Nuts & Volts articles

basicstampede

I was not sure which Forum was the most appropriate for this posting.· I hope this is OK.

I noticed that recent Nuts & Volts articles are almost exclusively for SX, instead of the traditional BS2 codes.

Does Parallax have influence on having more BS2·examples?··

Chris Savage

Only the more recent articles have focuses on the SX, but they are all written by an independent author. I believe he mentioned in this most recent article why he has been focused on the SX so much. Nonetheless, all the articles from about a year ago or so back are pretty much all BASIC Stamp related.

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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support

parts-man73

I'll tell you, I really enjoyed the articles written by Jon about the Propeller. That's what really caught my attention and drew me to these forums before the Propeller was even launched.

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Brian

uController.com - home of SpinStudio - the modular Development system for the Propeller

PropNIC - Add ethernet ability to your Propeller! PropJoy - Plug in a joystick and play some games!

SD card Adapter - mass storage for the masses Audio/Video adapter add composite video and sound to your Proto Board

pwillard

Honestly, I don't care what Jon writes about in N&V as long as he keeps doing it... I always find it interesting.

I think the basic idea now is that there is already a LOT of information available about STAMPS from all of the previous articles. I'm wondering what should be covered that hasn't been already. Should we toss ideas to Jon for things we'd like to see? Maybe you should, "basicastampede".

I credit Jon's articles for getting me to try the SX, which I now love to use.

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There's nothing like a new idea and a warm soldering iron.

JonnyMac

Thanks for the confidence. I will continue to write about the SX because, frankly, there's not enough material on it now; the BASIC Stamp has been around forever and there is a TON of written material for it (some by me), and the Propeller is the new golden child so it's going to get a lot of attention from Parallax. The fact is that the SX is a rockin' little chip, especially with SX/B for folks like me that don't have the patience for 100% assembly language. The fact is that I've become a better assembly programmer because I can see the output from SX/B, and this was the original intent for that compiler. SX/B continues to get better every day which allows us users to get more out of the SX.

No, I'm not saying that the SX and SX/B are perfect, but they do work very well for me. Truthfully, I use the SX every day. I like it, my customers like it, and until the general Parallax user base has the same comfort with the SX as they do with the BASIC Stamp I think I should keep the focus of my articles on the SX.

Just so you know that my use of the SX goes beyond my columns, these are some of the commercial products I've designed/coded with the SX and SX/B
-- EFX-TEK AP-8 (ISD audio player; hardware design by JB, coded by JW and JB)
-- EFX-TEK DC-16 (digital output expander)
-- EFX-TEK RC-4 (relay controller)
-- EFX-TEK FC-4 (lamp controller/fader)
-- three additional EFX-TEK projects in design now
-- solenoid controller (part of a hand-held compressor created by an airbrush make-up company)
-- LanC controller for video cameras
-- Pan/Tilt head controller
-- digital candle (for HUGE SoCal amusement park)
-- DMX lighting controller (for same HUGE amusement park)

And yes, I'm always open to ideas. Now... just because you give me an idea that doesn't mean I'll use it -- if the project doesn't interest me personally there is no way I could do it justice with an article.

Post Edited (JonnyMac) : 8/18/2008 6:31:11 PM GMT

Timothy D. Swieter

"HUGE SoCal amusement park" - because of nondisclosure agreements my resume has plenty of these same titles on it.

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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

T&E Engineer

I have recently submitted a couple of articles for N&V·now in the que for publishing in the near future. Both are SX based.

pwillard

T&E ENGINEER said...
I have recently submitted a couple of articles for N&V·now in the que for publishing in the near future. Both are SX based.

This is awesome news!· Congratulations.

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There's nothing like a new idea and a warm soldering iron.

John Bond

Jon - you write on complex technical subjects with a clarity that is rare. As we say in South Africa "Just keep doing it or we'll just have to send someone to pay you a vee_se_tt" (a suitable horror movie tune rising to a crescendo in the background – plenty menace in the scene).

