision. Naturally I'll be offering the MX170 version when we can get in bulk from Microchip. Jeff My Propeller/Micromite mini-computer project. |
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| Oldbitcollector Senior Member Joined: 16/05/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 172 |
Here's some Micromite Companion secret sauce that we've not had a chance to get into our documentation yet: These are for the advanced user so we've not committed the time to get them written up yet. 1) There are two six pin sockets which are not used or mentioned in the documentation *yet* If you look carefully at the bottom of the board there are special "u-shaped" traces that connect two pins together by default on either side of the six pin header. Carefully slicing these traces with a knife and soldering in pin headers will allow you to use "shunt jumpers to jumper select the Micromite terminal connection and the Wii connection. By default the Micromite Console is wired to the Propeller. By adding these jumpers you can select to disconnect it and have it available at the 4-pin connector above the SD card. Also, the Wii controller connection is connected to the Micromite's I2C lines. By cutting the trace and adding jumpers/shunts you can select to connect it to the Propeller's I2C circuit instead. 2) There is also the same option for an IR receiver below the breadboard area. These will be added to the end of the Micromite Companion Documentation sooner or later, but it's lower on my to-do list right now. 3) The VGA port has jumpers which can be configured for 256 colors. We've got a code base for both modes 2,3,and 4 which can be configured this way, but we thought we get things finished up there before plugging that in. Jeff My Propeller/Micromite mini-computer project. |
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9589 |
@ WhiteWizzard - THanks for the offer of help - I will use it, if I have any issues. It's nice that you have had a head-start, which gives the rest of us here, someone to fall back on if we have any issues!!! 
@ Oldbitcollector - So, the firmware is stored in EEPROM, and that would be the 8-pin DIL above the Propeller chip, or is that an area of the Propeller chip? If it is the former, then you could probably offer replacement programmed EEPROM chips for people - do a chip-swap, and you'd have the new firmware. However, if it can be done via the user interface and commands to re-write the EEPROM, which I think is what you are saying can be done, then that is probably the way to go over chip swapping.  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2932 |
@Grogs. Been playing with graphics for the last few hours - just gonna have to re-write some of those 80's games now! There are a few 'gotchas' that can catch you out - took me a little while to work out Mode4 correctly but then thats the fun with these things - working out how to do it for the first time. There is a software method to 'upgrade' the EEPROM so this is good. May have to tweak my USB module so that it can become a PropPlug (or whatever its called!) to allow a quicker upgrade process. Next to try some music . . . . (Let me know when yours arrives!) WW |
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| hitsware Guru Joined: 23/11/2012 Location: United StatesPosts: 535 |
> and that would be the 8-pin DIL above the Propeller chip Yea ... Pretty common @ one time ... Haven't seen one for awhile (not that I'm on the leading edge of technology)  |
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| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2932 |
Hey; its a Retro computer using Retro parts!!  |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9589 |
@ WW - I will let you know when my one arrives, as requested. @ hitsware - OK on the EEPROM thing. Perhaps I should see if I can hook up my Atari 800XL BASIC ROM chip to the Prop.... 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: 9589 |
How about Dan Strikes Back. I could never beat this game - too many nasty things after you, and only three men, I think. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| hitsware Guru Joined: 23/11/2012 Location: United StatesPosts: 535 |
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| hitsware Guru Joined: 23/11/2012 Location: United StatesPosts: 535 |
@ Oldbitcollector Here's some food for thought .... Not Sid .... More AY .... But sofisticated
Here's the one where I only use the most insinifigant # of bits |
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| micronut Newbie  Joined: 03/09/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 37 |
Hi all, I am a friend of Oldbitcollector, I go by blittled on his forum. I've been using the Propeller for 5 years and before that I did some Microchip Assembly, I also have one of the new MMCs. In fact there was a group of us trying out his design with the Micromite on a breadboard wired to one of Oldbitcollector's older Propeller boards before the MMC came out. You are right about the Propeller using an EEPROM to store its code. The Propeller has internally 32K shared (hub) RAM, 2K RAM for each of its eight processors (cogs) and 32K ROM. The ROM holds the Spin language interpreter, font data and trig tables. A program can be downloaded into the Propeller directly into RAM or the EEPROM. If you download to RAM you will lose the program when power is removed. If you don't want to use a Propplug you can use a FTDI breakout board but you must add a NPN transistor on the DTR line to invert it since the Propeller needs that to be programmed. Look at Propeller Demoboard for reference. The MMC is a great board. I think the fact that you can dynamically change the way the Propeller does video and sound on the board will make it highly versatile. I know there is talk in the forum and his online chat about ideas and suggestions for new custom modes so there may be some independently developed video/sound modes in the future. I do agree that a reset on the MMC for the Micromite would be great but you can usually press Control C to stop the Micromite then Control F1 to bring up the Propeller in its terminal mode. I have some ideas and questions of my own and I'll be posting them here soon. |
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bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2949 |
Hi Micronut (nice handle, Welcome to TBS (the back shed) forum.. That circuit is interesting, I saw these huge power ratings on the resistors before I realised that W meant Ohms (probably should really be lowercase w if it is meant to be Omega).. ie. 10kOhm is written as 10kW.. cant say I have ever seen that standard used before. Thanks for posting that up. Mick Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9589 |
Greetings, micronut. 
@ Mick - I agree - I have never seen Ohms written as capital W, which is instantly confused with Watts. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2932 |
Welcome Brian to BSF - good to see you here
So are you confirming that the Prop chip is effectively a 'virgin' chip; and any changes made to Jeff's side of things mean simply a change of code in the EEPROM? As you will have read from this thread - I am a big fan of the MMC and it's huge potential. I have been following the Prop forum (and know of you from there) but I haven't joined that forum (yet). Not enough time in the day to join many forums - I will keep an eye on and see what happens. Please do post your questions - we are all here to help you guys out; and make the MMC a truly neat device. Try and get some of your other Prop forum members to join BSF - it would be great to bounce ideas around. Speak soon . . . . WW |
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