Upgrade to Prop: 1 or wait for Prop 2
Falcon
Posts: 191
I'm considering getting a Prop chip. Should I jump in with a particular Prop 1 starter kit, or should I wait for the Prop 2 offerings?
I'm pretty happy with the BS2 and have put off the Prop because of the perceived learning curve.
Of course I may stick with the BS2 because I;m no where near understanding that completely yet, but I have a future project in mind that would require video handling.
Thoughts?
falcon
I'm pretty happy with the BS2 and have put off the Prop because of the perceived learning curve.
Of course I may stick with the BS2 because I;m no where near understanding that completely yet, but I have a future project in mind that would require video handling.
Thoughts?
falcon
Comments
https://sites.google.com/site/parallaxinretailstores/home
If you've been productive with a BS2 then the P8X32A may make your wildest dreams come true. For starters, you'll have tidy, compact stand-alone code segments instead of a big loop. For example, launch an object to monitor a temperature sensor and the variable is available in your top Spin file. Or, launch a cog (processor) to handle the servos simultaneously while other tasks are accomplished, updating it's value as you desire without concern for timing loops. And that's just the beginning. Wait till you trade your 2x16 LCD for a 5.7" VGA and write to it like you would PST. I love the BS2, but I confess that I haven't programmed one in five years (since Propeller was released).
Just the other night I was able to set up a simple "Talking Ultrasonic Sensor" with less than a page of code. I'll see about posting a short video here along with my source code. I admit that such projects are exclusively hobby for me, but product developers are truly making use of the Propeller's capabilities in their projects. All of them are using it for simple multi-core examples - the big show-and-go examples you see with speech, video and gaming are not typical in the commercial products. They just want multi-core to improve their product's capabilities and to speed development time.
Most of all, the fellow forum members are very helpful. That's a part of Parallax that can't be measured, bought, sold, or even quantified. And you can access them for free. How could a company be more thankful?
Ken Gracey
Yours is probably the easiest question to answer I've seen in months! Don't waste another day! Get started with the Propeller chip now. You won't regret it. Even better, so much of what you learn will transfer to the Prop II, so you'll be a leg up when it's ready.
-Phil
Some other reasons you may want to consider the Propeller are also relevant. For example, it appears you were raised on the famous Board of Education. We're on the verge of releasing the Propeller BOE along with a friendly educational program to accompany it, all on-line. A Propeller Boe-Bot follows shortly. In addition, we're finalizing the completion of moving our Propeller compiler from ASM to C/C++. This will open the door for open-source developments (you can program on a Mac now). And if you've ever wanted to learn C, then you'll be in time for our PropGCC beta release at the end of January. If you prefer BASIC, you can try Terry or Mike's two examples as well. Maybe it's all of the options behind the scenes that make the learning curve appear steep, but you can keep it simple to get started.
For $25 you can get started. It'll help to have a breadboard next to your QuickStart board, too.
Ken Gracey
It's great device that makes a lot of hard things easy. I'm sure anyone who can handle BASIC on any other device will be able to master the Spin language easily.
There is a huge numer of easy to use Spin obects in the OBEX so it's not necessary to get into assembly language for many tasks. And if you do the Prop assembly language is one of the simplist you will find.
Then with that experience under your belt you will be well prepared for the Prop II.
It's a lot of fun, the learning will be less than you think, this community is GREAT, and the chip itself can do a lot. The Prop I is the chip that brought me back into this stuff. Great fun. Highly recommended.
Get the education kit and do the labs. Once you've done that, you will be able to select boards for various purposes. For a "it just runs" board, I highly recommend the Demo Board. It's great for just running code to see what does what.
I was surely intimidated by the Prop. I had one sitting in an unopened pack for months. Learning curve? Yea, I guess, but no more than anything else and I will say I am picking up Spin quite a lot faster than I thought I would. My first day programming was very productive and it's mainly thanks to the huge amount of knowledge here in the forums. Many were willing to help and answer your questions..... and fast.
I don't work for Parallax..... I just really like their stuff
Oh and a hard lesson I learned: Familiarize yourself with what Prop Objects are available for download. I've spent hours coding a routine to do something (which WAS a good exercise BTW) to find our the exact routing was availble in the OBEX
I would recommend though, since you're new and coming from a BOE perspective, to spring a little extra and get a DemoBoard. That gives you the BOE-like breadboard Ken recommends right on the board, and premade resistor networks and connectors for NTSC video, VGA, keyboard, mouse, and sound, 8 general purpose LED's (shared with the VGA output), and the built in USB programming circuitry so you don't need a PropPlug.
Yeah it's $60 instead of $25, but sometimes they go on sale for around $40 (HINT HINT). If you're interested in video the QuickStart is going to be somewhat awkward. And if you get a protoboard USB and the accessory kit to add VGA, you're almost at the same price but you have to assemble the accessory kit. And if you want NTSC you'll have to build the resistor network and find a place for the connector yourself; on the DemoBoard it's built-on.
I have four of them and am constantly using them. Most recently I used one to breadboard the circuitry to test I2C slave code, which I used in a major project; that was so useful I used a protoboard to make a permanent version. I also used them to breadboard the voltage dividers I needed to profile signal timing in the LCD display hack, which I hope to write up for the Blog before the end of the year.
-Phil
I've always been impressed with the level of support and individual assistance available at the BS forum. I'm glad to see that the Propeller world has the same level of enthusiasm.
My reluctance is mostly based on the fact that I have the BS PDB, 3 BOE's and about 7 different BS flavored chips. I'd hate to see all of that gathering dust on a shelf. And I have several completed projects that will always need some maintenance or tweaks so I HAVE to keep some of the supporting parts.
I picked up the Programming the Propeller with SPIN by Harprit Singh Sandhu Si I might go ahead and read that to get a feel for the transitional pain.
I can see the Object Exchange being a double-edged sword in that just copying another's code would be like getting hooked on a GPS: I may always get where I want to go but I have no idea how to get there on my own, and if the GPS goes TU I'm on my own.
Besides the lower cost, how could using the Propeller be applied to controlling a surveillance robot that would TX video and audio about 600 ft back to it's home base?
falcon
Regarding your investment in BASIC Stamp stuff: embracing the Propeller doesn't have to mean abandoning what you know. I still have -- and use -- my several Stamp BOEs , BOE-Bots, and multiple BASIC Stamp modules. But my world got significantly bigger when I adopted the Propeller chip as well. Yours will too.
-Phil
But just last night I dusted off my PPDB and started to tinker with a object .. it was for simple graphics .
One of the things iam working on its a guage cluster for a Electric motor bike that a student here wants me to help with .
With in 2 hours I had the display just how I wanted it .
the P1 is is a "killer app"
Peter
As Micro said, you'll need some hardware for this purpose. Start by taking a look at this http://www.hobbywireless.com. You might need to pick up your amateur radio operator's license to use certain frequencies, but that's not big deal.
Aside from that, you'll need some high-powered XBees. Maybe the 60 mWs or the 900 mHz modules will work well depending on the extent of interference.
But other than these pieces, you'll be able to do a bunch of things concurrently, like transmit/receive control signals, manage motors, sensors, etc.
Ken Gracey
I would recommend the Gadget Gangster USB board mostly for the modules. Just saw they are having a sale on them until Christmas ($10 off). The 444-AVXB Robot Module has an easy mount for an X-Bee to be added to it.
That being said, I might just throw some kind of Prop board in my Christmas Stocking, but there are so many choices:
C3
Gadget Gangster
Demo board
PPDB
What would be the BEST choice coming from the BS world?
falcon