Reduce Prop Power
There was a software method (other than clock reduction or running the internal rc) to reduce the power consumed by a Propeller chip. Can anyone direct me to some sample code so I can put it into operation? I have a bunch of very power hungry props and I need to cut some power to stay afloat.
humanoido
humanoido
Comments
Any of the waitxxx commands will put individual cogs into a low power idle state. The hub still consumes a bit of juice. How fast are you running them?
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Life may be "too short", but it's the longest thing we ever do.
1) Using waitxxx commands as BradC suggested
2) Stopping cogs
3) Use only assembly code as spin is very slow and takes many more clock cycles to accomplish the same amount of processing...ie spend less time processing and more powered down
4) In multi-propeller systems you could use one processor to cut power to other processors that are not needed
5) Throttle clock speed using PLL settings at run time (I believe this is possible)
6) In a multi-propeller system you could use one processor(perhaps an SX would be best for this) to supply a clock via an I/O pin to other propeller chips
7) Consider voltage reduction/throttling...I believe we had a dialog in another thread related to minimum prop voltage...as voltage drops so does power consumption but speed usually takes a hit
Post Edited (Miner_with_a_PIC) : 1/13/2010 4:07:49 PM GMT
T o n y
... at last a Spin question to which I know the answer!
Has anyone tried this? What is the syntax?
Usually you would have your main program find its own cog # using COGID. After that, all COGNEWs would give you the number of the cog being started. This way, you'd have a list of the cogs being used and for what purpose, so you could stop the one you wanted (only). The Propeller OS I wrote a couple of years ago kept a bit mask in a byte that indicated which cogs were being used by the OS so the loader could stop any others that were running before loading a new program.
Post Edited (Mike Green) : 1/14/2010 5:29:27 AM GMT
humanoido
Pub Cogstop cogstop (1) cogstop (2) cogstop (3) cogstop (4) cogstop (5) cogstop (6) cogstop (7)
Note that, if your program is started from the bootloader, then all the other cogs will already be stopped (shut down). That's one of the functions of a hardware or software reset. You don't need to do the cogstops. If your program is started using the loader I wrote, the other cogs will also already be shut down (by the loader) when your program actually begins running.
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24 bit LCD Breakout Board now in. $24.99 has backlight driver and touch sensitive decoder.
Thanks Mike and mctrivia.