Simplified programming????

M

manuka

Senior Member
Interesting, & (for Arduino users) possibly worthwhile! However in our case the "2 resistor/3 wire" bare bones nature of PICAXE programming would make it's merits questionable I'd say. Confirming voltages need to be sent back to the PC as well- this has classically thwarted wireless programming I recall.
 
M

mrburnette

Senior Member
need?

I've pondered about 30 minutes before taking fingers to screen on the "need" in PICAXE land for such a capability - beyond the obvious 'it has not been done' before charge. I do not have anyone relying on my providing updated code beyond just a link in an email; however I know some in our membership do have customers and update needs. Has anyone found/created an elegant, secure, and low-involvement process for servicing customer updates?

- Ray
 
B

BeanieBots

Moderator
mrburnette said:
Has anyone found/created an elegant, secure, and low-involvement process for servicing customer updates?
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Yes, Rev-Ed have. Have a look at BOOTI2C.
Simply provide an external connector (4-pin) on your product so that a 'dongle' containing an EEPROM can be plugged in.
Not as cheap and easy as sending a file but a serious option for low volume projects.
 
S

srnet

Senior Member
MPep said:
Really, every computer has a sound card!
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No they dont, or at least the connections may not be avaialble. I have a machine running Windows 7 here, it has no external microphone input, although it does have a headphone out.
 
M

MartinM57

Moderator
MPep said:
... could be made to work for PICAXE[?]. This would get around all the issues there are regarding USB serial port compatibility et al.
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In theory I suppose so, but in practice, I doubt it.

It takes the raw hex file from the Arduino IDE, turns it into sound via a bespoke Java program, which sends it to a bespoke "audio bootloader" on the target AVR (I'm not sure it would qualify as being called an Arduino in this situation).

In PICAXE-land:
- there is no static file currently available that is the image of what needs to be sent to the PICAXE bootloader
- the Rev-Ed bootloader would need to be an audio version, not a logic high-low version
- things like the enhanced download circuit and even the two programming resistors might have to be revisited

Nice idea - well sort of nice, but I imagine the number of potential end user problems to be far more than current PICAXE download mechanisms
 
S

srnet

Senior Member
I have just thought, if its audio you could distribute programs on cassette ..............
 
S

SAborn

Senior Member
Has anyone found/created an elegant, secure, and low-involvement process for servicing customer updates?
Click to expand...
I would like to see Rev-Ed introduce a form of encryption coding that we can zip our code into and PE will load the chip from the encryption without displaying the code supplied, i know this is not 100% fool proof but would offer a much better solution than bearing our code for all to see.
The addition of a settable download limit to the encryption would be excellent, as in most cases 2 downloads allowed would be all that is needed for customer updates.
 
hippy

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
It's an interesting approach but I'm not sure I'd like to contemplate dealing with "it doesn't work" enquiries; how would one go about testing things to find what's wrong when it doesn't ?

It would also lose the advantages that the PICAXE programming mechanism gives; it would add long start-up delays from power-on and no ability to download a new program without a hard reset.

There's also the issue that most sound cards have only one line audio output so you either put up with a high pitched screech through the speakers during downloads or have to disconnect them or turn them off, if you don't build a splitter you have to keep swapping cables.
 
J

John West

Senior Member
I did my share of "digital audio cassette" pgm loading back in the day. Radio Shack drove me nuts with that stuff. No way am I interested in going back to that frustrating mess ever again.

Enough folks already have difficulties with programming their chips without us going back to audio once more.

Now, punch-cards, on the other hand......
 
hippy

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
John West said:
Enough folks already have difficulties with programming their chips without us going back to audio once more.
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I totally agree with the sentiment and I wouldn't like to see anything introduced which would make things potentially more difficult.

In reality though there are only a relatively few people who have problems with downloading and we rarely hear from the thousands who have no problems at all. No one would say there are never problems but the great majority seem to be in trying to use cables other then AXE027, problems in installing the drivers, incorrect download circuitry or jack socket wiring, or are issues not related to the PICAXE or Programming Editor software.
 
premelec

premelec

Senior Member
Datasette... No!

Nuts I still have a pile of Commodore Datasette units and tapes [and Epson HX20 with micro cassettes] - they used to record the program twice for 'verification' and only took a few......... minutes to load the program - now we could speed things up with MP3 files.... an elegant step rearwards :)
 
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