Maximite Features

This page describes the features and capabilities of the Maximite.

For other Maximite related pages see:

This project has so many aspects that it is difficult to summarise.

For a start you can think of it as a modern version of the Tandy TRS-80, Commodore 64 and other personal computers that were popular many year ago. You can plug the Maximite into a VGA monitor or a TV set, add a standard IBM PC style keyboard and away you go ! The Maximite includes its own BASIC interpreter and does not need an operating system so you can immediately type in your program and run it on the spot.

The Maximite also has a slot for an SD memory card so you can save your programs and data to the card for later retrieval. These cards are cheap and offer capacities into many gigabytes - something the Tandy's and Commodore's of yesterday could only dream about.

The BASIC interpreter is modeled on Microsoft BASIC so you can download many programs from the internet and try them out. If you are new to programming you will find that the BASIC language provides the easiest introduction to this skill. It was specifically designed to provide an easy learning environment while still having real power so that you can move beyond the simple learning steps.

In this role you can have fun discovering a simple but powerful computer, use it to teach children how to program, play simple games, balance your chequebook or whatever.

The Maximite also has 20 input/output pins that can be used to measure voltages, count frequency, detect switch closure and use that information to turn on lights, relays, pumps, etc. All under the control of your BASIC program. You can use it as a 10 channel digital voltmeter to measure temperatures, pressure, acceleration and many other types of data from sensors with analog outputs. In this role you can use it to control an industrial process, construct an intelligent burglar alarm, log temperatures and a million and one other similar jobs.

The Maximite can be set to automatically run a program on power up (without keyboard and video connected) and in this mode it makes a powerful embedded controller. There are also a lot of low cost 5 and 7 inch VGA/composite displays available on eBay and they would make a great graphics display screen for a device based on an embedded Maximite.

Because the Maximite is so cheap (from $20 to $80) you can use it for the simplest of tasks such as an intelligent battery charge controller or monitoring temperatures inside you house. It is also powerful enough that you could control the environment in your greenhouse or log data from your racing car !

Some More Details

From a technical point of view this diagram provides a better summary:

The key features are:

A fast 32 bit CPU with 128K of RAM running a powerful BASIC interpreter.
The BASIC interpreter is full featured with floating point and string variables, long variable names, arrays of floats or strings with multiple dimensions, extensive string handling and full file I/O features. Typically it can handle a program of over 1000 lines and will execute it at up to 40,000 lines per second.
Video output is to a standard VGA display or composite video to a TV set (50Hz PAL compatible) - both are monochrome and are selected by a jumper at power up. The character set is the full upper and lower case ASCII character set with 80 characters by 33 lines in VGA mode and 50 by 18 in composite video mode.
Video graphics commands in the BASIC interpreter provide the ability to turn any pixel on or off, draw lines, boxes, filled rectangles, circles and position text anywhere on the screen.
Input is from a standard IBM PS2 keyboard including support for the numeric keypad, caps lock and other features.
The USB socket is for connection to a desktop computer. The Maximite appears as a virtual serial port to the bigger computer and anything typed onto this port will be used by the Maximite just as if it has been typed on the keyboard. Similarly, any output from the Maximite will be sent to both the video and USB outputs. This facility can be used to upload/download programs and data.
The SD/MMC/SDHC memory card slot has support for FAT16 and FAT32 file systems. Using this you can save and load programs and under program control you can read and write data to the memory card with up to 10 files simultaneously open. The file system and data is compatible with Windows, Apple and Linux so the card can be read by any of these computers.
20 input/output pins that can be independently configured as digital input or output, analog input, frequency or period measurement and counting. 10 of the pins can be used to measure voltages and another 10 can be used to interface with 5V systems.
The firmware can be upgraded from any Windows computer via the USB interface. As bugs are found and new features added the firmware and programming software will be made available on this website.
Power is 7V to 15V DC and can be supplied by a plug pack, wall wart or from a car battery. Alternatively, by shifting a jumper, the Maximite can be powered via the USB cable.

If this has tickled your curiosity you should download the Maximite MMBasic firmware (available at the bottom of the main Maximite page) as this includes all the documentation including the specifications and operating parameters for the device.

The key feature of the Maximite is that it provides a lot of computing power in a cheap and versatile package. It reallyis a tool that can be used for many tasks from learning (or teaching) programming through to controlling or measuring some electrical project. It is full of possibilities and is just waiting for some good ideas to put it to use.

For more information click on one of these links:

There is also a mini Maximite that packs the functionality of the full sized Maximite into a board the size of a large postage stamp. Almost everything above also applies to the mini Maximite. Read about it here.