Picaxe frustrations

[AlastairD(Aus)]

Yes I have searched the forum.

Over the last few years I have successfully completed quite a number of projects using mostly 28x devices in energy control and monitoring applications. I have recently built a 4wd truck based motor home (expedition vehicle) and have decided to make it electric as far as possible. To this end I have 600w of solar panels and a range of controllers, big inverter, chargers etc linked to my 12v 320aAH LFP batteries. I have numerous sensors to monitor the voltage and current in various parts of the system.

It is all working quite well but as I learn more I wish to change the picaxe modules quite regularly. I have used the approach of having a row of typically 3 or 4 buttons below a 4 line display. I then change the menus or option labels accordingly on the bottom line. This works but is very limiting.

What I want is a larger screen with a touch screen overlay so the buttons and display can all be changed in s/w. The hardware is available but only for arduino etc. To implement for picaxe is probably not too hard but I want to get on with the main task not reinvent the wheel. Have I missed something?

I would like to stay with picaxe as I have invested a lot of time and $. I like working with them now I have been through the learning curve but I may have to abandon ship if I can't find a simple solution.

 

[hippy]

PICAXE is primarily targeted at the educational sector but obviously can be used beyond that, and quite successfully given the number of advanced projects we have seen, including putting a PICAXE into space. It has never been presented as the 'one and only solution' but no solution is or can be and it may always be necessary to use some alternative to implement a particular project or achieve a particular goal.

It should be possible to implement a project integrating a variety of different devices and any time invested and knowledge gained in using the PICAXE or something else is usually useful knowledge for using other devices, unlikely to be wasted.

It is true there may not always be 'ready rolled' solutions for particular hardware but if the hardware to be used is identified then the community can say whether there is or isn't, and assess how hard it would be to implement, the best way to achieve that, and what alternatives there are or may be.

Sometimes it is necessary to 'reinvent the wheel' when no one has used particular hardware with a particular controller, but the community here can help with that.

 

[inglewoodpete]

I think that a touchscreen as a human interface device driven by a PICAXE would be too much of a stretch for the current generation of PICAXEs.

I hope I'm not treading on any toes by mentioning a couple of recent articles/projects in Silicon Chip magazine. They were based on the PIC32-based Micromite, which I think is directed at a different market to the PICAXE.

 

[hippy]

I think that a touchscreen as a human interface device driven by a PICAXE would be too much of a stretch for the current generation of PICAXEs.

Possibly, but it does depend on what is required, what the hardware is.

The best solution is perhaps the 'black box' approach where whatever is used is just a smart peripheral, easily controlled and interfaced to by serial to make it convenient for PICAXE, with some code in the black box doing the hard work. It then comes down to whether that code already exists or how easy it is to create, and whether anyone's already done that, or provides it as a ready to use solution.

It might not be a PICAXE solution but becomes a part of the PICAXE solution, the module becomes just like any other which could be used with a PICAXE.

 

[techElder]

My 2 (US) cents worth: Design your projects with a serial interface and add serial display devices.

EDIT: Here's one already: http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?28627-Anyone-Used-Nextion-Displays&p=295563&viewfull=1#post295563

 

[Circuit]

I think that a touchscreen as a human interface device driven by a PICAXE would be too much of a stretch for the current generation of PICAXEs.

I hope I'm not treading on any toes by mentioning a couple of recent articles/projects in Silicon Chip magazine. They were based on the PIC32-based Micromite, which I think is directed at a different market to the PICAXE.

