PEBBLE - Picaxe Electronic Bread Board Layout Emulator

westaust55

Moderator
As SS says,
I could add a selector for "straight" or "offset" wire types.
At the moment however, working on getting off-board components functional.
 

manuka

Senior Member
WestAust55: I'm wary about PEBBLE hosting with so many changes going on. What do you want to do- just have the PICAXE FORUM download at this stage? Are you continually updating this source anyway?

How about I initially provide a simple "ready to go" layout (as below) c/w programming resistors,08M & supply links? This would initially load when PEBBLE is run, & users would just insert their other components. Stan
 

Attachments

Last edited:

moxhamj

New Member
Amazing where this is going.

Westy, those batteries look fantastic. This now describes the entire project in one screen. I know I keep asking for things (sorry!), and I know manuka likes 3 batteries, but my *real* picaxe battery board has a 9V rechargeable and a LP2950. The LP2950 is easy as that is just a transistor package, and it is even round the right way with the input on the left. I like regulated 5V as all the analog inputs stay accurate.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Control-real-world-devices-with-your-PC/

If you look at that board closely, you can just see there are red and blue supply lines already pre-marked on the board. So manuka isn't going off on a limb here by marking his boards -grin-

But no supply lines going down the middle of the chip. I've not seen a board like that.

I like the outline of the vertical and horizontal connections. That makes it really easy to understand.

Hmm - Westy's boards are blue and manuka's are white. Just kidding here, but some of my boards are 25 years old and have turned a lovely warm yellow colour...
 
Last edited:

SilentScreamer

Senior Member
WestAust55: I'm wary about PEBBLE hosting with so many changes going on. What do you want to do- just have the PICAXE FORUM download at this stage? Are you continually updating this source anyway?
My offer of hosting still stands if you would prefer.
 

manuka

Senior Member
Dr_A: Thought-that warm colour may well be from past amber fluid spilt over them! I'm using the original VBB image ( since much enhanced) that Ray offered => http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/ElectronicTools/virtualbreadboard/index.html, & at this stage will keep it white to avoid confusion with Westy's blue. Ray is doing a few tweaks of his own by the way, so it may help to check his site too.

Rails up the BB middle I've now deleted. Although it makes sense to duct wires this way at times, I too have never seen a BB with actual "gutter" tracks there.

Thought-how about we take you up on that "kid challenge" ?! Stan
 
Last edited:

westaust55

Moderator
Amazing where this is going.

Westy, those batteries look fantastic. This now describes the entire project in one screen. I know I keep asking for things (sorry!), and I know manuka likes 3 batteries, but my *real* picaxe battery board has a 9V rechargeable and a LP2950. The LP2950 is easy as that is just a transistor package, and it is even round the right way with the input on the left. I like regulated 5V as all the analog inputs stay accurate.

Hmm - Westy's boards are blue and manuka's are white. Just kidding here, but some of my boards are 25 years old and have turned a lovely warm yellow colour...
Yes I have a relatively new BB form Jaycar that has red and blue lines adjacent to the two power rails along both sides.

Ultimately I will incorporate addiitonal Breadboard formats which will include those coloured supply rails, different sizes etc.

There is only so much time to get things done in any one day. :rolleyes:
 

moxhamj

New Member
manuka, I just reread post #42, and that idea has some real merit. A version that boots up already pre-connected with the battery and the download circuit and the picaxe on the board. I'm thinking of a classroom lesson where you have 40 minutes to get kids to the 'flashing led' stage, and a half completed breadboard would certainly speed things along.
 

westaust55

Moderator
WestAust55: I'm wary about PEBBLE hosting with so many changes going on. What do you want to do- just have the PICAXE FORUM download at this stage? Are you continually updating this source anyway?

How about I initially provide a simple "ready to go" layout (as below) c/w programming resistors,08M & supply links? This would initially load when PEBBLE is run, & users would just insert their other components. Stan
Stan,
now that we know the "real" memory requirements and it can be held on the fourm as an attachment, there is really no need for anyone to separately host unless the final size gets too big.

