Newbie Qs

JEBster

Greetings!

Just for kicks, lets say I make something with the propeller demo board that I wanted to sell (small quantity on ebay for example). What would I need to create the product? Would each product require just the propeller chip, or chip and the EEPROM, the crystal? Also, how would I get the programming onto the the product chip?

Thanks for the help!

SRLM

Need: chip, eeprom, cyrstal, 3.3v regulator and caps, and your circuit.

Programming: however you get the RAM image onto the EEPROM, you can do it any way you want. In circuit might be your best bet.

HollyMinkowski

Hello JEBster

If you could describe what sort of project you have in mind then we could
perhaps give you an idea of how best to construct it for sale, and a rough idea
of how hard it would be to create by a newbie, and how much it might cost you.

The people here really love to help out newcomers, so don't be afraid to ask
any questions whatsoever....you will find all the help you need here.

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- Some mornings I wake up cranky.....but usually I just let him sleep in -

JEBster

SRLM, thank you. That was helpful.

Holly, thank you, too! I'm very excited to be getting started. I've purposely spent a few months staying away from ICs just learning electronics basics (I've built about 20 multivibrators, thank you very much), and I'm ready to get into it!

I think I'd like to start by building a system (not sure how I should refer to it) that would interface with my xbox 360 and its steering wheel controller in order to actuate my racing seat (http://playseats.biz/). I figure there could be two ways of doing this:

1) Measure the input from the wheel and pedals. I have not yet cracked open a wheel to see how it works (I figure I'd make sure I could do this at all first), but I'm hoping its just a matter of measuring pots. The idea would be if the wheel is turned to the right, the IC would turn on motors to tilt the chair to the right. If the gas peddle is depressed, the IC would turn on motors to lift the front of the chair (to simulate acceleration). The chair would have a motor at each corner of its base.

yeah... its silly, but it must be done

In my research of Basic Stamps, I believe this might be a problem as, if I understand correctly, inputs are digital and unable to measure analog (voltage). Correct? I believe I would need a A/D converter (probably get the Basic Analog and Digital Parts and Text Kit). Thoughts, suggestions here?

2) Interface with the Xbox Controller port (USB). Certain games send info to the wheel to provide steering feedback, and perhaps this could be used to control the actuation. I think this certainly would be the more difficult (and wouldn't help for the peddles) but may provide for more accurate feedback.

So, the hope it to build something that actually worked and perhaps sell a version... or build for friends

Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks!

Whit

You might also want to check out Gadget Gangster. They market peoples product ideas·and you get a reasonable cut. Check it out. There is also a video of how it works here - http://www.parallax.com/Portals/0/Downloads/mm/video/upew/Nick%20McClanahan%20-%20Gadget%20Gangster.wmv

It would probably get your ideas seen by more people.

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Whit+


"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney

Post Edited (Whit) : 8/26/2009 2:21:36 AM GMT

Microcontrolled

Uh-oh. The Prop isn't fast enough for USB, so you would have to use an FTDI serial to USB chip to do the interface.

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Computers are microcontrolled.

Robots are microcontrolled.
I am microcontrolled.

But you·can·call me micro.

If it's not Parallax then don't even bother.

I have changed my avatar so that I will no longer be confused with others who use generic avatars (and I'm more of a Prop head then a BS2 nut, anyway)

SRLM

A better bet than the USB would be to just hack the force feedback motors and use those to actuate your own force feedback. In fact, you could probably do the whole project in analog, although digital would be more flexible.

Mike Green

The Propeller can do both ADC and DAC. There's an application note (AN001) in the Propeller downloads page that discusses how to do them and includes code examples.

JEBster

Whit, that is a great site. Thanks!

Controllers, from my understanding, are USB, and this one happens to be wireless. Not sure if that introduces another level of difficulty, but I'm assuming it would. So, my thinking is still to measure the input from the wheel and pedels (assuming they're pots basically) via the propeller or basic stamp.

Mike, I read thru the app note. Seems to be just what I need...

but at the risk of posting in the wrong section... could the basic stamp do the ADC required for this project? Would I need the Basic Analog and Digital Parts and Text Kit to do so? Just concerned that the propeller might be overkill for this project.

Thanks!

Post Edited (JEBster) : 9/1/2009 7:34:20 PM GMT

Mike Green

The Stamp can do a little ADC, but it's slow and the Stamp can't do anything else while it's doing that. It works very well with external ADCs though (as described in the Basic Analog and Digital tutorial). Similarly with motor control, the Stamp can do some DC motor control, but really works better if you have an external motor controller (like the several that Parallax sells).