ZX-32a4 ADC Resolution

liam.zbasic · Post by **liam.zbasic** » 24 December 2010, 23:59 PM

Recommendation... it would be nice if Elba Corp. offered an interface board for the ZX-32a4 device to make the most of one-stop shopping. This might be easier said than done due to the potential for noise and cross-talk between ADC and non-ADC pins.

P.S. Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2011. It can only get better.

mikep · Post by **mikep** » 25 December 2010, 1:10 AM

liam.zbasic wrote:offered an interface board for the ZX-32a4 device to make the most of one-stop shopping.

There is a ZX-24x from Elba and a ZX-24xu from Oak Micros. In what way do they not fit your requirements?

liam.zbasic · Post by **liam.zbasic** » 26 December 2010, 8:37 AM

The 24-pin ZX-24x "stamp" does not make use of all the ATxmega32a4 I/O pins. I suppose its the way to go if you want a drop-in module for the "basic stamp".

On the other hand, I totally missed the Oak Micros devices. The ZX-24xu is a fantastic 40-pin device perfect for my needs. Why not add these models to the "Featured Products" list in the Zbasic.net home page? Aside from that, I have to admit that for me, $59.95 is a bit steep nowadays. I'm highly considering the Maple Mini (due in late January) from leaflabs which is also a 40-pin "stamp" with USB but features a 32-bit processor with 20K RAM, 128K Flash and an open-source "C" compiler for $33 (based on their forum). I don't mind "C".

Anyway, I'll be watching and waiting for new ZBasic and Oak Micros devices. Hopefully 32-bit devices are in the works.

mikep · Post by **mikep** » 26 December 2010, 9:30 AM

liam.zbasic wrote:I suppose it (ZX-24x) is the way to go if you want a drop-in module for the "basic stamp".

I believe that is the design point.

liam.zbasic wrote:The ZX-24xu is a fantastic 40-pin device perfect for my needs. Why not add these models to the "Featured Products" list in the Zbasic.net home page?

Thank you. The design point for the OEM'ed Oak Micros devices is to include more I/O and features at the same or similar price point to the Elba devices. At the bottom of the ZBasic.net homepage is a list of all of the ZBasic devices and a selection table by feature.

liam.zbasic wrote:Aside from that, I have to admit that for me, $59.95 is a bit steep nowadays. I'm highly considering the Maple Mini (due in late January) from leaflabs which is also a 40-pin "stamp" with USB but features a 32-bit processor with 20K RAM, 128K Flash and an open-source "C" compiler for $33 (based on their forum). I don't mind "C".

The price point for ZBasic devices includes the very extensive ZBasic library and IDE - no extra or hidden charges. The 40-pin Oak Micros ZX-24su has 16K RAM and 124K flash and also costs $59.95.

The current Maple board costs $50 and then requires an additional outlay for tools and so works out more expensive than ZBasic devices. Now we could have a long discussion about 32-bit versus 8-bit microcontrollers but I believe that there are many applications where 8-bit is completely satisfactory. On the other hand ARM has done very well in the last few years and has support from a lot of vendors. There are many other deciding factors such as RAM, I/O facilities, etc.

Oak Micros also produce 8-bit AVR devices that have a built-in bootloader (i.e. no programmer needed) and can be used with the AVR GCC (free) compiler.

liam.zbasic · Post by **liam.zbasic** » 27 December 2010, 1:36 AM

I'd lose an argument over an 8-bit microcontroller vs. a vacuum tube. I don't dare start an 8-bit vs. 32-bit microcontroller discussion because I'm not an electrical engineer. Although the question is basically moot because 32-bit modules are here and some are actually priced below their 8-bit counterparts. My interest is in programming (VB or C), putting together hardware, and implementing feedback control systems. The microcontroller itself is secondary. For me, I need double precision math for the recursive covariance computation, I need high CPU speed for the control system computations, I need high on-chip RAM, I prefer 12-bit ADC, and prefer a “stamp” style module to fit on a breadboard – all at a reasonable price (forums are important too). Here’s an excerpt of some working/documented 32-bit devices in the market now: (in order of preference)

Code: Select all

Price Stamp    ADC     Code  Model
----  -------  ------  ----  --------
$33*  Yes/40p  10/12b  C     Maple Mini &#40;http&#58;//forums.leaflabs.com/topic.php?id=251&page=2&#41;
$39** Yes/40p   8/12b  C/C++ Netburner 5213 &#40;netburner.com/products/core_modules/mod5213.html&#41;
$50   No       16/12b  C     Maple &#40;http&#58;//leaflabs.com/&#41;
$35   No        6/12b  C     Coridium PropPlus &#40;coridiumcorp.com/PROplus.php&#41;
$60   Yes/40p   6/12b  C     Mbed.org &#40;www.mbed.org&#41;
$59   Yes/24p   6/10b  C     Coridium ARMexpressLITE &#40;coridiumcorp.com/ARMexpress.php&#41;
$35   No        6/10b  C#    FEZ Panda &#40;www.tinyclr.com/downloads/Panda/Broch_FEZ_Panda.pdf&#41;
$35   No        6/10b  C#    Netduino &#40;www.netduino.com/netduino/specs.htm&#41;
$TBD  No        6/10b  C#    NetduinoPlus &#40;www.netduino.com/netduinoplus/specs.htm&#41;

*  Device due in late January 2011 according to blog & forum.  “Stamp” interfaces directly to PC with USB.
** Requires 1 development kit &#40;+$60&#41; for compiler and PC interface.  &#91;/size&#93;

Many of those modules are emulating the Arduino format, including the Parallax Propeller! My intention is not to plug any product, but I have to say that the Maple and Maple Mini do not require other tools beyond the module itself and the PC. In fact, the USB connector is on the module like the ZX-24xu. The Maple C-language IDE/compiler is free and loosely compatible with Arduino similar to Zbasic vs. BasicX. The Maple documentation has improved over the past year although not as good as Zbasic – but good enough.

Bottom line… my intent is to simply point out that as a happy ZX-40 customer, I’m very interested in seeing ZBasic 32-bit devices and hopefully plans are in the works. Thanks.

mikep · Post by **mikep** » 29 December 2010, 12:30 PM

This is a nice listing of devices. Certainly there is a huge range of ARM-based devices from a variety of vendors from the low end of simple 48 pin chips all the way up to the latest OMAP4 from TI. Therein lies a problem about which manufacturer or ARM architecture you would support - there is such a large range.

For the 32-bit ARMs presumably the instruction length is 4 bytes instead of 1 byte and therefore in general you will need 4 times the amount of flash. You also need to carefully use shorter int variants as the available RAM goes very quickly if you use 4 byte ints instead of 1 or 2 byte ones.

liam.zbasic wrote:Bottom line… my intent is to simply point out that as a happy ZX-40 customer, I’m very interested in seeing ZBasic 32-bit devices and hopefully plans are in the works.

ZBasic was originally setup around 8-bit AVRs and has some built-in restrictions like 64K RAM (16-bit) addressability. It would certainly be possible to port to 16/32 bit ARMs although the effort is measured in person months and not weeks. However I cannot talk for Elba Corporation or Don's plans in that regard.