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PropBOE in Gordon McComb Article in Servo — Parallax Forums

PropBOE in Gordon McComb Article in Servo

WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
edited 2012-01-13 11:28 in General Discussion
Is the Propeller Board of Education available yet? It was featured in Gordon McComb's Extending The Beginner Bot With the PropBOE, Part 5 article in the December 2011 Servo. I don't remember seeing it, but I would love to have one. Any timeline on this item?
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Comments

  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2011-11-23 20:02
    Ken mentioned the timing would be close, and if anything they'd put up a page for pre-orders. Maybe they can get that added soon.

    And yes, you do want one! It's a terrific board with an amazing feature list.

    -- Gordon
  • $WMc%$WMc% Posts: 1,884
    edited 2011-11-23 20:08
    My wife keeps asking me what I want for Xmas....well I'm waiting on this and I'm waiting on that....IDK?...The dam manufactures don't know...WTH!!!!!
  • Matt GillilandMatt Gilliland Posts: 1,406
    edited 2011-11-23 20:31
    Ken mentioned the timing would be close
    Yes, it's close. We kinda had to commit to the time frame for Gordon's article, but with all the other happs lately, it's release date slipped a little - I'll get us all an update on Monday...
    -Matt
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2011-11-23 20:44
    @ Matt,

    If I have to wait for an update till Monday, how can I nap peacefully tomorrow after my turkey? Well okay,.. I guess can wait.

    @ Gordon,

    You said, "And yes, you do want one! It's a terrific board with an amazing feature list." Maybe I can't wait. C'mon Matt!

    Let's face it... My wife will probably want to wait for Christmas anyway...
  • Matt GillilandMatt Gilliland Posts: 1,406
    edited 2011-11-23 20:58
    how can I nap peacefully tomorrow after my turkey?
    Apologies Whit! As soon as they're available, ya'll get first dibs (as it is with all our products - we have to wait for ours until after the first batch or two of production units). And, in reality, with the number of projects we're currently working on, I don't see how I'll ever be able to spend any time *playing* with the things we make anyway :blank:

    -Matt
  • Tony B.Tony B. Posts: 356
    edited 2011-11-24 07:04
    Matt,
    I was wanting to buy 4 for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Can you give me a price and I'll make my order now :)

    Tony
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,401
    edited 2011-11-24 09:01
    Hey all,

    Happy Thanksgiving! The Propeller BOE has been a long development process but we're almost done. We are ordering the production boards on Wednesday and hope to build them before Christmas. I'll see that we soon get a pre-order page up on the web site.

    We haven't determined a price yet, but it's in the $99-129 range. Why so much? Everything you'd need is on this board (showing off the Propeller takes some connectors, sometimes expensive ones), it comes with a lifetime hassle-free warranty (that's right!), and it'll be unveiled with an educational program that's been in development concurrent with the actual board.

    Sincerely,

    Ken Gracey
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2011-11-24 09:40
    @Matt and Ken,

    Sounds really exciting - Can't wait!
  • Tony B.Tony B. Posts: 356
    edited 2011-11-25 08:03
    I will be looking often for the preorder page! Have 4 robots waiting for a serious upgrade.
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2011-11-25 10:49
    Ken and Matt, Sorry if I jumped the gun (though you *did* say it would be okay for a November issue!). It was hard to hold back on these articles. The PropBOE is featured in another SERVO article for next month, on Madeusa/Eddie.

    To echo some of what Ken touched upon, in under five minutes I was able to produce a fully operational teaching pendant using the PropBOE, standard XBee, and a 2-axis accelerometer, and most of that was spent looking for the jumper wires. Motions are recorded on the microSD card as they're transmitted to the remote robot. Everything just plugs in, no fuss, no hassles.

    Of course it fits right onto a BOE-Bot, which I imagine will be a primary use. For the SERVO article I demonstrated using some of the ADC inputs of the PropBOE, which a lot of people will appreciate. I was initially skeptical about this board -- I thought it tried to do too much -- but I was wrong. It's just the right mix.

    -- Gordon
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2011-11-25 13:34
    @Gordon - you're making the wait worse! ;-) sounds really good. I could see a good bit in your picture. I am excited that Ken said it would release with the ed materials too! Should be fun to teach with!
  • $WMc%$WMc% Posts: 1,884
    edited 2011-11-25 14:59
    Built in ADC's... Now I really want one !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • bomberbomber Posts: 297
    edited 2011-11-29 07:54
    $WMc% wrote: »
    Built in ADC's... Now I really want one !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    That's just the tip on the iceberg! I might mention that there are four channels on the ADC (3 are general purpouse and one is connected to a microphone), also there are two DAC channels, an Xbee socket, LOTS of LEDs, an SD card socket, VGA port, 6 servo ports, and 16 I/O left unused!

    I forgot to mention the stereo aduip amplifier and heaphone jack.
  • JimInCAJimInCA Posts: 80
    edited 2011-11-30 10:39
    How you've peaked my interest. What is the size and weight of the PropBOE?
    Thanks...
    Jim...
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,401
    edited 2011-11-30 11:34
    Hey Jim, sorry for the cruddy photo quality (cell phone camera) but you can see they're the same size. I don't have a scale here but a quick test on a nearby accountant said "the green one is heavier". Must be because of the big DB-9 connector. I should retry the test with a USB BOE and see what the accountant says - probably won't be able to tell the difference.

