It's really intended for Molex KK terminals, but works OK with a little care. The official tool is very expensive.
I use this tool from Radio Shack - it works fairly well.
Sometimes I even use a little solder but you have to be careful or the pin won't fit into the housings or, in the case of the female pins, solder can block the socket opening...
I haven't used the touch pads in any recent projects but I have used QuickStart boards in a bunch of projects.
I used two QS boards in a serial line merger project. One board sends out data on seven different serial lines (simulating keypads) and the other QS board merges the data (adding a prefix) and sends it out on an eighth line.
The last project I want to add was a fun one. I found out Roombas come with a serial connection. I added a QuickStart board to our Roomba and now I can control it remotely.
I thought it would be nice to add a LCD to the QuickStart. I chose to use P0..P7 for the data bus. Worked OK after I found a wiring error, but when I went to use the touchpads I found there was a problem with the LCD pulling up the data bus to just over the high state. The LCD is powered with '5v' (actually about 4.88v. Don't know if there is excessive leakage or what. I'm only using the Write mode; not the Read for the busy line. Mystery to me why that 'high state'; of course, the 100K resistor even if grounded pad wouldn't pull it down sufficiently to sense a lower than threshold voltage.
I've commented on this problem in the thread titled
........... Strange QuickStart board and LCD (Wintk WDC2401P - a 24 x 1 line display)
I have code displaying 16 characters at a time, plus the first and last character values. It was on a 5 second timer for updating; wanted to use the touchpads to let the program know when to advance to the next 16 characters. That's when I spent too much time trying to get the code working; then scoped one line and then found the strange problem. ViewPort showed me something was wrong; but the scope showed it analog detail. I thought I was going nuts not being able to get some simple Spin code working. I'd of never suspected the effect I see.
Just a warning for those wanting to use those lower 8 I/Os if you want to use the touchpads. Just make sure attached devices don't pull up on those lines even moderately, else the discharge path isn't towards ground, the state towards a finger-touch provides.
Here is my version of the quickstart board demo. Right now it is four demos in one package.
operate by pressing the left button and one of button 1,2,3,4 to start each demo. See top level module comments for details.
A recent post in the forum made me realize this thread is very incomplete. Here are some QuickStart projects I can think of that aren't listed in this thread yet. It shouldn't come as a surprise that I can remember my own projects better than other forum members' projects.
Jose upgraded a BOE-Bot with a QS.
Includes instructions for using QS touchpads as buttons starting with post #15.
I was recently asked where one could access 3.3V on the QuickStart board. I annotated a QuickStart photo with the locations of 3.3V, ground and Vin.
When the QuickStart is connected to an USB cable, 5V can be taken from the Vin locations to power lower current 5V devices. You wouldn't want to run a servo from Vin. A couple of WS2812B Fun Boards could be powered from either Vin or the 3.3V sources.
Four AA NiMH cells make a nice portable power supply for the QuickStart.
I identified some of the I/O pins. The empty holes in front of the header are connected to the same pins on the Propeller as the header.
As I showed in post #29 I generally add male headers to pin positions #39 and #40 (ground and Vin) and female headers to the four "Vss" and the four "Vdd" (3.3V) on the right side of the board.
As I'm mentioned earlier in this thread, I label my QuickStart headers to make the pins easier to find. Another option for location pins on the QuickStart is to use a pin finder.
Comments
I use this tool from Radio Shack - it works fairly well.
Sometimes I even use a little solder but you have to be careful or the pin won't fit into the housings or, in the case of the female pins, solder can block the socket opening...
Here's Beau's Push "ON" / Push "OFF" demo that Leon mentioned in post #28.
I haven't used the touch pads in any recent projects but I have used QuickStart boards in a bunch of projects.
I used two QS boards in a serial line merger project. One board sends out data on seven different serial lines (simulating keypads) and the other QS board merges the data (adding a prefix) and sends it out on an eighth line.
The last project I want to add was a fun one. I found out Roombas come with a serial connection. I added a QuickStart board to our Roomba and now I can control it remotely.
Duane
I've commented on this problem in the thread titled
........... Strange QuickStart board and LCD (Wintk WDC2401P - a 24 x 1 line display)
I have code displaying 16 characters at a time, plus the first and last character values. It was on a 5 second timer for updating; wanted to use the touchpads to let the program know when to advance to the next 16 characters. That's when I spent too much time trying to get the code working; then scoped one line and then found the strange problem. ViewPort showed me something was wrong; but the scope showed it analog detail. I thought I was going nuts not being able to get some simple Spin code working. I'd of never suspected the effect I see.
Just a warning for those wanting to use those lower 8 I/Os if you want to use the touchpads. Just make sure attached devices don't pull up on those lines even moderately, else the discharge path isn't towards ground, the state towards a finger-touch provides.
operate by pressing the left button and one of button 1,2,3,4 to start each demo. See top level module comments for details.
Enjoy
Jose upgraded a BOE-Bot with a QS.
Includes instructions for using QS touchpads as buttons starting with post #15.
Odd Bit Collector had QS game contest.
Rayman made a board, Merlin, to help a QS control a robot.
I used a QS to control a popsicle stick robot (see post #2 for video of it walking).
QS controlling 32 servos.
QS servo tester. (Includes super simple servo demo in post #15)
QS controlling a Roomba.
Panic Button project using multiple QSs with wireless message hopping.
I'm hoping others will add links in this thread to other QS projects.
Edit: Some other QS threads.
Using USB power with QS (without data).
http://forums.parallax.com/discussion/139773/Quickstart-w-Free-QuickProto-(Help-us-reach-new-users!)
http://forums.parallax.com/discussion/134685/Proto-boards-for-the-Quickstart
Early "Sneak Peek" Thread about QS
When the QuickStart is connected to an USB cable, 5V can be taken from the Vin locations to power lower current 5V devices. You wouldn't want to run a servo from Vin. A couple of WS2812B Fun Boards could be powered from either Vin or the 3.3V sources.
Four AA NiMH cells make a nice portable power supply for the QuickStart.
I identified some of the I/O pins. The empty holes in front of the header are connected to the same pins on the Propeller as the header.
As I showed in post #29 I generally add male headers to pin positions #39 and #40 (ground and Vin) and female headers to the four "Vss" and the four "Vdd" (3.3V) on the right side of the board.
As I'm mentioned earlier in this thread, I label my QuickStart headers to make the pins easier to find. Another option for location pins on the QuickStart is to use a pin finder.