What drives people to use the SX ?

richaj45

Why do people continue to use the SX line of parts when there are the PIC18Fxxxx, AVRmegaXXXX, and the new Propeller chips?

I am not trying to cause trouble. I am just wondering what drives peoples decisions to use an old line of parts?

cheers,
rich

[noparse][[/noparse]edit] Rich, I added a subject to your post. Moderator Bean.

Post Edited By Moderator (Bean (Hitt Consulting)) : 1/2/2008 3:39:17 AM GMT

datacps

Speed up to 75 MHz, Price, Support, Flexibility, SX/B, Pretty much the SX chip does everything I need it to do. If I need more HP I will go to the Prop. Between those two I can do what I need. Also the support here is second to none. From the BS1 to the Prop Parallax opened a big door for me.
Parallax also makes it fun with the Robot Kits, Hydra, ECT… I have PIC chip projects that I am switching over to the SX Chips. I also have a Prop project to do. Like I said before with those two chips I can do what ever I want and get support from expert members, and last but not least have a lot of fun doing it.. Unless I need something with more power than the prop, I will be here for a while….This is my opinion..

Mike Green

It's a funny marketplace. The Arduino is a nice platform for the ATmega168 chip for example. With the Lily Pad version, it may see a lot more use in wearable clothing. There's nothing particularly unique about this chip. There's nothing particular that it can do that the SX cannot do other than 6 on-chip ADCs. The SX can do a couple of sigma-delta ADCs, but I'm not sure if it can do 6 of them and it does require a couple of off-chip passive components. It's the packaging and the open-source software that's aimed for the raw beginner that will do the trick.

Part of the advantage of the SX (and the Propeller for that matter) is that it's completely software configurable. It has enough speed and basic functionality to do a lot of what normally takes special purpose functional units on-chip, but in software that comes with the programming tools and is modifiable and extendable. Sometimes the built-in functional units are convenient and you put up with other quirks.

You can't beat the level of support though. Unless you're going to use a whole bunch of somebody's microcontroller for a single project, you want good support. Otherwise, the cost of the learning curve is just too high.

datacps

BTW, I did projects with ATMEGA8-16AC, PIC16C84, PIC16C622, PIC16C711, I am switiching them over to the SX28 or SX48. The Prop project I am doing, none of those chip combined can do what I need the Prop to do... I like the idea that no matter what project I am doing or need to do, I have 3 chips to choose from. I see the PIC chip PIC18F458-E/L is 14 dollars. I also see the PIC18 run at 40 Mhz ...I rather get a Prop for 12.00 and run it at 80 Mhz ,which is why I need the prop.

Bill Chennault

rich--

The SX48 is drawing me to it for exactly the reasons stated above. Support is vital in techland, and Parallax ALWAYS gives me--a very small customer--great support. (Actually, it is even better than that.)

Plus, I want to continue to program in some version of BASIC. However, assembler would work, if I had to use it. I am definitely not a C person nor do I wish to learn Spin.

--Bill

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You are what you write.

RobotWorkshop

Well, the best answer I can give is that it all depends on the application and what you need the processor to do. There are a lot of tasks where the SX processor is an ideal choice and makes more sense that using other processors.

I've used the Propeller chip for a couple of things and it truly is an awesome chip! However, I had a small project where the SX beat the Propeller and many other chips hands down. One particular example I can illustrate right here. Back in the December 2007 issue of SERVO magazine I made a small translator that would allow a SpeakJet chip to be used in place of an old SC-01 speech chip. As the processor acting as the translator for the protocol and phoneme translation I used an SX28 chip. In this project the Propeller wasn't the best choice. Why, you might ask? One, the SX28 had plenty of processing power to handle the task and cost a lot less than the Propeller chip. So, why should one pay more for something when there was no reason to. The second and REAL reason for using the SX series over the Propeller for this particular application is that the SX is Johnny on the spot and ready for service as soon as you power the thing up. The code is loaded on the flash inside the chip so it's all there. It's a fast little chip too. The Propeller on the other hand has a latency when you power it up. It has to read your program from an external EEPROM chip before it can really get going. For the circuit I built that was unacceptable. The host device may be ready and start sending data to the translator before a Prop based version would be ready. The SX on the other hand was already up and ready to work.

I can't say anything bad about the Propeller, AVR's, or PIC's. I've used some of each over the years with good results. Look at what you want to build and pick what makes the most sense for you. In some cases that may be the SX series chip. Sometimes not.

Best Regards,

Robert

pjv

Hi All;

What drives me is its speed and versatility. What I mean by that is the fact that it has NO internal peripherals (other than the timers), so this way you can roll-your-own, and get whatever you want, from 4 bit to 16 bit ADC's and DAC's; and any quantity of them.... depending on speed requirements.

Mike.... I have readily run 8 'standard' 8 bit sigma-delta ADC's, and with a little trickery and some softening of speed requirements, you can actually get 20 8 bit ADC's running on an SX28...... that is one per I/O pin!

I find there is almost nothing that can't be done with these wonderful devices.... at 50 or 75 MIPS you get some awesome performance for under two dollars!

Cheers

Peter (pjv)

Professorwiz

For me it was the support! Like others have said, you just can't get support better than this! I use Sx with the Compiled Basic, and I'm able to do so far pretty much everthing I've wanted to do.

Russ

DosManDan

When I wanted to start working on electronics again, I looked at all of the chips on the market that would do what I wanted to work on. Mainly, one off projects using sensors to trigger events. I wanted the best mix of price, availability, support and reliability. Honestly, Parallax was one of the few that fit what I wanted. Then, I happened to notice where they were located, about 40 miles from me.

So, one day, I jumped in the car with my 8 yr old son and we drove over to visit and pick up an order for chips. Someone came to the front counter with my order and noticed my son. They asked if he wanted to come in the back and try out some of their robots. He loved it and I was sold as a customer. For someone to take the time to spend a few moments entertaining a kid showed me they valued me as a customer more than anything else they could have done.

Their products work flawlessly and their service and commitment are unbeatable.
Dan

richaj45

Thank you all for your response.
It was enlightening and the bottom line seams to be the company Parallax that makes the SX a comfortable choice for many project.

I once emailed about the use of a Teflon skid ball used on the bobot. The answer came that they tried them but Teflon did not work any better than the plastic they used now. Then the guy sent me two Teflon skid balls to try. I did not by anything. I was just curious.

So they even provide customer service to non-customers. I see your point now that i think about it.

cheers,
rich