CommanderLake
Member
Ability to simulate communication between programs for multiple picaxes and more customizable Serial LCD/OLED window with contrast support.
Programming Editor Wishlist
- Thread starter Technical
- Start date
Maybe it should also detect where your eyes are using a webcam and adjust the darkness of the display to simulate the poor viewing angle of LCDs as well (!)
But some more customization of the serial LCD wouldn't be a bad thing - e.g. selection of colour scheme (since it simply uses the LCD5x8H font it would be really easy to change this font colour and the background colour).
What I would like is a parallel LCD in the simulator.
If you want to see what a simulator could be capable of download the free version of the Oshunsoft pic or pic18 basic compiler and IDE. For a parallel LCD this simulator takes the defines in the code and can automatically configure the ports used on the simulated parallel LCD. Also works with GLCD, seven seg, 4x4 keypad, serial, eeprom, etc.
Unfortunately this product is the creation of one person and support and updates seem poor but the technology and intellectual content are excellent.
I hadn't seen this product before this thread started but if I had my message to the picaxe IDE developers would have been to mimic all the best bits of the Oshunsoft product but obviously keep the great Picaxe support.
Unfortunately this product is the creation of one person and support and updates seem poor but the technology and intellectual content are excellent.
I hadn't seen this product before this thread started but if I had my message to the picaxe IDE developers would have been to mimic all the best bits of the Oshunsoft product but obviously keep the great Picaxe support.
CommanderLake
Member
I dont know about LCD's but some OLED displays have a command to set the contrast.
westaust55
Moderator
The graphic (note that is graphic not character based) OLED modules from 4D Systems are some that do have a contrast control function. As part of a warning, the 4D Systems datasheets even advise:
That said, from my personal perspective, once we as component users start to use chips and devices which are more specialised or with control commands which are not the more mainstream (for example using an LCD controller that is not Hitachi HD44780 compatible or a RTC chip other than the DS1307), we cannot expect Rev Ed to provide a simulation for every alternative chip/device that exists.
CommanderLake
Member
Software contrast control is an addition to the SSD1311 controller found on some alphanumeric OLED displays, some indication that this command is doing something would be handy.
westaust55
Moderator
Apparently the SSD1311 command set is a superset of that used by the HD47780
A quick search of the PICAXE forum for the SSD1311 OLED display controller finds just a couple of posts all by CommanderLake.
A google search for “SSD1311 datasheet” only received 83 hits. and for “SSD1311” gave around 1,600 hits.
By comparison a search on “HD47780 datasheet” gave 48,000 hits and for “HD47780” resulted in 50,000 hits.
A quick search of the PICAXE forum for the SSD1311 OLED display controller finds just a couple of posts all by CommanderLake.
A google search for “SSD1311 datasheet” only received 83 hits. and for “SSD1311” gave around 1,600 hits.
By comparison a search on “HD47780 datasheet” gave 48,000 hits and for “HD47780” resulted in 50,000 hits.
CommanderLake
Member
So its new, doesn't mean its features cant be simulated.
BeanieBots
Moderator
It's not so much about it being new rather that it's obscure.
The PE needs to cater for the majority. Having Rev-Ed spend development time on something that only a handfull of users might want would prevent the development of much more useful features.
I dont think anyone is saying it cant be simulated, its just that its a fair bit of coding for what would be a function used by a very small minority.
Some sort of open-source interface (for simulation) might be a useful addition for PE, though I dont know if that would be possible. Then anyone who wanted to simulate their own special bit of hardware could write their own interface for it.
westaust55
Moderator
Although I have not made use of the PULLUP command it is discussed on this forum from time to time and hopefully not too late to include in PE V6.
And six months later we have.......... nothing!
JoeFromOzarks
Senior Member
"Good things come to those who wait..."
I have almost six months in this toy model and it doesn't use a single line of code or burn a single electron!!
joeAttachments
pleiser
Senior Member
Simplicity
one very important thing for PE6: Simplicity. PE6 should still be simple enough to do this: you double click the icon, a blank window comes up, you write a program and click program. That simple.
With all the proposed new features I am worried that it will become a convoluted, impossible to navigate (certantly for beginners) mess like (for example) mplab (x) and microsoft visual studio (just two I used recently, not particularly bad). I am all for new features, just don't let them drown out basic nessesities.
Something to keep in mind,
~patrick
one very important thing for PE6: Simplicity. PE6 should still be simple enough to do this: you double click the icon, a blank window comes up, you write a program and click program. That simple.
With all the proposed new features I am worried that it will become a convoluted, impossible to navigate (certantly for beginners) mess like (for example) mplab (x) and microsoft visual studio (just two I used recently, not particularly bad). I am all for new features, just don't let them drown out basic nessesities.
Something to keep in mind,
~patrick
rq3
Senior Member
When PE6 isn't in Beta.
When Rev Ed announce they intend to build an X3.
buzzlightyear
Member
Please disregard this if it is already possible, (but I have yet to find out how if it is) - it would be useful if in the simulator one could specify a pulse on an input pin, for example to emulate a series of key presses or clock stream, nothing fancy just a on/off loop with a parameter to determine the on/off times in ms or something.