Running Spin code on the Micromite Companion v1.2

dvanaria

I'm trying to figure out how to run native Spin code directly on the Propeller chip of the MMC (Micromite Companion).

I'm actually reading through Andre LaMothe's book "Game Programming for the Propeller Powered HYDRA" and I'd like to try running some of the demo programs (.spin files) on the MMC, if possible.

I know the HYDRA runs entirely off the Propeller chip, and that on booting it reads whatever program is stored on the 128K external EEPROM chip. To run one of the demo programs on a real HYDRA, you would write the .spin program directly to the EEPROM and then reboot.

But on the MMC, which has a 32K EEPROM chip, this chip holds the critical firmware of the terminal emulator, the serial connection to the Micromite chip, etc, so this can't be over-written obvoiusly.

Is there a way to run the .spin files directly on the regular MMC setup?

Thanks for any help you can give me on this.

Mike Green

If you have a PropPlug attached to the Propeller on the MMC, you can download programs to the Propeller from your PC using the Propeller Tool (or PropellerIDE). There are two download choices ... one to download to the Propeller's RAM then execute the program. The other choice first downloads to RAM, copies RAM to the EEPROM, then executes the program. You don't want to use this choice because it will overwrite the MMC's firmware, but the first choice can be used and won't touch the EEPROM, but it's easy to confuse the two. You need to be prepared to have to re-download the MMC firmware.

The MMC doesn't have exactly the same hardware as the Hydra, so a lot of the demo programs need to be changed at least slightly to work on the MMC. What particularly do you want to run?

dvanaria

I didn't have a specific spin file in mind, I just started reading the book and was wondering if I could use my MMC to run the code or if I would have to try to find a HYDRA on ebay or someplace.

Thanks for the instructions on how to get the spin code onto the MMC. I have a PropPlug to get the file onto the Propeller's RAM (RAM only, and not RAM to EEPROM).

I will test it out and see if I can get a simple spin program to run.

Mike Green

Compatibility

MMC uses 5MHz crystal multiplied by 16 to get 80MHz system clock. Hydra uses 10MHz crystal multiplied by 8 to get 80MHz system clock. _clkmode and _xinfreq statements in Hydra programs may need to get changed. MMC probably uses
_clkmode = xtal1
_xinfreq = 5000000.

I/O compatibility

MMC and Hydra use same I/O pins (16-23) for VGA. Code written for Hydra VGA should work with MMC.

Hydra uses I/O pins 24-27 for NTSC video output. Any group of 4 I/O pins starting with multiple of 4 can be used if source code is changed to match.

Hydra uses I/O pin 7 for mono audio output. Most Propeller boards use a pair of I/O pins for stereo audio output. Software should work on non-Hydra boards with I/O pin change.

Hydra keyboard and mouse uses 4 I/O pins for each and hookup (and driver) are incompatible with other boards which use 2 I/O pins for each. There is a driver (comboKey) in the Propeller Object Exchange which can work with either setup.