Learning the Propeller
poetofmyown
Posts: 1
I've been reading through the forums trying to understand what the heck is going on, yet this stuff is still way above my head.
I've gotten the ball rolling on learning this Propeller thing after having made it through the PBASIC stamp intro and I would like
to know if there is a place I can go to that offers a course or something on learning SPIN.I understand that the HQ for Parallax
is in Rocklin, CA. where I will be moving back to in Dec. Can anyone there help me out?
I've gotten the ball rolling on learning this Propeller thing after having made it through the PBASIC stamp intro and I would like
to know if there is a place I can go to that offers a course or something on learning SPIN.I understand that the HQ for Parallax
is in Rocklin, CA. where I will be moving back to in Dec. Can anyone there help me out?
Comments
Poe,
If you are starting with micro-controllers for the first time, you may want to start with the Basic Stamp. It is limited compared to the Propeller, but will give you a good base of understanding before getting deep into learning the Spin/PASM language.
The Propeller is not a hard item to learn, but it does assume you understand some of the standard "lingo" and will confuse you if you do not.
Many people want to skip steps, and that will cause an unbelievable amount of frustration, and pain if done. You will likely quite all together if you go straight to the Propeller. It is a versatile micro-controller, which makes it complicated in some ways.
If you are stuck on learning the Propeller straight out of the box, I suggest you grab the manual on Parallax's website, and start there. There are some simple programming exercises to get you started. Then...try different things. If you have a problem, ask here. But I will warn you......people here want you to try first, and post your attempted code for them to help. Be specific about your question.........please do not generalize your problem.
I do not know if this helps, but I tried.
James L
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James L
Partner/Designer
Lil Brother SMT Assembly Services
Are you addicted to technology or Micro-controllers..... then checkout the forums at Savage Circuits. Learn to build your own Gizmos!
www.parallax.com/StoreSearchResults/tabid/768/List/0/SortField/4/ProductID/415/Default.aspx?txtSearch=education+kit
There are also some user contributed tutorials here:
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=791527
Rest assured that you can learn to use the propeller.
If I can do it then pretty much anyone can
I think you could start with the propeller as long as you proceed slowly and master
every step along the way...you must have a good understanding of the basics.
I find it useful to make a notebook for every new processor I use. Create diagrams
showing the chip's design. Understand exactly what happens when power is first applied to
the propeller, what does it do when it wakes up? where does it look for the program it is
to execute? How does it load that program?
I always build the simplest circuit possible that can blink an LED using the new processor.
For the propeller that is a very simple circuit and program. Once you see that LED blinking
you will just know that you can master the propeller!
Once you have the LED blinking then start modifying that very simple program and just play
with it seeing what happens.
This forum will be your greatest asset, there are lots of guys here that will happily help
you with any problem you have. Just post your code and they will tell you what is wrong or
how you can improve it.
A solderless breadboard and a 40 pin dip propeller chip is a good cheap way to start.
You will need some crystals and 3.3 volt regulators and a handfull of other common parts.
If you want to take this route make up a list of what you think you need and post it
here in this thread, we will look at it and suggest parts you might be missing.
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"Where am I? Where am I going? Why am I in a handbasket?"
The only reason the BS is often recommended over the Propeller for a beginner is the massive amount of educational material available for the stamps. Now with the excellent PE kit and documentation there is no reason to recommend people start on a stamp. The Propeller has the material to teach a good foundation to programming without subjecting people to BASIC.
Any moderately logical person can pick up a programming language. With some limited experience in programming anything, spin is very easy to learn and by not having experience in BASIC the user is already ahead in having no expectations about certain language constructs (cough *goto* cough).
So yes, the Propeller is a *great* place to start. Run through the PE kits, read other peoples code from the forum and OBEX. Dissect the code supplied with the Propeller Tool and most importantly, when you get stuck and really can't figure it out yourself, ask here in the forum. When you do ask a question in the forum, *always* post the code you are having trouble with and you are pretty much guaranteed to get more help than you'd ever expect. Put your code inside code tags using the button in the forum composer to preserve the indentation as you're all good [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Most importantly, have fun. The Propeller is a pretty impressive little microcontroller.
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lt's not particularly silly, is it?
LOL Yea, I didn't have a GOTO switch on the front of my Altair 8800. Didn't bother me then either.
But seriously, I would suggest the Demo Board:
·http://www.parallax.com/Store/Microcontrollers/PropellerDevelopmentBoards/tabid/514/CategoryID/73/List/0/Level/a/ProductID/340/Default.aspx?SortField=ProductName%2cProductName
This board gives much instant gratification to a new user based on the fact that much of the software in the OBEX is geared towards that platform. VGA, TV Out, Audio Out is all there, and 8 LED to boot.
I bought a Demo Board and Professional Development board at the same time, but found my self on the Demo Board most of the time trying out all the Objects in the OBEX. Most of the time I didn't have to move more than 8 wires.
Any way you go, these great forums are here to help.
Post Edited (hover1) : 10/25/2009 2:41:59 AM GMT
I was pretty tentative about getting started in the Prop and Spin. The chip arrived in the mail and for a month... i didn't even bother to open the package. I already had a couple of breadboards and a handfull of jumper wires ; which is why i just ordered the
Propellor chip,plug and crystal.
Thhe prop manual shows how to set up the 3.3V supply and how to then hook up the prop chip. the manual shows clearly which parts you need for the circuit to work. There are only a few parts and i just took my little list to an electronics store and purchased them. Some parts they dfidnt have like the 6.3V ,1000uF capacitors ;so i used 16V capacitors and slightly different regulators than were recommended. I didnt expect it to work but i powered up and wrote a LED blinking program and its been going great from that first moment, about a week and a half ago now.
But if u dont have breadboards and electronic parts like jumper wires etc then u probably should get the Demoboard as was suggested.
I took my time and read and worked through the Prop manual and the Educational PE Labs manual. At times i was getting quite confused, I found that if i took a good 24 hour break from the manuals and Spin ,it suddenly became a lot clearer when i got back to it and read it another two times [noparse]:)[/noparse]
I just wish the PE Labs manual was a lot larger with a lot more experiments.... so I'm happy to see Mike Green has posted a link to more propellor experiments.
All the best, im sure you'll handle it and probably end up giving me advice !
My suggestion, provided you can solder, is to get a Prop ProtoBoard with USB option, and the VGA/Keyboard/Mouse connector kit from Parallax. This gets you running straight away - you only need a power pack 6-9VDC 2.1mm centre positive (you most likely have one in the house already) and to buy 1 or 2 superbright LEDs to get something working and you don't even need to solder these into the pcb as long as you are careful. Next, find a TV with video input (yellow video RCA connector) or a VGA computer monitor and try out the examples. Then add an old computer keyboard (the PS/2 or you can get an adapter from USB to PS/2 on eBay cheaply - many USB keyboards will still work in the old PS2 mode).
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Links to other interesting threads:
· Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBlade,·RamBlade,·SixBlade, website
· Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
· Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
· Emulators: CPUs Z80 etc; Micros Altair etc;· Terminals·VT100 etc; (Index) ZiCog (Z80) , MoCog (6809)
· Search the Propeller forums·(uses advanced Google search)
My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm