Prop plug.....

Ravenkallen

Hey all. I was taking my prop plug out of a breadboard that i had ,and to my surprise, the pins of the prop plug sheared off. When i tried to solder wires back on to it, the·pads came off. Why is the prop plug so fragile? Is there something that i can rig up/ buy to program the Propeller if it ever happens again? I was about to test my new robot when the thing broke and now i gotta wait a couple of days for the new one to arrive.·Parallax should make the prop plug a lot more sturdier....

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Propeller + Picaxe = Romeo & Juliet

Dave Hein

If you have a serial port on your computer you could breadboard an RS232-to-3.3v level adapter.· I think it could be done with a few resistors and transistors.· There should be schematic for this somewhere in the forum.

Ravenkallen

Nope, just a USB port. I wish new laptops would have a serial port in addition to the USB. It is so much easier to use.

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Propeller + Picaxe = Romeo & Juliet

Cluso99

It is possible you overheated the pads on the pcb. If you can find a 4 way female-female cable from an old PC (the ones that were used to connect motherboards to the frontpanel switches etc), cut the socket off one end, slide some heatshrink over the wires, solder the wires to a 4-pin header (short side), slide the heatshrink over the soldered pins and shrink with heat, plug this into your PropPlug. Now the other end will plug into your proptoboard (make sure you know which way around). The cable will reduce the pressure on the connectors. Make sure nothing can short.

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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)·
· Prop OS: SphinxOS·, PropDos , PropCmd··· Search the Propeller forums·(uses advanced Google search)
My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBlade Props: www.cluso.bluemagic.biz

Ravenkallen

Yeah, but the actual pad came all the way off. i don't think i can repair it.

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Propeller + Picaxe = Romeo & Juliet

RossH

@Ravenkallen,

I think the Prop Plug has a design flaw - mine broke in exactly the same way. Luckily, I managed to solder a new connector to it.

I'd recoomend anyone using a Prop Plug to use it with a cable rather than plugging it straight onto a board - the pins are very feeble and are obviously not designed to take any stress.

Ross.

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Catalina - a FREE C compiler for the Propeller - see Catalina

Cluso99

Ravenkallen: Can you solder well? (that is, can you solder smt parts and do you have a temperature controlled soldering iron with a fine tip?)

If so, then you could use kynar wires (the fine wire wrap single core kind) to solder a fine wires to the pins where the broken tracks lead. You could then glue (hot glue) the connector back and then use a cable as I described.

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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)·
· Prop OS: SphinxOS·, PropDos , PropCmd··· Search the Propeller forums·(uses advanced Google search)
My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBlade Props: www.cluso.bluemagic.biz

Ravenkallen

I just got my new prop plug today. It seems to be a newer version and as such the pins appear to be a lot stronger. I hope it will last a nice long time.

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Propeller + Picaxe = Romeo & Juliet

Bobb Fwed

For a while there (6 months or more) the socket connection on the prop plug was very weak. I broke quite a few. I would just solder a three wire cable and a separate ground wire onto the board. They are back to being adequately strong, but in some ways the cable made things convenient.

Also, the schematic for making a serial connection to the propeller is in the Propeller datasheet.

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April, 2008: when I discovered the answers to all my micro-computational-botherations!

Some of my objects:
MCP3X0X ADC Driver - Programmable Schmitt inputs, frequency reading, and more!
Simple Propeller-based Database - Making life easier and more readable for all your EEPROM storage needs.
String Manipulation Library - Don't allow strings to be the bane of the Propeller, bend them to your will!
Fast Inter-Propeller Comm - Fast communication between two propellers (1.37MB/s @100MHz)!