HOMEBREW RFX 150 SERIAL
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HOMEBREW RFX 150 PLUS

There should be the means to run programs out of these memory devices, and use the SD card like a hard disk for file storage and retrieval - and tasks such as datalogging. The latest Nanode really is evolving into a small computer system, with it's 32K SRAM and the micro SD card. (That happens to be what I paid for a ZX81 kit in 1983). This would make Nanode a lot more accessible to novice programmers - and could have an important role to play in helping to teach kids the basics of programming and computer science - just like we learned 30 years ago - on simple 8 bit machines running basic.ДЄ Nanode as a web connected platform sells for just ВЈ25, or fully built, tested and expanded to include micro SD card, Realtime Clock and wireless transceiver for just ВЈ40. This is something I have wanted to do for some time - run an interpreted Tiny Basic on the Nanode - so that newcomers can program it quickly and easily.

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Some better editing features would make code entry simpler - and of course having interactive coding via a web browser is a goal for the near future.

Making use of the micro SD card as a solid state drive for loading and saving programs is an obvious choice. On the Nanode we now have a rich set of peripherals and interfaces. The plan is now to start a Wiki page so that others can contribute to the Tiny Basic project, add new functionality and extend the usefulness.

HOMEBREW RFX 150 SERIAL

I noted a few benchmarks whilst running the serial terminal interface at 115200 baud:ДЎ0,000 10 -bit ADC reads and printed in 7 seconds, 4 seconds if you don't print them. This cut down version of Tiny Basic is lightening quick on a 16MHz ATmega328. I think my generation that grew up with 8 bit home computers, had the attitude that Basic was slow - and perhaps it was on a machine clocked at 4MHz or under - where the cpu was doing a lot of other stuff at the same time. Tiny Basic running on the Nanode or Arduino is proving to be very quick. And this could be very important if you are 7 years old with the attention span of a goldfish. This immediacy of changing how your application work with a change to a single line of code is what really appeals - it makes programming a lot more fun. This means that it is very quick to change variables, like loop parameters, delays, threshold values - without having to spend 3 minute going through the previous cycle. What I love about an interpreted language like Basic - is that you don't have to go through the edit-recompile-upload process - you can change your code as quick as you can type a new line and type run. I have started a Tiny Basic Wiki page for anybody to put up their contributions, updates and improvements. So its now possible to flash LEDs from a simple basic program - so there is now temptation to write a Christmas lights chaser routine with a handful of LEDs and a few lines of code. Since finding Tiny Basic for the Arduino yesterday - by the powers of Twitter and being well connected to some very clever programming pals - we now have the digital and analogue input and outputs working - thanks for adding this functionality. I hope to release a very low cost pcb and kit of parts for this in the New Year - allowing anyone to make a ВЈ10 computer.

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In this minimal form, the ATmega328 has 12 digital output lines and 6 analogue inputs - plus the two signal used to support the serial terminal interface. This makes it ideal for youngsters and students who perhaps have had no experience of real computer programming. Tiny Basic is a very simple to learn language and is ideal to teach newcomers the fundamentals of computing. If you then load Arduino Tiny Basic onto the microcontroller, you have a device that you can program in a very simple programming language - direct from a serial terminal program, and use it to flash LEDs, make light chaser displays, make analogue sensor readings and a whole load of other stuff - just with a few lines of Basic code.

Just take an ATmega328 pre-programmed with the Arduino bootloader (from CoolComponents, Farnell etc) and build it onto a small scrap of stripboard about 50mm square, with a 16MHz crystal, a few capacitors, resistors and a 6 way header strip to accept a programming cable - and for about ВЈ10 you have a little Arduino compatible computer on which you can run real control programs. Back in August 2010, I came up with the idea of a DIY Arduino built from a few components and an AT mega built on stripboard for about ВЈ10.

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