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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Maximite Color Kit Altronics - assembled
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plover Guru  Joined: 18/04/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 306 |
Apologise for not having searched forum, two grand kids one on each side are waiting for me to come up with answers to Maximite Color unit. With the oldest help, he could read all the small scripts and see colour codes, we put together a kit from Altronics yesterday. After having populated and soldered the parts I spent a fair amount of time checking everything as I know I make mistakes when under duress. To my surprise it appears that we got it right. Following the checkout, adding screen and keyboard quickly fetched from nearest locations, we have it running nicely. One curiosity, when for example I get a syntax error, the error message on the next line has missing E Is that an MMBasic screen adjustment that is needed or just manual screen setup needed? The screen is a Viewsonic VA912, nice 19" 4:3 format not widescreen.  |
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TassyJim Guru Joined: 07/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 6283 |
Well done on getting it running first go. The grand kids must be impressed. If you are missing the first character on each line, you need to adjust the monitor. With some monitors, you can adjust the horizontal position with an autoset command. Others need manual adjustment. Make sure you are running the latest version of MMBasic V4.5 Jim VK7JH MMedit |
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| plover Guru Joined: 18/04/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 306 |
Thanks Jim, I have just started trying to figure the 6 buttons on the front, I rembered something about being able to get small on screen window(s) but for some reason I could only get contrast and brightness toggling. Then I happened to see your message and the autoset word I remembered that this ought to be on these monitors. Did some more button pushing and up came a windows withe more options. The first option was autoset. That fixed it. Phewwwww, the kids will be back in a couple of hours, mum and dad dragged them to Tasmazia I think it was, us oldies has the day in peace, rather nice recoup strength for another few days and then they are gone. Seems I am running V4.4b, until I find out how to update/upgrade is there any problem just using as is? We are not going to get around to do much with my speed. I did start up an Olimex version a couple of years ago but I seem to have forgotten all the practical basics, though as soon as I see instructions more comes back to me. A bit like when you change OS suddenly all the things you know should be simple needs re-learning. Got the language manual downloaded and scanned throught it, later I will go looking for your "Edit" program, not sure of the name but I do remember you had a program I could use on the Olimex system to make things easier. Just dug out a SD card, to check it will work.
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| TassyJim Guru Joined: 07/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 6283 |
Glad you were able to sort the monitor out. V4.4b is enough to get going but sometime you will have to upgrade. It is relatively easy and you don't need any special hardware. Download the Colour Maximite V4.5 from this page http://geoffg.net/maximite.html Inside the ZIP is the manual, instructions for upgrading and the required program. The program of mine you were thinking about is MMEdit and available from the link in my signature. If the kids went to Tasmazia, you most be somewhere in the North West of Tas? Jim VK7JH MMedit |
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| plover Guru Joined: 18/04/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 306 |
Thanks Jim for the instructions, under less duress I think I would have noticed your signature. I know my eyes see it but the brain is somewhere else. MMedit of course. I have got a couple of games from the Library, started with Lander, which I copied to subdirectory on the SD card (B:) [quote]B:\LANDER\[/quote] Following to run the program: [code]run "B:\LANDER\LANDER.BAS[/code] Initially this did seem to run a couple of times, but fails at the end in each case. Spacecraft descends but control seems sluggish and then message [code][16] Sprite Load "Lunar.spr" Error: Cannot find file [/code] Well I think this was the file. Looking quickly through the program I noticed Drive "b:"
I had a feeling that I ought to have copied the file to the root of the B: but I decided to see if I could not get through with a few fixes in the .bas as I would like to hold the games in their own sub directories. So I tried Drive "b:\LANDER"
I started the run with: run "B:\LANDER\LANDER.BAS"
but now it does not run, just stops with the "Sprite Load" error above. I have even reset the drive statement to B: still the same. The Lander program has a line at the top 'Lunar Lander for Colour Maximite v4.0
Hmmm, I think the boys will be home before I get this fixed, guess I have 30 minutes to go. |
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| plover Guru Joined: 18/04/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 306 |
OK, I have given up on the LANDER.BAS, from what I can deduct so far there is a drive change and the path to the "explode.mod" is lost. I think this is the problem. EGGDROP.BAS works but is too coarse in the basket moves it seems on my version and I can not figure out where I could trim the speed/distance of the basket moves. Quite fascinating like the games of 30 plus years ago. INVADERS.BAS crashes very soon in line 471 [code][471] If Invaders (1 , m) <> 121 Then Error Incorrect expression syntax [/code] |
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| TassyJim Guru Joined: 07/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 6283 |
It is a long time since I played with any of the games in the library. In the above code, there appears to be a space between "Invaders" and the "(" Invaders is an array so the space shouldn't be there. Try removing that space. Jim VK7JH MMedit |
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| plover Guru Joined: 18/04/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 306 |
Jim, You were spot on, Invaders is now working. It is a bit slow from memory years ago I thought it was a bit faster, new hardware no doubt the cause. Ok, boys all over me have to cut it short. Yes I am on the northwest in Burnie, retired after many years at the past Paper Mill. I notice that the red activity light has not shown any life, I am wondering if the LED is back to front.
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| plover Guru Joined: 18/04/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 306 |
Here is more a note to myself about the mphidflash used in Linux for upgrading to version MMBasic 4.5 after downloading from the link in above post from Jim. The download contained the instructions in a pdf file. I ran into to trouble because I used copy/paste from the pdf file of the line to be used in a Linux Konsol. As it is back in 2013 when I first hit this problem I had forgotten and it took me about 1 hour of struggle before I started to remember that in my 2013 post I might have recorded some info: http://www.thebackshed.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5704&PN=0&TPN=1 When Copy/pasted from the pdf file, the following line ( with the downloaded hex file name use): mphidflash -v 04D8 -p FA8D –n -w ColourMM_MMBasic_V4.5.hex
The hyphen sign has a value of hex 96 but the normal hyphen has hex 2D, if looking very carefully the difference in length of the wrong character can be noticed. A copy paste to a text editor of the two "hyphens" will show there is something wrong. After correcting the -n option the new MMBasic loaded without problem. So now I am running v4.5. |
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