A "ready to go" arrangement could be drawn up and then using the SAVE/LOAD feature, caputure the configuration data into a text file for folks to use by reloading with the SAVE/LOAD function in PEBBLE.
 

manuka

Senior Member
Dr_A: Yes-much what I'd in mind too. Those long removed from youthful classrooms may forget the stuffing around that may accompany a 25-30 kid "hands on" lesson. Quite aside from classroom management (line ups,rolls,late notes,homework,lunch money,cell phone embargo,horse play cautions etc etc) even booting up the room PCs, cut & pasting files etc may take 10-15 minutes.

And that's assuming everything is ready to go- the average tech./ICT educator gets absolutely NO support, so boring things like flat batteries/broken leads/tripped mains RCDs are their baby too!
 

westaust55

Moderator
PEBBLE - adding additional components

Yesterday evening I sorted out the components for various switches, each in 4 orientations and with 4 combinations each for wire stub colours (selectable from the dropdown switch menu).

today worked on javascript code for:
(1) improved text positioning for diodes, greencaps and electro capacitors. (really need to later look at white text for the black diodes as blue hard to read)
(2) inclusion of the various switches and started on some label text placement.

In the attached screen shot, note that the wires are placed then the switch snaps to holes and the wires stubs permanently attached to switches overlap the end of the wire segments. have left a few of the separate wires offset or different colours to try and show how it works.
 

Attachments

adub

New Member
While you're looking at fonts for the diodes look at a different color for the caps when seen from the end. White all but disappears, especially on the small ones.

Thanks for all the work. Looks great.
 

westaust55

Moderator
While you're looking at fonts for the diodes look at a different color for the caps when seen from the end. White all but disappears, especially on the small ones.
I concur there. . .

. . . and with a future though to use a white breadbaord as others have asked for, white text will "vanish" before your eyes. :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:

westaust55

Moderator
PEBBLE - Capacitor text colour

Just changed the text to black and think that will stand out far better on both blue and white variants of the breadboards :)

Most caps that I have seen in fact have black text though have seen a few with white and silver/grey text.
 

Attachments

manuka

Senior Member
I'm for visible markings! Crystal clear views are really the whole point behind PEBBLE of course. Incidently those electro. cap. markings perhaps look a tad like a wire itself. Perhaps they should be "softened" to just a band, with a +/- to show polarity, much in the style of Ray's original ones? Values such as 0.01uF may well be misread as well- perhaps avoid DP by using 10nF?

WestAust55: Can you confirm that updates are being re-uploaded (to the orig. Rev.Ed Forum page) for us minions to try! Stan
 
Last edited:

SilentScreamer

Senior Member
WestAust55: Can you confirm that updates are being re-uploaded (to the orig. Rev.Ed Forum page) for us minions to try! Stan[/QUOTE]

The original post hasn't been edited since the 5th. Would it be possible to upload a newer version?
 

Dippy

Moderator
PEEBLE - oops.
When my browser was on 100% the PEBBLE by WestAust looked like PEEBLE by Westaust. At any other setting it rendered OK. Sod's Law thats all.

So, no need for me to allude at all :)
Carry on Wilson.
 

westaust55

Moderator
I'm for visible markings! Crystal clear views are really the whole point behind PEBBLE of course. Incidently those electro. cap. markings perhaps look a tad like a wire itself. Perhaps they should be "softened" to just a band, with a +/- to show polarity, much in the style of Ray's original ones? Values such as 0.01uF may well be misread as well- perhaps avoid DP by using 10nF?

WestAust55: Can you confirm that updates are being re-uploaded (to the orig. Rev.Ed Forum page) for us minions to try! Stan
No, I have not updated on the forum. Was waiting until I get the switches functioning. Still some playing to do this evening with text position and play with diode text colours.
If I can get that done to my satisfaction will upload a new version.

Yes can go back and do some tweaks to electro graphics - on the to do list . . . was trying to use the band to indicate the -ve end as in real life (for the students out there). Tantalum Caps do have the "+" indicator whereas electro's rely upon the band down the side to indicate polarity.
 

kewakl

Senior Member
I am running PEBBLE straight from the ZIP file. !!no issues with that, so far!!

