Introducing the Micromite MK2

[matherp]

Hi all

Having used PIC, Picaxe and Arduino for many years, I've recently migrated much of my embedded development across to the Micromite.
This is a Basic programmable microcontroller developed in Australia by Geoff Graham using the PIC32MX170 (28 or 44-pin) as the underlying hardware.
Unlike Picaxe, which is completely proprietary, Geoff has released the Micromite firmware so that anyone with a PicKit 3 or similar can program up a chip.
See http://geoffg.net/micromite.html for details.

The Micromite MKII was featured in  the January edition of Silicon chip magazine.

Like the Picaxe, the Micromite hides all the difficulty of setting up peripheral hardware on the PIC so programs can be developed extremely quickly.

However, what differentiates it from Picaxe are things like:

• Floating point
• Full string handling
• 64-bit signed integer arithmetic
• Proper Functions and Subroutines

But the most important difference for me is that it is possible, very simply, to call C-code compiled using the free XC32 compiler under MPLabX. This means that where necessary the programmer has the full power of a 48Mhz, 32-bit processor available, but where not needed coding is as simple as it gets.

I've been using the Micromite to develop a graphics library for the various TFT displays that are now available so cheaply on ebay.

This video shows my test code checking out all the graphics and text primitives for an SPI driven ILI9341-based display with full touch input.

The demo code is available on the support forum on the Backshed Board http://www.thebackshed.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7355&PN=1

I've got no sort of  financial interest in Micromite, I just think it is a new option for embedded development which should be known about more widely.

To me it is as easy as Picaxe but can be faster (roughly 4x) than Arduino where required and once you have a Pickit programmer, the cost is just the price of a PIC chip.

[dannyf]

To me it is as easy as Picaxe but can be faster (roughly 4x) than Arduino where required and once you have a Pickit programmer, the cost is just the price of a PIC chip.

The difficulty with introducing a new thing is to help people justify using it. Why should people use micromite? vs. other alternatives?

Based on what I see here, very little.

[member_xyz]

Why use bloated, very slow and inefficient basic interpreter in 2015?
Why do you want to hide and restrict use of controller internal peripheral hardware, crazy?
What is the development and debugging environment?
If you need C code for speed and performance, why do you want any basic interpreted code?
Is basic really easier to program than C and more particularly arduino C++?
Where are the comparison benchmarks to other popular alternatives, how is it 4x faster than arduino?
Does anyone in 2015 want to be locked to 1 dubious closed source developer and 1 product that is based on obsolete technology with no obvious future?

 

[Skimask]

Why use bloated, very slow and inefficient basic interpreter in 2015?

Do you need unbloated, fast, efficient, anything to blink an LED...

Why do you want to hide and restrict use of controller internal peripheral hardware, crazy?

Does 99.999999% of the world even care what is hidden or restricted?

What is the development and debugging environment?

EMACS

If you need C code for speed and performance, why do you want any basic interpreted code?

Why use C?  Why not go for straight assembly?

Is basic really easier to program than C and more particularly arduino C++?

Is C/ArduinoC++ any easier than BASIC?

Where are the comparison benchmarks to other popular alternatives, how is it 4x faster than arduino?

Don't know the answer to that one, but the gut feeling is 4x faster is an understatement.

Does anyone in 2015 want to be locked to 1 dubious closed source developer and 1 product that is based on obsolete technology with no obvious future?

Does anyone in 2015 care?
How is it dubious?
How is it obsolete?
How is it obvious?

Disclaimer:  I've got no ties to the Micromite.

[DerekG]

This is a Basic programmable microcontroller developed in Australia by Geoff Graham using the PIC32MX170 (28 or 44-pin) as the underlying hardware.

Yep, I agree that using Geoff's MMBasic is both fast & easy to learn.

I've seen many people roll their eyes trying to learn (& master C), so this makes a good alternative.

If you want to use a cheaper (8 bit micro) then the Micro Engineering Labs Pic Basic Pro is another good alternative.

It sure beats using assembler code!