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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Coming soon: cheap, fast, no-soldering
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| matherp Guru  Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9993 |
Various comments over the last weeks and months have emphasised the barrier that soldering SMD chips creates and whilst ready-built Micromite boards are available they are comparatively expensive. PCBs like the STM32 Nucleo range are cheap but they do not have SDcard slots or batteries for the RTC. They also don't easily interface to a display. Enter the STM32F407VET6 STM32 Cortex-M4 Development Board  which has a pin compatible TFT screen available to plug directly in.  Together, the PCB and screen are currently available from the link at US $9.24 for the PCB and US $13.2 for the screen and they are available from various suppliers in huge numbers (stock level currently 29000 PCB and 14000 screens) I'm in the last stages of developing a Micromite firmware version which will work on this PCB with no configuration necessary and no ancillary hardware needed. i.e. the main peripherals will work immediately on power up. The firmware can be loaded to the board over the USB port with no programmer needed and the Micromite console will be on the USB, no USB/UART needed. The speed of the port is about 1.3x faster than a MM+ at 120MHz. Peripherals include 4 x UART, 2 x SPI, 8 x PWM/Servo, 2 x I2C, 13 x 12-bit ADC, 2 x 12-bit DAC, 16-bit parallel TFT I/F supporting the screen above and any SSD1963 display using an adapter board. There are 47 user configurable pins (DOUT, DIN, etc.) and these can be referred to with either the pin number or the pin ID as silkscreened on the board. e.g. SETPIN PE1, DIN: PRINT PIN(PE1) At the moment I'm doing normal bird's nest development on another PCB but once my purchases arrive I'll do a dedicated manual for this port. The firmware uses a completely new (to me) way of interfacing with the TFT screens using the STM32F407's FSMC interface. This treats the screen as a memory device and allows for very fast performance (clear screen on the ILI9341 currently takes 6 mSec). Touch is of course supported with full GUI functionality. As I understand more about the STM32 range and its development environment this new port shares about 95% of the code with the Armmite H7 and Armmite F7 making ongoing support much easier.  |
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| Tinine Guru Joined: 30/03/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1646 |
Very, very cool but quick question: The 6ms screen clear, does that hold up program execution? |
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| lizby Guru Joined: 17/05/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 3298 |
I confess to being one of those daunted by the idea of soldering large surface mount chips (and cheap, too). This looks like just the ticket. Is it a 144-pinner? PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9993 |
Yes, same as all of the Micromite family, drawing commands are all blocking. If I had a frame buffer the size of the display then I could DMA in the background but this would need more memory than available. No: 100-pins. Will run on STM32F407VET6 or STM32F407VGT6. There is a 144-pin version of the PCB: e.g. which could be supported but it is more expensive and no real advantage. |
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| Tinine Guru Joined: 30/03/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1646 |
Not a deal breaker... heck I think I need this. Awesome job Pete....wish you guys at least had a donate button. |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9993 |
This is the current speed comparison for the port ArmmiteF4 MMX(200MHz) MM+(100MHz) ArmmiteH7 Solar eclipse: 89.287 74.716 120.303 23.106 seconds Grainbench: 2445 4522 1997 11127 grains in 30 seconds Basic Line Rate: 54288 115740 39215 204918 lines per second Benchmark 1: 0.011 0.005 0.015 0.002 Benchmark 2: 0.079 0.047 0.111 0.021 Benchmark 3: 0.137 0.074 0.193 0.034 Benchmark 4: 0.150 0.083 0.206 0.038 Benchmark 5: 0.254 0.142 0.384 0.063 Benchmark 6: 0.357 0.193 0.523 0.088 Benchmark 7: 0.527 0.268 0.753 0.132 Benchmark 8: 0.257 0.130 0.341 0.059 |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3988 |
In case the schematic is a bit hard to read I think it's the same as the one here John |
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Zonker Guru Joined: 18/08/2012 Location: United StatesPosts: 767 |
Total Awesomeness Peter..!!  Just ordered 2 sets... MCU/DisplayPlug and play ready..!! Nice... |
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panky Guru Joined: 02/10/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1111 |
Mine on order too, come on Peter, where's the manual, the firmware etc. Etc. 😂😂😂 Just kidding, just kidding! 😆😆😆 Realy great work Peter, thank you for the terrific job you do in the 'mitesphere'. Watching with great interest. Doug. ... almost all of the Maximites, the MicromMites, the MM Extremes, the ArmMites, the PicoMite and loving it! |
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| viscomjim Guru Joined: 08/01/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 925 |
What an amazing value! Just ordered also. Thanks Peter! This will be a very nice addition to the mite family! |
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9458 |
