Omnimaga
Calculator Community => Discontinued => Major Community Projects => OTcalc => Topic started by: alberthrocks on June 24, 2011, 10:42:54 am
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Hey everyone! :D
So finally summer is here, and my school work has substantically decreased to nil! :) (Not that I have nothing else to do... like signing up for internships, studying for SAT, etc. :P)
OTZ80 will resume at full speed, assuming I (and others) can dedicate some time to working on it. This surprisingly comes at a time where recently we've discovered that TI have made a new boot code to block OS downgrades. (And believe me, you probably don't want to use their odd, horrific little 2.55MP :P)
OTARM, as you might know, will probably be shelved... for now. This is due to the fact that there's an Ubercalc being made with the
same exact goals as OTARM, and so we're likely to adopt UberCalc as OTARM's replacement. We also have some great OS (Linux distro) makers and some expert Linux users/devs at hand, so we will definitely be able to handle writing software/OS for it.
We are in a desperate need for HW experts! I'm hoping Ubercalc (the user, not the calculator) may be able to prototype an eZ80 calc for us! :) (If he's available at all, of course.)
Finally - there's some change in opinion about what CPU, what screen, etc. to use, so we may have a poll restart to regather opinion on it.
Here's to hoping we get enough progress this year to get a prototype out! :thumbsup:
Current feature list:
CPU: eZ80 50 MHZ, underclockable to 20 MHZ
Screen size: 192x128 (7 other people voted for 240x160, revote possible based on supply and opinion change)
Battery indication: On screen (part of OS)
Navigation: regular arrow keys
ASCII input: Alpha-lock
Backlit screen: Yes... 14 vs. 9 people on this topic, may need a revote to confirm.
I/O: 3.5 mm link cable and mini USB OTG
Power: Will definitely need a revote - this was the closest one ever, with no real winner. The top two were: AA battery (rechargeable if possible), and "#1 and 2" = internal rechargeable battery + AA battery (rechargeable if possible)
Omitted features:
Wifi (too much power munching, internet connection should be external)
SD card support (no use)
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I'll do whatever I can to help. I'm not so great at assembly, and I could use a lot more experience with hardware, but I can do SOMETHING. (Maybe a battery indicator light or something.) :P
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Hooray! I can still write the OS once I get hardware specs (extremely specific - port numbers and protocols).
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Concerning OTZ80, the priority are the revotes in my opinion. Either way, nice to see this will have a new "wakening up"? :D
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Yay, it got revived again!
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DAWOO!!1 G'luck on it :D
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I'm glad this project is revived again! I've always been looking forward to seeing progress on this calculator. :D
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I'm glad this is revived. I hope this summer you have a lot of time to make major progress for the next round of progress during Summer 2012 afterward. (Maybe a prototype? ;D)
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Nice too see this revived, will be awesome once finished :)
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Glad it survived and therefore could now revive...but any clue as to what the next step is? Offtopic note on my absence, I have been keeping eyes on omnimaga but just reading, not posting.
I guess the revote's first? I hope these will commence quickly so we can actually get to the good stuff! I am not at all a hardware expert but I do have some generic knowledge about hardware, hardware->software interactions and the like.
Edit: I would revote on the screen, bigger is better. Surely with all these mobile/handheld devices coming out even though it's a calcualtor people expect some decent screens these days, and righteously so.
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The OTcalc inspired me to start the DreamPad project. :D And I'm glad this is still alive (me want one).
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Maybe Dreampad could be the new OTarm actually, since Ubergraphx/Ubercalc seems dead now.
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Maybe Dreampad could be the new OTarm actually, since Ubergraphx/Ubercalc seems dead now.
Really? I'm not sure, but it will have an ARM processor...so maybe.
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NECROPOST, MY FRANNS!
I'm somebody who takes interest in this stuff.
I could find uses for an SD card capable, Wifi using, super calculator. I'd design it for Debian ARM or something.
Where did this project ever go?
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Similar (http://ourl.ca/1732365)
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NECROPOST, MY FRANNS!
I'm somebody who takes interest in this stuff.
I could find uses for an SD card capable, Wifi using, super calculator. I'd design it for Debian ARM or something.
Where did this project ever go?
please don't necropost, particularly when you know full well that you are doing so and even shout it within said post.
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NECROPOST, MY FRANNS!
I'm somebody who takes interest in this stuff.
I could find uses for an SD card capable, Wifi using, super calculator. I'd design it for Debian ARM or something.
Where did this project ever go?
Gah, and I thought someone had interest in, you know, actually taking over this project.... :P
Debian ARM designing? That's probably harder than designing a Z80 calc! And Wifi using? Good luck convincing CollegeBoard.
This project is 99.9% dead. After taking a Digital Electronics class, I kinda realized that the skills I were learning isn't enough to design, say, a Z80 calculator. It'll take another 4 years in college to do that! ;) (Talk to me in 4 years if you really want me to work on this. Chances are that I'll either be busy considering grad school or actually working...)
As for now, I have 0 motivation to work on this project, lacking any skills myself and any potential assistance for this project. I've also kinda moved away from calculator development in general, so... yeah, consider this dead until further notice.
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I had my hopes up, thinking this was revived, only to find out someone necroposted.
As for the following, I wouldn't be surprised if it was heading the same path too:Similar (http://ourl.ca/1732365)
Simply because that's what happened to every new calc project since the last decade or so. It can't work if there isn't a team of users who are guaranteed to have at least 20-30 hours of free time per week, no exception (basically, you have to drop out of school and only work part time with a fixed schedule), and that the entire team is online at the same time, again with no exception except maybe 2-3 days a week. Even with guaranteed free time, it also requires lots of skills and dedication, the latter which sadly many people lack (otherwise many calc games like Zelda would be finished long ago).
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Motivation and skills are the two things we lack.
That's how the calculators we love are made, though. Those people go to school for years and become super smart and then people pay them to be the genius they need.
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Yeah but getting paid is the key word, not to mention they are hired by millionaires to make the calcs. To start even making a calc at all you need to plan everything and then making it and that cost thousands and thousands of dollars in the end.
Also the fact that for most calc users calc programming is a secondary/third hobby rather than first and that all hobbies are far behind school/life stuff has a big impact against their dedication. Notice how most people here only stick around for 1 or 2 years then vanish completely.
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Why can't we use a PIC? A PIC micro has almost everything we'll need to make a calculator (a bigger EEPROM would be required though). A display wouldn't be too hard to do either. For a text only display (for a scientific calculator), a 4 line by 16 character display using a Hitachi 44780 are really easy to work with. For a graphical display, I have a small, 128 wide by 64 tall pixel LED display with no screen blur at all, and plus, it's really bright!