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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : PM: VGA USB version - no VGA....
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9306 |
Hi all.  I got five prototypes of Peter's latest design(version 1.0) made, and one was a dud, but the other four programmed fine - but NONE of them output any VGA. The monitor keeps turning off, as there is no VGA signal. Does this new board have a special new PM firmware? I am using bog-standard PM VGA firmware version 5.07.07 - should that be working? LED1 is blinking away happily on all four of these boards, so the FW appears to be running fine, but I have no VGA output - on ANY of the boards. Anyone got any ideas about what is going on or something I should have done but have missed in the plethora of posts and threads?  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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Turbo46 Guru  Joined: 24/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1611 |
I believe Peter has made the VGA output pins configurable. Not sure where to find it at the moment. Bill Keep safe. Live long and prosper. |
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| Turbo46 Guru Joined: 24/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1611 |
From the manual:  Don't know if it affects that board though. Bill Keep safe. Live long and prosper. |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9306 |
Good to know.  So, is there a default FW I should be using on the new board? Perhaps Peter customized the pinout for his new board, and I need to be using a FW based on that? Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Turbo46 Guru Joined: 24/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1611 |
USB VGA  Geoff's  It looks like they have changed. I guess you need the latest firmware from Geoff's site and use the OPTIONS VGA PINS setting to match. Bill Keep safe. Live long and prosper. |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 4233 |
50900 firmware Option settings printed at th bottom side of the board. PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2350 |
hi Grogster, if you lift R39 and R40 you can probably wire them across to the standard pins available on the 40-pin connector. then disconnect the audio and wire that to the standard audio pins - are there standard pins for audio? cheers, rob :-) Footnote added 2024-03-02 18:03 by robert.rozee remove R34 and R35 to reroute the audio. schematic is here: https://github.com/UKTailwind/PicoMiteVGAUSB/blob/main/Schematic.pdf Schematic.pdf |
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bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2914 |
GDay Grogster, All, On Peter's new PCB he has used GPIO that is not normally available on the Pico. He used GP23 & GP24 for Hsync and Vsync, neither is available on a standard Pico. Peter has released different version Firmware for his board. Off hand, I am not sure where to find the latest version for those boards. Using the standard firmware you need to set the pins used for the VGA pins. Look up OPTION VGA PINS HSYNCpin, BLUEpin I believe the correct option would be OPTION VGA PINS GP23, GP18 He has also brought out GP29 but I don't think it does anything except go to the expansion header. Regards Mick (The big one) Edited 2024-03-02 17:19 by bigmik Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9115 |
The configuration required is on the bottom of the board. The normal firmware for this board is the PicoMiteVGAUSB since it is specifically designed with a USB-A connector. You could run the normal PicoMite firmware but in this case you would be using the USB-A connector as the CDC port but WHY? Changing the H/W would be ridiculous, there are other designs for the standard firmware. Edited 2024-03-02 18:24 by matherp |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2350 |
Peter - are you saying that the picomite VGA USB firmware you are creating will not run out-of-the-box on any of the standard picomite boot-to-basic PCB's as, for example, published in Silicon Chip Magazine? it makes absolutely no sense to deviate from the existing GP16-17, GP18-21 usage for VGA that has been used by everyone since the picomite VGA began. cheers, rob :-) |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9115 |
Why not read the code or try it before commentating/asking? Edited 2024-03-02 18:47 by matherp |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2350 |
why not just answer what is a simple question? |
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Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 6786 |
The USB Edition 1.0 that I have is fine on VGA. OPTION VGA PINS GP23, GP18 (as written on the bottom of the PCB). Rob: The firmware is standard. All you have here is a board that won't run with earlier versions of the firmware. It makes a lot of sense when you are laying out a PCB and it's not easy to get to the original pins. It can save hours of frustration. It's stuff like this that OPTIONs are for. They configure MMBasic for the system hardware. Edited 2024-03-02 19:11 by Mixtel90 Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2350 |
 we clearly have different understandings of the word "standard"! |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 6786 |
But you can't freeze MMBasic development unless you can also freeze development on its platforms. :) Don't worry, you'll probably find a load of designs using OPTION VGA PINS soon. Especially some of mine as I don't like being limited to particular functions for particular pins. You'll soon get to appreciate it if you lay some boards out. :) Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 4233 |
Hi Robert, Fact is that the Raspberry Pi pico has only so many pins. By removing it from its carrier, using the RP2040 chip in a design you free up 4 more pins (-or- you can give them a new function). For the new platform Peter has chosen to use these pins. And he made the new V50900 firmware compatible with old and new hardware designs. To be configured through OPTION's. But it is obvious the old firmware (tied to the original Silicon Chip design) was not prepared for the future. If that would be a requirement, we would all still be using Commodore basic V2..... So.. use the new firmware on the new boards. And set the OPTIONS. So...use the new firmware on the old boards. And set the OPTIONS when the default does not work. Volhout P.S. I have said this before, part of the good thing of picomite VGA was that the VGA pins and PS2 pins where fixed over all firmware versions up to V50800. That made that most of the software that was forced to use other pins (free pins) would work on all home-brew platforms for the pico. (PicoGameVGA, and many of the small designs Mick made). That reference is shifted now. If Only the RP2040 chip had 100+pins, more RAM, and M3 core, but would not that be a STM32F4xx or so....or a STM32H743... Edited 2024-03-02 19:35 by Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2350 |
it sure is great when beginners load up the firmware and it doesn't work. or when they type in something that requires OPTION RESET to fix and suddenly the screen disappears. |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 4233 |
True... Maybe the USB versions of the picomite would default to the new pinout Peter has proposed by doing these new boards. So they would run out of the box. And for those who put the wrong version on the wrong board...they need to RTFM (Read The F*ck*ng Manual). Volhout P.S. Grogster is not a beginner, he could have known: not to expect 1 year old firmware to have functions that have just been designed 4 weeks ago. Edited 2024-03-02 19:41 by Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2350 |
but does this mean we will need to have two (or more) versions of the picomite VGA USB firmware? i've lost track of where we are currently at - standard, wifi enabled, VGA+PS/2, VGA+USB? now we may need VGA+USB(old) and VGA+USB(new)... addendum: Volhout, i see what you mean Grogster is loading up the 'standard' firmware onto a 'VGA+USB(new)' board. it still remains, however, that Peter appears to have swapped round some of the pins used for VGA. if not, then Grogster would at least be able to see output on the screen.myself, i have been playing around with VGA+USB(old) firmware that works with the standard VGA pinouts (GP16-17, GP18-21). i have no plans of changing as i've needed to make use of OPTION RESET several times and have absolutely no desire to type in magic incantations blind! cheers, rob :-) Edited 2024-03-02 19:56 by robert.rozee |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9115 |
All my boards have full configuration details silkscreened on them. If you ignore them then they don't work as expected - there's a surprise |
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