≡
Products Price List

MaxiMiteFirmware

UPDATE 20-07.2012: There is new version of MM-BASIC 3.2 which somehow increase the power consumption of the PIC32, one customer have reported VGA signal instability when using MM-BASIC 3.2 and jitters, which do not exist if DM-BASIC firmware is used. We guess MM-BASIC 3.2 somehow abuse hardware specs of the PIC32 and cause this overheating. In this case some boards may work others may not work. This is like PC overclocking, it may be rated 1GHz and you to run it on your own at 1.2GHz but you should not expect error free work when you do this, your computer may or may not work correctly. As MM-BASIC is closed source product we can't check what cause this, so it's up to you if you use MM-BASIC 3.2 and you got video jitter problems please do not blame the hardware first :-)

DuinoMite hardware is now supported by Geoff Graham, the MaxiMite designer.

Please note that this is a limited hardware support, currently only 12 GPIO s are supported on the Duinomite hardware.

It takes only a few minutes to do a firmware change from the DuinoMite hex file, to the MaxiMite hex file, and it is just as easy to roll it back into a DuinoMite, if you choose to do so.

This means that you can swhich firmware you want very quickly and easily. This new MaxiMite version for the DuinoMite is available for download from: http://geoffg.net/maximite.html#Downloads

Our thanks to Geoff Graham for making this available.

MM 3.1 adds some very nice features:

  • Full screen editor, which you enter with EDIT command
  • BASIC code can be written without line numbers, a very convenient feature for bigger programs.
  • User defined subroutines, allows you to group your code in subroutines and call them by their name, note the subroutines variables can be defined as LOCAL or if undefined will default to GLOBAL variables

Features implemented in DM-BASIC currently not included with MMBASIC 3.1

  • GPIO support: Full support for 24 GPIOs
  • Support for Li-Po battery monitoring
  • Real high speed SPI on UEXT
  • Support for COM1-COM4 in DM-BASIC
  • Mass storage disk drive capabilities
  • GAMEDUINO Color Graphics support
  • HELP command
  • SETUP command
  • SDENABLE, SDDISABLE
  • SLEEP and low power modes are supported
  • SHIFTIN, SHIFTOUT commands
  • DM.VMEM, DM.HWID constants
  • Part of the reason many of the above are missing from MM-BASIC 3.1 is based on the fact that Geoff worked with early prototypes of DuinoMite which were sent to him in September 2011, we will fix this by providing him with a new set of DuinoMite.
  • Note that this firmware is distributed only as a HEX file as Geoff Graham decided to move Maximite development forward as closed source, so you have no ability to improve or contribute to this project.

BUGS noticed in MM 3.1 while playing:

  • MM 3.1 do not use correct DM VID/PID so you have to load external Silicon Chip drivers if you use it with Windows
  • on windows XP machine I can't work with Hyperterminal with the editor it always ask me if I want to abandon my changes when I press F1,F2 etc.
  • on windows XP machine Putty do not like Silicon Chip drivers so only way to work with MM3.1 on XP is with VGA monitor and keyboard, note that Putty works at laptop with Vista, so it's definitely drivers issue, these issues are not seen when original DM VID/PID and drivers are used, so if the correct VID/PID is used and DM drivers are loaded these bugs may disapear.

Overal we welcome the DuinoMite support in MM-BASIC 3.1, but our advise is to stay to DM-BASIC until the MM-BASIC support is improved as in the current state it's not very useful.