I mean, what is wrong with people!

The most powerful (albeit non-real-time) controller, ever created...Android mobile....Period!!!

Prove me wrong!

My world is replacing control systems and why? Because the front-end died. Why have a front end in the first place when they cost a fortune, receive the most abuse and it dies 3rd shift on Friday?

I'm talking real world.

Nothing today, warrants a dedicated, proprietary anything.

The M5stack stuff is cute enough to be on my wall but if it dies? How long before I can replace...and it ain't that inexpensive by the time yer done.


Craig

  Tinine said  

Sorry, that's no competition...I could blow that away for lower cost [throws down gauntlet]

If you put it in terms of cost, I think you lose--though not by an amount which is likely to be significant to someone doing home automation:



Mains switch runs Annex all by itself--nothing else needed:



(Also runs Tasmoto, for someone who wants a no-coding solution.)

I already have my phone, and so does everyone else who might use these for home automation.

For a little bit more, you can have an ESP32

"All singing, all dancing" I think you called it: ESP32+PCB
Edited 2022-07-07 07:03 by lizby

So what can you do with this little ESP8266 D1 Mini?

Here's a DS18B20 connected to the D1 Mini with flying Dupont wires:



How about serving a web page so your phone can read the temperature?

Here's the code (bugger--the forum is interpreting the HTML--so a pic:)


Here's a screen shot:



Suppose you want to make a change to your code, but, uh-oh, the hardware is in your basement or near the roof of your barn.

Here's the fun part--Annex lets you change your code remotely using your browser. Let's change two lines--add a string variable D$ with a value and put it in the middle of your previous A$:


Now on your phone it looks like this:



And this is what the browser page looks like that you used to make the edit:



Nice and neat and you haven't left your La-Z-Boy.

That's only a very simplified example of what is possible.

You want a PCB?



Here are the gerbers--$6.40USD for 5 at JLCPCB, with slow boat delivery.

D1Mini_shield1v2a_2022-04-05.zip

~
Edited 2022-07-07 11:43 by lizby

  Quote  

you haven't left your La-Z-Boy.

Nice  

Period: June, 2015
Client: Bluebird, North Carolina. They make the vast majority of the (yellow) school-buses.

My clients contact me via Zello which basically makes a walkie-talkie out of your cell-phone.

Sunday afternoon, Zello beeps and I pick-up.

Client: "Machine has a mechanical problem and can't get within tolerance. Can't fix it until some-time Monday but we need to make parts right now. We don't care about the tight tolerance. Can we do something?"

Me: From my Samsung S5, I hook-up with their Android tablet (my controller) via TeamViewer and modify the interpreted BASIC-like code on their Galil Motion Controller. Machine resumed production.

Client "Hey that worked great! Where exactly are you?"

Me: "Sitting at a beach-bar on Jesolo Beach, near Venice, Italy. Drinking Campari-soda while watching topless volleyball"

Client: "Mother-F****r, I wanna come work for YOU"

This is precisely why I have used Android tablets since 2012  


Craig

Hi cicciocb, I have used Annex in a number of home projects and find it great for what I need. I note your picture of the LilyGo Pico/ESP32-C3

  cicciocb said  

...This module contains an RP2040 and an ESP32-C3, better than a simple ESP8266 and much better than the CYW43439 proposed in the pico W

I have one of these but have been unable to load Annex Basic into the C3 using your Annex Toolkit - can you expand on the procedure to flash Annex to the C3 on the module shown please.
Regards,
Doug.
PS. This is a photo of MMBasic on an Micromite plus with an ESP8266 running Annex Basic. The web display is on an Android phone.

  Mixtel90 said  

All this stemmed from wanting complex wi-fi commands (e.g. for email, web pages) in MMBasic.

No
Simply the types of commands used in the Pi version of Micromite that was discontinued
I don't see why eveyone is commenting so much about different chips when the post was about the Picomite and nothing else is relevant to the actual post subject
And Peter has already said he won't be doing it so nothing really to say other than thanks Peter for considering it

I recognize that the post is gone out of topic,
I just invite Panky to ask the question on the Annex forum.

Sorry for the inconvenience

  cicciocb said  

I recognize that the post is gone out of topic,
I just invite Panky to ask the question on the Annex forum.

Sorry for the inconvenience

No worries, it wasn't aimed at you to be honest, it was just a general comment
I acually love Annex, it's so easy to use and the times I've asked for help it's come from you usually the same day  

I really hope you can get Annex working on the LilyGO T-PicoC3 ESP32-C3 onboard, the same as I hope that MMBasic with work with the RP2040 section of that board
the combination of both OS on one chip if they can work together would be the best of both worlds

Whoops I'm doing it myself now, sorry

Probably my last comment on this. Aren't you glad?  ;)

First, I never used the Pi version in anger. In fact I considered myself fortunate to eventually find a combination of linux, MMBasic etc. that appeared to work together (although I never tested the GPIO access). Consequently I don't know much about how it works - I never bothered with the manual. I suspect that the Pi version would have had access to linux as the underlying network-supporting OS. MMBasic commands were probably passed to the OS for processing. That means that you can do a lot more networking stuff with simple commands as MMBasic doesn't actually do them even if it looks like it does. Obviously those commands can't exist without something to handle them.

The PicoMite may have a more powerful version of MMBasic now, but it still doesn't have an underlying OS so all networking stuff has to be off-loaded to something else. Until the Pico W came along the only way you could do that is over a COM port (unless you found some way to write the registers on a chip using SPI or I2C), hence the use of the ESP8266 - the first cheap network modem device. Naturally that restricts you to using Hayes commands as there is no alternative. It also restricts you to what the ESP8266 can do without getting too bogged down.

