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Announcing SerPlug: A $9.95 Serial Plug programmer kit for the Propeller (build — Parallax Forums

Announcing SerPlug: A $9.95 Serial Plug programmer kit for the Propeller (build

Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
edited 2010-04-10 12:35 in Propeller 1
SerPlug is born!

A Brief History:

Over the years I have seen many questions about serial programming circuits for the Propeller. Personally, I've tried the two and three transistor circuits - unfortunately I found that they did not work with all USB to Serial cables. That's why I designed a MAX3232 based RS232 programming circuit for my Mem+ board. At the same time, I also laid out (in Eagle, in case any one is curious) a stand alone version; however I assumed that most people who got a Morpheus board would get a Mem+, or would already have a Propeller Plug.

Late last year, I showed a preliminary layout to Sapieha ... and he kindly offered to make a nicer layout for me. He was right, his layout is nicer than mine was.

Off it went to prototype production... and today I got the prototypes.

I am happy to announce that the SerPlug prototype PCB's work perfectly!

- SerPlug has a 3 pin jumper for choosing RTS or DTR as the RESET signal

- SerPlug has a RSTEN jumper, which if removed, stops the Propeller from being reset.

SerPlug will be shipping in approximately three weeks, which is when I will get my production shipment - however you are welcome to place a pre-order now.

SerPlug's 5 pin header is PropPlug compatible, with the addition of a fifth pin that supplies +3.3V to SerPlug. If you are programming a board that only has a 4 pin connector, simply run +3.3V to the fifth position.

Of course, you can also use SerPlug to add additional RS232 ports to your Propeller board - just wire two Propeller pins to pins 3&4 of the five pin connector, and connect GND and Vcc. You can also run the board at 5V for compatibility with 5V microcontrollers!

My intention is to price the kit at (or below) what the parts plus PCB would cost - approximately ($2.50 + (the single quantity price for the parts used based on DigiKey's current pricing))

I got up early this morning, and crunched some numbers... so I have figured out the pricing.

SerPlug will cost $9.95 USD + s/h for qty.1

SerPlug page at Mikronauts.com: mikronauts.com/products/serplug/

Forum Special:

- one SerPlug kit for $9.50 USD + s/h
- two SerPlug kits for $18 USD + s/h (regular price $19)
- four SerPlug kits for $35 USD + s/h (regular price $37)
- larger quantities will be available, ask for a quote on the quantity you need

To pre-order your SerPlugs, send me an email with how many you want, and your snail mail address so I can figure out the shipping and handling.

Rough estimate for Continental US s/h is:

1 SerPlug kit: $3.50 USD (Light Packet Air)
2-4 SerPlug kits: $8.00 USD (Small Packet Air, may fit more than 4, I have to weigh the new kit)

Shipping to Canada should be a bit less, and shipping to Europe will be more expensive.

For more, or destinations outside of the Continental US, I will have to manually look up the shipping.

I am attaching three shots of SerPlug packed into one image:

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
www.mikronauts.com E-mail: mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com 5.0" VGA LCD in stock!
Morpheus dual Prop SBC w/ 512KB kit $119.95, Mem+2MB memory/IO kit $89.95, both kits $189.95 SerPlug $9.95
Propteus and Proteus for Propeller prototyping 6.250MHz custom Crystals run Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler Largos - upcoming nano operating system

Post Edited (Bill Henning) : 4/9/2010 6:05:28 PM GMT
SerPlug.jpg
1400 x 480 - 193K

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