Simulate -> Connect ... ?

Buzby

Senior Member
How long before this function is available ?

Does 'real life I/O' mean it will operate the I/O in a target PICaxe, or does it mean some kind of I/O module ?
 

hippy

Ex-Staff (retired)
I don't have a schedule for Connect but it is intended to operate the I/O in a target PICAXE, an In-Circuit Emulator during simulation.
 

Buzby

Senior Member
Searching round e**y, I found this :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140596237765?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

It's a serial driven IO box for a software package from Flowol ( who I had never heard of before. )

Looking at their website it looks like their software can run PICaxe simulations and drive this IO box in real-time, but probably slowly.

http://www.flowol.com/InterfacePicaxe.aspx

This is very close to what we've been waiting for from Rev-Ed, an in-circuit simulator.

Is there any timeline yet for the 'Simulate->Connect' function in PE ?
 

nick12ab

Senior Member
Interestingly the 'No we're still developing' message box is titled 'Beta Test' so unless they just had to say that phrase in their program that would suggest that somewhere there might be a beta version of that software.

I'm guessing that the 'beta test' version is internal to Rev-Ed only.
 

Buzby

Senior Member
Many years ago, when I was first getting involved with PICs ( not PICaxes ), I had a board from a company called, I think, Magenta. It had a pre-programmed PIC on it, the IO of which was driven by a serial line from a PC. You programmed on the PC in PIC assembler, which then ran on a simulated PIC engine, which then used the IO of the real PIC to drive real world stuff.

It was clumsy, buggy, and slow, and I never really used it much. The Microchip IDE was much easier to use, and very soon PICs had the in-circuit debugger facility which made this kind of tool redundant.

Today, with the higher speeds and bigger codespace, I reckon a PICaxe running some PICaxe BASIC code could easily do the same job as the Magenta.

So pressing the 'Simulate->Connect' button would download the IO driver code, and the PE simulator would then talk to the IO.

It doesn't sound like rocket science, the PE simulator already does all the hard work, and writing a bit of code to drive the IO would not be too difficult.

I know it wouldn't cope with the functions that depend on soft timings, but even stuff like AtoD, I2C, and HSerial should not be too difficult as the PIC hardware and PICaxe firmware does all the critical work.

A facility like 'Simulate->Connect' would make educational systems more 'visible', would make debugging hardware a lot easier, and would be useful tool for beginners.
 

nick12ab

Senior Member
So pressing the 'Simulate->Connect' button would download the IO driver code, and the PE simulator would then talk to the IO.

It doesn't sound like rocket science, the PE simulator already does all the hard work, and writing a bit of code to drive the IO would not be too difficult.
They already have that in Logicator although it isn't very good so they're probably taking their time on it to make it as good as possible. I haven't used the Logicator one in ages so that might be better by now too.
 

Voltarin

New Member
Hi Guys,

Three and a half years from last post and the latest version of program editor still says "not enabled in this version"! Is there any version in which we can connect our board and test our programs on the board i.e an in circuit emulator. On screen simulation in the new stable beta doesn't allow me to change input pin states so my simulation just cycles in my "states" checker loop. Heeeeellllllpppppp??????
 

hippy

Ex-Staff (retired)
On screen simulation in the new stable beta doesn't allow me to change input pin states so my simulation just cycles in my "states" checker loop.
You can change input pin states; just click on the pins of the chip diagram in the Simulation window, usually at the lower left of the screen.
 

Voltarin

New Member
Thanks Hippy,

Tried that a couple of times and it didn't ant to do it. Will give it a last absh b4 taking the axe to my picaxe. LOL.

edit: should be want not ant! Finger trouble I guess. LOL.
edit: should also be bash not absh. Definitely finger trouble!
 
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