Project Ideas..

Dougbrowne

Alright so, just a few days ago (Monday) my Propeller Educational Kit 40-Pin DIP arrived and since then I have been able to work through all the labs in the included book, and also have done a lot of fooling around with some different setups, but I'm quickly running out of ideas and getting a bit bored, so I'm asking you guys, from past/current experience, what are some interesting projects that I could work on with the materials I have available to me?

Materials at my disposal:
-PEK with everything that comes with it.
-1x PS/2 to Breadboard adapter
-1x RCA to Breadboard adapter
-1x Micro-SD Card adapter + 1GB Micro-SD Card
-128KB EEPROM Chip

I have messed around a lot with the keyboard/mouse/video outputs/inputs so far, but haven't really got any use out of the SD Card yet. What I would really like to add is Ethernet, that would open up plenty of doors for me, does anybody have experience with this "module" (www.futurlec.com/Mini_Ethernet.shtml)?

So yeah, need ideas, and also if anybody has experience with the module I linked above working with the prop.

Thanks.

Cluso99

You could get ZiCog and CPM running (restricted to 23KB ram) if that interests you.

PropDos, PropCmd, FemtoBasic and a few others use the SD for files.

If you are careful how you load your SD card with files you can run both of the above alternately.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
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

MagIO2

First thing you should do is stop watching TV and play to much computer games. Problem is that you only learn how to consume or react, but not how to be creative. ;o) Ok ... sorry ... that was my first impression and maybe what I say is more true for my son than for you.

Well ... Doug ... you should at least know what your other interests are.

Model railway - Build your own DCC central with the prop.
Model aircraft - Build a quadcopter
Robots - build one
You have a house / or maybe your parents - Build a home automation system
You have or want to have a workshop? - Build a CNC milling machine
Nothing special - build a rotary clock
You have lots of hardware - attach everything to the propeller and write a driver for it

If you have a real project SD cards might get more interesting. For example I purchased a nice 320x240x18 display with controller lately. So I can put tons of background-images and icons on the SD-card to have a nice graphical user interface.

No other interests? ... well ... then I understand that a propeller is kind of useless, but you can send your equipment to me ;o)

Microcontrolled

I too suffered from WhatToBuild about a month ago, until I found my true love in electronics, something that involves displays (I love displays) and something useful that looks cool to all in one, Automation! It took me 7 years of electronics to find that this is by far the most fun I have ever had. I say get some servos and start building!!

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Computers are microcontrolled.

Robots are microcontrolled.
I am microcontrolled.

But you·can·call me micro.

Want to·experiment with the SX or just put together a cool project?
SX Spinning light display·
Want cheap wholesale electronic parts?
Transistor parts wholesale

science_geek

Personally I built/am building a cnc mill, it also is programmed with a comfile itl710 touch screen display. you could build a cnc mill that you plug into your tv, use a ps/2 mouse and build a cad/cam program. you could then use the sd cards to save files for later use and to mass produce parts. after you get this done then you take whatever interests you the most and use the cnc mill to build parts for it. I really like robots and automation, so i am building my mill so that i can build things for my robots and brackets and stuff for my automated shop. Also, try working with graphics, its seems boring at first, but i have found it to be quite enjoyable to sit down and program gui's onto my prop handheld.

ps. once you really get into it, the hardest part is finding time to do it

Cluso99

Exactly as science-geek put it "once you really get into it, the hardest part is fiding time to do it"

Where are you other interests? Maybe we can point you in a direction to follow that.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
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

Humanoido

Build a robot. You have a Propeller chip which has lots of ports,
ideal for controlling things, such as motors, LEDs, various
sensors, and each is a great learning project. Perhaps
building a robot is the most educational fun exciting inspirational
creative hands-on thing to do.

humanoido

Oldbitcollector (Jeff)

Write a video game... [noparse]:)[/noparse]

Of course if you get really hooked, you'll be ordering a NES interface & controller from Parallax next.

OBC

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
New to the Propeller?

Visit the: The Propeller Pages @ Warranty Void.

jazzed

I've always wanted to make a matrix of LED's that act as a sensor pad and display the results on the tv/vga. You could take that information and send it over the net to an actuator device. ... so much to do, so little time. There was a video showing the interaction with the LED set up as input that graphed the distance of an object in real time. I was seriously impressed by that [noparse]:)[/noparse]

Rayman

Hey Jazzed, I'm thinking about trying to use an 8x8 RGB LED matrix as both display and sensor... Think that'll work?

Sorry for the hijacking...

Anyway, if you have an SD card you need to load up my wav player and output some music!

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
My Prop Info&Apps: ·http://www.rayslogic.com/propeller/propeller.htm

jazzed

That's Cool Ray.
A 256 LED output array with 16 pins would be easy, but not so sure about inputs ... maybe 4 to 8 could be wired as dedicated inputs separately. So maybe one could use it as a Theremin too [noparse]:)[/noparse]

ElectricAye

Build a machine that automatically posts a "thank you" every time somebody posts another suggestion for a project.

StefanL38

Hello Rayman,

I remembered johnnyairplane posted something on that long ago Pro-forum thread LED Input device

The video-demo impressed me very much cooool

As touchscreen-mobilephones become state-of-the-art an LED inputdevice would be fancy like hell

best regards

Stefan