Westy, E.T.A. for resonators?
 

westaust55

Moderator
I am running PEBBLE straight from the ZIP file. !!no issues with that, so far!!

Westy, E.T.A. for resonators?
Hi kewakl,

have just sorted out switches (I hope), and about to start looking at terminals of assorted type. Have to create images and add the code . . .

Two (and three) terminal devices like LDR's, crystals, thermistors, speaker, buzzer, servo, stepper motor, DC motor and your resonators are down the track. I won't forecast a date, it when I get to them. :)

and for those waiting . . . breadboards in assorted formats . . .
 

boriz

Senior Member
Next, an integrated simulator so you can ‘run’ the circuit. Then a single click autorouter so that you can get an automatically generated stripboard (veroboard) layout.

Dippy you ass. I can’t stop thinking of it as PEEBLE now :)
 

manuka

Senior Member
Many simulation tools already exist of course- PEBBLE best suits lucid BB design layouts IMNSHO. WestAust55 is slanting his darling towards KiwiBoards (or the DSE etc equiv.) for the final soldered versions. Stan.
 

Attachments

Last edited:

westaust55

Moderator
Next, an integrated simulator so you can ‘run’ the circuit. Then a single click autorouter so that you can get an automatically generated stripboard (veroboard) layout.

Dippy you ass. I can’t stop thinking of it as PEEBLE now :)
Rev Ed already has PICAXE VSM for those who want simulation . . . .
 

westaust55

Moderator
PEBBLE - Picaxe Electronic Bread Board Layout Emulator V1.1

The Rev Ed PICAXE forum seemed to be down last night :eek: just as I went to upload a new version.

I have this morning uploaded PEBBLE V1.1 into the first post so it is at the start of this thread.

Have left the original version there on a "just in case" basis.

Improvements include:
1. text colour for capacitors changed to black and alignment relative to image improved.
2. axial capacitors have had the polarity band toned down so text more easily read
3. diodes now have blue text for the orange glass type diodes, white text for black body diodes in horizontal orientation and grey text for black body diodes in vertical orientation for ease of reading.
4. added switches in push button, and toggle (SPST and SPDT) formats each with 4 different selectable sets of wire colours. Provision for a label in black text over the switches included. (just leave the label detail in the drop down window blank when no label wanted)
5. started on terminals which will include SIL modules. Menu structure is there along will the coding but no terminal strips or SIL modules as yet. The ubiquitous PICAXE (stereo) programming socket is already there :D

Have fun . . . . :) :)
 

adub

New Member
westy, this is starting to look like a really useful tool.
All working well in Firefox V3.0
I also am using firefox but on linux all the images must be named the same as in the source code. ie. "GIF" is not the same as "gif" and "Switch" is not the same as "switch" so after renaming those images I can see them on the breadboard.

I guess I need to write a python script to rename them all next time! Good exercise since I'm just starting to learn python.

However there seems to be missing some. So far I can't find the screw terminal images for anything except the 2-way. Unless that's handled in code like the wires.

Great otherwise! :D
 

westaust55

Moderator
I also am using firefox but on linux all the images must be named the same as in the source code. ie. "GIF" is not the same as "gif" and "Switch" is not the same as "switch" so after renaming those images I can see them on the breadboard.

I guess I need to write a python script to rename them all next time! Good exercise since I'm just starting to learn python.

However there seems to be missing some. So far I can't find the screw terminal images for anything except the 2-way. Unless that's handled in code like the wires.

Great otherwise! :D
Hi Arvin,
wrt terminal strips, all was explained in post 69 at item 5. ;)

I did spot one image with GIF instead of gif the other day and a few more this morning following your comemnts all in the images fdirectory . Or . . have you found several instances. Let me know specifics and I will adjust.
Should be right from the images directory now - it depends upon which graphic editing package I have been using one seems to default to upper case filename extensions.
 
Last edited:

westaust55

Moderator
At the suggestion of Technical, I have developed some images for the AXE029 breadboard programming adapter.

