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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : MicroMite 44 Pin TQFP Eval PCB/Module
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| WhiteWizzard Guru  Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2944 |
Why do you think I am 'educating' you all on how to solder SMDs with my other thread? 
It is so you can all help Zonker & I build these little beasts to the demand that I reckon will be out there once the MicroMite is officially released. 
I will be launching a website soon dedicated to all things MicroMite. However, I am ironing out some 'speed' issues at the moment which is why the website launch has been delayed by a few weeks. 
However, I may still ask members of the BSForum to help Beta test the website even though it is currently slow. Watch this space for more info. . . . |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4044 |
That HAS to be a record - well done! John |
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bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2950 |
Grog, Zonk, WW, What are all you blokes going to do when Geoff decides that he wants to change all the PIN configurations around in the production release? 
He might even swap GND and 3v3 around.. 
Mik Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2944 |
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| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2944 |
I will begin a 'Kick Starter' for a PCB with 'flexible' tracks then you can put the tracks to whatever pins you like .
The universal TQFP PCB - that is 'The Quad Flexible PCB' - Problem solved
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Lou Senior Member  Joined: 01/02/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 229 |
Wiz Wrote: I've just finished building my 50th MicroMite Module
Along with 13 prototypes that equates to 63. Far as I know, you have the record unless someone in China will fess up. We built 30 of the 28 pin "Zonker" boards (not all successfully) and about 20 protos on vector board for a total of about 50, plus a couple ZIF socket programmers for 28 pinners on the PICkit3. The education on soldering SMDs is great.
He might even swap GND and 3v3 around..
Mik, I'm waiting for that one 
Lou Microcontrollers - the other white meat |
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| viscomjim Guru Joined: 08/01/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 925 |
Soon I will post some pics of the torture that I am putting the 44 pin WW board through. I have so far, at one time, have a GSM unit, an I2C RTC (chronodot) a big thanks to Jman for his code, a magstripe reader to read drivers license (for age verification - serial and fully programmable), a 4 axis step and direction motion control unit (extremely cool) with closed loop servo amps running 4 motors with encoder feedback, all running at the same time, a 32bit I2C gpio board, 20 x 4 lcd display, 4 x 4 keyboard, a bill acceptor that accurately recognizes 1 - 100 dollar bills accepted in any of four directions, and a dte rs232 convertor to control a proprietary piece of coolness, all working in perfect harmony... and still have a few digital I/O pins left. If you are wondering what this could possibly be, it is all the guts for a bad ass vending machine that could have never come about had it not been for stumbling upon this forum. The WW board is awesome to say the least. The only thing I wonder about is, as much as I am having to reload code to test all this, how quickly could I approach the limit of rewriting to the pic during code development? I know it has a definite life. I am using MMedit, which by the way, rocks (big thanks to Jim), every time I do the loading of new code and running it, correcting a flaw, etc... how badly does this cycle reduce the number of times this can be done? Thanks a million to you all and especially Geoff!!! |
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Zonker Guru Joined: 18/08/2012 Location: United StatesPosts: 767 |
Sweet... It would be nice to see some of this code added to the MM Libraries... I would be keen to see the Mag-Stripe stuff, as Lou and I have used assembly code in Motorola MPU's at ELCOM Ind. I have quite a few swipe type card readers here, and just need the decoder software for the MM for them... |
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| viscomjim Guru Joined: 08/01/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 925 |
Hi Zonker. The magstripe reader I am using is from IDTECH, called the minimag2. This one reads the magstripe only, but they also make one for both the magstripe and barcode on the license. Some states don't have the magstripe just the barcode (not Florida), so I will migrate to that one shortly. The minimag is programmable so I set it up to send just the date of birth out of it's serial port, compare it to todays date from RTC and it's a yes or no on the vend, so basically it's just parsing the serial data, pretty simple. |
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| Zonker Guru Joined: 18/08/2012 Location: United StatesPosts: 767 |
The ones I have don't contain a microcontroller inside, just output the clock and data lines and need decoding firmware... I was hoping to snag a copy for the decoder part... |
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| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2944 |
Hi viscomjim, What you are doing sounds very, very impressive.
I personally am interested in this bit . . . What module/circuitry are you using for this? Also does this work for other currencies? Please provide a link or further information! There are probably a lot of BSForum members keen to see you photos so please post them as soon as you can!!
