Toys2playwith
HollyMinkowski
Posts: 1,398
They delivered some of my Propeller stuff yesterday...brought some of it home to play with
over the weekend. Nice to have a printed copy of the big manual..so much easier to read than
the PDF.
Still waiting for 20 of the sm versions of the Propeller and the DIP edu kit.
Those little USB programmer dongles are sure going to be easy to lose!
One of the EE guys is going to help me design some boards for the sm chips, I have no
idea how to design a board yet. I will post images of them once they are made up and
shipped back.
I will make a couple of boards with two 40pin Zifs, one for the Propeller and one for an ATmega644p
as I think the two can compliment each other well. The 644p can wake up the Propeller to do
precision timing and video out..etc
I'm going to start by experimenting using the Demo Board since that involves no soldering
and is mess free
I'm sure I will soon have many newbie questions to ask
over the weekend. Nice to have a printed copy of the big manual..so much easier to read than
the PDF.
Still waiting for 20 of the sm versions of the Propeller and the DIP edu kit.
Those little USB programmer dongles are sure going to be easy to lose!
One of the EE guys is going to help me design some boards for the sm chips, I have no
idea how to design a board yet. I will post images of them once they are made up and
shipped back.
I will make a couple of boards with two 40pin Zifs, one for the Propeller and one for an ATmega644p
as I think the two can compliment each other well. The 644p can wake up the Propeller to do
precision timing and video out..etc
I'm going to start by experimenting using the Demo Board since that involves no soldering
and is mess free
I'm sure I will soon have many newbie questions to ask
Comments
Xmas came early this year for you!
Have fun, I remember the blast I had when my starter kit showed up...
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Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller (alpha version this week)
Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller
www.mikronauts.com - a new blog about microcontrollers
a demoboard, 20 sm props, and (if i counted correctly) 10 prop/eeprom dip pairs.
you're gonna have some serious fun and it looks like we going to have one serious
prophead on our hands.
one of the first thing you should try is adding an SD socket to your Demoboard
(see enclosed pics), then download Propdos and Propcomm so you can just load up
a couple cards with VGA or video programs. for the SD connections check out
the famous Prop Cookbook.
one tiny problem with the starter kit is that the Prop manaul (at least the 1.0
version) is full of small annoying errors; especially the assembly section, so check
out the downloads section for the errata on the Parallax site.
anyways welcome to the club and have FUN.
blake
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"Can't sleep, clown will eat me."
Bart Simpson
Post Edited (b.p.m.) : 6/12/2009 4:48:57 AM GMT
Thanks for the images and SD info.
I really do need an SD card interface on the demo brd.
I looked and this is the 1.1 ver of the manual, so hopefully not so many errors.
Strictly speaking the stuff is not mine, I'm just evaluating the Prop chips. I have to
learn how to program them in pasm and spin and make some boards up and write some
documentation. If all looks well after that then I get to do the software for a project that
I already started in C for AVR....but the video abilities and timing stability of the prop make it a better fit...IMO
I have a hardware budget of 3k to get acquainted with the prop and produce some finished boards and software.
(pray for me)
What is the goal of the project? Who's sponsoring (school, company, government,...)?
Anyway, @ holly...
3k? heh, I think you will be just fine, immerse yourself in spin.
The real fun starts when you start setting up a master prop that controls, programs, and clocks, your other props.
I call that the "parallax propeller paradox"
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In an attempt to be more unique, I have changed my name to Clock Loop
** P O O F **
Post Edited (Clock Loop) : 6/12/2009 6:52:45 AM GMT
Geting your head around parallel processing and no interupts, is a bit of an old mind bender, or is that why you are doing a hybrid?
I wish my work would stump up for anything I was interested in!
A small company that produces custom products, small runs mostly, under contract.
It's a pretty boring project, no flashing lights or graphics, no robotic arms waving around
Not to be too specific, this board must monitor a data stream looking for
patterns and also detect and log timing idiosyncrasies in the stream.
My board is part of a small package that has a thing that snaps onto a cable
carrying the data. I have a simulator that outputs a sample data stream though
a cable that I use to tweak the software. My part of the project will be completed
when it detects and records the patterns and timings of the test data flowing in the
cable without any failures. The test data just looks like meaningless random bytes.
Using the propeller would mean not having to connect to the devices using a
pre-configured laptop computer to dump data and monitor status. a small
monitor and an sd card could replace that headache much more cheaply
and with no chance of a glitch making the laptop unusable. We were to provide the
laptops/netbooks set up to work...this will save real $ if I can make it work.
A simple program for any PC could then pull the data off the SD card and sort
through it. We could provide one of those simple things that turn an SD card
into a USB thumb drive.
where did you get your SD socket, that fits perfect on the demo board
i got the SD socket from a bargain store SD/USB card reader for about
four dollars canadian (see enclosed pic). i took one apart and salvaged
the socket. i then cut excess lead off some caps (old ceramics seem to
have leads that are just thick enough) and carefully soldered them to
the socket contacts. then use a small needlenose to grip the solder joint
and gently bend the leads; trim to your liken.
blake
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"Can't sleep, clown will eat me."
Bart Simpson
I found some USB SD adapters on Ebay that look like they have a very short
SD card socket inside...they might be workable. If they can be easily removed.
