AMICUS 18 Section

[charudatt]

AMICUS 18 is a very interesting platform, should have a Section devoted to it.

regards

[mackrackit]

Have you used the Amicus yet?
I got one a couple weeks ago and have not had much time to play with it.

[charudatt]

No, not exactly, I also got mine a couple of weeks ago, and the only thing I did was to install the IDE, connect the board , download a sample code and check if, that works. The LED blinking.

I am planning to work on some Shields for this board and once that's done, some serious work can begin.

Shields I plan to develop are :

1. RF shield with with CC1100 / CC2500
2. MP3 Module Plus RTC
3. Off-course an LCD (16x2)

regards

[mackrackit]

Blinky is all I did so far too

I am told that the bootloader will also work with PBP. Bruce has an article on the Amicua forum using PBP.

I am sure if there is enough interest here an Amicus section could be created.

Keep us posted on yor progress.

[charudatt]

I think we need to create the INTEREST in the forum and the best would be to have a separate section devoted to it.

Nice to hear about Bruce's contribution to this, but did not find it. Actually, I did not know so , I did not find.

regards

[mackrackit]

Here is a link to the article Bruce did
http://www.myamicus.co.uk/content.ph...Remote-Control

[lester]

If you'd like a section on this forum for the Amicus18 board and shields, dedicated to PBP users i can add one.

BUT, dont forget that there is a dedicated section for PBP users on the Amicus18 website.

I guess it's not convenient to have to visit two web sites, so i understand the request.

let me know if its a firm requirement for PBP users.

[Gevo]

Hello,

The hardware of the Amicus18 is also very interested for PBP users.

I have develop some Shields for the Amicus18 and the Ami18 Board. (Amicus18 compatible) The software I wrote is in proton BASIC and PBP BASIC Pro.

And there is more to come.

Take a look at www.picshop.nl where we working on.

Regards,

[Ioannis]

Lester you have a point. So may be a link to the other site is more pactical?

Ioannis

[cncmachineguy]

I could see a section for it here. Those of us without one will likely learn from the code posted and questions asked in that section. We will also prolly be able to help.

On the other hand, I for one will prolly not go to the dedicated section of "the other" forum just to see whats happening there. Even if I owned 1.


Just my %10 cents

[Archangel]

Questions:
1. Prefer link to dedicated section.

2.Where to buy one (or more ) and how much do they cost, delivered in US.

3. Free Proton compiler download ? How do YOU get paid from that ?

4. Will it program without bootloader I E ICSP from PICKit2 ? or replacement for PICKit2 ?

Ok I just found the answer to Question 2, buy from Crownhill . . . makes question 5.

5.Are these prices serious ?

 GPS Amicus18 Shield 

£999.99 ex. VAT £1199.99 inc. VAT

The  Amicus GPS shield contains a 16 channel ZX4120 GPS receiver, as well as  a
16k byte (128 kbit) serial (I2C) eeprom, and a 1.5 Volt, 12mm   battery socket in
order to maintain the receiver's built-in RTC (Real  Time Clock). An SMA socket
allows attachment of the GPS receiver's  aerial.

Every "SHIELD" listed has a price of 999 pounds sterling, I cannot assume that's correct, is it ?

[lester]

Answers to your questions

1) lets see if there is some interest from PBP users before we rush into making sections or links

2) Crownhill or Farnell or make your own its an open design and all data is available. There are already MANY clones available.

3) the Free Proton compiler is only 1 option, the hardware is OPEN and is valid for use with PBP, so why not use PBP???? The bootloader is agnostic, so you can use the bootloader to load your PBP compiled code

The object of the excersice is to take advanatge of the multitude of Arduino Shields that are available at VERY low cost. AMICUS 18 is simply a hardwrae platform that would enable PBP users to easily take advantage of ther massive amount of shields available.

4) at least look that the documentation and the schematics, the answer is YES, but for ease of use the Bootloader is FREE and open and works well with PBP

5) NO, go and buy ARDUINO SHIELDS, the point is that Arduino sheilds are CHEAP and readily available....Before Amicus18 there was no way for a PBP user to take advantage of the massive number of low cost sheilds that were designed for the Arduino. Now a PBP user can use those low cost easily available sheilds in the PIC environment.

