Harprit's Book arrived at Parallax today!

Ken Gracey

Hey all,

Stephanie brought me a copy of Harprit's book - it arrived at Parallax today. Right when I was getting ready to crack it open the CNC router arrived, then day at Parallax unfortunately ended and we went to the training room for a CPR training.

Between meetings (or during meetings depending on the topic) tomorrow I'll give this book a quick read and report back on some of the highlights.

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Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.

Follow me at http://twitter.com/ParallaxKen for some insider news.

Post Edited (Ken Gracey (Parallax)) : 6/8/2010 1:34:34 PM GMT

Harprit

Before everyone in the world gets it wrong, its Harprit not Harpit

Harprit

Bean

Harprit,
I edited Ken's post to correct the name.
I hope that's okay Ken ?

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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There are two rules in life:
· 1) Never divulge all information
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If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. [noparse][[/noparse]RUSH - Freewill]

Baggers

You may want to save the jpg rename it and repost also [noparse]:)[/noparse]

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http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/·home of the PropGFX Lite

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Ken Gracey

Thanks Harprit, Baggers and Bean. I apologize for misspelling your name, Harprit.

Phil Pilgrim recently counseled me on my decaying spelling skills so the mistake came as no surprise.

We'll get Harprit's book in stock as soon as possible.

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Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.

Follow me at http://twitter.com/ParallaxKen for some insider news.

hover1

Ken,
I hope those are empty boxes of Penguins and Toddlers. Otherwise I mights ses ther's some hording goin' on.
Jim

Ken Gracey

@Jim: hoarding for now, but don't worry. Pretty soon I'll be able to share about 280 Penguin kits.

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Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.

Follow me at http://twitter.com/ParallaxKen for some insider news.

RichK

And Parallax is a member of the Davos Group (World Economic Forum)? "the typical company being a global enterprise with more than five billion dollars in turnover" Wow! That's a lot of Boe Bots. Must be why your desk is so neat.

Invent-O-Doc

Got the book today. It takes a different approach than the parallax books and has nice introductory partsthat explain the propeller as well as good uses for parallel programming. The code is nicely explained, if not overcommented. All projects are spin. He likes using a 7404 inverter as a buffer between the prop and components and most of the projects deal with controlling motors. I still think I like the recent prop programming book better (Except for the PASM, though it does have cooler projects) but enjoy having both for a different perspective.

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Tom Talbot
New Market, MD, USA

Oldbitcollector (Jeff)

Love the idea of using a 7404 to interface to the prop. First saw it in Chris's Circuit Cellar article this month.

OBC

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Propeller Feature Projects: PropellerPowered.com
Visit the: PROPELLERPOWERED SIG forum kindly hosted by Savage Circuits.

HollyMinkowski

Very nicely done Harprit!
Please consider writing a PASM book
A good one is sorely needed.

I'll have to try using the 7404 as a buffer.
The 74HC14 is cheap and in stock at Tayda.
I wonder if it would work as well as the 7404.

Harprit

Holly

THANKS!! Its nice coming from you!

The 7414 is really a better choice but I did find that some of the 7400 series
chips will not work. Though there were times when I had the Prop pretty much
loaded up and may have run out of current. It needs a better look by some one
not quite as lazy as I am!

This is the third book I just did so PASM will have to wait. Besides I do not really
understand the beast. But then as you will see I don't understand SPIN either! Yet.

Harprit

Post Edited (Harprit) : 6/9/2010 11:19:36 AM GMT

Harprit

@Tom

You are so right
Some of my coding will indeed seem over commentated to the more advanced reader.
The book is for beginners so it was important that every line could be easily understood.
I tried my best to fulfill that requirement by providing the profuse commentary.
My projects too were aimed at the beginner and so are not as exciting as those in the more advanced text.
Motors are cheap and to see something move under one's control is exciting for beginners.
Besides Parallax has a lot of robotic offerings so motor control is of interest to our experimenters.

Harprit.

Invent-O-Doc

No need to apologize, Harpit. I like the book! It forms an important part of my microcontroller library. It also helped to approach a few concepts from another angle that I haven't seen in the parallax produced books and this different perspective has improved my understanding of SPIN quite a bit. (At least I hope so). I don't do projects often enough to not need easy access to material. Tom

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Tom Talbot
New Market, MD, USA

Harprit

Update on SPIN listings:

Program listing will be posted soon, on the McGraw Hill site
I have sent all the program listings in the book to McGraw Hill for publishing on their internet site
I was behind schedule because I was working to the June 22 Amazon deadline
There were about 125 pages of SPIN listings in WORD format
I was much surprised, I would not have guessed that.

The listing on the encodergeek site are in progress.

Harprit.

Scope

I'm trying to order one from Parallax - I'm confused: I'd like to take advantage of the discounted price but since the "OUT OF STOCK" indicator shows up, what do I do?


Thanks

www.parallax.com/Store/Books/Propeller/tabid/171/ProductID/683/List/0/Default.aspx?SortField=ProductName,ProductName

Oldbitcollector (Jeff)

IIRC, Ken said that Parallax was doing inventory counts this month.
It's likely that they are waiting until that process is done before they crack open a new pallet.

Naturally, it's just a guess, but the date appears to be after inventory counting.

OBC

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Propeller Feature Projects: PropellerPowered.com
Visit the: PROPELLERPOWERED SIG forum kindly hosted by Savage Circuits.

Harprit

Scope;

I just got a note from my editor to say that Parallax had ordered a whole lot of the books
So they should have one for you soon.
Place your order.

Harprit.

bdickens

I am halfway through, and I love this book.

As a relative newbie, you can't over comment. From having read the other book, there were some well thought out simplifications that made it easier to understand. And the way the cog architecture is laid out, it really is easy.

Way to go. Now we just need a "100 propeller projects" book in the same style.....

Thanks again and my congratulation. Well done.

Harprit

bdickens

You made my day. Thank you a million times. Its comments like yours that make all that work worth it. There are over 100 pages of code
in my book and it is all commented. More by far, far, far than any other source I could find.

To get it right, I personally and without any help...
did all the research
figured out what the manual was trying to say
wrote all the text
did all the typing
did all the drawings
made all the layouts
wrote all the code
designed the pc board
ordered all the parts
Soldered it
fixed my mistakes
programmed it
proved everything to my satisfaction that what I said works
Went to Rocklin to see Stephanie, Jennifer and Andy Lindsay (who came out of his sabbatical to see me). It was great. Thanks everyone.
and drove my wife nuts for a year

And then your great post. I loved it. It made it all worth while. Thanks again.

Could you please do us a great big favor and write a review on Amazon?

100 project, maybe, lets make a list and see what it might take.

Harprit.
Tinkerer, Engineer, Scientist and the occasional lazy author.

Post Edited (Harprit) : 6/12/2010 4:42:10 PM GMT

Harprit

An Amazon review reposted here by Harprit.

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Propeller Book to start, June 13, 2010
By Valerie J. Dickenson (Gulf Shores, AL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Programming the Propeller with Spin: A Beginner's Guide to Parallel Processing (Paperback)

This book was flat out, amazing. I've been tinkering with the propeller for a few months and this book cleared up so many issues for me. It even cleared up issues I didn't realize i had ! The code is well laid out and the projects have just the right amount of complexity to hold your interest but maintaining the incremental build nature. I was able to go back and recode some of my projects, using what I learned immediately. The Propeller chip is an great development platform, the contributors on the object exchange made the hardware platform easy, and this book ties it all together in a well thought out, well executed, clear and concise approach.

Even if you are experienced with the Propeller, this book is just great.