Independent developer team bringing mikroBUS™ and .NET toget

[krikitu]

4 new drivers are online :

• Altitude Click
• Accel Click
• Parallax Serial Lcd
• DS18B20 1-Wire sensor

You can see videos of them in action and get the C# NETMF source code on the MBN website.

[krikitu]

It's not been a long time before a new driver comes to life !

This time, the Light Click driver is ready for use.
You can see it in action and download C# NETMF source code on the MBN website.

[krikitu]

Hello,

since this last post, new drivers have been added :

- USB-UART
- Current
- RTC
- RTC2
- Thermo


You can see videos of those new drivers on the MBN website. Of course, as usual, you can download C# NETMF source code from the site as well.

[MaGiK]

Keep at this rate team! You're doing a great job
You'll have all the Click boards supported by your cool boards very soon. That's awesome!

Best Regards

[krikitu]

Here's our latest production : the Tuatara board (STM32F427 with 3 MikroBus sockets, programmed in NETMF C#)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l9qM5bJ8Ng

[krikitu]

Hello,

today is a special day, as it's the day the new Dalmatian board is born

http://youtu.be/ZlT1-01XhhA

http://youtu.be/TPpUpzOz6yk

Features :

• STM32F427VIT
• 2 MikroBus sockets
• I²C also exposed via screw terminals
• NETMF firmware (C# and VB programming with Visual Studio)
• USB Host block device (thanks to Oberon Prime firmware)
• External power on screw terminal
• RTC ready, with CR2032 battery holder underside

[krikitu]

Here are some news from the MBN team :

We have introduced a new feature in the MBN Core, known as Storage class.

In short : this class allows the use of different kinds of memories to be used with a single set of instructions, either for simple storage or for file-system (using the TinyFileSystem(*) driver).

Here is a sample code that demonstrate the (ease of) use of the new Storage feature :

Code: Select all

private static Storage _storage1, _storage2, _storage3, _storage4;

        public static void Main()
        {
            _storage1 = new FRAMClick(Hardware.SocketTwo);
            _storage2 = new FlashClick(Hardware.SocketOne);
            _storage3 = new OnboardFlash();
            _storage4 = new EEpromClick(Hardware.SocketOne, memorySize: 256);

            TestSimpleStorage(_storage1);
            TestSimpleStorage(_storage2);
            TestTFS(_storage3);
            TestTFS(_storage4);
         
            // We could also have used TFS with the FRAM and Flash Click boards, without changing anything else :
            TestTFS(_storage1);      // See how simple it is
            TestTFS(_storage2);
                     
            Thread.Sleep(Timeout.Infinite);
        }
      
      private static void TestSimpleStorage(Storage storage)
        {
            var bArray = new Byte[3];

            storage.WriteByte(10, 200);
            Debug.Print("Read byte @10 (should be 200) : " + storage.ReadByte(10));
            storage.WriteByte(200, 201);
            Debug.Print("Read byte @200 (should be 201) : " + storage.ReadByte(200));

            storage.WriteData(400, new Byte[] { 100, 101, 102 }, 0, 3);
            storage.ReadData(400, bArray, 0, 3);
            Debug.Print("Read 3 bytes starting @400 (should be 100, 101, 102) : " + bArray[0] + ", " + bArray[1] + ", " + bArray[2]);
        }

        private static void TestTFS(Storage storage)
        {
            var tfs = new TinyFileSystem(storage);
            if (tfs.CheckIfFormatted())
            {
                Debug.Print("Filesystem OK. Mounting...");
                tfs.Mount();
                Debug.Print(" Now reading settings.dat file...");
                if (!tfs.Exists("settings.dat"))
                {
                    Debug.Print("File does not exist");
                    return;
                }
                using (var fs = tfs.Open("settings.dat", FileMode.Open))
                using (var rdr = new StreamReader(fs))
                {
                    string line;
                    while ((line = rdr.ReadLine()) != null)
                    {
                        Debug.Print(line);
                    }
                }
            }
            else
            {
                Debug.Print("Formatting");
                tfs.Format();
                Debug.Print("Creating file");
                using (var fs = tfs.Create("settings.dat"))
                {
                    using (var wr = new StreamWriter(fs))
                    {
                        wr.WriteLine("<settings>");
                        wr.WriteLine("InitialPosX=200");
                        wr.WriteLine("InitialPosY=150");
                        wr.WriteLine("</settings>");
                        wr.Flush();
                        fs.Flush();
                    }
                }
                Debug.Print("FileCreated");
            }
        }

Here is a screenshot of the result on a 256KB EEprom Click board :



The original 8KB EEprom has been replaced with a 256KB one on the Click board


What does that mean ? It means that you can use almost any memory storage device with MBN and store data on it in a common and very simple way. As long as you know their capacities and how to read/write an array of byte on it, then you are ready !
And now that the drivers already exist for the most common memory kinds (see http://www.mikrobusnet.org/downloads-2 ), you even only have to change the capacity in one driver to have a storage device available in seconds !

Of course, you should be careful to not use the same chip with both TFS and simple storage. Their uses are obviously mutually exclusive.

