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damos
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Joined: 15/04/2016
Location: Australia
Posts: 74

Posted: 10:46pm 26 Apr 2016

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Thanks bigmik,

Now the proud owner of a copy. Might have to get off my backside and start doing proper circuit diagrams and PCBs. Looks pretty advanced and will have some steep learning curves.

regards
Dan

paceman
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Joined: 07/10/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 1329

Posted: 01:03am 27 Apr 2016

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Hi Mick,
Thanks for organising the deal - I've just taken advantage of it too, so now all I have to do is learn how to use it - gulp......

Greg

redrok

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Joined: 15/09/2014
Location: United States
Posts: 209

Posted: 03:13am 27 Apr 2016

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Hi damos;

damos said Looks pretty advanced and will have some steep learning curves.
Dan

I have often stated:
There are programs that are "Quick and Easy" or "Capable and Difficult".
Pick one.
I pick the complex one every time.
Yes, the learning curve is steep but the rewards are generous.

redrok

plover

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Joined: 18/04/2013
Location: Australia
Posts: 306

Posted: 03:13am 27 Apr 2016

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I decided to get a copy. I downloaded the files this noon, I think I should have a bigger laptop I can play with it now and then some month hence.

bigmik

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Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 04:01am 27 Apr 2016

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@Geoff,

Geoffg said If you purchased the initial licence (for $39) and do not renew for a year or two then decide to renew. Do you have to start with a new licence?

I asked that question and it appears that the situation is as follows. (My words interpreting these statements)

The INITIAL purchase of the software including 12 mths updates is $99US.
A new 12 months of UPDATE license is $49.

My words here, Whilst those are the RRP prices, from time to time Iliya offers reduced prices on both, as he see fit to do..

In answer to your question.. If your update license has expired you need only pay the UPDATE fee (whatever that happens to be at the time) to continue to receive updates.

As the current price for the INITIAL purchase is $99 this offer for $39 represents a very good deal.

Kind Regards,

Mick

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

bigmik

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Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 04:06am 27 Apr 2016

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@Dan, Greg, Redrok, Plover,

I hope, and trust that you will be as happy with the package as I am and that soon we will see a lot of interesting new designs coming from the TBS fraternity.

Mick

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

bigmik

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Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 04:10am 27 Apr 2016

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@Jean,

MicroBlocks said Yes that would be a way, however you would then have two different schematics to maintain.

Well I suppose you cannot have everything.. That might be an interesting future enhancement to AutoTrax DEX. The ability to have more than one PCB design associated with the same schematic.. They can still be in the same project.

I will pose that as a suggestion for when Iliya gets a few seconds of CPU time to rest.

Mick

PS. I am curious, What would be the differences between the 2 designs (except one SMD the other DIP and THP)

Mik

Hmm,

I am liking that idea. Same circuit, 1 larger `standard components', 1 smaller SMD components.

MGEdited by bigmik 2016-04-28

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

MicroBlocks

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Joined: 12/05/2012
Location: Thailand
Posts: 2209

Posted: 04:25am 27 Apr 2016

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Mick,

I just bought it as i really do like what i see.
Every product has its own vision and i think DEX his vision is worth supporting, especially because it is a smaller company doing great work.

I like diptrace as i can do anything i want with it, but this being comfortable with a package sometimes is in the way of improvements. And i have the feeling that once i start using AutoTRAX i will like it.

The two versions of a pcb is to have a larger one for prototyping and a small one for use in the final product. Headers are space consuming and leaving them out is a huge space saver. It will also give the designer all the space under then module for traces making the area where the module is placed practically 4-layer. Especially for 'modules' that are dense and have lots of traces this can make a difference in usability.

Edited by MicroBlocks 2016-04-28

Microblocks. Build with logic.

Grogster

Admin Group

Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9588

Posted: 06:20am 27 Apr 2016

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redrok said Hi damos;

damos said Looks pretty advanced and will have some steep learning curves.
Dan

I tend to still stick with the KISS approach as much as possible, so tend to go for the quick and easy one!

Sprint Layout is like that - quick and easy, and does what I want with little fuss, and no steep learning curve, and a one-off cost. Updates are free.

No 3D rendering or auto-router, but that does not put me off.

However, I am having a quick look at DEX, as the special offer is just too much of a sweet-spot price-wise not to. However, I don't tend to like complexity and convoluted software that takes years to learn.

As you say though......

Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!

Greg Fordyce
Senior Member

Joined: 16/09/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 153

Posted: 09:20am 27 Apr 2016

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Thanks Mik for arranging this deal, I've got a copy.

bigmik said
The creation of the part is easy about 4minutes to create, the typing in all the pin names is the hard part. That took me about 40 minutes.. My eyesight is not the best for reading and transcribing those pins

Entering pin data from pdf I saw this but haven't tried it yet. Maybe it could save some time?

Greg

bigmik

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Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 11:57am 27 Apr 2016

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Honestly,

There DEX is not really difficult to use at all.. Maybe some `bells and whistles' takes a bit of learning but the basics are very easy..

I did struggle a bit as I had PROTEL firmly burned into my NON-EEPROM part of my brain and whilst the PCB are looked like a direct clone it worked totally differently to PROTEL.