This looks interesting. Watching with interest. I also might have to grab a PCB/LCD set so I can play with it when the port is ready. I really like easy programming via USB and USB console by default features. A 'No-programmer required' is always a good feature. I wish I could sell the MM+ cheaper then it is, but at the end of the day, they are all hand-made, time is money, and they have to turn a profit or there is no point in selling them at all. This new board might become the new standard.  The beauty of mass-production, is that the unit-price drops. As things like this new board/LCD set are obviously made by the thousands, this keeps the price right down. I did look at getting the E64 and E28 modules mass-produced, but you have to satisfy MOQ(minimum order quantity) meaning I needed to have at least hundreds of them made, and it is just not worth it - I may never sell a whole heap of them, so it then becomes uneconomic. I could whip up an LCD adaptor for this thing if required, so you can plug the other TFT's into it.  Can I assume that the LCD is 16-bit interface? I expect so.... EDIT: ....it is. Ignore.... Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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TassyJim Guru Joined: 07/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 6210 |
Can you change the topic title please. "Faster, sooner, cheaper" is a sore point here in OZ. Not something I would like to be associated with. Jim VK7JH MMedit |
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| Tinine Guru Joined: 30/03/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1646 |
Soldering, having to design/build interfaces.... Sometimes you just wanna write the code and be done with it. This is why I am a fan of the E100's Click sockets. There are literally hundreds of modules available. I have a Bluetooth module, RS232 and a 7366 quadrature encoder interface. The Mikroe sample code was easily converted to MM Basic. |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9993 |
Please explain No way to retrospectively change the thread title - sorry |
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| paceman Guru Joined: 07/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1329 |
Dead right Jim - I guess Peter and our other overseas members wouldn't be familiar with the "bastardisation" of Australia's new 50 billion dollar NBN (National Broadband Network). Just a month ago our Melbourne suburban location was finally connected to our current government's "faster, sooner, cheaper" fibre-to-the-node offering. I paid for a 50 Mbps link and now can sometimes get up to 23 Mbps - yippee! My ISP, Aussie Broadband (a recognised top provider) has tested the link and says the absolute max I can get because of noise on the old copper from the node is 31 Mbps. So much for Malcolm's guarantee of 100 Mbps minimum for everybody who wanted it. Prior to the NBN I used to get 21 Mbps with ADSL2+, 21 to 23 for 50+ billion dollars! No doubt just about any Australian TBS member can tell a similar, or a lot worse, story but at least luckily for me Aussie Broadband is happy to drop my plan to the bottom rung 25 Mbps plan which will still give me the current 23 Mbps but at $10 per month cheaper. Moral of the story... Thinking you can buy favourable press treatment from Rupert Murdoch by killing the full fibre-to-the-home build, is futile. Selling it to taxpayers as "faster, sooner, cheaper" was a total con. What you achieve instead (for probably the majority), is a hugely expensive white elephant which will have to bailed out by taxpayers again in a few short years when 5G mobile is available. By then Rupert's Foxtel will have been eaten by Netflix anyway. Sorry for the off topic rant Peter but Jim and I and plenty more of us down here are fed up. Getting back on track - this new STM32 board looks great and great value - I'm going to have to get one and get into STM's. The only 'pick' I have is that the screen they're selling is a bit small so as Grogs says, guess we'll need an adapter. Will we be able to go to say a 4.3" 480x272 1963 type display? Greg |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9993 |
I've done an adapter and the gerbers are with WW who is going to get some with his next order - I'll post them when delivered/tested. 480x272 1963 type display has been tested on wires and works nicely. Broadband in the UK is mostly now FTTC (fibre-to-the-cabinet) which is what I have. I get 35Mbs over the copper end. Cost is £32/month line rental + unlimited broadband usage and unlimited UK voice phone usage. Upload speed is about 8Mbs. |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2396 |
here in NZ they are rolling out fibre to the house, in a few years i'm picking there will be hardly any copper left. i've just ordered 30Mb/s fibre for the place i'm renovating (and moving into soon) for a cost of nz$65/month. no landline included, but on prepay cellphone calls are only 4 cents/minute. cheers, rob :-) |
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| Tinine Guru Joined: 30/03/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1646 |
Here in the UK, my mobile phone provider is three.co.uk. I got rid of my Virgin fibre deal because I get unlimited data,text,calls and the unlimited data now applies when using the phone as a hotspot. £24/month. Prior to going 4g, their "3.9g" was giving me 30Mb/s. |
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| gadgetjack Senior Member  Joined: 15/07/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 167 |
Got my board ordered last night. Peter keeps me busy with all his new software. |
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CaptainBoing Guru Joined: 07/09/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2137 |
my 2p £40 a month inc VAT https://www.speedtest.net/result/8206030303 I was lucky enough to be selected for Zen's FTTP trial about 4 years ago, initially 100Mb then a "would you try this and let us know how you get on" from my ISP.. never charged more, never went back... |
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