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Industrial applications galore — Parallax Forums

Industrial applications galore

OzStampOzStamp Posts: 377
edited 2006-03-12 19:57 in Propeller 1
Lets start a discussion group on applications in the industrial world.
Simultaneous sampling of serial data ( weighing printing barcoding)
and other applications like reading high speed SSI encoders etc etc.
Anybody that works in the industrial area (Factory Automation) will appreciate
this Propeller chip.
Ozstamper

Comments

  • MacGeek117MacGeek117 Posts: 747
    edited 2006-02-22 00:42
    Frankly, the Propeller would be a great chip for REALLY high-tech robots because you could have an array of different types of sensors being sampled by individual cogs. You could then have a 'master controller' cog controlling a motor driver. The possibilities are almost endless!

    RoboGeek

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  • CHIPKENCHIPKEN Posts: 45
    edited 2006-02-22 00:55
    The best application for this chip is in liquid rocket propulsion control. Of course they (mainly JPL, NASA, etc.) will have to get use to Assembly Language. You could charge pump an ignition system, control valving, and do sensor measurement all at the same time and do all of this on one chip. I will expand on this later and provide a demo for "show and tell".

    Chuck
  • OzStampOzStamp Posts: 377
    edited 2006-02-22 01:05
    Thank you Chipken.(look forward to anyhting you have)
    There are lots of apps in the Motion Control area (stepper and servo controls) where this
    Chip by Chip can be used .
    Speed syncing of multiple drives ( possibly electronic gearing .. the mind is spinning..

    Temperature control is another area and driving of PWM modulated valves etc etc..
    (Sampling of multiple tempeture probes)
  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2006-02-22 01:10
    I, too, am interested in motion control. Now if I can find a friendly machinsist to build a stepper-controlled head from my DVX-100A....

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    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
  • OzStampOzStamp Posts: 377
    edited 2006-02-22 01:18
    Hi Jon.
    1. Ken has an awesome machine (his Wabeco miller) he can do that for u..



    Ron Nollet
  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2006-02-22 01:22
    Yes, I know -- I work for him! [noparse];)[/noparse] But he doesn't like the idea of working with gears.

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    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
  • Piper984Piper984 Posts: 74
    edited 2006-02-22 02:14
    Hi Jon, I have a MaxNC10CL. I'll mill your parts in exchange for a Propeller chip and development board. [noparse]:)[/noparse] Sorry, couldn't help myself.

    CNC control using steppers or servos w/ encoders seems like a great application for the Propeller cogs. Some cogs used for pulsing, some used for verbose output, some used to scan limit switches, and then one master COG to receive and transmit data from a PC based controller and coordinate the other COGs. Would probably be very robust approach.
  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2006-02-22 03:43
    I have a development board, but it's comfy on my desk right were it is....

    I agree with your approach and think we should build a Propeller PLC module (like the Stamp PLC) that is fully industrialized for a 24-volt environment.

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    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
  • Dan RogantiDan Roganti Posts: 11
    edited 2006-02-25 07:19
    Hi,

    The first thought that came to mind was Image Recognition. I would imagine there is a significant boost in performance possible for applications such as robotics. With an embedded system like this it should pack a alot of power in a small space. I would interface the OV6620 image sensor(AVR Cam) to this processor and see what it can do. I would really like to try and port the code from the AVRCam to this and try to see how much faster it operates.
    umm, oh wait, first I need a Dev.bd

    =Dan
  • Guenther DaubachGuenther Daubach Posts: 1,321
    edited 2006-02-27 07:01
    For a customer, I have developed a system to control an orthopedical massage appliance based upon two SX 28 chips and a PDA as master process controller, and its touch screen for user-interface. Among others, the major tasks of this system are:

    - PWM-controlling three DC motors for speed and position. Each motor has a built-in tacho pulse generator, and for each axle, reference or end-sensors are provided.
    - Monitoring three temperature values, turning on/off a heater, or a cooler if necessary.
    - Tunrning on/off two water pumps, and controlling their pressure via two 4...20 mA current loops.
    - Reading/writing data from/to a chip card, i.e. an I²C EEPROM that contains patient-specific information.