Once I stopped trying to bend DEX into my way of thinking and started taking time to realise where DEX was wanting me to go it was so much easier, now it is slowly I bedding itself into that NON EEPROM area of my brain.

It is like learning to drive, initially the car has a mind of its own and it feels hard to control, then as you get more experienced with use the car becomes an extension of YOU.. Same with DEX I now lay things out and DEX does it.. I don't sit there Thinking, Now right click, drag, left click drag , select colour , click etc.... My brain just does it.

Have a play, but initially start with simple circuits and don't try to be too France and change footprints ar overlays etc just use the defaults and you will see that DEX is really quite easy and intuitive..

There are many more features in DEX that I haven't yet used but I feel very comfortable with what I know in DEX and it suits me down to a tee.

Hope I haven't waffled on too much.. It's just this talk of simple vs complex just isn't the case ... DEX is simple ... Our brains are NOT..

Before I jumped into DEX I tried Eagle as many people use it and to say I HATED it was an understatement and a half.. I have seen marvelous works created with eagle but it didn't suit me in the slightest..

Just realise that any new program seems difficult initially until, with experience playing and making mistakes, it seems to click suddenly and you say to yourself.. That wasn't too bad.

Anyway

Regards,

Mick

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

bigmik

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Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 11:58am 27 Apr 2016

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@Greg,

Thanks I will try that later when I try to hit the 100pin parts (If the boss gets off my back long enough)

Mick

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

bigmik

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Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 12:03pm 27 Apr 2016

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Sorry ALL,

I just read the post I made and the grammical errors would have you think I don't speak English... I blame the iPad and it's autocorrect ... Hopefully you can work out what I meant... Now off to work to earn money to buy more PCBs, I think there is going to be a huge in flux of boards coming now the entire TBS group has bought DEX..

Mick

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

bigmik

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Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 02:45pm 27 Apr 2016

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Hi All,

One more thing! As I said DEX was currently undergoing a major re-vamp in the 3D area to improve the graphics.

Several users mentioned that the 3D (using OpenGL) either was slow or not functioning properly. These people were either using very OLD and under-powered PC or a few were using MACs with some emulator.. The problem stems from the need to support OpenGL Version 2 or later. Ultimately Iliya is going to code in a test and if your PC can't handle OpenGL Ver 2 then it will revert to, the still quite good, Standard 3D.

In the mean time there are 2 versions.. The default version that uses the older 3D that works for every system and a newer version downloadable from here:

DEX for OpenGL

If your system supports OpenGL 2 I recommend downloading this version until they both unite into the one package again.

Regards,

Mick

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

Justplayin

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Joined: 31/01/2014
Location: United States
Posts: 327

Posted: 02:50pm 27 Apr 2016

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bigmik said ... I think there is going to be a huge in flux of boards coming now the entire TBS group has bought DEX..

Mick,

I have some ideas for a couple of boards, now I'll have to design them myself rather than beg you to do it.

--Curtis

I am not a Mad Scientist... It makes me happy inventing new ways to take over the world!!

bigmik

Guru

Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 09:43pm 27 Apr 2016

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GDay Curtis,

Justplayin said I have some ideas for a couple of boards, now I'll have to design them myself rather than beg you to do it.

--Curtis

Beauty, Are you going to do the RGB 60mm Mik-Matrix-II?

Ahh I suppose it will be called Curtis-Matrix then.

I can't wait.

Mick

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

bigmik

Guru

Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 09:52pm 27 Apr 2016

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Hi Redrok, All,

OK, I have done the 100pin PIC32MX470F512L (12mm and 14mm)

As per usual, please ensure the part is correct before you commit your money to getting PCBs made up.

2016-04-28_074725_PIC32MX470F512L_100pin_12mm-14mm_.zip

@Greg,
Thanks for showing me the link to the PDF to Pin name video clip, unfortunately the Microchip datasheets have a lot of names that have different size fonts and the auto select/click played up a lot, however, it wasn't too hard to cut and past (using Ctrl-C/V) the names in and typing in the ones that had font changes..

Names like Vdd They have VDD with the DD in a smaller font.. that caused copy issues.. there are quite a few similar type names with mixed fonts..

Anyway it is done now.

Kind Regards,

Mick

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

Greg Fordyce
Senior Member

Joined: 16/09/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 153

Posted: 10:20pm 27 Apr 2016

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Mik, I was thinking if it's a MM part you are creating you could use the pin names in the MM manual instead of the microchip ones.

Greg

bigmik

Guru

Joined: 20/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2949

Posted: 10:49pm 27 Apr 2016

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Hi Greg, All,

Yes, I could use them but it might be used in a non MM environment so needed to be done anyway.. All that aside it is not difficult to rename them to what you want.. If you see my 28pinner I used simplified names such as pin(15) etc... It is always difficult to know which way to jump.. I have to admit I hate the huge size of the schematic part due to the very long pin names, if I get time I might make MM versions.. As that makes more sense to me personally.

Regards,
Mick

Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<<

MicroBlocks

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Joined: 12/05/2012
Location: Thailand
Posts: 2209

Posted: 11:08pm 27 Apr 2016

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@Mick,

Your 100 pinner has some errors!
I think you used a 370F512L instead of a 470F512L.
I was looking for the USB connections and could not find them.

Microblocks. Build with logic.

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