The prototype of the Micro Terminal is coming along nicely. Only a couple of minor errors that have already been corrected.
Question: R9 was supposed to provide "card present" signal to P23. Would it be more or less useful to have a pad for P23 for GPIO instead of card detect?
Martin, You should submit a write up to Nuts n Volts since they just did a write up of a Microchip Pic "ASC" board called the Chipino. Might get you some press......
The prototype of the Micro Terminal is coming along nicely. Only a couple of minor errors that have already been corrected.
Question: R9 was supposed to provide "card present" signal to P23. Would it be more or less useful to have a pad for P23 for GPIO instead of card detect?
I know this is late, but, I have changed my mind on what I think would be the best use for P23.
The Micro Terminal has:
Keyboard (or Mouse) Connector
Video Connector
SD Card Socket
What is the Micro Terminal missing?
An Audio Connector
I received my Propeller ASC+, KVM Shield and RGB Shield today .
They are really great boards, very well made.
I placed the KVM Shield on top of the Propeller ASC+, connected up the USB input to my PC USB hub and the Video output of the KVM shield to my 7" TV. I changed 1 line of code from "text.start(12)" to "text.start(16)" in the TV Text Demo v1.0, and I had the output showing on the TV :cool:.
This could be an interesting avenue of research. By simply using headers with long tails, It is possible to plug a Propeller ASC directly into an Arduino and power both boards from either USB port or DC jack. As a proof of concept, here are photos and the simplest code snippet that simply counts the blinks of the Arduino bootloader's "heartbeat" led on pin 13 and displays the running total on a TV. The possibilities for Arduino expansion would seem to be endless. Let's come up with some ideas!
Hey... I have been watching your development of the ASC for a while and i think i am almost convinced to buy one. I have a couple of questions though. Because of the 5 volt nature of Arduinos and the 3.3 volt nature of Propellers, is there any major conflicts between these two? I know for the most part 3.3 volt logic is still acceptable in a 5 volt system... But wouldn't any shields made for a 3.3 volt system and run on a real Arduino(5 volt) cause problems? You would need some form of voltage limiting device(Level shifter, dropping resistor)? Or would most designs just use 5 volt components to accommodate all types of power supply requirements? I have a real Arduino, and i have been hankering to get a Prop powered one for ever:)
Martin's ASC includes 1K series resistors between the "shield" digital I/O connections and the Prop I/O pins. These should protect the Prop's I/O pins from applied 5V. Strictly speaking they're not high enough for the current rating of the I/O pin's protective diodes. 2K or 2.2K would be better.
@Mike... Ahhh, thanks for the explanation. Even though the resistor is half of the needed value, i can't imagine it causing to much stress to the Propeller I/O pin?
5V - 3.3V = 1.7V. A silicon diode has a forward voltage of 0.7V, so 1.7V - 0.7V = 1.0V. Ohm's Law gives 1.0V / 1K = 1mA which is the current through the protective diode. This diode though is rated for a maximum current of 500uA. Hmmm, 500uA vs. 1mA?
Yeah, that is about double the max rating... I didn't even know that the Propeller had such a diode. I assume the purpose of having it there is to stop the over voltage from destroying other parts of the chip?
@Martin... Actually, that is kind of why i wanted to buy a ASC... I never really had a reason to buy shields until now. I assume you buy them on the website? Wouldn't happen to have any more cheap ones would you?:)
The whole point of having a Propeller board that is physically (and mostly electrically) compatible with Arduino shields is that all kinds of companies have shields for sale that should be able to be plugged into the ASC to add some kind or another of peripheral electrons to what is otherwise a Propeller board. Martin does have a list of shields that he's tested with his ASC and he has a couple of Propeller specific add-on boards that don't use the Arduino pins, but use his expansion connector to provide video and a keyboard.
Actually, I don't have any production units left. All sold out. But I will send you a fully functional test unit of the next rev for FREE on one condition. If you like it, you must make something with it and post about it somewhere other than here to help spread the word. It doesn't have to be extravagant. I'll even throw in your choice of a KVM or VGA expansion.
