AmForth Pi & Carl's dilemma Carl's desire to develop in Forth rather than C/C++ (or whatever they do with Arudino) is something I can identify with. While I don't mind C, Forth just works better for me in certain projects. And I have some legacy Forth that's nice to re-use. I've built out a hardware toolchain based on the Raspberry Pi. Having a linux distro on card makes this a handy IDE for my Amforth & C microcontroller projects. It's not much more expensive than an USB ISP from Atmel. There's a patch for avrdude to use the Pi's SPI GPIO pins and there's a nice pair for connecting to the serial port. I put all my software on an SD card on my Pi. I use a USB WiFi and ssh into the Pi - but there are other options. Of course - and this is a deal breaker for many people - you need to know linux. But given how popular the Raspberry Pi has become - I'm sure that's less of a problem.
I've wire wrapped ( not cool now I guess ) a number of boards for the ATmega328p with female headers to plug onto the Pi's header. I use the 3.3 v supply, serial, SPI, etc... very nice. I was considering putting up a small Kickstarter project to design a few different boards for developing Amforth based microcontroller projects using the Raspberry Pi as the programmer and "IDE". I backed one project on Kickstarter ( http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/annikaskywalker/microprocessor-about-the-cost-and-size-of-a-pack-o) with the idea of plugging an AmForth 328P on it and find something interesting to do with it. I'm still waiting for my copy of the board. Unfortunately for Carl, you do need to re-flash the chip if you find your forth code does not get you back to the prompt. It's not "bricked" of course. While developing with the Pi, I simply reload my current compiled Amforth using avrdude and move on (scratching my head as to what I did wrong!) (Note: I compile my amforth to suit my taste using Studio 4 under wine. I tried using avra but there is a compiler directive syntax inconsistency that needs to be fixed - haven't gotten to it yet... my install of Studio 4 won't compile my C programs (?) so I go with avr-gcc toolchain) I'm not sure how many people would be interested... and I would need to learn a board layout program - but it appeals to me. It would be nice to have some ready made boards - wire wrapping gets old in a hurry. Any thoughts on this idea? On Sun, Jul 21, 2013 at 4:39 PM, <carl8...@spamex.com> wrote: > Erich, > > I don't mind the 40 euro for the programmer, but I really don't have the > time to order, wait for delivery, and > get into the programming business. Perhaps after this project is over that > will look attractive to me. > > I do like your suggestion to ask about someone in my locality. I'm in the > Phoenix, AZ area and would appreciate hearing from anyone near me. > > Thanks for the suggestion. > > Carl > > > On Sun, Jul 21, 2013 at 1:25 PM, Carl Baxter <carl8...@spamex.com> wrote: > > > Matthias, > > > > Another post indicated that it was possible (likely) that a 328P with > > AmForth might be bricked > > during developing a program. With you 328P being surface mount it sounds > > as if that is a > > show stopper, depending on how dead the 328P was. > > > > My understanding is that surface mount 328P's were only used when the > DIP > > versions were not available. > > I only have one Arduino Uno and it is the DIP version. > > > > I have a project with a deadline and my scarcest resource is time. Even > > if it isn't rocket science I can't > > let myself get sidetracked with peripheral activities. > > > > You said,in an earlier post, that the Arduino Uno wouldn't be your first > > choice for a SBC for AmForth. I'm > > not locked into the Arduino Uno, It was available at an attractive price > > for this project. Can your recommend > > another SBC that would come up in Forth and be in this general price > > range? I wouldn't mind pausing the > > development of my existing Arduino Uno "c" program and try another board > > if it would get me up and running > > in Forth without delay. > > > > I appreciate your input. > > > > Carl > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Sun, Jul 21, 2013 at 11:00 AM, Matthias Trute <mtr...@web.de> wrote: > > > >> * Replies will be sent through Spamex to > >> amforth-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > >> * For additional info click -> http://www.spamex.com/i/?v=79288160 > >> > >> Hi Carl, > >> > >> > Thank you for your detailed analysis of the situation. I have to > >> > admit that we have different goals or that I don't understand the > >> > problem. I'm willing to believe that it's that I don't understand, > >> > but I get the flavor that you are shooting for a solution which uses > >> > the actual chip in the Arduino Uno and want to be able to recover > >> > its original operation. > >> > >> All of my arduino's have SMD chips. I could not replace them, not even > >> if I would need to. > >> > >> > I had hoped for a solution where the original ATmega328P is removed > >> > from the board and replaced with another 328P already programed for > >> > AmForth. > >> > >> Since the arduino provide the ISP pins for in place programming (a 2x3 > >> pin header), I see no need to physically replace the chips. All that > >> differs is software and it can be changed any time. You need > >> a ISP capable programming device (e.g. another arduino with an > >> ISP-MK2 sketch or a real programmer like the AVR ISP MK2 from Atmel). > >> > >> There's no rocket science involved. > >> > >> > I appreciate your interest and would be pleased to hear your take on > >> > removing the existing 328P and replacing it with a pre-programmed > >> > Forth chip. I would think bootloader considerations would go away > >> > under these circumstances. > >> > >> The bootloader can easily re-programmed with the Arduino IDE (there's a > >> menu option for it). All you need (again) is a programming device. And > >> after that, your arduino works as nothing has happened at all. > >> > >> Matthias > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >> See everything from the browser to the database with AppDynamics > >> Get end-to-end visibility with application monitoring from AppDynamics > >> Isolate bottlenecks and diagnose root cause in seconds. > >> Start your free trial of AppDynamics Pro today! > >> > >> > http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=48808831&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Amforth-devel mailing list for http://amforth.sf.net/ > >> Amforth-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/amforth-devel > >> > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > See everything from the browser to the database with AppDynamics > Get end-to-end visibility with application monitoring from AppDynamics > Isolate bottlenecks and diagnose root cause in seconds. > Start your free trial of AppDynamics Pro today! > http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=48808831&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk > _______________________________________________ > Amforth-devel mailing list for http://amforth.sf.net/ > Amforth-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/amforth-devel > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ See everything from the browser to the database with AppDynamics Get end-to-end visibility with application monitoring from AppDynamics Isolate bottlenecks and diagnose root cause in seconds. 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