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lew247

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Joined: 23/12/2015
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Posted: 03:59pm 29 Jun 2023

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Does anyone want to have a go at porting MMBasic to the ESP32?

Peter said in a previous thread

matherp said
The S3 module he is using has 8Mb of RAM and 8Mb of flash. There is an even better one with 8/32 both connected via octal SPI and memory mapped. I said in a previous thread that this is by far the best candidate for MMBasic of anything out there at the moment but not something I am considering

If anyone is willing to have a go I'll buy one of these Esp32 devkits with 32 MB Octal flash & 8 MB Octal PSRAM

Or If anyone wants to port to the ESP and design a new board all in one go one of these with 32 MB Octal flash & 8 MB Octal PSRAM

The only stipulation I would have is it uses a linear voltage regulator and LDO then there won't be noise introduced do the switch mode pst
And USB-C port(s)

It could include VGA, DVI AND OR HDMI (outputing a dvi signal) as the device is capable of hi-res 16 bit now, games ports, microsd card reader, standard usb for plugging in a usb stick, and whatever other sockets anyone wanted

If anyone is interested let me know and I'll see about getting a board to them.
I will only be doing this for one person if they are genuine about porting to the ESP as I'm not working definitaly not rich or even well off but I consider it money well spent for all the help I've had on the forum

Sasquatch

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Joined: 08/05/2020
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Posted: 04:42pm 29 Jun 2023

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I already have a couple of the ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1-N32R8V on order. Not sure what I will use them for yet. I'll likely do some benchmarks in 'C' to compare to CMM2, PicoMite etc. Given the specified 240MHz clock speed for the S3 module and published benchmarks (CoreMark) it looks to be about as fast as an overclocked PiPico and well short of CMM2 performance. Not much information on overclocking the S3 yet. So the main advantage over the PicoMite would likely be the large pool of fast memory.

The VGA library for S3 on GitHub is just "bare-bones" so it might be a bit early to port anything over just yet. I sounds like he plans to expand it to a "proper library" with support for Text, Sprites, Tiles etc.

We may find that there are other limitations making an MMBasic port impractical or otherwise not worth the effort. Still at $18 and currently available it's probably worthy of further investigation.
Edited 2023-06-30 02:46 by Sasquatch

-Carl

stanleyella

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Joined: 25/06/2022
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Posted: 08:08pm 29 Jun 2023

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Sasquatch said I already have a couple of the ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1-N32R8V on order. Not sure what I will use them for yet. I'll likely do some benchmarks in 'C' to compare to CMM2, PicoMite etc. Given the specified 240MHz clock speed for the S3 module and published benchmarks (CoreMark) it looks to be about as fast as an overclocked PiPico and well short of CMM2 performance. Not much information on overclocking the S3 yet. So the main advantage over the PicoMite would likely be the large pool of fast memory.

The VGA library for S3 on GitHub is just "bare-bones" so it might be a bit early to port anything over just yet. I sounds like he plans to expand it to a "proper library" with support for Text, Sprites, Tiles etc.

We may find that there are other limitations making an MMBasic port impractical or otherwise not worth the effort. Still at $18 and currently available it's probably worthy of further investigation.

got one but can't do c or python. nice board. my thoughts, use as vga interface for 8bit pic but better total control.try interface with fabgl but how?
mmbasic picomite is very clever compared. all sorted for the user.

lew247

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Joined: 23/12/2015
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1702

Posted: 01:03pm 30 Jun 2023

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Sasquatch said I already have a couple of the ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1-N32R8V on order.

It's actually a S3-WROOM-2
ESP32-S3-WROOM-2-N32R8V, 32 MB Octal flash & 8 MB Octal PSRAM, w/ Pin Header

Sasquatch

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Posted: 05:12pm 30 Jun 2023

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lew247 said
It's actually a S3-WROOM-2
ESP32-S3-WROOM-2-N32R8V, 32 MB Octal flash & 8 MB Octal PSRAM, w/ Pin Header

LOL, if you follow your own links in the OP, the WROOM part number refers to the small surface mount module, and the DevKitC part number refers to the PCB module with USB connectors and holes for pin-headers. The DevKitC module has the WROOM module mounted on it. So they are two different part numbers for two different parts.

-Carl

-Carl

lew247

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Posted: 06:46am 01 Jul 2023

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Forget the original post
offer rescinded
I cba with idiots making fun of me

ice2642

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Joined: 27/05/2023
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Posted: 08:12am 01 Jul 2023

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lew247 said Does anyone want to have a go at porting MMBasic to the ESP32?

Peter said in a previous thread

Hello,

I buy this board today TTgo vga32
If you port the mmbasic, and it is compatible, I can test here when it arrive.

Best regards,

MMBasic 5.0707 on PicoMite VGA

thwill

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Joined: 16/09/2019
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Posted: 08:19am 01 Jul 2023

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ice2642 said I buy this board today TTgo vga32
If you port the mmbasic, and it is compatible, I can test here when it arrive.