It's a 64K, 10-bit ADC with 2.2k CL resistors and the new bypass pads on the back. I don't sell any shields, but SparkFun has the largest selection. Also see shieldlist.org and 1mgh.com/forum
Rav, yes on another forum. Or if you have a blog or Twitter or Facebook or show your lab-mates at school/college.
Kevin, the hurdle to overcome with a next batch is financing. In order to make these at all profitable I need to produce at least 100 units, and that's a big chunk of bread. Also, I'm feverishly working on the ASC2... (teasy teasy)
Did you realize that on your site, all occurrences of the name are Propeller ASC, none are Arduino Shield Compatible, except within the description itself. I don't believe you should be hiding this fact.
I don't mean to be picky (who? ME?) but I used to work for a monolithic, faceless corporation in the cellular phone industry (whose name rhymes with Motorola), and they overused TLA's (three letter acronyms) to maddening affect. Please, avoid SFA's unless the intent is to HIDE information, as in CIA, FBI, and KGB. Seriously, though, you really should say "Arduino Shield Compatible", this is too good to miss.
Back to the topic at hand, how far along are you to the goal of 100 units? Do we have to pre-order?
I was going to check out the Arduino discussions to regarding Holly's Request http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?131548-Holly-s-Request&daysprune=60 to ask what services Arduino user would want from a prop add-on, if any. Have any Arduino user expressed an interest in a prop-arduino shield?
I was going to check out the Arduino discussions to regarding Holly's Request http://forums.parallax.com/showthrea...t&daysprune=60 to ask what services Arduino user would want from a prop add-on, if any. Have any Arduino user expressed an interest in a prop-arduino shield?
IMO, This is where & why there is so much confusion and miscommunication wrt the Arduino. Arduino users don't care about the Propeller in the same way that they don't care about the Atmega328. They don't want to know all of the specs & open the hood and tear apart the engine... they just want to get in the car and drive. It's the same exact thing with the BS2. Some BS2 users switched to the SX chip, but most didn't. Many of the Propeller users here are fixated on the Propeller technology itself, not on what can be done with it.
@Prof_braino.... Funny you should mention that. I was thinking about a Propeller powered video shield for the Arduino. They already have a black and white TV shield http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9313
But a Propeller powered one could have color, better graphics, adjustable fonts AND the ability to be reprogrammed if needed. It would need a SMT Propeller and i think a socketed DIP EEPROM. I think it would do pretty well...
@Martin... Challenge accepted:) I will be working on an idea for a project and post it to the Arduino forum... Wow, 100 units? Just to turn a small profit? Assuming you earn only 10% profit(100 units X $40 = $4000 - %10 = $3600)...Sheesh, that is a little chuck of change!! Maybe you could ask some of the forum for advance funding?
@Prof_braino.... Funny you should mention that. I was thinking about a Propeller powered video shield for the Arduino. They already have a black and white TV shield http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9313
Andre' LaMothe is working on a video shield using a Propeller chip.
I'm getting together the funding, but it's taking a bit longer than expected to get my solid-gold bidet removed and sent to the cash4gold guys.
Prof, yes, I can't go the ASC2 route (read ASCII). I am taking suggestions for a new kitschy name that does NOT end in "no" (or "na" if you're P.J. Allen)
All I can say about the ASC2 (working name) is you won't need add-on boards to do vid/VGA/uSD/keyboard. The idea is to be able to command Arduino shields without a PC (or one of those weird Mac doohickeys)
There is also a color video shield based on an FPGA so there is competition: http://excamera.com/sphinx/gameduino/ . This was launched very successfully on kickstarter.
@Schill.. I knew about the Gameduino. I don't really think the Propeller is really in the same category as a FPGA. I'll bet you that the Gameduino will be pricey to.
Comments
The prototype of the Micro Terminal is coming along nicely. Only a couple of minor errors that have already been corrected.
Question: R9 was supposed to provide "card present" signal to P23. Would it be more or less useful to have a pad for P23 for GPIO instead of card detect?