Images as shown in the attached and rotated 180 degrees have been prepared. Hmm looking at the reduced colour version, orange and brown bands are starting to look very simialr for that 10k resistor. :cool:

Separate versions for the PICAXE 18 and the PICAXE 28/40 chips so the educators can check if the student is selecting the right header position. :)

I seem to be having difficulties accessing the PICAXE forum form home since Tuesday evening via my home ISP :eek:.
If the forum has not in fact been down, then I will need to investigate. . . .
 

Attachments

Last edited:

manuka

Senior Member
Mmm- that orange/brown bands issue may be tolerable when context is considered. However it could lead to 10k ( Br,Bl,Or) being misread as 100 Ohms ( Br,Bl,Br)- both common values of course. Perhaps hence resolve by adding a simple O (O for Orange - visible any orientation), or even some stripes/mozaic in the Br. band?
 

moxhamj

New Member
That looks great. I guess that download socket would't sit where it is shown as SO is connected to ground. Would it fit in the middle? ie move it up a bit?

Those little download boards look nifty.

Forum is working fine here from South Australia.

Addit - what is the 'reduced color version' for? Is the screenshot above in this reduced format?
 
Last edited:

westaust55

Moderator
PEBBLE - images and number of colour

That looks great. I guess that download socket would't sit where it is shown as SO is connected to ground. Would it fit in the middle? ie move it up a bit?

Those little download boards look nifty.

Forum is working fine here from South Australia.

Addit - what is the 'reduced color version' for? Is the screenshot above in this reduced format?
I have been reducing the number of colours for many of the images to reduce the file sizes.
If an image only uses 8 or 16 colours then a 16 colour file could be a few hundred bytes while a 256 or 16M colour file will be several kilobytes. One colour needs to always be available as the transparent layer colour otherwise the images will have a block of some colour around the image on the breadboard.

Many images seem to successfully work within 16 colours but I did set the switches to 256 colours for better imaging of the shiny metal parts.
Sometime it is just a case of going back, temporarily upping the number of colours, apply a new colour the the desired area and then reducing the colours again.

Wrt to transparency, try opening any image from my collection in MS Paint and immediately save (with a new name) and you will see that Paint has not retained the transparent colour information so you have a pink or white surround. All things that take time to tweak . . .

The purpose is to keep the size of the complete, and in particular the zipped fiel, page size reasonable.
 
Last edited:

adub

New Member
Hi Arvin,
wrt terminal strips, all was explained in post 69 at item 5. ;)

I did spot one image with GIF instead of gif the other day and a few more this morning following your comemnts all in the images fdirectory . Or . . have you found several instances. Let me know specifics and I will adjust.
Should be right from the images directory now - it depends upon which graphic editing package I have been using one seems to default to upper case filename extensions.
dip_1_icon.GIF
dip_1_icon.GIF
note_1_icon.GIF
note_2_icon.GIF
Switch_111.gif
Switch_112.gif
Switch_113.gif
Switch_114.gif
Switch_121.gif
Switch_122.gif
Switch_123.gif
Switch_124.gif
Switch_131.gif
Switch_132.gif
Switch_133.gif
Switch_134.gif
terminal_1_icon.GIF
Terminal_221.GIF
I have changed all these names to lower case and they work fine.
I've attached the images folder zip and changed to dsn so you won't have to duplicate the effort.
 

Attachments

SilentScreamer

Senior Member
I seem to be having difficulties accessing the PICAXE forum form home since Tuesday evening via my home ISP :eek:.
If the forum has not in fact been down, then I will need to investigate. . . .
I have started having issues with connecting to the forum too. It seems to be unable to load everything (just a white screen no matter how many times I refresh) eventually it lets everything load and its fine again.
 

westaust55

Moderator
I have started having issues with connecting to the forum too. It seems to be unable to load everything (just a white screen no matter how many times I refresh) eventually it lets everything load and its fine again.
Thanks for that feedback SS. Will try again this evening from home.

In terms of PEBBLE, will be hand drawings up some of the various types of terminal strips I propose to include and adjust the AXE029 resistor colours to better reflect reality :)
 
Top