    Ken Gracey

    PropBOE vs BOE.jpg
    PropBOE vs BOE.jpg
    400 x 226 - 30K
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2011-12-16 15:38
    Any update on this?
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,401
    edited 2011-12-16 15:48
    Whit wrote: »
    Any update on this?

    Yes, Whit!

    We will enable pre-ordering for the Propeller BOE on January 6th for delivery the first week of February. There's a fairly detailed schedule behind the scenes with capable people (Jessica, Jen) in charge so I feel confident in the delivery date.

    Ken Gracey
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2011-12-16 16:51
    Ack, sorry if I've made people have to rush to finalize the PropBOE. I just got too excited about it!

    -- Gordon
  • rogersydrogersyd Posts: 223
    edited 2011-12-17 12:16
    Ken Gracey wrote: »
    Yes, Whit!

    We will enable pre-ordering for the Propeller BOE on January 6th for delivery the first week of February. There's a fairly detailed schedule behind the scenes with capable people (Jessica, Jen) in charge so I feel confident in the delivery date.

    Ken Gracey

    Awesome news. Go Parallax!
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2011-12-17 20:13
    Thanks Ken! Great news...
  • Jen J.Jen J. Posts: 649
    edited 2012-01-06 09:34
    Hang on for a bit, please. It will be available for pre-order very soon, just not quite yet.
    We'll announce when the PropBOE is go.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,259
    edited 2012-01-06 09:49
    OK, even erco is getting excited about this one... can a Prop/Relay/Plywood robot be far behind? :)
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,401
    edited 2012-01-06 11:02
    erco wrote: »
    OK, even erco is getting excited about this one... can a Prop/Relay/Plywood robot be far behind? :)

    Special invitation to erco!

    I hereby invite erco to come to Parallax for a day, all expenses paid. I'll retrieve erco at SMF airport from the first flight in from LAX (or his favorite airport) and return him back to the airport in the same day. The day at Parallax will be spent with the following hands-on activities:
    • Getting familiar with the Propeller, with his own Propeller BOE. This board will be personally autographed by Andy Lindsay and include an overview of the new program that goes with it.
    • ELEV-8 flights. Erco will manage the controls.
    • Chairing the lunch discussion panel about rapid prototyping in erco's day job. Our "erco equivalents" would be thrilled to have a chat over sushi, the favorite food of cyclists. We will order pizza for the non-fishheads.
    Remaining time to be spent discussing plywood robots. I'm in for that part!

    Please Mr. erco, accept our offer!

    Ken Gracey
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,259
    edited 2012-01-06 12:34
    SOLD! At first opportunity, which may take a while to wrangle, but how could I resist an invitation from the "big dog" himself ?!!! Thank you Ken, and I will confer with the wife (AKA ask permission) on scheduling! :)
  • rogersydrogersyd Posts: 223
    edited 2012-01-07 10:43
    I begin insistently refreshing the new products page every two minutes from about noon on yesterday. The board eventually showed up, but the product page was missing the add to cart button. I managed to add one to my wish list through some finagling. From there I was able to add to cart and submit an order. Item 32900! Whoo-hoo! Much to my delight, she is already in a box and heading in this direction :)
  • ratronicratronic Posts: 1,451
    edited 2012-01-07 11:08
    I see another "propaholic" in the making.
  • Lauren DavisLauren Davis Posts: 313
    edited 2012-01-07 13:23
    Here's a quick update on the pre-order schedule. We plan to start taking pre-orders by the end of the day Wednesday next week. As soon as the page is updated we'll make an announcement. Thanks for your patience.

    Lauren
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2012-01-07 13:29
    rogersyd wrote: »
    I begin insistently refreshing the new products page every two minutes from about noon on yesterday. The board eventually showed up, but the product page was missing the add to cart button. I managed to add one to my wish list through some finagling. From there I was able to add to cart and submit an order. Item 32900! Whoo-hoo! Much to my delight, she is already in a box and heading in this direction :)

    Kinda hard to believe it shipped today. Parallax doesn't ship on Saturday most of the time, and the product doesn't show up on the store front. They aren't even out off assembly or testing yet.


    The item may have been available for Pre Ordering, but it is not available for that until next week,

    EDIT: As I see now per Lauren.
  • rogersydrogersyd Posts: 223
    edited 2012-01-07 15:16
    Publison wrote: »
    Kinda hard to believe it shipped today. Parallax doesn't ship on Saturday most of the time, and the product doesn't show up on the store front. They aren't even out off assembly or testing yet.


    The item may have been available for Pre Ordering, but it is not available for that until next week,

    EDIT: As I see now per Lauren.

    My order was shipped on Friday, and now sits in a San Pablo sorting facility. Even better. That is a pretty tight ship they must run over there to get orders out that quickly. The board is on the order confirmation with no indication of a back order, but that could have been a technical oversight of which i would be inclined to forgive parallax for. especially given how i managed to order it during the whole two minutes the product was posted. maybe the ppdb will fit on the top deck of my stingray in the meantime. lol
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,259
    edited 2012-01-07 15:24
    Both of my PropBoEs arrived Thursday.




    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?137110-PropBoE
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