VSM Upgrade

CDRIVE

Senior Member
Every now and then I get the itch to play with blank PICs in VSM. I really don't know why because a Picaxe is such a painless system that provides the user nothing but pure joy. That said I guess life has to have some pain now and then so we can truly appreciate the joyous moments. ;)

Anyway, is there a VSM upgrade option that doesn't break the bank? I navigated to the Proteus - ISIS website and the $$$ pricing damn near gave me a heart attack! I don't think I found a software package under $600.00 and that was the extreme low end!

Thanks,
Chris
 

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
Anyway, is there a VSM upgrade option that doesn't break the bank?
I don't think there is. The best on offer is to purchase a product from Labcenter and have them combine the PICAXE VSM licence with that. As you note Labcenter licences are somewhat expensive but I would imagine they justify that as being a fair price for what they provide. PICAXE VSM in comparison is quite a bargain with pricing which is more affordable for hobbyists and home users.
 

CDRIVE

Senior Member
I don't think there is. The best on offer is to purchase a product from Labcenter and have them combine the PICAXE VSM licence with that. As you note Labcenter licences are somewhat expensive but I would imagine they justify that as being a fair price for what they provide. PICAXE VSM in comparison is quite a bargain with pricing which is more affordable for hobbyists and home users.
In another thread I made some uncomplimentary comments about VSM being clunky as compared to Tina, which I've been using for nearly a decade. I must admit though that when it comes to simulating MCU's Tina has been a miserable unstable failure for me. This is something that VSM isn't. I've been very impressed with VSM's stability and functionality. It links to my Picaxe.bas files seemlessly.

That said and considering the high cost, I think I'll just stay with VSM for my Picaxe projects and settle for a none mixed mode ability simulator for blank pics. They're quite a few out there with no schematic capture abilities at relatively low cost, like this one that was recommended on the Great Cow Basic forum.

http://digitalelectrosoft.com/


Thanks.
Chris
 
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