Field Programmer For Propeller?

idbruce

Hello All

I am sure this subject has been covered before somewhere within the propeller forum, so please forgive me for this new post. Anyhow I was wondering what objects and schematics are available for creating a field programmer for the propeller chip. I am looking for something similar to Stache - the BASIC Stamp Field Programmer.

I was wondering how difficult/easy it would be to create a Propeller Stache from a Propeller Proto Board, preferably powered from a 9 volt battery and having a DB9 connector for the serial uploading of programs to the destination chip.

In case you are wondering, my propellers are serial programmed instead of USB, and having no laptop, I am tired of my machinery being tied to a desktop with a serial cable just for programming.

Any and all input will be greatly appreciated.

Ravenkallen

You could try something simple like a SD card bootloader. You will need a 64K EEPROM and a sd card. With a little bit of clever programing, you could make the device boot up from the SD card. OR you could have two eeproms that sit on the same address line and have only one selected at a time. One EEPROM could hold the bootloader and the other holds the downloaded program. You should look through the OBEX for some inspiration. My current system uses the two EEPROM technique. As for a Propeller Stache, it sounds plausible. It would make for a interesting project..

Unsoundcode

Hi, here is a link to a Proploader from the "Sticky's" at the top of this Forum. The program uses one Prop to load a binary into another , very similar to the way the Stache works. Add a little on board memory storage and it would be quite versatile.

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?86311-Propeller-Loader&p=591445

Jeff T.

Greg Glenn

If you want it to have an LCD touchscreen interface, you could use one of these:

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10089

It has the microSD card holder built-in, and two serial ports. You have to learn the 4DGL language, but it is very similar to C. I have interfaced one of these with a Propeller.

Cluso99

Sphinx is a basic OS for the propeller and has a simple editor and compiler built in. You will need to add a bootloader program to this to be able to download compiled code to another prop - the basics have been done so it should not be hard to modify it to take a file from SD and download it.

Dr_Acula

To add another vote to the above comments, once I started adding an SD card to the propeller I started using it in different ways. Put a bootloader in the eeprom and never change that again, and put multiple binary files on the sd card. Reprogramming in the field would be a matter of changing the SD card (and keep the old one as a back up in case something goes wrong).

idbruce

Thanks to everyone for their replies.

Considering my current application and situation, I think I like Unsoundcode's suggestion, because it appears to be simple and sweet. However there is a source code note that I do not fully understand how to implement. Please keep in mind that I will be programming from one Proto Board to another Proto Board with a serial cable having a DB9 connector on each end. Could someone please give me a better explanation of this note and how it applies to me, and a schematic would be most useful.

This object drives the other Propeller's RESn line, so it is recommended that
the other Propeller's BOEn pin be tied high and that its RESn pin be pulled
to VSS with a 1M resistor to keep it on ice until showtime.

I have attached Chip Gracey's original PropellerLoader.spin file for your viewing pleasure

Thanks All

kuroneko

idbruce wrote: »

However there is a source code note that I do not fully understand how to implement. Please keep in mind that I will be programming from one Proto Board to another Proto Board with a serial cable having a DB9 connector on each end. Could someone please give me a better explanation of this note and how it applies to me, and a schematic would be most useful.

I wouldn't worry about it. Besides, BOEn is tied to ground on the protoboard (and probably on most designs out there). So - to be on the safe side - put some serial resistors in the rx/tx lines and connect RESn directly. This arrangement (without resistors) works fine for me (demoboard/RAMBlade, SpinStudio/M-Module(s)).

idbruce

Thanks kuroneko