Helitronix mixer uses Propeller
simonl
Posts: 866
Just discovered that the Helitronix Multi-Mixer uses the Propeller - YAY!
Of course, none of us will be surprised that it replaces two PICs in the old version
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Cheers,
Simon
www.norfolkhelicopterclub.co.uk
You'll always have as many take-offs as landings, the trick is to be sure you can take-off again ;-)
BTW: I type as I'm thinking, so please don't take any offense at my writing style
Of course, none of us will be surprised that it replaces two PICs in the old version
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Cheers,
Simon
www.norfolkhelicopterclub.co.uk
You'll always have as many take-offs as landings, the trick is to be sure you can take-off again ;-)
BTW: I type as I'm thinking, so please don't take any offense at my writing style
Comments
It is neat to see the Propeller used in products.
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Timothy D. Swieter, E.I.
www.brilldea.com·- Prop Blade, LED Painter, RGB LEDs, uOLED-IOC, eProto fo SunSPOT, BitScope
www.sxmicro.com - a blog·exploring the SX micro
www.tdswieter.com
Even after two years I still get a satisfying smile when I see a Prop' in a product with hardly any external components (oh yes).
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Cheers,
Simon
www.norfolkhelicopterclub.co.uk
You'll always have as many take-offs as landings, the trick is to be sure you can take-off again ;-)
BTW: I type as I'm thinking, so please don't take any offense at my writing style
I like see how simple a project can be with the Propeller. I was intrigued that the previous version had two PICs. TWO! Must be some serious processing happening in that product. I bet the designers are relieved to have a product like the Propeller.
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Timothy D. Swieter, E.I.
www.brilldea.com·- Prop Blade, LED Painter, RGB LEDs, uOLED-IOC, eProto fo SunSPOT, BitScope
www.sxmicro.com - a blog·exploring the SX micro
www.tdswieter.com
While I don't advertise it on my website as such, I do show a photo of the unpacked mixer so anyone could see what it is. I like showing the electronic components on the items I make. When I sell them, they are wrapped in black heat shrink.
The EEPROM and Crystal are on the back side of the Prop DIP. I was trying to keep the board size down, and I was sticking with the DIP because it's easy for me to solder to by hand. I haven't made the transition to surface mounted parts yet, so putting some parts on the back was a good alternative given the board real-estate I was using.
The original version used two PIC16F877 processors and worked well. One PIC was dedicated to asynchronous signal input, and the other was dedicated to the geometry calculations and servo output. A decoupling of the input acquisition from the output stage was natural because I didn't want the timing of the input signals to have any impact to the timing logic that was generating the output. Those timing glitches can be felt on the output side when using sensitive digital servos. Having an interrupt handler on the input side that can starve the output side at the wrong time isn't ideal. So the two CPU approach was what I opted for to give me the level of isolation I was comfortable with.
The Prop is a perfect fit for my application. I'm able to make a no compromises piece of hardware to solve my computing problem. I get to dedicate an entire cog to each of the signal inputs, and this gives me perfect signal acquisition. And there is no contention for computing resources or timers to generate the output waveforms. The Prop provides a fantastic platform for this type of work. When I saw the ad-copy for the Prop when it first came out, I knew I had to make the transition to this part.
So in my case, it's not so much a situation where I needed a lot of MIPS, but I did need the logical separation afforded by multiple cores. I'm one of those guys who'd go for more cogs than RAM on a Prop II any day. The magic of the Prop is all in the parallel execution.
Joel-
The reasons you gave are the exact same ones that lead me to the Prop too - I have a heli project (well, I would have if I could find the time!) and was researching the use of PICs and ProtonBASIC, but those pesky interrupts kept getting in my way! Why people keep hankering after interrupts on the Prop I'll never know LOL.
Nice product BTW - might end-up buying it one day, but only if I get nowhere with my own first!
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Cheers,
Simon
www.norfolkhelicopterclub.co.uk
You'll always have as many take-offs as landings, the trick is to be sure you can take-off again ;-)
BTW: I type as I'm thinking, so please don't take any offense at my writing style
It's certainly a good exercise to try and build your own. It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If you'll derive satisfaction from designing and building it yourself, then you should certainly go for it!
Joel-
Any tips you can share on CCPM & stabilisation (without affecting your product sales!) would be most welcome...
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Cheers,
Simon
www.norfolkhelicopterclub.co.uk
You'll always have as many take-offs as landings, the trick is to be sure you can take-off again ;-)
BTW: I type as I'm thinking, so please don't take any offense at my writing style
Thank you for sharing why and how you used the Prop. Your product and application of it looks great!
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Timothy D. Swieter, E.I.
www.brilldea.com·- Prop Blade, LED Painter, RGB LEDs, uOLED-IOC, eProto fo SunSPOT, BitScope
www.sxmicro.com - a blog·exploring the SX micro
www.tdswieter.com
What sort of specific questions do you have? I can point you in the right direction, but it's a large topic, so if you can narrow down what you'd like to know, I can take a shot at helping you out.
Joel-