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Don't discount even your simplest projects... — Parallax Forums

Don't discount even your simplest projects...

BeanBean Posts: 8,129
edited 2010-03-07 05:01 in General Discussion
I ran across this product while searching for something else, but I think it proves the point about not discounting simple electronics projects.

www.thumbstadium.com

This is a simple board with an 8-pin microcontroller, three LEDs and two buttons. I would not have thought of marketing this EVER. But here it is. There are numerous companies selling this kit.

ThinkGeek
Make Magazine
Apogeekits
Even BGMicro

So the point is... Even simple ideas can be big ideas.

Even though this doesn't use a Parallax microcontroller, I say "Good for you" to the developer.

I wish him all the luck in the world. And I love the video clip.

Bean.



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Use BASIC on the Propeller with the speed of assembly language.

PropBASIC thread http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=867134

March 2010 Nuts and Volts article·http://www.parallax.com/Portals/0/Downloads/docs/cols/nv/prop/col/nvp5.pdf
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Comments

  • kf4ixmkf4ixm Posts: 529
    edited 2010-03-04 23:40
    Wow,... just,... wow. whoda thunkit.
  • davejamesdavejames Posts: 4,047
    edited 2010-03-05 00:03
    ...ditto the video clip!

    DJ

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  • bill190bill190 Posts: 769
    edited 2010-03-05 14:31
    Actually I was teaching a young non-computer person some simple things about programming - what programming is. And just 3 LED's and a speaker.

    I just started out showing him on and off of the LED's, then kind of went from there where he was interested in going...

    Inserting pauses.

    Then pauses between each light going on/off. Adjust the timing.

    Made an endless loop.

    Then the lights were blinking on from left to right, then off from right to left.

    Then inserted a sound.

    Then different sounds between each light turning on/off.

    He was totally fascinated playing with just this!
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2010-03-05 15:00
    How many times have you looked at an idea and thought that it was too simple and have been wrong?

    It seems to happen to me all the time...

    I have to keep reminding myself that I market to the same people who are completely
    entertained by what is aired on prime-time television.

    OBC

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    New to the Propeller?

    Visit the: The Propeller Pages @ Warranty Void.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2010-03-05 16:42
    Don't forget that 50% of people have a below average IQ. It's actually more than that because the distribution is skewed.

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    Leon Heller
    Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2010-03-05 19:51
    Thanks Bean! Neat video too!

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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
  • HollyMinkowskiHollyMinkowski Posts: 1,398
    edited 2010-03-06 21:12
    Just think how difficult a simple project like this would have been before controllers were available!

    All those discreet transistors and TTL chips, etc.

    How did people put up with the complexity....
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2010-03-06 21:33
    HollyMinkowski said...
    Just think how difficult a simple project like this would have been before controllers were available!

    ....How did people put up with the complexity....

    They put dwarfs under the table.

    www.prototypen.com/blog/falk/archive/pics/turk.jpg

    Post Edited (ElectricAye) : 3/6/2010 9:41:19 PM GMT
  • hover1hover1 Posts: 1,929
    edited 2010-03-06 21:34
    Holly!

    Nice to see you back!

    Have you relocated?

    Jim


    HollyMinkowski said...
    Just think how difficult a simple project like this would have been before controllers were available!

    All those discreet transistors and TTL chips, etc.

    How did people put up with the complexity....
  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,452
    edited 2010-03-07 01:45
    ElectricAye: They put dwarfs under the table.

    Heh. Only the RICH people got dwarves. My parents couldn't afford no stinken' dwarves so I had to do it all myself. We used RELAYS and LEVERS and CAMS and GEARS and had to cut the darn gears with our TEETH because there weren't no stinken' internet machine shops to cut them for us. We robbed Lego sets and Erector sets and Tinkertoys and we stole bolts from bridges at night so we could blink an INCANDESCENT LIGHT BULB because only rich people could afford an LED. And if we needed to amplify a signal we used a VACUUM TUBE like God intended, not any of that newfangled stuff that came in ceramic boxes you couldn't see into.

    Snark aside, true story: In a letters column to a catalog/magazine I once took, someone once (like in 1978) asked "no label, what do I do?" With a tube in a glass envelope you could kind of look inside and at least say, well, that's a dual triode so maybe a 12AX7. You might burn out the filament if you were wrong about the 12 part or you might get the mu wrong but for hobby purposes, whatever. But what about transistors? Well, back when there was nothing but bipolar transistors and not many of them, you could usually work that out too with a milliameter that did "hV" transistor checking.

    But what about those surplus 16-pin DIP's with no markings? Truly useless by any measure. There used to be a company called Poly-Paks that sold surplus components by the bucketload (in clear plastic bags of course). I still have some of their stuff. If IC's in general hadn't undone them then SMT would have. There just isn't anything you can do with a black plastic wafer with 200 leads and no markings to give you a clue where to even apply power.
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2010-03-07 02:59
    localroger said...
    ...
    Heh. Only the RICH people got dwarves. My parents couldn't afford no stinken' dwarves so I had to do it all myself. We used RELAYS and LEVERS and CAMS and GEARS and had to cut the darn gears with our TEETH....

    You had teeth? By gosh, we were so poor, we couldn't afford to have teeth. We had to sell all our teeth to the Tooth Fairy just to buy enough copper ore to smelt our own wire. I didn't even hear about the dwarf thing until I gummed my way out of the wilderness and clawed my way to civilization.
  • HollyMinkowskiHollyMinkowski Posts: 1,398
    edited 2010-03-07 05:01
    @hover1
    Yes, I have relocated...still have boxes of stuff sitting around waiting to be unpacked.
    I have my own tiny little office with workbench now...kind of nice to be able to hide in
    there where I can think better smile.gif

    I visit the old workplace using skype video calls... even helped with a coding problem
    they had Friday....the time difference is sort of odd though, it's kind of a shock each time
    I realize they are so many hours out of sync with me.

    LoL about the dwarfs smile.gif
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