An example of such setup can be found on the attached picture, where you can see a Flash Click board, a FRAM one and our Quail board with an onboard 8MB Flash chip.
Then, code like the following code can be used :

Code: Select all

public static void Main()
        {
            _storage1 = new OnboardFlash();
            _storage2 = new FlashClick(Hardware.SocketOne);
            _storage3 = new EEpromClick(Hardware.SocketTwo);

            _storage1.WriteByte(10,value);
            var _otherValue = _storage2.ReadByte(20);
            var _tfs = new TFS(_storage3);
            if (tfs.Exists("settings.dat")) { Debug.Print ("File found"); }

            Thread.Sleep(Timeout.Infinite);
        }

This has had some implications on the MBN Core assembly and the different "memory devices" drivers (EEprom, Flash, FRAM, Onboard Flash).
Onboard Flash is not a internal static class anymore but rather a single driver like any other. So if you do not need Onboard Flash support, then it will save you some memory for your program.

All this has made MBN Core assembly to change its version from 2.0 to 2.1. All the download links are now updated and we recommend you to switch to this new revision.



(*) TinyFileSystem (TFS) driver has been heavily modified by MBN but credits for the original driver go to Chris Taylor (Taylorza).

[filip]

Hi,

Thanks for the update, this seems very good!

Regards,
Filip.

[krikitu]

Some (good) news about MBN work, thanks to MikroElektronika !

We have received our boards prototypes recently and they are under stress-test right now. So far, nothing wrong with them !
The tests will still last a few weeks, so that we can be 100% sure that there is not hidden flaw on them but I am very confident that everything is good.

But hardware without software would be useless, so we have also highlighted one of the nice feature of our core library : Virtual Sockets® (yes, we are proud of it )
In short, it allows very simple use of any brand of module and our drivers on the MBN boards with either MikroBus sockets or screw terminals.

See the attached picture for a real example : a Devantech LCD03 display, in I2C mode, is connected to screw terminals on the Quail board (gree/yellow wires for I2C, power for the others).
And here is the code that runs on the board :

Code: Select all

var _vs = new Hardware.Socket
            {
                Scl = Hardware.SocketOne.Scl,
                Sda = Hardware.SocketOne.Sda
            };
            _lcd = new DevantechLcd03(_vs, 0xC8 >> 1)
            {
                BackLight = true, 
                Cursor = DevantechLcd03.Cursors.Hide
            };
            _lcd.ClearScreen();

            _lcd.Write(1,1,"Using...");
            _lcd.Write(1,2,"Virtual Sockets");

Quite simple, isn't it ?

If you want to know more about this feature, you can read the article written by Stephen on our forum.


Regards,
_________
Christophe

[AndyIvan]

Hi mE,
This looks like an outstanding product. Are there any electrical schematics to go with it? I would like to flash the firmware and load the bootloader onto it.
Regards, Andrew

[filip]

Hi,

All information that we have is on the web page : http://www.mikroe.com/quail/
If this is not sufficient enough, please contact MikroBUS.NET team.

Regards,
Filip.

[MikroBus.Net]

Hello,

thank you for the kind words !

We do not provide the schematics for the board yet. But we can give you the needed information to flash it, though.

To put the board into DFU mode, simply press and hold the "Boot" button, then press and release the "Reset" button, then release the "Boot" button.
Once the board is in DFU mode, you can use the ST MicroElectronics DfuSe program to flash the bootloader.

If you are using NETMF, you will also have to use the MFDeploy utility (provided in the NETMF SDK) to flash the firmware.


Best regards,
________
Christophe

[MaGiK]

Hello MikroBus.Net team
I hope you guys are doing great

I've recently got my Quail board, and it looks amazing!
I cannot wait to get my code on it, but I have a question that might sound silly to you.

Your team have like ... four channels on YouTube, four accounts in this forum, and a forum ... or two
I actually like that stuff. don't get me wrong. I just want to know which channels or accounts belong to the actual MikroBus.Net team, and which belong to fans like me.
It would be great if you could put the links here

I hope this wasn't a lot to ask
Best Regards

[MikroBus.Net]

Well, the "official" things are :
- website : www.mikrobusnet.org
- forum : forum.mikrobusnet.org
- account at MikroE : MikroBus.Net (was Krikitu before)
- twitter : @christopheMBN
- channels on Youtube : .... none dedicated We should indeed create a one.
- there is a FB page as well but since I do not like FB, I do not update it and I think it will die slowly

In fact, things have started with individuals, hence the numerous accounts. We also started with free hosting and then migrate to a paid one with new domain names, so this explains why you may still see a few links to those older places.

We now try to have MikroBUS.NET (or MBN) everywhere, but it is a time-consuming task


Anyway, I am sure you will have fun with your Quail board and I thank you for your comment !

[MikroBus.Net]

Hi mE,
This looks like an outstanding product. Are there any electrical schematics to go with it? I would like to flash the firmware and load the bootloader onto it.
Regards, Andrew

Hello Andrew,

did you finally flash it ? And if yes, what are the results ?


Regards,
________
Christophe