Thanks again for the huge amount of knowledge you have shared. Because of that clarity, I for example am also able to use your SX and other stuff on Stamps and even on full PLCs. (Ever heard of an industrial PLC driving a large gauge made from a hobby servo and kitchen clock or a PLC writing data to some cheap external Eeprom). I don’t mind if it’s Stamp1, 2, 2p, 2sx or SX/B, knowledge is knowledge. (yes I know we white South Africans come up with real odball solutions. Remember our Army exploded two atomic bombs made from steam pipe, a couple of pieces of plutonium, some industrial explosives, suitable detonators and electronics and the legend goes, lots of Scotchtape and fencing wire - and that was 26 years ago, I keep wondering what's taking Iraq and North Korea so long - Is it No Scotchtape or is it No fencing wire?).

Consider yourself warned – KEEP WRITING OR ELSE!!! - Just kidding, just kidding.

John Bond - from that mad continent down South and East (South and West for those in Asia somewhere South for those in Europe)

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JSGrewal

Jon

Im curious about the LanC controller. Where might I find more info?

JonnyMac

That wasn't an article; it design for a client. Not terribly difficult, but if you're going to power the SX from the LanC port you must use the transistor interface suggested in the Sony LanC docs. The only tricky part, and it really wasn't that hard, was syncing the data sent from the LanC controller on top of the stream from the camera -- like doing a SEROUT when someone else provides the start bit.

RobotWorkshop

I've got a couple more articles in the works that use the SX series chips. These are for SERVO magazine but one may end up in N&V.

Robert

CounterRotatingProps

JM > ... write about the SX because, frankly, there's not enough material ...
RoboW> ... a few articles on the SX


Yes, please do continue the effort.· I probably speak for many in saying we appreciate your tech-writing abilities to help us "eat an elephant, one bite at a time."


JM> The fact is that the SX is a rockin' little chip

Jon,

The more I learn about it, the more it seems like a rockin' little elephant!··

> until the general Parallax user base has the same comfort with the SX ...

Intermediate to advanced assistance is needed as well. For example, the Scenix paper on "Virtual Peripherials" (see SX downloads) just introduces threaded interrupts.

> -- DMX lighting controller [noparse][[/noparse]...] And yes, I'm always open to ideas.

Neat! Your "Lights, Camera, Action" article - where you brute-force time-sliced and zero-cross detected the dimmers - gives a glimpse into what bandwidth and power the SX has. (Just image what you could do if the 100mHz SX was still around!) Perhaps you could have an article modifying your light controller by adding the DMX protocol to it?· Yes, even though we can buy controllers for ~$200 and small dimmer packs for ~$150, this would still be a valuable real-world project.


Thanks again, and looking forward to V2.0,
- Howard in (very WET) Florida

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Buzz Whirr Click Repeat

Post Edited (CounterRotatingProps) : 8/21/2008 9:58:02 PM GMT

CounterRotatingProps

Jon,

Hey now, wait·a second... You've probably answered my questions before·you·might write a N&V article on DMX.·

Is this a new service for online help here?

"Psychic Support - answers to your questions a week before you even think of them."

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=721864

cheers,
Howard

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Buzz Whirr Click Repeat

JonnyMac

CRP: I appreciate your kind feedback. If I do end up with a DMX article for N&V it will probably have to do with dimming 120v LED lamps which pose different challenges in hardware (software is actually easier).

sam_sam_sam

JonnyMac
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If I do end up with a DMX article for N&V it will probably have to do with dimming 120v LED lamps
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I would like to see something like that ·my self

I do enjoy reading your article in N&V I learned something my self on the SX

One Thing I would like to see is a Detailed Explanation on how to take a Basic Stamp Routine and change it to SX assembly language

so I can start using the SX Chip my self



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··Thanks for any··that you may have and all of your time finding them

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Sam

JonnyMac

I don't teach Assembly language -- because I don't use much of it myself -- so I'm the wrong guy to do that. You should download Al Williams's book and buy Guenther Daubach's book to learn SX assembly language. Also, www.sxlist.com has lots of code examples that can be useful.

Keep in mind that SX/B is very similar to PBASIC and will do the translation to Assembly for you -- all you have to do is write a proper statement and look at the Assembly in the List file (Ctrl-L) -- I do this all the time and learn a lot from the process.