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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Silly idea for a new (old) MMBasic port
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9060 |
Opps! Sorry, phil99 - I did not mean to paraphrase you, but we were obviously thinking the same thing!  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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CaptainBoing Guru  Joined: 07/09/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1985 |
+1 |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8578 |
What's the view on the SDcard? I like the fact that the board is more self-contained if purchased from WeAct with the flash chip already fitted. Then to wire up you just need a VGA cable and a PS2 breakout. An ultra-cheap motherboard could be developed to make a complete unit in a very small box |
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Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 5715 |
I'm just a little annoyed that we don't seem to be able to get a board with ready-mounted flash from anywhere other than WeAct directly. Even ads that *look* like official boards aren't very clear as to whether the external flash is actually mounted. It's effectively a single-source board. Not having SDcard is a bit restrictive when it comes to taking backups. Silicon does have a tendency to fail occasionally and it's nice to be able to recover your programming opus. :) Still, XMODEM transfer isn't *that* bad. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| CaptainBoing Guru Joined: 07/09/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1985 |
I am quite excited about this. A Mk3(?) with monochrome VGA as an option and FPU.  I have dozens of Mk2s out there and I have struggled at times with speed - especially in my snooker hall lighting controllers where they receive data packets (HC12s everywhere @2400), have to decrypt, interpret, build a response, encrypt and send all within 1.5s. The encryption I had to use is a rotating XOR with shared key because it was simple (=fast) enough to keep up. I wanted to use RC4 but with longer payloads the Mk2 struggled with time-keeping even with all the tricks I knew thrown at it. The double clock speed and FPU will *really* help here - although I must say it is a solution looking for a problem as all the existing Mk2s are doing a sterling job. just going through the datasheet for the chip. got about 4 lines in and this caught my eye: "...allowing 0-wait state execution from Flash memory, frequency up to 100 MHz" this is a similar approach to the CMM2 if I remember? Now I know that "execution" is not the same as "interpret" but what is the possibility of stashing the user (basic) program in flash. this would give huge program capability, paging, etc. Downside; That would mandate a flash chip, so maybe an option to specify how it gets used so those without can play and those with can either leave it (so for custom use) or perhaps have the paging a-la PiPicoMite. just sayin', literally just throwing stuff around in my head. Weiler's Law: Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do the work. h Edited 2021-11-10 18:26 by CaptainBoing |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9060 |
I'm all for that. What kind of storage does the on-board flash offer in terms of FS and capacity under MMBASIC? Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| CaptainBoing Guru Joined: 07/09/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1985 |
Not a filesystem for flash, but I developed a purely MMBasic code-pack for BigMick a while back. Inspired by Peter's CSubs for the same chip (but not everything supports CSubs, hence...) here. Will handle any Winbond device up to 16MBytes (that's a lot of string space) Edited 2021-11-10 18:31 by CaptainBoing |
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| IanT Regular Member  Joined: 29/11/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 84 |
I'm stumbling along in the back of the column here. I just can't keep up wih everyone else.... I received my Picos (pack of 5) yesterday and fired the first one up last night. One of the uses is for a CPU control 'Block' (and various 3D printed accessories) for my Grandson to fit lego/technic stuff around. I did ponder using MicroPython for these projects (e.g. the mainstream approach to STEM on Pico) but still feel MMB is the better (and simpler) option. I was originally going to use a 170 but I wanted to have sound capability and the Pico handles WAV, so that decided it. I guess if (e.g. when) the lad outgrows Grandad technically, he can decide whether to stick with MMB or move the hardware over to something more snake like! This is not to discourage the Black Pill idea btw (I have Blue Pills running Stellaris) - just that I move at Glacial speeds. Of course none of this would be possible without the clever folks here. Thank you Geoff & Peter (and others) for such useful and fun devices... Returning to the Rearguard now... Regards, IanT |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 5715 |
Don't worry about it, Ian. :) The PicoMite seems to be pretty stable now so it's a good choice for that job. Geoff has also produced a really good instruction book. All you need now is to sort out the interfacing and a posh case. :) Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| CaptainBoing Guru Joined: 07/09/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1985 |
from the PDF " STM32F411xC STM32F411xE Description 2 Description The STM32F411XC/XE devices ... features a Floating point unit (FPU) single precision "  still, it's hardware |
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Quazee137 Guru Joined: 07/08/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 522 |
Count me in on this.  It could keep some projects going that is/was using the 170. Was thinking of going with the RPi zero. This gets me back to !JUST! MMBasic that I LOVE. For me still needs LCD with touch. I have the 2.8", 3.2" and 4" being used on many of the projects. |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 5715 |
Why go with the Pi Zero when we have the PicoMite now? That supports SPI touch screens. <puzzled> Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| Tinine Guru Joined: 30/03/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1646 |
I was thinking same. |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8578 |
Just to be clear, if I do this it will not support any display other than VGA. If you want anything else there are multiple MMBasic alternatives |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 5715 |
That sounds fair enough, Peter. In other respects it's not really that different to the PicoMite from a MMBasic perspective. I've just been looking at the I/O on this. At first glance I thought there was a lot more than the PicoMite, but there isn't. Quite a few pins that look like I/O are connected internally: A8, A9, A10 are probably available, but can be USB related. A11, A12 are USB D1 & D+ B4, A7, A5 are SDI1 and connected to ext flash chip if fitted A4 is ext flash chip CS B2 is the Boot button A0 is the User Key button C13 is the blue LED That still leaves 23 (20 if A8-A10 are reserved) by my estimation, so it's not exactly short. :) Tom would love it - PS/2 keyboard and mono VGA. Perfect for old text adventures. He could even scan his own matrix keyboard. :) Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3839 |
If I'm completely honest with you I'm ambivalent about the whole idea. The CMM2, PicoMite and MMB4L will fulfill my needs. I will still probably buy one and port my stuff to it - more for the challenge of squeezing stuff in, but I will wonder why .Best wishes, Tom Edited 2021-11-11 22:10 by thwill Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 3512 |
So, if I get this right, it will be a revival of the original monochrome maximite. Without SD card. It will have it's supporters, but personally have settled on the cmm, cmm2 mx170, F4 and picomite. My backshed is full. Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8578 |
It would have a full file system but in flash rather than SD. The VGA is higher res than the Maximite and it has more program space and runs the latest version of MMBASIC. Would also double as a VT100 if required. Also much cheaper than anything comparable |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 5715 |
I like the idea of it being used as a VT100 terminal. It would hardly need anything for TTL levels and not all that much more for a full RS-232. Archaic, I know, but there are still things around that use it. I assume the on-chip flash would be pretty full, with the file system operating on the external flash chip? Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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Cyber Senior Member  Joined: 13/01/2019 Location: UkrainePosts: 161 |
Sounds like very good project! I little disappointment not having SD card... But it would be possible to transfer data with XMODEM, right? |
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