networked Propeller streaming content from Flash server ??

mahuro

Hi All,

I am new to the propeller. For a project I am working on it appeared to me that using the propeller could be the way forward to achieve my idea, so please let me ask to you experienced people with the propeller if this idea would work:

The idea would be to use a network enhanced board with a propeller chip, that is capable of contacting a server on the internet or local network, and download and stream flash animations to a LCD display ??

If you check the following links, you'll see that a network capable ( internet access) propeller board already exists, and also that such a board can be connected to a small LCD, the question is what needs to be done ( and how please, to write in spin a program capable to download and stream ?? )

http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?ma...products_id=95

and also this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tankgrr...7622438836765/

Any suggestions or ideas are very welcome.

Many thanks.

Mahuro.

Bob Lawrence (VE1RLL)

@ mahuro

Another option is the Propeller based Spinneret Web Server

http://forums.parallax.com/forumdisplay.php?f=82

You can enter your project into the Spinneret Web Server contest at the same time.

Ale

Notes:

Do you know a flash player only runs on x86 and ARM processors ? and the ARM variant does not do a very good job, don't you ?.

If what you want is to display a video, with a low resolution (for more colors) of 128x96 or similar with some 8 bit color from a predecoded and already prepared file to the propeller, then yes it could be done.

The propeller only has 32K RAM plus 2k per cog..... and gets at peak 20 MIPS per cog...

****

I'll go the other way around... what do I want to display ? resolution x colors x fps and what kind of data do I want to display and how... then I'd look for a suitable solution (the other way around may not deliver what you want...).

obrienm

Mahuro,
I think this is a very nice project.
Some extra discussion for reference in the Spinneret forum...
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?t=127357
/Michael O'Brien

mahuro

Hi All and thank you for your replies.

Honestly I was not aware about the capabilities of the Arm processor to handle flash ! so thank you for making me aware ...

The project is an Art/Science project so there is room here for "creative interpretation" ... things like resolution can be "interpreted" in a creative way ... meaning : if there is signal degradation, pixelation , etc, wel,l that may count towards the "computer graphics / pixel graphics / ASCCII graphics ... type of aesthetics !! which can be pretty cool ... on the other end (science) to get "The device" to remotely contact a server , download and display, would be a nice little achievement.

Our idea is to get the signal out to several different types of displays, some would have better resolution than others , but that is OK ( within the aesthetics of our project) as long as it plays some very simple, very compressed animations from a server ....

thank you for your comments and encouragement. I am checking the Links ( thank you Michael) , and let you know how I am doing ...

Cheers,

Mahuro

Ale

If you are fine with ASCII art, or ASCII displayed movies, mplayer can produce such output. The propeller will have no trouble with that. You may need a custom pc-like font, but that is doable. You may have to write some code to get mplayer to write such file to a disk. That would be fun !

Duane Degn

mahuro,

It looks like the YBox2 uses SPI to communicate with its ethernet chip. The Spinneret can use either SPI or a parallel (8 bit I think) bus. I think the parallel bus would be much faster than using SPI.

Parallax also sells an Ethernet card for their Hydra board (it can also be used with other Propeller boards) called EtherX. The EtherX card uses the same chip as the Spinneret but is SPI only.

Duane