M3 or X3 series

matchbox

Senior Member
I know this has more than likely been asked somewhere else before.

Is Rev Ed working on another Picaxe release. i.e. An M3 or X3 series?

I do understand that this is all dependent on the hardware available to do the work.

It would just be great if Picaxe had 12bit or > resolution on ADC and could perform integer maths. Plus had a larger range of Interrupts to choose from etc.

I know that Picaxe is for educational purposes. But lets face it....I think that Picaxe has also become very recognized as a hobby micro as well.

Just from looking through the archives of code snippets. There are some rather indepth and complex projects out there. And in some part; there complexity exceeds that of the level of most general users of other code formats.

If the hardware was/is available for Rev Ed to use on a newer series of Picaxe. I am sure that many of us would spend the extra for the extra functionality of a X3 or M3 chip.

I have so many project that are Picaxe based; that I could not be bothered going to another micro format.

And for the most part; I have worked around Picaxe's limitations. But I do get frustrated from time to time, when trying to accomplish something that would be far easier on
another micro control.

What do you guys think?
 

Pongo

Senior Member
It would just be great if Picaxe had 12bit or > resolution on ADC
A 12 or greater bit A/D with a 5 or 3.3 volt input range is a very sensitive animal. If you want more than 10 bit resolution I suggest using an external A/D chip and taking all the necessary design and layout/construction precautions to avoid (digital) noise and other issues affecting the measurement.
 

stan74

Senior Member
Say why. If it's speed then search free pic basic compiler. I did.
The pics picaxe use is limited to m2 and x2. I would only use 28x2 cos prog space and ram but also maths.
I can program all avr arduino boards using free basic compiler..it prints the basic line then the asm if you want.
Other picaxe users are ont their forum.
I would ask myself why first. Do you want to write a retro video game on a small glcd?
Thing that got to me with picaxe is limited variables and needing peek,poke and no long vars and other missing stuff.
Because of the picaxe speed,software solutions for missing maths is pointless.
 

matchbox

Senior Member
Say why.
Thing that got to me with picaxe is limited variables and needing peek,poke and no long vars and other missing stuff.
Because of the picaxe speed,software solutions for missing maths is pointless.
It doesn't just come down to speed for the maths, side of things. Its also about the added simplicity in the writing of the algorithm.

And I do agree with you very much so; on the limited variables.

And before anyone says it.
I am totally aware of work around's for all these things. But it just takes more time in the writing of the program; adds more complexity; takes up more memory and requires more debugging in some cases.

I like to write programs that have a very high level of redundancy; and can take into account almost any problem that may occur in the hardware or its function. Due to many of them being designed for real world situation, that are not always monitored.

For me; debugging complex sensory functions, can consume a lot of time. So the more that is done behind the scenes, the less I have to focus on in the foreground of the code.


Hope that explains the general idea Stan.
 

matchbox

Senior Member
Judging from the views of the post, and know more reply's. I am assuming that people agree with my statements on why I personally would appreciate a Picaxe hardware/software upgrade.
I understand that this would be costly for Rev Ed to accomplish; and that it may not be economical with as many other micro's around as are at the present time.

Any tech moderators care to post on the likely hood of an M3 or X3 series of picaxe's being release at any point.

Or will picaxe eventually fade away?
 

Buzby

Senior Member
... Or will picaxe eventually fade away?
I think not.

Although the firmware is slow and the BASIC limited, PICAXE is still the easiest to use, and virtually un-brickable.

By keeping in-house control of all aspects of the PICAXE architecture ( a bit like Apple used to be ) customers of Rev-Ed know that whatever they buy will do just what it says on the tin. No problems with mismatched hardware and software.

Attributes like these are attractive to their main customer base, which is education, so Rev-Ed have little need to bring out an X3, unless they want to enter the fray and compete with $1 A*****o boards from China.

We may wish for an X3, but don't hold your breath.

