News and Updates

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Benchmark for STM32G431

Posted on 10th Mar 2021

Just a quick note. Been working on BASIC for the STM32G431. This port moves our code into STMCubeIDE rather than trying to move their code into our MakeItC gcc environment. With this we should be able to port our BASIC firmware code to new parts quickly. I'm at the point, that user BASIC programs are being loaded and run from Flash, and with that I can run our simple integer and floating point benchmarks. The numbers for the STM32G431 have been added to our benchmark table.

Coridium has a CAGE code

Posted on 5th Mar 2021

A customer recently asked if we had a CAGE code. Well that was something new to me, but at the time no, and I checked with a friend who does DoD work as to what that was, and he said pretty easy to set it up yourself. Luckily as a corporation we already had a Tax ID number, and for another client eons ago we got a DUNs number so l plugged them into the system. And I have to tip my hat to Russell with the Defense Logistics Agency, who must have been working from home after hours granted us a number within minutes of the request. So now we are 8W2R9 in the CAGE system. Is this worthy of a blog post, well at least I will know where to look it up if I need it. We've entered all the data into the SAM.gov system and should show up there in a few days.

LPC812 great for small applications

LPC812 great for small applications

Posted on 2nd Mar 2021

About 6 years ago we did a port of our ARM BASIC to the LPC812. While we built a handful of boards, it never became a product, as the LPC1114 came along and became our focus. Though recently we needed a smarter interface for character LCD displays, and the LPC812 was a perfect fit.

EEPROM access on ARMstamp

Posted on 14th Feb 2021

A while back I wrote a couple line example for an IAP (In Application Program) access from BASIC. Tod took this and expanded it to access the EEPROM of the ARMstamp. This code takes advantage of the inline ASM instructions in ARMbasic. In the LPC11U37 ARMstamp access to the EEPROM is only through IAP calls. Below is the code for that.

LCD812 LCD driver

LCD812 LCD driver

Posted on 8th Feb 2021

OSHpark got me boards before UPS got me parts. Both came together yesterday, so I built up 6 PCBs, sending some off to Tod and Olzeke beta testers. Grabbed a 4x20 New Haven display that was sitting here in a bin, and mated the 2 together. It passed the smoke test, and with a 1 line program, I could see the default display come up.(alternate lines on and off) IO(3)=1 ' turn on Backlight transistor drive

LCD interface PCB

LCD interface PCB

Posted on 26th Jan 2021

Tod's been working on a super-duper breadboard system. No doubt it has every bell and whistle imaginable piled on top of a kitchen sink. One feature is a line based LCD. Now these are real cheap these days, but they usually use a PCF8574 I2C I/O expander. Not that I2C is bad, but to write a byte into the LCD takes at least 8 I2C operations, not to mention that for whatever reason I2C takes lots of interrupts and states in the software. Serial UARTs and SPI both potentially faster and the hardware on the micro is such, you write a byte and go away.