Has PEBBLE Been Abandoned?

westaust55

Moderator
Not abandoned but no requests and I have had little time for hobbies over the past few years.
In 2017 and 2018 I was working (about 2000 km) away from home with 12 to 14 hour work days and no personal computer.
2109 to mid 2020 was back home but working on a multi billion $ project again long hours. Since then on another major project with long hours.
the last mentioned project has some significant statistics. Think about the PICAXE chip with nominal 20 mA nominal IO rating whereas my work project has busbars rated at 270,000 amps (270 kA).

I had back around the mentioned 5 years ago written up and posted notes detailing how to add ones own “breadboards” and components. There had been requests for such information.
The last work I did was to add a selection of bare wire links and some other components for Alan aka Allycat.

has anyone else used my notes to create extra boards or components?
If some posted their information could allow an update of the program as currently listed that may be useful to others.
 

AllyCat

Senior Member
Hi,
I see nothing new for almost 5 years.
Welcome to the forum. You could also say the same about PICaxe and PE6, but there's the old adage "If it ain't broke, don't mend it". :)

It is actually described as a "Community Project" and as Westy said, he has included details on how to add new components and Boards. Somewhere on my "todo list" (but a long way down) is to add the range of (double-sided) "Pad Type" Prototype Boards, commonly available in standard 2x8 , 3x7 , 4x6 , 5x7 , 6x8 , etc. cms sizes. Combined with the "One-Span Specials" wire links, it's easy to design "Pseudo PCB" prototype, or even "Final", circuit boards. But it requires quite a lot of work as I've seen 11 sizes up to 20 x 30 cms.

Normally, for a "new" component, I just substitute a different image file for one of the "less useful" components, for example there is a large number of (toggle) "switches" which differ by only their wire-colours. It "can" be done with a camera/phone photograph and a "drawing" package (which supports .GIF file format), but is much easier with a "calibrated" system using a Flat-Bed Scanner and a "serious" Drawing package such as Paintshop Pro. Sadly the original PsP has been somewhat "broken" by Win 10 and their marketing has adopted the "Sell an 'updated' version every year for another UKP/$100" philosophy (even though many reviewers consider the 15-20 year-old Jasc version to be "better"). GIMP can probably do the same job, but doesn't seem very intuitive to a long-time (and ageing) PsP user. :(

Cheers, Alan.
 

AllyCat

Senior Member
Hi,

Two inter-related issues that immediately come to mind: The "Help" file system no longer works because it was abandoned by M$ and, although (or perhaps because) my PC has a full 1024 x 1920 screen, the "Tool Palette" (at the LHS) is too "tall", so the important Rectangle/Ellipse drawing tool is missing off the bottom of the screen. Also, I may have made a "mistake" when installing PsP v7.02 (c.2000) because every time it starts up it dumps about ten "useless" folders onto my desktop. Possibly something in "settings", but I haven't found it yet. :(

Maybe I should go back to my v4.14SE, which has a particularly good set of boot-up defaults (and of course programs of that vintage start almost instantly). But sadly v4 (the last "freeware" version) doesn't support the .GIF file format required for Pebble.

Cheers, Alan.
 

lbenson

Senior Member
I also have v7.02, and don't see the folder-creation issue. GIF is supported.

The only real issue I have, not related to Win10, is that I can't (or don't know how to) select JPG as a default format for saving, so probably thousands of times I've had to select it with several clicks. And sometimes, LHS tools get grayed out and I can't figure out how to get them back without exiting and restarting.

On a 1366x768 screen, I get this for the Left-Hand-Side toolbar (tools not grayed out when an image is loaded):
PSP LHS tools.jpg
 

AllyCat

Senior Member
Hi,

Yes, I think .GIF may have even been introduced at v5, and I accept that I made a "mistake" during installation when (unexpectedly) being asked to supply a file path for an (unrecognised) function. But there appears to be absolutely nothing within PsP which allows me to (successfully) change the path (away from the desktop), and I haven't wanted to attempt a complete re-install.

Yes, the toolbar was fine on my 1024 x 600 Netbook, but here are a couple of screenshots from my new Win 10 PC's Default set-up. If I change the scale to a ("not recommended") factor of 125%, then I have discovered (now) that the PsP toolbar is complete. But that's a "Global" System setting which makes other Apps too small. :(

PsPToolbar.png


WindowsSettings.png

Cheers, Alan.
 

