Great Cow Basic

[david_uwi]

This is a QB compatible language for programming microprocessors. I have been using it for some time and can recommend it for its (relative) simplicity. So if you want to move on from arduinos (who likes C anyway) you can write you own controller programs in BASIC. As far as is possible it has the same instructions as QBasic.
I have attached my latest project. It reads the outside temperature (via a rf link) and displays it on an analog dial gauge. I got the enclosure from a charity shop.

[mnrvovrfc]

Hi David. It looks like you forgot this:

https://gcbasic.sourceforge.net/Typesett...x.php/Home

[NasaCow]

I love the name of this. Great Cow. But seriously, this could be interesting. Sounds like this could be an after school activity for my kids. Programming chips to do something. When we finally get back in school after all (Beijing is in online class mode right now.)

What are the name of some basic (no-pun intended ) microchips. I think doing a thermometer, or something else simple (assuming it was simple-ish?) like this is a great idea to help them get started or maybe a good web source to check out! Awesome share!

[david_uwi]

I use microchips (extensive) range of microprocessors. The basic ones are 8-bit (who needs more than 8-bits?) and GCBasic only supports the 8-bit offerings anyway.
For the temperature clock project I used a PIC 16F18326 it has 2k of RAM and 16k for programs (ASM instruction). It can run at up to 32MHz clock, but on battery operation I like to keep it 1-8 MHz to conserve power. I was going to say they are cheap, but it appears that the price is now about £1:80* (that's inflation for you).
It also has ADC,PWM, I2C,SPI and EUSART (which is a fancy new name for serial).
It's a bit of a learning curve to get things to work, but it's well worth the effort.

*RS components - so you may get them cheaper elsewhere.

[NasaCow]

I use microchips (extensive) range of microprocessors. The basic ones are 8-bit (who needs more than 8-bits?) and GCBasic only supports the 8-bit offerings anyway.
For the temperature clock project I used a PIC 16F18326 it has 2k of RAM and 16k for programs (ASM instruction). It can run at up to 32MHz clock, but on battery operation I like to keep it 1-8 MHz to conserve power. I was going to say they are cheap, but it appears that the price is now about £1:80* (that's inflation for you).
It also has ADC,PWM, I2C,SPI and EUSART (which is a fancy new name for serial).
It's a bit of a learning curve to get things to work, but it's well worth the effort.

*RS components - so you may get them cheaper elsewhere.

Great part of living in China is the chips you buy likely came from here in the first place. I can find them on Taobao (kinda like Amazon for China) for 5.5 RMB or maybe 60 or so pence (if I recall my UK lango right). I guess I will need to find an EPROM thingy to flash the chip as well? Never done hardware but if I can get paid by the school to do something I enjoy as a hobbyist (software programming at least) I am sure I can figure it out. I will download the GCBasic and check it out and look into buying a few things to play around with it. Do you have a recommended resource I can read up on or is it really reading the manual of the chip and figuring out how to make it play with other hardware nicely?

Thanks for your thoughts

[david_uwi]

Yes you need something to flash the program to the chip. I use one of the PICKIT devices genuine ones are getting a bit pricey, but you can get a Chinese knock-off which will probably work just as well.
The help and demonstration files that come with GCBasic are much better than they once were and are probably sufficient.
Often text books go into much more detail than is necessary - there are some things that you really don't need to know to program a microprocessor successfully. You just type in BASIC code and GCBasic will convert it to ASM then to HEX instructions and flash it on the chip.

[mdijkens]

Very interesting!
I'm in PIC/MC programming also and love to do it in BASIC sometime!
THANKS