    These are the main functions currently handled by the two SX28-based modules.

    In addition the PDA takes over the master control fo the whole system by sending appropriate commands VIA RS-232 to one of the SX28 units. Here, the RS-232 commands are translated into I²C data to communicate with the other items on the bus. The PDA's touch screen acts as user-interface, allowing the selection between various massage programs, and for running different tests in service mode.

    I'm pretty sure that all controllers in the system (including the PDA) can be replaced by just one Propeller chip with all required components (except the display and the chip card) integrated on one single PCB. Instead of a touch screen, I'm considerung to use a customized membrane keypad with some standard keys and a couple of variable function keys instead. Although the Propeller can definitely handle a touch screen, the membrane keypad might be cheaper, and more robust.

    Over all, I'm expecting a remarkable reduction of production costs with the Propeller chip as the core controller for this system. When I get the chance to design it, I need to have a close look at EMI issues because as a medical appliance, this system must match the according EMI regulations, and it was almost a nightmare getting the two SX28s in the current system below the limits.

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    Greetings from Germany,

    Günther
  • John CoutureJohn Couture Posts: 370
    edited 2006-03-12 19:05
    Ok guys, time for a stupid question from me.

    How would the propeller differ from eight SX28 (for example)? A couple of things that come to mind:

    1) Propeller would have a shared memory (like the Borg, you guys really missed the oportunity to call it that!)
    2) Ease of loading a program (one entry point)
    3) It seems, in reading other threads, the memory capability can be up to 128K (or was it 256K) but code had to be in the lower portion.
    4) The propeller already has all of the ports tied together
    5) Smaller package, smaller power requirements, lower price

    I guess the reason for the question is, can't you prototype the CONCEPTS with existing chips?

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    John J. Couture

    San Diego Miramar College
  • Martin HebelMartin Hebel Posts: 1,239
    edited 2006-03-12 19:14
    I think it would be difficult to prototype with single processors. One of the greatest adavantages to having 8 processors sharing memory is that variables may be global to all. This means with one cog reading sensors, there is no need to pass the data to another processor to also have access to the same data for its control action.

    I'd take that memory capability with a grain, even though external EEPROM may be larger, it really doesn't extend the software size memory. It can be used for permanent data storage or to load specific blocks into the processors.

    -Martin

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    Martin Hebel
    Perform an Employer's Survey of Electronic Technologies Graduates· - Click here!
    Personal Links with plenty of BASIC Stamp info
    and SelmaWare Solutions - StampPlot - Graphical Data Acquisition and Control
  • John CoutureJohn Couture Posts: 370
    edited 2006-03-12 19:17
    I guess technically you could store global variables in an I2C memory module. .... Hmmmm

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    John J. Couture

    San Diego Miramar College
  • Martin HebelMartin Hebel Posts: 1,239
    edited 2006-03-12 19:38
    Sure would be ways of using extrernal memory of many flavors, but then you have to start dealing with contention issues - who can talk when. Is there going to be a dedicated processor that performs some polling sequence? Or some collision detection method? Run additional lines for a token passing system? With the Propeller, the hub is acting as access control to ensure there is not any contention issues, and is essentially usses TDM for access.

    I've been lucky enough to be writing code now, and boy is it slick. I have one cog dedicated to being a watchdog for the other cogs (if they are stuck waiting on a pulse that never arrives) simply by sharing a decremental counter and a flag, the watchdog can give it that pulse, all through internal busing, and the watched-cog can check a flag to see if it was actual data or not it received. Think what that would take between 2 processors.

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    Martin Hebel
    Perform an Employer's Survey of Electronic Technologies Graduates· - Click here!
    Personal Links with plenty of BASIC Stamp info
    and SelmaWare Solutions - StampPlot - Graphical Data Acquisition and Control
  • John CoutureJohn Couture Posts: 370
    edited 2006-03-12 19:57
    Kool. Thank you Martin!

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    John J. Couture

    San Diego Miramar College
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