The Duinomite Project

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Bryan1:
G'day Guy's,
Last year I got involved with these pic32 based boards which run a Basic language very similiar to GW Basic. The beauty of these boards is they have over 20 I/O's and it real easy to interface them with real world applications.

This is the Duinomite Mega Board

Some of the features

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* PIC32MX795 microcontroller
* micro SD card
* USB OTG which allow it to act both as Host and Device, so it can accept Android ADK, Printers, Cameras, Keyboards, Mouses, etc USB devices.
* VGA connector
* Composite Video connector
* CAN driver and connector - note: CAN driver works on 5V and will not working when board is powered by Li-ion battery
* RS232 driver and connector
* two UEXT connectors allowing Olimex modules to be connected one inside the box one outside the box
* PS-2 keyboard
* Audio output connector
* Arduino like format i.e. can work with Arduino shields

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now there is a 26 pin IDC connector for accessing the I/O's, an Arduino pinout for interfacing boards so there a few ways to get external circuits connected.

There are 3 ways to power the board

1. By USB
2. By a LIPO Battery and there is an inbuild LIPO charger onboard
3. 8-30 volts DC input

Now the easiest way to get started is just fire up a serial terminal like Putty or Tera Term, have the drivers set for the Duinomite then plug in the usb to the board and fire up the terminal. One will be able to view, upload, download files all within the serial terminal and get a good feel around.

Also one can hook up an old VGA monitor and PS2 keyboard to the connectors on the board and have a standalone computer running good old basic.

The first major project I undertook was writing an online help file so anyone can access any command/function and read the description along with some code examples. I did this all in basic and it was great program but soon on I found I was running out of memory and it was pointed out that a text based system would be much better and it could load each needed file without clearing the program memory. So I undertook to converting every file into a text file and finally got Version 1 done after 123 text files. Working with the code developers I asked for F1 to be included for invoking the help file and it was done.

Here is a link Don made to show the help file system

http://www.duinomite.com/duinomite-on-line-help-menu/

There is an 'autobas file' that is loaded on bootup and the settings in that file are used so we dedicated F1 for the help menu. Other F keys can also be assigned to commands like 'run', 'load' etc so it is a very handy item to use when programming.

Remember the old pacman and space invaders games well both of them and many more games have been re-written so these games can be played.

Below is a screen dump taken from TeraTerm showing the setup menu and also the setup help file.

DuinoMite Setup Menu - V1.5 Dec 28 2011
-----------------------------------------
Hardware Platform - DuinoMite
V) Video Mode - PAL
R) RTC On Boot - Off
D) Date Format - DD/MM/YY
T) Show Time Date - Disabled
N) Screen Saver - Disabled
S) SD Card - Enabled
U) Usb Console - Enabled
C) Serial Console - Disabled
B) Baud Rate - 115200
M) Custom Video Mode
P) Print Custom Video Mode
-----------------------------------------
Q) Quit Dont Save Settings
X) Exit Save Settings
\> help "setup

" Setup "

Setup will set power on defaults for DuinoMite Boards

DuinoMite Setup Menu - V1.5 Dec 20 2011
-----------------------------------------
Hardware Platform - DuinoMite
V) Video Mode - PAL
R) RTC On Boot - Off
D) Date Format - DD/MM/YY
T) Show Time Date - Disabled
N) Screen Saver - Disabled
S) SD Card - Enabled
U) Usb Console - Enabled
C) Serial Console - Disabled

B) Baud Rate - 19200
M) Custom Video Mode
P) Print Custom Video Mode
-----------------------------------------
Q) Quit Dont Save Settings
X) Exit Save Settings

Video Mode
PAL
Custom - Use with M command to set values
Disabled - Completely Disables ALL Video
NTSC
NTSC-480 (wide screen NTSC)

RTC On Boot
Will read RTC off I2C port and set MMBasic Time and Date

Date Format
Switches between DD/MM/YY and MM/DD/YY

Show Time Date
Switches between Enabled and Disabled

Screen Saver
Swicthes between Disbaled and 5 - 60 minutes in 5 minute increments

SD Card
Enable or Disable micro SD Card
Will default to internal A: flash drive if disabled

Usb Console
Enable or Disable USB completely

Serial Console
Enable Console on serial port
COM1: 19200 Max Baud on pins 15-rx 16-tx

COM2: 19200 Max Baud on pins 19-rx 20-tx

Will have to disable Video on DuinoMite to use COM2:

COM3: 115200 Max Baud UART2 on UEXT

COM4: 115200 Max Baud UART5 on DB-9 DuinoMite Mega

Custom Video Mode (Advanced Setting)
C_VRES
C_HRES

C_LINE_N
C_LINE_T
C_VSYNC_N
C_PIX_T
C_HSYNC_T
C_BLANKPAD

Print Custom Video Mode
Shows Custom Video Settings

Quit Without Saving

Exit Save Changes
Saves Settings to Flash. Do a reboot after saving settings!

\>

So as one can see there a quite a few options one can set for different applications. Once any changes are made just reboot the board and those changes will take effect.

More to come.......

Regards Bryan

Wolvenar:
Very nice write up Bryan, one day I am not so busy I will get myself a couple of these and start playing

WooferHound:
Wow , Those are cool. Suddenly I want one, the Duinomite Mega looks awesome.
I can't seem to find a seller in the USA.

Bryan1:

--- Quote from: WooferHound on February 01, 2012, 09:56:07 am ---Wow , Those are cool. Suddenly I want one, the Duinomite Mega looks awesome.
I can't seem to find a seller in the USA.

--- End quote ---

G'day Woof,
Mate Dontronics will ship over to the US and all around the world and I'm sure you will be surprised how quick it will be too.

Regards Bryan

tomw:

--- Quote from: Bryan1 on February 01, 2012, 01:20:10 pm ---
--- Quote from: WooferHound on February 01, 2012, 09:56:07 am ---Wow , Those are cool. Suddenly I want one, the Duinomite Mega looks awesome.
I can't seem to find a seller in the USA.

--- End quote ---

G'day Woof,
Mate Dontronics will ship over to the US and all around the world and I'm sure you will be surprised how quick it will be too.

Regards Bryan

--- End quote ---

well, whatever you do, don't give us a link or contact info ;D

Tom

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