And can I emphasise your last line in the quote above because this should not be under-estimated. It really is down to Geoff's excellent software that enables projects like these to be built very quickly indeed, and in a timescale that I believe have never been possible before. Like many of you reading this, I have tried the Arduino (and variants), the Raspberry Pi, and many other MPU development kits, but the MicroMite (and MaxiMite range) has proved time & time again to be the fastest to end game every time! I truly believe the MicroMite enables a new era of electronic development opening it up to absolutely anybody. The next few months will tell if this is true . . . . |
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| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2944 |
. . . following from my previous post: Before some of you start saying but the MicroMite can't do 'this and that'; yes- I fully appreciate it has limitations too just like all hardware out there. But like I always say; there is NO ONE SOLUTION that does 'everything' for 'everybody'. It is important to understand the limitations of a device, and then used within those limitations then the MicroMite is a world-class beast of a module. I challenge anyone to provide a link to an alternative hardware module (and also the code-listing) that will do the 'Hello World' LED blink in a shorter timescale than the MicroMite/MaxiMite. . . . |
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Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3292 |
The flash endurance is over 20,000 erase/write cycles. Even if you were a mad keen programmer you would have less than 1,000 edit/saves (ie, erase/write cycles) in the development of something. So, don't worry - you will never wear out the flash. Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2944 |
Hi Viscomjim, Based on Geoff's reply, if you were to exceed the 44-pin MicroMite Module's flash endurance while developing your project then please simply give me a shout and I will be only to pleased to send you a replacement Module free of charge!
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| viscomjim Guru Joined: 08/01/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 925 |
Thanks for that answer Geoff. That makes me sleep better. WhiteWizzard, the bill acceptor I am using is the ICT P70. Google that and you will see it. It is an easy to use unit. It has serial and pulse output. I am using pulse output because I ran out of serial ports. The step generator I am using for the servo motors uses serial and I am considering using a 28 pin uMite connected to the 44 pin using I2C to throw position commands at it and let the 28 send out the appropriate serial data, freeing up one of the serial ports on the 44 pin. Wow that was long. The only problem with the pulse output is at it's highest speed, it only pulses at about 6.5Hz, (1 pulse per dollar) meaning a $20 bill would take about 3 seconds to recognize and it gets worse from there. Thankfully, with this particular project, a twenty would most likely be the largest denomination used. I posted a question about this a while back and am still not happy with the way I am doing the counting. I am using a counting pin and am trying to figure out how to know if the incoming pulses stop and the program can resume doing its thing, instead of waiting for a fixed amount of time to count the pulses, how would I check to see if the pulses stopped coming in? Is this even possible? I will post some picture soon of this crazy setup. You are right, if it wasn't for the uMite and MMbasic, I would not have even started playing with this project. |
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TassyJim Guru Joined: 07/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 6283 |
Would it be easier to use a microMite to convert RS232 to I2C and forget about counting pulses? I have a couple of coin acceptors left over from an Internet Cafe I set up using picaxe chips. My finances don't stretch to notes.... Jim VK7JH MMedit |
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| viscomjim Guru Joined: 08/01/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 925 |
not a bad idea at all Jim. I will look into that. |
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vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
I can give you three links. - PIC32Lua project - eLUA - StickOS There can be the fourth but development stopped in 2010 - DK-Basic for 8bit AVR Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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| viscomjim Guru Joined: 08/01/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 925 |
Hi Jim, Well I did a little homework on using a 28 pin uMite to handle the serial data from the bill acceptor. Besides the dismal documentation for the protocol, I did find that the unit's serial port is set up with 9600 baud, 8 data bits, 1 start bit, 1 stop bit and even parity. Unfortunately, this won't work with the uMite as the start bit and the even parity aren't compatible and I don't think there is any way to change this on the uMite. There is no way to change it on the bill acceptor either so sh** out of luck on that one. I guess I need to master the pulse thing. Is there a way to set up a timed interrupt to check and see if the 6.5hz pulses stopped coming and then continue running the program instead of waiting a fixed period of time for the largest number of pulses possible ($20 or worse), even if it is only one pulse ($1) coming in? As always, thanks! |
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| viscomjim Guru Joined: 08/01/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 925 |
Add to the last post…. The pulses are on a counting pin. |
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