I usually hit the opposite side with the hot air from a rework station and pull the
part off....usually works.
The adapters are 99 cents each and that includes delivery from China, the mind
boggles at how little they must cost to make...I like the pink and the purple
Also looks like there is a crystal in those adapters..wonder what frequency?
stores.shop.ebay.com/iso-seller-Trading_Other-Items_W0QQ_fsubZ232066119QQ_sidZ332021759QQ_trksidZp4634Q2ec0Q2em322
99 cents?!? i bought a couple of the blue ones for about 4 bucks apiece. Dang.
i got them just for the sockets to use in future projects; they were getting a
little hard to find locally. the Xtal i pulled from one is a 12Mhz. i was thinking
of trying it in an overclocking experiment when i get a spare prop or two (pll8x
of course).
blake
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"Can't sleep, clown will eat me."
Bart Simpson
You could probably send the collected data right from your Propeller module to a PC, but then of course you'd have no way of knowing who might be monitoring your data stream...
As for the little SD drives, I can't even imagine the quantities that company must deal in to get the source prices low enough that 99 cents is profitable... China: living proof that rampant Capitalism does not require a Democracy to thrive.
By-the-way, I just went to check out the eBay page, and the little drives are actually On Sale! You can get them for 89 cents, if you can do without pink or purple. Apparently black is not a hot seller. Looks tres chic to me, and it goes with anything! ...and for 89 cents can you really have too many SD thumb-drives?
Welcome to the forum!
Ned
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"They may have computers, and other weapons of mass destruction." - Janet Reno
Post Edited (WNed) : 6/13/2009 4:46:25 AM GMT
I found a microSD card thumb drive adapter for .59 delivered from Shanghai ...LoL
The black one is ugly WNed
If you put outriggers on it it would look like a tiny Battlestar Galactica
Be interesting to get some of the 89c sd adapters and see what you could make of them or how many parts you could scrounge.
@Holly I do not know how many bits that you need to log orhow fast they come along but have you seen ChipBasic2 for the 644 it gives RGB at PAL or NTSC and can store to 1Mb flash and EEROM. KBD support as well.
Never heard of chipbasic2..... I will google it and find out about it.
I really like the 644...have done several projects using that chip.
The Cornell University EE controller class uses the 644 for final projects.
I really have my head wrapped around programming the 644 with gcc.
The propeller seems hard because it's so different. But in fact it should
end up being much easier to use.
http://www.embedds.com/cornell-university-avr-student-projects/
www.jcwolfram.de/projekte/avr/chipbasic2/main.php
Check if this is the latest version.
Post Edited (Toby Seckshund) : 6/13/2009 6:45:43 PM GMT
Which is a better saw, a hacksaw or a chainsaw?
One might be tempted to answer, "It depends on the job you're doing." But the truth is, it's better to cut wood with a hacksaw, if you don't know how to start the chainsaw.
I'm not saying we should all be experts in every uController out there, but should be willing to learn enough to apply the best tool for the job... particularly if someone else is willing to pay for your play! At any rate, you already have all that Prop stuff. Might as well learn how to use it
BTW - Catalina is a C compiler for the Propeller, and I think it's based on gcc. It can be found here: http://forums.parallax.com/forums/default.aspx?f=25&m=339139
Ned
Edit: Catalina is based on LCC. Hey, I got two of the letters right.
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"They may have computers, and other weapons of mass destruction." - Janet Reno
Post Edited (WNed) : 6/13/2009 9:04:59 PM GMT
And, Holly, aside from turning into a PropellerHead, it seems like you're fast becoming our resident Great Bargain Hunter [noparse]:)[/noparse]
- thanks for posting these finds.
@Toby: the AVR gadget also comes in an RGB version - pretty nifty devices he's made there. (Glad my German's not to shabby :^)
- Howard in Florida
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Got Electrons?
"it seems like you're fast becoming our resident Great Bargain Hunter"
I'm always looking for bargains. I found a 1.25 replacement for an
item we use that cost many times that...large Zif sockets.
The "real" ones we have are marked "TEXTOOL" and the fake ones that are
made just as well are marked "TEXTODL"
sm processors that are less than a dollar and snap right into a standard proto board,
they are square and you drop in the chip and then press in a plastic cover that mashes
the chip tightly to the contacts in the socket....I used them for making quick test boards
up for the ARM controllers....there are no dil ARM chips avail.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=textool+textodl&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
I found an item 2 days ago that we need if the project works out for the Propeller.
I found them at 12.5 cents each in 100 lot delivered! The guy has a few thousand and has sent a
specimen to be examined...I won't be more specific because if I was many here
on this forum would go buy them up
I have a list of Asian parts suppliers put together that has saved a lot of $ around here.
They were buying some LED bars with 8 segments and I found someone that sold them so incredibly
cheap that we bought too many and are still swimming in them..I have a sack full here at home
If you don't look closely at these you think they say TEXTOOL
Maybe I will take some pics of me at work and post here next week.
Lots of really cool junk there...the parts room is amazing and unless the part
is expensive they don't care if you take a few to use at home...I do my best
work at home..usually between midnight and 5am..LoL