Arduino is probably the MOST POPULAR develkpment platform in the world at present and has been for some time. NO PIC development platform has ever been as popular as the Arduino. Arduino is Atmel based and PBP users cannot take advantage of this popular platform unless they move to Atmel...which they don't want to do. So enter Amicus18.....

[lester]

re question 3

How do YOU get paid from that ?

Essentially we don't !

Its like running this forum, and all the other resources we make available to PBP users, we do it because we can, we do it to give something back to the community.

[lester]

Amicus18 is available in the USA from NEWARK

http://www.newark.com/amicus/amicus1...ard/dp/79R5806

In the UK and Europe from Farnell

http://uk.farnell.com/amicus/amicus1...s18/dp/1818281

Amicus18 was presented at the Microchip Masters last fall.

[lester]

Before Amicus18, PIC users would look at the Arduino and typically post on forums:

I have recently ventured over to the dark side and experimented with the Atmel AVR micro-controllers, via the easy to use Arduino platform. It has some good points and a wide range of plug-in modules called shields, that provide a wide range of I/O. Seewww.arduino.cc for more details on Arduino and the Arduino shield list, http://shieldlist.org/

and now the same people are saying things like:

As a PIC micro developer for 15 years (yikes) I started to see if there was a project to use the wide range of Arduino shields. The most promising is the Amicus18 from Crownhill, see http://www.myamicus.co.uk/.

The hardware design is open and based on the Arduino Duemilanove design but with a PIC device.

Google Arduino and see just how much is going on in that community. Its massive. PBP users can take advantage of the low cost development boards and the plethora of projects and ideas, without having to build from scratch. Simply use the AMICUS18 hardware, and the low cost Arduino shields that plug right in.

Amicus18 is NOT some wonderful new design, it is NOT special, It is NOT even the best design.

Amicus18 is beautiful because it enables PBP users to take advantage of low cost Arduino hardware, thats all.

Its true that if you were to develop a platform from scratch you would probably NOT have developed the Amicus18, but when you consider the advantages of making something thats compatible with Arduino, you see that there is a good reason behind the AMICUS18 development platform....think about it!

[Demon]

I saw someone using Arduino to interface with online racing software, I haven't checked sim-flight hardware forums recently so I can't talk about that..

I first thought the Arduino was something like the Basic Stamp. I'm not interested in "that style" of architecture, especially when it's expensive.
Now if Amicus brings simplicity along with low cost, then it's a whole different ball game.

[lester]

Robert, do some research, Ardunio is NOTHING like a Basic Stamp.

Arduino is to Atmel as the 16F84 was to MCHP in the mid 90's....Arduino has put Atmel on the map and top of the list.

By their own admission - and i spent a lot of time talking to them about it, MCHP lost ground because of this simple little development board Arduino.

Arduino is by far the most popular ucontroller development platform in the world today, because its open, low cost and takes leverage from the free tools in the Atmel community.

MCHP have lost a lot of developers to Atmel because of Arduino, thats fact, Marketeers in both camps agree on that.

Amicus18 and its clones, simply give PBP and other MCHP users an easy route to take advantage of the mass of development boards - called 'shields' - that support the Arduino. They are abundant and cheap.

Amicus18 was touted as the Arduino killer by some, its NOT. But is is a vaibale alternative for those PIC users that see whats available to the Atmel community and want the same for themselves.

[lester]

why-the-arduino-won <- read this

Conservative estimates suggest that Arduino shipped 150K + units last year NOT including the clones that originate form the far east !!

Then there's the estimated 4 or 5 shields used per Arduino, so there are maybe close to 1M sheilds out there in developers tool boxes.

With volumes like that prices are LOW LOW LOW, so all you need is a open low cost platform onto which you can attach your Arduino shield and then PBP users can take advantage of the "competitors" baby.

Shields are boards that can be plugged on top of the Arduino PCB extending its capabilities. The different shields follow the same philosophy as the original toolkit: they are easy to mount, and cheap to produce.And they fit directly onto the AMICUS18 board which uses a 3.3V or 5V PIC which you can write code for with PBP !


