Forum Update and new features

Technical

Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
On Monday 18th July we will start upgrading the PICAXE forum server and software features.

The first stage of this process will result in temporary loss of forum service for a couple of hours on Monday morning (UK time) whilst the server is migrated and the software is updated.

This vBulletin forum upgrade will immediately provide a number of improvements to the forum system, which will in turn provide better compatibility with modern browsers.

The second stage of this process will occur gradually over the next few weeks as we add new functionality such as articles, tutorials, FAQs and user project blogs to this forum (community) website.

And that is where we would like to ask for your help – as we will then have the opportunity to convert old ‘useful forum posts’ into more easily found tutorials and articles.

So if you think one of the old forum posts or threads is very useful and worth indexing as an article, please reply here with a brief description and thread (or post) number e.g.

Hippy’s PICAXE Input Pin Types
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8609

Hippy’s PICAXE I/O Current Capability
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=11963

WA55’s 1 wire tutorial
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=136196

The thread number is shown in your browser URL box when reading a thread (after the ?t=)
e.g. 8609 in this example
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8609

The post number can be found by clicking on the sequence number within a thread (ie the #1, #2 etc. on the right hand side of the post). A new browser window will then open with just that post and display the post number (which is after ?p=)
e.g. 136196 in this example
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=136196


When considered appropriate we will then convert these threads across into indexed articles in the new system, which will then go live in a few weeks time.


Many thanks in advance for your help and suggestions with this process!
 
S

srnet

Senior Member
There must be a thread somewhere on the endurance of the self programming PICs and the EEPROM of course.

Does the FAQ need updating, the self programmion PICs have an endurance of 10K cycles I think ?
 
W

westaust55

Moderator
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westaust55

Moderator
The following charts and information (as opposed to fuller tutorials and useful code exmples) may also be of value for inclusion as reference material:

1. PICAXE-Memory-Map covering generally all but the latest M2 parts attached to post 10 here: http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?11514

2. PICAXE 28X1 and 40X1 SRF-Details/Map attached to post 1 here: http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?11514

3. PICAXE-18M2 SFR-Details/Map attached to post 13 here: http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?11514

4. Control register map for the Microchip MCP23017 i2c IO Expander (for 16 additional IO as 2 ports) attached to post 7 here: http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?12531

5. Number conversion table between decimal, binary and hex with equivalent ASCII characters, where applicable, attached to post 20 here: http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?10893
 
I

inglewoodpete

Senior Member
Scroll Bars ???

I'm trying to use the new forum on my home PC (IE8) and it is displaying scrollbars on every individual post. The problem is that the scrollbars just waste space.

Eg. The vartical scrollbar always shows just under 100%, meaning that you have to use the scroll bar to view the last line of a post. What obscures the last line of the post? - The horizontal scroll bar of course!

I can understand that scrollbars could be useful where a post is very wide or very long but why on small to average posts?
 
M

MartinM57

Moderator
I have had to conclude the new design is unusable from a Blackberry on GPRS/EDGE connectivity - the home page for each forum is nearly 300KB and has about 48 images on it. The thread pages are also equally huge.

I have also had to conclude the new design is unusable from a Blackberry on Wi-fi connectivity - the home page for each forum rendering is a complete mess with overlaid thread titles, author info and the separate page indicators. Within threads, the text is so small and the width of the page so large that zooming and scrolling to actually read the threads is more like an interactive computer game challenge.

I'd be (sort of) interested on what happens with other mobile browsers (only sort of interested as changing from a Blackberry is a non-starter) - but a bit more interested if the new forum software allows easy configuration of a mobile browser equivalent and/or supports an RSS feed that leads to text only versions of threads.
 
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Andrew Cowan

Senior Member
Martin - I'm being an Android phone (Dolphin browser) over 3G with no problems and fast loading.

A

Edit: I'm being an Android phone? Try 'using'! So, while it displays fine, my typing isn't :p
 
W

westaust55

Moderator
This thread was (I believe) primarily for identifying past threads and documents which Rev Ed may install into a repository for such information.

In Technical’s words:
And that is where we would like to ask for your help – as we will then have the opportunity to convert old ‘useful forum posts’ into more easily found tutorials and articles.

So if you think one of the old forum posts or threads is very useful and worth indexing as an article, please reply here with a brief description and thread (or post) number e.g.
Click to expand...
Most comments and suggestions about the new forum presentation are covered in the FORUM UPDATE & NEW FEATURES thread here:
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?18866-Welcome-to-the-updated-forum/


But to provide an answer to the MartinM57, while travelling I am using an iPhone with 3G access:
- Does seem to be using additional data capacity to download pages
- Not always fast but that might be local carriers rather than Rev Ed’s forum
- Colour rendition with light/std versus bold blue for new versus read not so easily discriminated at standard window size - need to zoom in slightly
(but then I recall somone else with an iPhone could not see red line mark-up done to a diagram when viewed with an iPhone).
- body text as black on white is very clear and readable.
- I find that it is useable while travelling to comment/respond but I do not try to include attachments. If my destination has PC access I will sometimes will add more later in the day when at a PC.
 
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westaust55

Moderator
While recognising that Rev Ed staff have many other tasks to perform with new developments (whatever those may be), helping PICAXE users, etc, in view of the fact that this thread started around14 months ago, wondering whether a Tutorial section was imminent ? :confused:
 
marzan

marzan

Senior Member
westaust55 said:
While recognising that Rev Ed staff have many other tasks to perform with new developments (whatever those may be), helping PICAXE users, etc, in view of the fact that this thread started around14 months ago, wondering whether a Tutorial section was imminent ? :confused:
Click to expand...
Like.. :p
 
W

westaust55

Moderator
To keep this thread/list a little more current until Rev Ed release/open the website repoitory of tutorials and useful information, here are some of my latest endeavours:

SAA1064 4-digit 7-segment i2c based LED driver: http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?22252-Getting-Started-with-the-SAA1064-i2c-bus-4-Digit-7-Segment-LED-driver-chip

MAX7219 8-digit 7-segment SPI based LED driver (with 4-digit code examples): http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?23293-Getting-Started-with-the-MAX7219-Eight-Digit-7-Segment-LED-Driver

The WS2801 SPI comms RGB LED driver: http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?22713-Getting-Started-with-the-WS2801-3-Channel-RGB-LED-Driver-with-PWM-output

Dorji DRF4431F13 Wireless Transceiver Modules:http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?21229-Getting-Started-with-PICAXE-and-Dorji-DRF4431F13-Wireless-Transceiver-Modules
 
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