Note: The Maximite Computer
-2012-06-10
Don,
You talk about loading the standard version of MaxiMite Basic on the UBW32. For some time now I have had the latest version of MMBasic running on this board with a lot of UBW32 specific features. The firmware is loaded onto the UBW32 using the standard UBW32 bootloader so you can load and unload it at will. Your customers can download it from: http://geoffg.net/ubw32.html.
Geoff Graham.
MaxiMite Colour Computer UBW32-MCC-PCB PDF Manual Preamble by Mick Gulovsen:
When Geoff Graham first introduced his Maximite Colour Computer (MCC) to the world he announced that it was based on the same hardware as the UBW32(MX795) Pic32 Computer, in fact I believe that all his prototyping for his design was done using the UBW32. See http://geoffg.net/maximite.html
He also released to the public schematics and information on how to convert a UBW32 into an MCC. This project is almost entirely based on that design and many thanks and kudos must go to Geoff for another great Aussie design idea.
When I started out I was going to do a full MCC which includes the Arduino header footprint until I realised that this would be a reasonably large sized PCB and my thought process was that people don’t buy a UBW32 with the intention of storing it in a shoe-box. They want to mount it in a match box instead. i.e. They want it to be as small as possible. So I laid out all of the parts and cramped them together with minimal spacing and measured the board size.
I then looked for the smallest case that was also cheap that would fit. I came up with a neat little case from Takachi Electric which is available from RS Components (SW-120B P/N 373-2441), then pushed the components even more to make it fit.
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/ubw32-mcc-pcb-letter.html
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/ubw32-mcc-pcb.html
Description: The new version of the UBW32 now uses the PIC32MX795 IC. Based on the work of Brian Schmalz, the UBW32 is a small development board for the new PIC32MX795 32-bit CPU from Microchip. The UBW32 is breadboard friendly and includes all of the external circuitry needed to get the PIC32 up and running. Power can be provided over USB or from an external source. It has 3 push buttons (Reset, and 2 user-defined buttons) and 5 LEDs (Power, USB, and 3 user defined LEDs). All of the 78(!) of the PIC32's I/O pins are broken out. The board comes pre-loaded with a USB bootloader and special UBW firmware that accepts simple serial commands to control the various I/O functions.
If you have used a UBW or Arduino before and are frustrated by the lack of CPU power, lack of memory, lack of I/O pins, or lack of sophisticated software, the UBW32 is just what you are looking for! While only slightly more expensive than the 8-bit UBW, the UBW32 has significantly more I/O and CPU horsepower.
The UBW32 is also a very good stand-alone development platform for the USB PIC32 chip. It contains a simple to use USB bootloader so that you can write your own code and download it to the board without any additional programmer, tools, or software. If you need low-level debugging, you can also attach an ICD2/ICD3 or other PIC debugger.
The PIC32 chip is capable of doing USB OTG, USB Mass Store, USB Virtual Com Port and USB Host roles. There is a footprint on the bottom of the board for a USB connector that will allow you to plug any USB device into the UBW32. There is a jumper that allows you to power the VBUS 5V USB wire if you program your UBW32 to be a USB Host.
Features:
- PIC32MX795
- 128KBytes of RAM
- 512KBytes of Flash
- 78 usable I/O pins
- CPU runs at 80MHz
- USB Bootloader
Documents:
Replaces: DEV-08971
