"Maximite" a modern, ultra-fast 80's BASIC computer
Posted: 31 Jul 2019, 17:52
For anyone hankering after an old 80's style BASIC computer without the reliability issues and with reliable long-term storage.... no chewed-up cassette tapes or disk compatibility problems...
Martin tipped me off about this project by a very clever chap called Geoff Graham in Oz. He does a range of boards, Martin has tried several, but the one I bought was the "Colour Maximite" kit. Its really simple, just a PIC32 chip and a few passives. Everything including colour VGA video is done in software. All you need is a VGA monitor, a PS2 keyboard and an SD card.
It doesnt have an accessible operating system as such, it runs native MMBASIC which is a very capable extension of GWBASIC, MBASIC, etc. Storage is to SD card rather than horrible tapes, and the PIC chip gives it plenty of program memory, typically 85k, depending on the mode you choose. Other than that, and the speed this thing runs at, you'd be convinced that you're sat at a Tandy TRS80 keyboard.
As the boards are all compatible, anything you develop can be programmed into a smaller, dedicated board to make a simple embedded system. It has a battery-backed real-time clock and analogue inputs so for example a logging battery charge/discharge project would be easy peasy.
The "Colour Maximite" kit is absolutely complete and £60 well spent if you long for a bit of retro tinkering. The surface-mount PIC chip is pre-soldered and the rest isnt at all taxing but if thats too expensive you can also assemble your own using a readily available PIC32 board from ebay. If anyone fancies joining the 80s computer club, but dont fancy DIY, Martin found a UK supplier who will optionally assemble the kit for a further £20
Here's the Colour Maximite: http://geoffg.net/maximite.html
The Maximite also has a bagillion free I/O pins so you can add bits & bobs to your hearts content.
It also has an internal Arduino shield header so you can use Arduino accessories. There are loads of Youtube videos showing Maximites driving stepper motors, switching house lights, etc
Go on, you know you wanna...
Heres the maximite driving a servo (not very well, but still..)
This was just a very quick go at getting the Maximite to drive a servo between two extremes.
Its spaghetti so ignore the quick-bodge code
Timer resolution is only 1ms so need to think of a better way.
But with the Maximite's inbuilt real-time clock, you could write an alarm clock where at 7am a servo pushes a can of mabs off the table...
Cheers
Phil
PS
Finally won a complete game of Super Star-Trek! I dont remember ever managing this back in the day....
The spelling errors are in the original code - I left them there for posterity but I'm feeling the urge to correct them...
Martin tipped me off about this project by a very clever chap called Geoff Graham in Oz. He does a range of boards, Martin has tried several, but the one I bought was the "Colour Maximite" kit. Its really simple, just a PIC32 chip and a few passives. Everything including colour VGA video is done in software. All you need is a VGA monitor, a PS2 keyboard and an SD card.
It doesnt have an accessible operating system as such, it runs native MMBASIC which is a very capable extension of GWBASIC, MBASIC, etc. Storage is to SD card rather than horrible tapes, and the PIC chip gives it plenty of program memory, typically 85k, depending on the mode you choose. Other than that, and the speed this thing runs at, you'd be convinced that you're sat at a Tandy TRS80 keyboard.
As the boards are all compatible, anything you develop can be programmed into a smaller, dedicated board to make a simple embedded system. It has a battery-backed real-time clock and analogue inputs so for example a logging battery charge/discharge project would be easy peasy.
The "Colour Maximite" kit is absolutely complete and £60 well spent if you long for a bit of retro tinkering. The surface-mount PIC chip is pre-soldered and the rest isnt at all taxing but if thats too expensive you can also assemble your own using a readily available PIC32 board from ebay. If anyone fancies joining the 80s computer club, but dont fancy DIY, Martin found a UK supplier who will optionally assemble the kit for a further £20
Here's the Colour Maximite: http://geoffg.net/maximite.html
The Maximite also has a bagillion free I/O pins so you can add bits & bobs to your hearts content.
It also has an internal Arduino shield header so you can use Arduino accessories. There are loads of Youtube videos showing Maximites driving stepper motors, switching house lights, etc
Go on, you know you wanna...
Heres the maximite driving a servo (not very well, but still..)
This was just a very quick go at getting the Maximite to drive a servo between two extremes.
Its spaghetti so ignore the quick-bodge code
Timer resolution is only 1ms so need to think of a better way.
But with the Maximite's inbuilt real-time clock, you could write an alarm clock where at 7am a servo pushes a can of mabs off the table...
Cheers
Phil
PS
Finally won a complete game of Super Star-Trek! I dont remember ever managing this back in the day....
The spelling errors are in the original code - I left them there for posterity but I'm feeling the urge to correct them...