The question was asked whether the PicoMite could have commands to control such a serially connected RF device, bearing in mind that they would probably only work on a single sort so a device would have to be specified and the necessary commands put forward in detail so that Peter could have a look at the possibility of including something. The silence was shattering.

Predictions made at the time have now come true, there are bigger and better alternatives to the ESP8266 so any commands that may have been agreed on at the time may not be able to use them anyway. That was why I (among others IIRC) put forward the idea that a SUB and FUNCTION library might be a better idea than something built into MMBasic. The library didn't appear either - I think people just lost interest. I know I did.

Now the PicoMite is more developed there are probably no command or function slots left (without some clever piggy-backing) so the chance of getting specialised, individual commands has long gone. Likewise, flash and RAM are now filling up. The library could still become a reality though, if someone with suitable knowledge would be willing to take it on.

  Mixtel90 said  

The question was asked whether the PicoMite could have commands to control such a serially connected RF device

That was definitely not the question. The question was, as Lew said, whether the Picomite based on the Pico W could have (much of) the ability of the Picromite to handle wifi stuff, and particularly as indicated by Peter's prior question about someone providing specifications, integrated wifi stuff such as Annex has.

Obviously, having an underlying OS would help, but as Annex shows, it isn't required (a good bit more memory is required).

Peter says no, and has good reasons to do so.

It does make the Mite series less suitable for home automation tasks.

~
Edited 2022-07-07 20:54 by lizby

My last comment on this
from what I've read - I don't own one yet but I know a few people here have
I just hope it's possible for the esp32 to talk to the rp2040 or vise versa seeing they are both controlled by uart
perhaps someone with one could say?

I beg to differ, but the *original* question to which I referred was not long after the PicoMite appeared. It had nothing to do with the Pico W, which didn't exist. Apologies if the historical context wasn't clear enough. A similar question relating to the Pico W has now been asked, but in this case Peter has justifiably said no.

The PicoMite doesn't need an underlying OS either - the RF hardware now does the job as it contains its own dedicated CPU, memory and interfaces as well as the RF stages. I suspect that Annex works in a similar way - it talks to the CPU on the RF module.

  lew247 said  

I just hope it's possible for the esp32 to talk to the rp2040 or vise versa seeing they are both controlled by uart
perhaps someone with one could say?

I haven't tested it yet, but it's definitely possible for Annex on an ESP32 or ESP8266 to talk via serial to a Picomite using the method shown here.

I've tested it with a Picomite talking to another Picomite over serial, with the second Picomite having only the MMBasic firmware and SERIAL CONSOLE set--no other user program. There's no reason that the first Picomite could not be replaced by an ESP of any sort.

The ESP just prepares MMBasic commands as strings to send to the Picomite, just as a human would at the MMBasic ">" prompt, and filters the response for any expected return values.

A question would be: what would you want the PicoMite to do that the ESP32 with Annex could not?

~
Edited 2022-07-07 22:17 by lizby

The version for the ESP32-C3 is actually in development phase.

About the interface with the RP2040, it should not be hard at all to connect Annex to it, even if, as Lizby states, you can do probably the same with Annex alone.

I have a fully working version of the MMBasic language for the ESP32 including basic wifi connectivity (ESP-IDF). However, as I posted previously I know little about web development and have even less interest. As I also said previously, if anyone would like to partner to create a complete ESP32 MMBasic version then I would be prepared to get all the I/O working and they could do the web linkage.
As with the PicoMite the code would be open source with the same licence conditions as the PicoMite

  matherp said  

As I also said previously, if anyone would like to partner to create a complete ESP32 MMBasic version then I would be prepared to get all the I/O working and they could do the web linkage.

I imagine a deafening silence will now follow .

I'd love to be able to help but it's at the far reaches of my own ability and interests and frankly I just don't have the time.

Note that anything I post in the next few weeks about MMBasic running on the Web is not the same thing at all, and is just me "dicking about" whilst doing some self-directed learning for the day-job; nothing to do with MMBasic per se except that it is a convenient big piece of C code to experiment with.

Best wishes,

Tom
Edited 2022-07-07 23:48 by thwill

  thwill said  

I imagine a deafening silence will now follow

It did the first time. A huge task. All the more credit to cicciocb for Annex.

  matherp said  

I have a fully working version of the MMBasic language for the ESP32 including basic wifi connectivity (ESP-IDF). However, as I posted previously I know little about web development and have even less interest. As I also said previously, if anyone would like to partner to create a complete ESP32 MMBasic version then I would be prepared to get all the I/O working and they could do the web linkage.
As with the PicoMite the code would be open source with the same licence conditions as the PicoMite

THat would be amazing
I just wish I knew enough about web developent to help but unfortunately I dont
cicciocb  maybe you could help?

  lew247 said  

THat would be amazing
I just wish I knew enough about web developent to help but unfortunately I dont
cicciocb  maybe you could help?

Thanks for the proposal but I already don't have enough time for my personal projects, including my website which has just won the 3rd prize of the "Yale School of Art" thanks to the sponsorship made by a user of the forum.

  cicciocb said  

Thanks for the proposal but I already don't have enough time for my personal projects, including my website which has just won the 3rd prize of the "Yale School of Art" thanks to the sponsorship made by a user of the forum.

ROFLOL