Has there been any movement on the 18X1 issue?

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vk6bgn

New Member
A Quote from Technical in a thread dated March of 2007:

If Microchip ever release an 18 pin PIC with the correct internal resources necessary for an 18X1 we will naturally produce it. But no such device is available, or even predicted, at present.
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PICAXE Technical Support


Has there been any movement on the 18X1 issue? Or is this still dead in the water? This would be a great PICAXE chip!

Cheers,
"The Addict"
 
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Texy

Senior Member
Which is a great shame as I,d be quite interested in a faster chip with the programming features, and increased memory of the top end devices, but with a lower pin count.
Its mainly down to Microchip of course. I guess there is also no point in also asking if there's any news on the X2 products:D


Texy
 
W

Wrenow

Senior Member
OK, not the 18X1, but any news on the X2 range?
I assume they are still in the works for this summer?

Cheers,

Wreno
 
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tiscando

Senior Member
I too would like a very intelligent picaxe, but with a low pin count, because it is better to program a 28x1 as a high-speed pll than with an 08m, with the problem of the ic being much larger than it needs to be.
So I would like a small pin count picaxe (up to 16 pins) with all the features of the x1 parts (including an external resonator) but only with as much program memory as an 'x' part.
 
hippy

hippy

Ex-Staff (retired)
If one looks at the X1's, the enhancements all come down to having larger Flash memory for user program and, more importantly, Firmware storage, plus the relevant hardware on-chip at a low price.

Rev-Ed have little to no influence over Microchip when it comes to what they manufacture and, no matter how desirable, if there's not a chip in the right package format with the necessary capabilities there's nothing to turn into a smaller X1.

From Microchip's perspective there's probably little need for a PICmicro which has the capabilities of an X1; small chips will be cheap with limited abilities, those with greater abilities will also be more capable over-all and come in larger and more expensive packages. For a commercial user, going from an 8-pin SMD to a 40-pin SMD probably isn't that much of an inconvenience if they need those abilities. I wouldn't therefore hold my breath waiting for Microchip to produce anything which could become low pin-count X1's.

It's like the car market. A Smart Car giving 0-60 in 2 seconds with the performance and handling of a top-end Ferrari will unlikely see the light of day even if possible, because what most of the market wants is one or the other.
 
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Dippy

Moderator
Wouldn't they be X2 and X3?

Maybe people can relax and use what is currently available.... the 18F1320 is a very useful little thing.
 
kranenborg

kranenborg

Senior Member
Interesting post by Phil75: after having visited the Microchip website there might be a candidate chip: PIC16F688. I leave the rest to the crystall ball, but there are some interesting possibiities. However, all speculation from my side ...

Regards,

Jurjen
 
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tiscando

Senior Member
Phil75 said:
Maybe there's a 14x planned ???, I received the attached message while working on a 14m.
Click to expand...
How funny phil.:p Did this message pop up every time you click on the 'run' or 'firmware?' button, or did you still manage to download onto your 14 pin picaxe? Are you really sure whether it is an 'm' or strangely an 'x' part? [edit2: where did you get it from if nothing can be downloaded onto it at all?]
-> there is no complier on the programming editor for a 14x (maybe yet), only 14m. <-
anyway, it could be beneficial to have a 14x or something like that if only it could also support the 'tune' and 'pauseus' commands etc.
annoyingly(, at the moment), there is no pauseus command for the picaxes except for the x1 and x2 parts, so I use a 'high ...' or 'low ...' command to pause for a very short time in a 08m 24xpll program, also with pulsout commands with 10us units:) which is evidence that there should be a pauseus command available for all picaxes like the pulsout command is.:confused:

edit: If there is a 28x3 or such, then why can't there be a 12x1/14x1/16x1/18x1 or such?
 
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Dippy

Moderator
Jurgen: not sure whether you can write to Flash within code on that device...?
This maybe an addled memory on my part, haven't got time to check.
 
hippy

hippy

Ex-Staff (retired)
Phil75 said:
Maybe there's a 14x planned ???
Click to expand...
It's probably more that Rev-Ed have seen the possibility that a 14X could exist in the future and have catered for that in part now should it become an eventuality.

It's an indication that Rev-Ed would consider a 14X if a suitable PICmicro does become available ( same with the 18X1 ) but that doesn't mean it would happen or that it is actually planned.

In my nicely ordered and labelled component racks I have drawers for components which make up an entire range, some of which are empty and may never get used. Same principle; there if I need them but not evidence I'll ever stock them.
 
Technical

Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
As Hippy suggests, when we add code for a new chip (e.g. 14M) we simply try and future proof the software at the same time for other potential parts (e.g. for an 14X if and when any suitable PIC is released, which there is isn't at present - so no 14X planned...)
 
S

SD2100

New Member
Thanks Hippy & Technical

Message popped up twice during many successful downloads, had no other problems.

14m version = 9.A
PE = 5.2.0
 
C

ciseco

Senior Member
Perhaps a silly suggestion but how about someone designing a small board using an SMD chip on a DIP layout but just not wiring all the pins and the same pinouts as the lower range chips???

Don't shoot me down on price, was just a work around :)

If there's lots of interest we might consider doing one for sale, would be say ?3 and I'd need to sell 100+ to make it worth it

Miles
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Honda CBR series specifications
 
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hippy

hippy

Ex-Staff (retired)
Sounds like a reasonable solution, eg 28X1 in a 14M pinout etc, but I'm not sure there's really much market to make it worthwhile. I'm sure the desire is exactly that but with lower cost.

Add I2C Eeprom, crystal and we're back to the Data Logger on a DIP carrier discussed a couple of weeks ago ...

http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=10147
 
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Dippy

Moderator
Absolutely hippy, nice idea... but is it worth it?

The suggestion from 2 weeks ago has all gone very quiet, perhaps cost/viability and the sales figures of 4 didn't help?

Maybe you could do it ciseco?
 
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ciseco

Senior Member
Hi,

I like the data logger idea, maybe for v1.3 of our dev boards I'll include space for the eeprom and crystal.

Our v1.2 is a bit like the AXE210 except it's a much smaller board has a 28x1 SMD instead, XBee socket, supports both hserin and serin, much better regulator which supports the XBee PRO, has onboard 10A relay and has the pinouts to a header row. So adding that would be really good.

Anything anyone else would like to see on a "ready to use" board?


Cheers

Miles
________
Impala
 
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BCJKiwi

Senior Member
Interesting cross linking with the thread;
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=10309

A more powerful chip in SMD format would satisfy the request for more functionality in min space. Also the 28X1 has a 256 eeprom so depending on the requirements could be sufficient.

So an SMD 28X1 instead of 2x8 DIPs - single chip, lots more function but half the eeprom?
 
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