John West

Senior Member
Not abandoned but no requests and I have had little time for hobbies over the past few years.
In 2017 and 2018 I was working (about 2000 km) away from home with 12 to 14 hour work days and no personal computer.
2109 to mid 2020 was back home but working on a multi billion $ project again long hours. Since then on another major project with long hours.
the last mentioned project has some significant statistics. Think about the PICAXE chip with nominal 20 mA nominal IO rating whereas my work project has busbars rated at 270,000 amps (270 kA).
270kA at what voltage? Just curious.
 

westaust55

Moderator
I have worked on projects before for submerged arc electric furnaces. They also operate around the 250 V. Those were 3-phase a.c. With 80 kA into each electrode for silicon metal and special alloys.

the mentioned project with 270 kA d.c. is an electro winning (EW) cell house for in effect electro-plating zinc metal out of a sulphuric acid solution onto cathode plates.
Same process also used for copper but those for copper that I have worked on were only around 30 kA d.c.
Believe highest rating is an EW plant in US where the current is 400 kA.
 

bogbean

Well-known member
I recently completed my first picaxe project and found PEBBLE invaluable, and refreshingly simple to use too.

one thing that caught me out for a while: I think there is a typo on PEBBLE's (v 3.1) programmer socket pin description but only in the orientation shown in the image attached, where SI and 0V are transposed.

Other orientations are ok. My lesson learnt is not to rely on the graphics for the pinout before soldering-up a project! It was fixed easily enough with a couple of links and a track break.

24755

I think there are some instructions on the forum for adding my own components so perhaps this would be a good opportunity for me to try that out and add a replacement.
 

bogbean

Well-known member
To fix my transposed programme socket I managed to simply replace the gif file ...\PEBBLE\images\terminal_134.gif with a modified version. No edit needed to the P_for_xx.html files. I've attached the modified gif below in case others want to do the same.

westaust55 I hope you don't mind this edit. And I'll add my thanks for PEBBLE, I find it very useful

24756
 

AllyCat

Senior Member
Hi,

Yes, and to confirm that it is/was an Error, I was just doing exactly the same thing. BTW which Graphics Editor (app) did you use? I'm still struggling to find an (ideally free) Editor for Win10 which supports .GIF files, Transparent Layers and "constant" scale factors, etc., that can compare with the UI of my ancient version of Paintshop Pro.

Also, I'm puzzled that the file is called TERMINAL_134.GIF , but (my) Pebble's "Save or Load" window describes it as TERMINAL_1332 . Have I managed to corrupt something in my occasional attempts to add components in the Java files?

Cheers, Alan.
 

westaust55

Moderator
I will endeavor to investigate the matter of the incorrect image tomorrow (wed).

I use (also now old) Jasc Paintshop Pro V9, which while older than, is compatible with win10.
 

bogbean

Well-known member
Hi,

Yes, and to confirm that it is/was an Error, I was just doing exactly the same thing. BTW which Graphics Editor (app) did you use? I'm still struggling to find an (ideally free) Editor for Win10 which supports .GIF files, Transparent Layers and "constant" scale factors, etc., that can compare with the UI of my ancient version of Paintshop Pro.

Also, I'm puzzled that the file is called TERMINAL_134.GIF , but (my) Pebble's "Save or Load" window describes it as TERMINAL_1332 . Have I managed to corrupt something in my occasional attempts to add components in the Java files?

Cheers, Alan.
Alan: I edited the gif on a windows 10 machine using "Paint 3D", I'd never heard of it before, I don't know if it can do transparent layers. My Pebble's "Save or Load" window also describes this socket as TERMINAL_1332 so I guess you haven't corrupted it.
 

AllyCat

Senior Member
Hi,

Thanks for your reply. "Paint3D" obviously retains the Transparent Flag (it's a pink colour in PsP) because it is used in the TERMINAL_134.GIF , but when preparing "new" images it may be necessary to define a specific colour accordingly. I did briefly try "Paint 3D" some time ago but had problems trying to retain the scale (and even the aspect ratio) of the images. Maybe I wasn't using it correctly, but it's essential to be able to accurately scale (i.e. numerically) when importing images from a camera or scanner to use in Pebble.

As discussed earlier in this thread, the last "free" version of PsP was v4.xx (JASC) and didn't support the .GIF file format. Later versions do "work" in Win10; there are some limitations but it still seems more "user-friendly" than any other program that I've found. But $100+ for a program which many users now consider is going "backwards" in functionality seems rather steep. :(

Cheers, Alan.
 

westaust55

Moderator
I had a further look this morning. All there programming socket images except that highlighted by bogbean were correct.
Copy of the corrected image file for the terminal_134 which belongs in the PEBBLE/Images folder is also attached here (this copy edited in PaintShop Pro V9.01).

I will also attach a copy in a new post to the long running PEBBLE thread for those who may come along later . . .

Alan/AllyCat,
For information, the last free copy of PSP that I have from a magazine coverdisc is V5.01.
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