Peter may prove me wrong (though I judge he is currently not in the mood) but the chances of anyone porting MMBasic to yet another board in the next 12-24 months seem unlikely. IIRC there are ~1000 hours of work in each port; personally I have about 2-300 hours of free time a year. I suggest time would be better spent appreciating the presents we already have rather than dreaming of Christmas

.

YMMV,

Tom
Edited 2023-07-01 18:25 by thwill

Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures

stanleyella

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Joined: 25/06/2022
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Posted: 01:34pm 01 Jul 2023

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thwill said

ice2642 said I buy this board today TTgo vga32
If you port the mmbasic, and it is compatible, I can test here when it arrive.

.

YMMV,

Tom

Yes. a rpipico and mmbasic and mmedit is a brill system to explore microcontrollers.
I've only used it for a year unlike others on the forum so only know the picomite but this cheap board does everything I want.
I only bought a esp32 board because it was posted as a suggestion on another forum.

Sasquatch

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Posted: 01:44pm 01 Jul 2023

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lew247 said Forget the original post
offer rescinded
I cba with idiots making fun of me

Sorry @lew247,

It was not my intention to make fun of anybody and I apologize if I offended you!

I was LOL due to the fact that there seems to be several conversations about several different devices running through these two threads about the ESP-32 causing a bit of confusion. I had simply posted the part number for the device that I had ordered, then you posted an alternate part number, and then I had to go and check to see what I had in fact ordered, then go back through the two threads to remind myself what devices we were currently discussing. For some reason I found the entire thing a bit amusing. It was not in my mind to make fun of or offend anyone.

I can assure you that I am not the average idiot (although I do find myself having a few more "senior moments" these days.) I have been employed in electronics and computer related industries since the mid '80s and I was an electronics hobbyist for a good decade before that. I like to think that I have learned a thing or two along the way.

-Carl

-Carl

stanleyella

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Joined: 25/06/2022
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Posted: 02:04pm 01 Jul 2023

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What's an "average idiot"? Is there a scale for eejits like there is for chilli's? :)

ice2642

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Joined: 27/05/2023
Location: Brazil
Posts: 82

Posted: 06:49pm 01 Jul 2023

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stanleyella said What's an "average idiot"? Is there a scale for eejits like there is for chilli's? :)

The common idiot does simpler idiocy, the professional idiot already achieves a higher level of idiocy and there are the virtual idiots who in certain situations emulate a state of idiocy without actually being a constant idiot.

:)

Best regards,

MMBasic 5.0707 on PicoMite VGA

Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
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Posts: 6798

Posted: 08:21pm 01 Jul 2023

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My late cat understood about 26.4% of that. Does that make me an idiot?

(Don't answer that..... ;) )

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs

stanleyella

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Joined: 25/06/2022
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Posts: 2129

Posted: 09:43pm 01 Jul 2023

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What's the difference between a duck... one of it's legs are both the same

stanleyella

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Joined: 25/06/2022
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Posted: 09:55pm 01 Jul 2023

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an idiotometer project. how long you took to make sense of that is how much you're an eejit

cicciocb
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Joined: 29/04/2014
Location: France
Posts: 70

Posted: 10:18pm 01 Jul 2023

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Maybe you are not aware but a basic for the ESP32 exists, with a lot of features.
It works on all the flavors of the ESP32 (including the -c3, -s2 and the -s3) and the support for VGA out is coming

The name is Annex RDS

phil99

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Joined: 11/02/2018
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Posted: 10:23pm 01 Jul 2023

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If you can make sense of it, are you at the top or bottom of the scale?

cicciocb
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Posted: 10:39pm 01 Jul 2023

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Have a look at the help file and you'll be able to answer yourself to the question

Annex32 Help FIle

JohnL
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Joined: 10/01/2014
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Posted: 04:59am 02 Jul 2023

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cicciocb said Maybe you are not aware but a basic for the ESP32 exists, with a lot of features.
It works on all the flavors of the ESP32 (including the -c3, -s2 and the -s3) and the support for VGA out is coming

The name is Annex RDS

Definitely has lots of features thanks to great work by Cicciocb.
However, there are issues with bug maintenance and new releases. Its been few months since some bugs have been acknowledged but no fixes or new release updates.

Unfortunately, Cicciocb is a one man band with limited time and Annex basic has very limited licensing for personal hoby use only.
Very little activity on his forum in recent time.
https://cicciocb.com/forum/index.php?sid=a01f6b0f52bfa81f65f8e9ccabac99a4

Perhaps may be worth while considering relaxing licensing and making it open source?
Look at Arduino and Micropython.

Mixtel90

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Posted: 07:13am 02 Jul 2023

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It took me some time, but I finally got Annex RDS onto a ESP32. :) I found the installation very confusing because the help file on the web page is remarkably unhelpful in that respect! I couldn't have installed it at all without help from this forum.

Also, I know there's an awful lot of info in the help file, but the font is very small for those of us with fairly small monitors and very old eyes. Is there a downloadable PDF that I could zoom?

It's very nice being able to program the beast from across the room using a web browser though. :) I like the RDE too, with the same proviso of very small fonts.

It's a very nice BASIC. :)

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs

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