Attachment not found.Attachment not found.
I know this is late, but, I have changed my mind on what I think would be the best use for P23.
The Micro Terminal has:
Keyboard (or Mouse) Connector
Video Connector
SD Card Socket
What is the Micro Terminal missing?
An Audio Connector
So, I think P23 should be used for audio.
They are really great boards, very well made.
I placed the KVM Shield on top of the Propeller ASC+, connected up the USB input to my PC USB hub and the Video output of the KVM shield to my 7" TV. I changed 1 line of code from "text.start(12)" to "text.start(16)" in the TV Text Demo v1.0, and I had the output showing on the TV :cool:.
arduino13.spin
''Demo: Counts the heartbeat pulses on pin13 of an Arduino CON _clkmode = xtal1 + pll16x _xinfreq = 5_000_000 OBJ text : "tv_text" PUB start | i text.start(16) repeat waitpeq(|< 13, |< 13, 0) text.str(string($A,18,$B,6)) text.dec(i++) waitpeq(0, |< 13, 0)Ravenkallen, what shields do you have or are planning to have?
It's a 64K, 10-bit ADC with 2.2k CL resistors and the new bypass pads on the back. I don't sell any shields, but SparkFun has the largest selection. Also see shieldlist.org and 1mgh.com/forum
Kevin, the hurdle to overcome with a next batch is financing. In order to make these at all profitable I need to produce at least 100 units, and that's a big chunk of bread. Also, I'm feverishly working on the ASC2... (teasy teasy)
I don't mean to be picky (who? ME?) but I used to work for a monolithic, faceless corporation in the cellular phone industry (whose name rhymes with Motorola), and they overused TLA's (three letter acronyms) to maddening affect. Please, avoid SFA's unless the intent is to HIDE information, as in CIA, FBI, and KGB. Seriously, though, you really should say "Arduino Shield Compatible", this is too good to miss.
Back to the topic at hand, how far along are you to the goal of 100 units? Do we have to pre-order?
I was going to check out the Arduino discussions to regarding Holly's Request http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?131548-Holly-s-Request&daysprune=60 to ask what services Arduino user would want from a prop add-on, if any. Have any Arduino user expressed an interest in a prop-arduino shield?
IMO, This is where & why there is so much confusion and miscommunication wrt the Arduino. Arduino users don't care about the Propeller in the same way that they don't care about the Atmega328. They don't want to know all of the specs & open the hood and tear apart the engine... they just want to get in the car and drive. It's the same exact thing with the BS2. Some BS2 users switched to the SX chip, but most didn't. Many of the Propeller users here are fixated on the Propeller technology itself, not on what can be done with it.
But a Propeller powered one could have color, better graphics, adjustable fonts AND the ability to be reprogrammed if needed. It would need a SMT Propeller and i think a socketed DIP EEPROM. I think it would do pretty well...
@Martin... Challenge accepted:) I will be working on an idea for a project and post it to the Arduino forum... Wow, 100 units? Just to turn a small profit? Assuming you earn only 10% profit(100 units X $40 = $4000 - %10 = $3600)...Sheesh, that is a little chuck of change!! Maybe you could ask some of the forum for advance funding?
Andre' LaMothe is working on a video shield using a Propeller chip.
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?130093-Propeller-Ardunio-Shilelds&highlight=scorpion
I'm getting together the funding, but it's taking a bit longer than expected to get my solid-gold bidet removed and sent to the cash4gold guys.
Prof, yes, I can't go the ASC2 route (read ASCII). I am taking suggestions for a new kitschy name that does NOT end in "no" (or "na" if you're P.J. Allen)
All I can say about the ASC2 (working name) is you won't need add-on boards to do vid/VGA/uSD/keyboard. The idea is to be able to command Arduino shields without a PC (or one of those weird Mac doohickeys)
@Martin... I will send you a PM shortly:)
There is also a color video shield based on an FPGA so there is competition: http://excamera.com/sphinx/gameduino/ . This was launched very successfully on kickstarter.