Example: http://www.myamicus.co.uk/content.ph...Remote-Control

Bruce Reynolds shows just how easy it is to use PBP on an Arduino compatible platform

and here are some shields that you could use with PBP and an Amicus18 board http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?ma...ex&cPath=17_21

Dont forget the Amicus18 board is open, so you dont have to buy it form Farnell or Newark, or Crownhill, you can build your own - as many people have done. Google microchip 1818281+1818282 to find many more suppliers

[lester]

Sorry, i forgot to mention, you can get hold of the hardware from Microchip direct too

http://www.microchipdirect.com/Produ...ywords=TAES001

[Archangel]

5) NO, go and buy ARDUINO SHIELDS, the point is that Arduino sheilds are CHEAP and readily available....Before Amicus18 there was no way for a PBP user to take advantage of the massive number of low cost sheilds that were designed for the Arduino. Now a PBP user can use those low cost easily available sheilds in the PIC environment.

OK I think I will order one of these boards, good to know it is compatible with arduino shields. I thought maybe the "shields" prices listed were just some numbers thrown into the web page during construction which would stand out during editing so they could be changed to the "real price" and got missed, My Bad, your shields are Professional, not hobbyist tools.

[lester]

It would be great if a PBP user were to produce some code examples in PBP to replace the examples in the Amicus18 Companion Shield Manual . I think I could persuade tghe author to release the original document so that it could be modified to support PBP code examples.

Any offers???

[mackrackit]

Any offers???

I am working on a small article, should have it up tonight.

[lester]

Hey that would be great, the code examples in the Companion Shield manaul are simple enough, but still PBP users will ahve an easier time if they were to be replaced by PBP examples.

It would be really good to ahve a PBP Companion shield manaul.....I'm sure we could do that if a few PBP users were to produce equivalent code examples and re write a little of the text in the manaual to reflect useing Amicus18 with PBP instead of Proton

[mackrackit]

It was a tough decision... sleep or work on this.. I slept, so it is late....

I figured starting with MCS and the boot loader would be a good place to begin.
http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/cont...ro-Code-Studio

I will do some code later.

[charudatt]

If you'd like a section on this forum for the Amicus18 board and shields, dedicated to PBP users i can add one.

BUT, dont forget that there is a dedicated section for PBP users on the Amicus18 website.

I guess it's not convenient to have to visit two web sites, so i understand the request.

let me know if its a firm requirement for PBP users.

Yes , Lester, you surely do have a point, but I still don't know , if the request is justified.

Anyway, furthering my adventure on the Amicus18 platform, I made/Assembled my first Shield. I attach a pic of it. its basically a couple of switches, an output for a LCD, a MAX6675. and a LED on the CCP (HWPWM) port. The basic idea of developing this sheild was to experiment with the MAX6675 chip and further go on to make an reflow overn controller. I would surely be putting up details of the said sheild on myAmicus site soon.

[charudatt]

I made a simple, no fancy , no frills, Amicus18 development platform adhering to original dimension for a shield. This Board, as you can see, does not have the USB FTDI section, so no bootloading possible. Alternatively, the UART pins are brought out at a 4 pin connector on the board. I would be posting the details of this board soon on myAmicus site for others to gain from it.

I have used the 5V chip , 18F25K22 , along with it and it seems to work great.

My first attempt to install a bootloader in 18F25K22 chip and run it on the original board flopped , hence I went this way. I am pretty much happy , programming this board with my PICKIT2 programmer and it works great.

[charudatt]

I have just received PCB's for two more, new shields, that I intend to make for the Amicus18 development platform.

• The RF Shield : This shield would help , to experiment and have fun with the CCxx00 series RF Transreceiver modules that are very easily and cheaply available in this part of the world. The Modules would be connected by means of a relimate connector to a daughter card , which could take, a CC1100 (3V), CC1100(5V) Longrange and a CC2500(3V) RF transreceiver module. This Board has 4 switches and 4 LED's with which you can make a 4 channel Remote Control.
• Audio Shield : This is one of the most interesting projects that I have commercially developed using a 16F MCU and now I bring it to, on the Amicus18 Platform, This project involves a Battery Backedup RTC (DS1307) , 4 switches, to program the RTC, Alarms and a socket to connect to a Serially controlled MP3 module.

More information on this would surely be made available , in due course, on myAmicus site.

I realise, that, its easy to make a project, but documenting it for the purpose of sharing it with other on a forum is really , time consuming. But , surely it needs to be done, as "Sharing is Caring"