Cheers,

Buzby
 

inglewoodpete

Senior Member
Any tech moderators care to post on the likely hood of an M3 or X3 series of picaxe's being release at any point.

To second Buzby, don't hold your breath. Going on past experience (X1s, X2s and M2s), new models will be announced when they're ready for market. Also, since RevEd's primary market is the British education system, they will probably have to be backward compatible with the existing range.

Now that PE6 is done and dusted, I'm hoping that a 28-pin PIC32-based is on the way, with an enhanced mathematics option. My other dream is to have functionality independent of specific pins but that depends on the underlying PIC silicon's capability. And ~sigh~ RevEd has to see any new products as commercially viable.
 

Circuit

Senior Member
Now that PE6 is done and dusted, I'm hoping that a 28-pin PIC32-based is on the way, with an enhanced mathematics option.
Oh, yes, that would be EXCELLENT! I find myself hitting program capacity limits more and more often as I continue to work with PICAXE and spend ridiculous amounts of time trying to optimise my BASIC code to fit the PICAXE chips. If I overflow then I am forced to swap to PIC32MX170 with their 32-bit architecture and 256K flash and 64K RAM and load in Micromite BASIC. My preference is for the PICAXE code every time but limits are limits!
 

stan74

Senior Member
IF! you have to to use BASIC to program a 8 bit atmega or pic, including the new ones with programmable pins...in fact you have to set them up with a pps tool, ...
google "a free pic basic compiler"
I got one that does arduino and pic, it's open source. it compiles to optimised machine code hex but the programmer support is top. arduino boards it's just usb lead, no pickit 2 or 3.
I did try picaxe first and don't regret it but I wanted more than picaxe can do without resorting to c++
 

slimplynth

Senior Member
I love the combination of RPI zero w and picaxe. It does make everything easier quicker.. I have dabbled recently with Sonoff's and 3D printing so the obvious competitor does have its appeal but making things quickly.. picaxe for me.

Ps: smaller too.. I forsee a 3d printing project that incorporates picaxe and conductive filament (multiple filaments in one print..)
 

oracacle

Senior Member
From what I have read a lot of the conductive filament is fairly high resistance.
I am working towards dual extruder atm so I will look into in further detail in the future.
 

marzan

Senior Member
Trying to cut costs i thought i would look into other programming platforms. Didnt take long to realise something simple to do with a picaxe chip is way more complicated using other means. Picaxe has its place for hobbyists as well as educational use. I have a new respect for the Picaxe platform. Well worth the extra cost for me.
Marz.
 

pleiser

Senior Member
I think an M3 series chip would be invaluable if it added the ability for the M series chips to be an i2c slave, which would open up so many projects, especially with the 08M2. There are so many things where you'd benefit from the small size and simplicity of the M2 series chips, but need several of them with an easy communications system. Instead we currently need to switch to the much bigger X2 series chips. I'm aware there are other solutions, such as UART, bit-banging, etc, but for me i2c has been the most useful and seamless, especially when I'm already using other i2c devices anyway, and don't need to use any additional pins for the master. While more program space, speed, and features are always welcome, the main thing I want from a new series of M chips is the ability to be an I2C slave.
 

techElder

Well-known member
There's one thing that we all keep reinventing. Communication!

Do you know what reinventing means? It means the PICAXE needs a built in solution. There's some solutions for ultrasonics, infrared and etc. Why not communication? It is clearly an opportunity to those of us that are tired of troubleshooting comms.

We need a comms system that brings in a specified number of bytes in the background to a buffer. Just like we've all been building with X2 PICAXEs, but we need something more like a database record with defined fields.

I've built it several different ways with serial, hserial and i2c.

It would be something special for this kind of comms to be built in, and would also be a good marketing tool.
 

slimplynth

Senior Member
the DAC function with an ESP8266 seems like a perfect marriage.. I'd be happy with an M3 series with more program space, more gosubs, faster clock speed..
 
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