I think it difficult to tread on toes when, to mix metaphors, you're are comparing apples and oranges... I choose to use PICAXE for the majority of my digital projects, but when it comes to touch screens and higher performance chips I use the Micromite family. The Micromites use a similar form of BASIC but are undoubtedly more complex to implement when compared against the relative simplicity of PICAXE. Micromites are based on 32-bit PICs and this is an area that, so far, PICAXE has not seen to tread. For some projects I use Micromites and PICAXE devices. The greatest advantage of PICAXE is the superb editor software with the equally superb simulation function. It is PICAXE Editor 6+ that brings it to the top of the league for ease of implementation but when we get into the realm of 32-bit PICs, Micromites are there for those more demanding applications. And from Alastair's viewpoint, Micromite BASIC is of Australian origin and there is local support. In my dream world, Micromites and PICAXE would be integrated together so that I could use the PICAXE editor for programming Micromites.

 

[BESQUEUT]

The best solution is perhaps the 'black box' approach where whatever is used is just a smart peripheral, easily controlled and interfaced to by serial to make it convenient for PICAXE, with some code in the black box doing the hard work. It then comes down to whether that code already exists or how easy it is to create, and whether anyone's already done that, or provides it as a ready to use solution.

It might not be a PICAXE solution but becomes a part of the PICAXE solution, the module becomes just like any other which could be used with a PICAXE.

Maybe something like uLCD_24PTU
And WestAust Getting-Start-with-4D-System-uLCD-modules-basic-tutorial PICASO
an old Picaso-Serial-PicAxe-Library exists.

 

[AlastairD(Aus)]

Thank you all for the very constructive comments. As usual Hippy has made a telling point about the target market. I am probably guilty of taking a device that was easy to implement and did the job well and then taking the project much further.

The suggestion to use an intelligent serial display device is attractive. It would preserve my investment in picaxe and give a modern and flexible user interface. I fear the Nextion graphic capabilities would tempt me to further expand the project. I currently log data to a memory card and then do the display and analysis in excel on my laptop. In reality a quality graphic display and then visual analysis is all I need. I especially like the look of the Nextion tool to auto generate code for a screen display drawn using their graphic tool.

I do not know the Micromite and will research it.

Thank you again for the reality check and suggestions. I will report back once I have made decisions, though it will take some time due to other demands.

 

[hippy]

It might be worth looking at some of the small and cheap Single Board Computers (SBC) which are arriving in the market place which can control HDMI monitors and/or LCD panels and handle touch panels, especially those which have hardware serial ports.

It probably would involve a side-project to what you are doing if the code does not exist but you might be able to get help with that as it's something which would benefit anyone who wanted something similar no matter what microcontroller they were using.

I would suggest not taking too big a jump at a time; implement the LCD display and control first, build the 'graphical interface' before considering that it could perhaps do what you are currently using a memory card dump and external PC for. Doing A then B is often easier than A plus B. Even if you never get round to B you have still achieved the primary goal.

 

[inglewoodpete]

It might be worth looking at some of the small and cheap Single Board Computers (SBC) which are arriving in the market place which can control HDMI monitors and/or LCD panels and handle touch panels, especially those which have hardware serial ports.

It probably would involve a side-project to what you are doing if the code does not exist but you might be able to get help with that as it's something which would benefit anyone who wanted something similar no matter what microcontroller they were using.

I would suggest not taking too big a jump at a time; implement the LCD display and control first, build the 'graphical interface' before considering that it could perhaps do what you are currently using a memory card dump and external PC for. Doing A then B is often easier than A plus B. Even if you never get round to B you have still achieved the primary goal.

As I mentioned previously, the Micromite-driven graphical touch display project described in the February Silicon Chip magazine is worth a read.

 

[AlastairD(Aus)]

Hippy,
Point taken. I tend to 'over solve' a problem and take more time by doing so.

I will start by playing with the Nextion device and hopefully build a standard control/display module for this group of picaxe modules using a serial connection. It could also allow me to unload quite a bit of code common to several picaxe modules and make maintenance/development easier.

 

[AlastairD(Aus)]

As I mentioned previously, the Micromite-driven graphical touch display project described in the February Silicon Chip magazine is worth a read.

I have not yet digested the Micromite project. If the serial/Nextion approach does not work for me then I will certainly look at it seriously.