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First Spin Ideas? — Parallax Forums

First Spin Ideas?

TymkrsTymkrs Posts: 539
edited 2012-09-27 00:19 in General Discussion
Question for the folks who may listen to First Spin (or may not yet) - what should we talk about? I usually come up with the ideas for each week and since I'm serially oriented (as in I work on one project at a time), and we've gone through most of the commonly used sensors/modules from Parallax, I'm at a slight loss for what we should cover.

Some listeners have kindly sent in questions which we've been able to address, so thanks for that! So please send them if you have them...otherwise, are there objects/projects you've wanted dissected down to each line, or modules, or functions that the Prop has that we should cover that haven't already been covered?

I'd love to hear any suggestions, I'm running out of innovative ideas!

Comments

  • rwgast_logicdesignrwgast_logicdesign Posts: 1,464
    edited 2012-09-17 01:13
    I want to know about PWM and counters if thats not to advanced
  • TymkrsTymkrs Posts: 539
    edited 2012-09-17 01:23
    Thanks :) So counters we already have an episode on: http://www.firstspin.tv/2012/03/06/first-spin-episode-015-%E2%80%93-more-directives-and-counters/

    P    WM....let me see. We probably addressed it in the servo episode: http://www.firstspin.tv/2012/06/05/first-spin-episode-028-servos-are-easy/

    W    as there anything more in detail than what was covered in those (if you've listened to them?)
  • rwgast_logicdesignrwgast_logicdesign Posts: 1,464
    edited 2012-09-17 10:33
    hmm i may have missed the servo episode somehow ill give it a listen. I did hear the counter episode but ill also give it another listen.

    i guess what i meant would be something a litte more advanced about how you could use counters to make your own pwm. You know understanding a little bit more about the theory and not relying on prewritten objex objects.

    another topic that would be neat would be shift registers
  • softconsoftcon Posts: 217
    edited 2012-09-17 11:08
    I'm a little behind on episodes, but the ones I have listened to were well done, it's always fun to hear the banter going on there, you folks are great.
    I've listened to the first 18 or so, then skipped to the one for the emic2 module, though I've not (yet) gone back and listened to the rest of them, though I most certainly plan to do so.
    As far as things to make shows about, I really don't have any suggestions, if you want to keep the show about learning spin for the propeller, but perhaps some quick tutorial type shows on getting some of the many 3rd-party languages installed on the propeller would be something to cover, there's lots of folks producing languages such as forth, c, basic, and others, a few shows on how to install these languages, and a sample of what they can do may be enough to convince some hobby coders that the propeller really can do this or that, and not only natively, but with other languages too.
    If it's out of scope for the spin podcast, then maybe another series of podcasts covering them might be in order.
    When I talk to folks who know anything about microcontrollers, all they mention is the arduino, and it's really a up hill battle trying to explain that there are other boards in existence, and that the propeller can do just as much as the arduino boards. I wor my not all robots are toys shirt to the fair type thing they had here in town, and not a single person was curious about it, that's just sad.
    So, not a help, but there's my input, fwiw. :)
  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,452
    edited 2012-09-17 16:05
    OK I took a quick look at your episode list and some things that pop to mind:

    1. Servo control pulses aren't real PWM. Show using counter-controlled true PWM to create smooth analog outputs that can be set by writing a value, and don't tie up a cog.
    2. Using high EEPROM to save nonvolatile values
    3. Real time clock like DS1307
    4. SPI RAM for more data storage
    5. SD cards for major data storage; probably more than one episode. One for SPI access to read and write sectors, then the partition system (or lack thereof as some SD cards are like big floppy drives with no partitions) and then the filesystem, take apart FSRW or KyeDOS to show how it works, maybe culminate with a serial data logger app
    6. The video generator. At least tour the various OBEX offerings for TV and VGA and how they're set up.
    7. Delta-Sigma ADC. Bonus: You really need to use SMT propeller as on a protoboard for it to work right.
    8. Reading and driving IR remote controls
    9. Reading a quadrature encoder for shaft position feedback
    10. Have the Propeller READ servo control signals from a RC receiver

    OK, that's just some stuff that I've done myself in the last couple of years. A final possibility would be to get into some of the simpler PASM apps for things that are just a bit too complicated for counters and for which Spin is a bit too slow (reading servo controls might qualify there, as being an I2C slave did when I had to implement it). A comparison of Spin with PASM methods for some simple stuff like reading inputs, setting outputs, and blinking a LED might be worth a look.
  • TymkrsTymkrs Posts: 539
    edited 2012-09-17 18:13
    Whew a lot of in depth ideas! Certainly looks more like greek to me than anything I'd understand. That's usually a good thing when it comes to First Spin :) And it seems that using counters for PWM is a repeated suggestion, so I'll see what we can do about doing that.
  • rwgast_logicdesignrwgast_logicdesign Posts: 1,464
    edited 2012-09-17 19:28
    Ya I listened to the servo episode today it was more in depth than I thought but I want to run a DC motor or LED array with PWM. I think alot of beginners here alot about PWM around here but maybe dont understand exactly what it is how to use it r how to code it. I would say im in this catagorey.

    I think shift registers are also a great thing for the beginner the hc595 seems to be used a bit, maybe show how to make a button matrix using shift register?

    As far as RTC goes I have both the 1307 and 1302, why are more people into the 1307 it lacks the sram which comes in handy, is it just becuase its i2c?
  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,452
    edited 2012-09-17 19:39
    rwgast, in my case on the RTC front it's because Sparkfun has a 1307 board all ready to go. You dont have to worry about crystals or backup battery, it's done.
  • TymkrsTymkrs Posts: 539
    edited 2012-09-17 19:56
    I think we cover it more in detail in tomorrow's first spin - I ask about the details, hopefully that helps :p We'll be talking about pwm and counters next week (I think)
    rwgast_logicdesign wrote: »
    Ya I listened to the servo episode today it was more in depth than I thought but I want to run a DC motor or LED array with PWM. I think alot of beginners here alot about PWM around here but maybe dont understand exactly what it is how to use it r how to code it. I would say im in this catagorey.

    I think shift registers are also a great thing for the beginner the hc595 seems to be used a bit, maybe show how to make a button matrix using shift register?

    As far as RTC goes I have both the 1307 and 1302, why are more people into the 1307 it lacks the sram which comes in handy, is it just becuase its i2c?
  • electromanjelectromanj Posts: 270
    edited 2012-09-17 22:16
    I second localroger's suggestion about the video capabilities of the Propeller. It's like blinkling leds, but even cooler! Putting words or graphics to a TV or VGA is an eye opener.

    traVis.
  • TymkrsTymkrs Posts: 539
    edited 2012-09-25 20:06
    So this week's First Spin we covered rwgast's question on cogs/counters (let me know if it's a good start or if you wanted more detail). We also covered high eeprom and real time clock (though we may touch on it again next week). There are plans to cover third party languages and TV/VGA details and pretty much the rest of your ideas localroger :). Thanks for all of the ideas - keep sending them, cuz we're pretty reading them directly from the forums!!
  • rwgast_logicdesignrwgast_logicdesign Posts: 1,464
    edited 2012-09-25 21:56
    Essentialy i think it was a good start, i walked away understanding alot more about how pwms work and understand all the terminology around them now. Im now comftorable enough to attempt to write my own.

    I guess PWM is a pretty wide subject becuase it can be used to drive so many things. Im alot more intrested in driving a plain DC motor accuretly using pwm or led displays than audio, this at least gave me the knowlege i need to get started. Maybe sometime you guys could cover motor control.

    I guess alot of my issue is i like to learn how things work and would rather write a small driver to understand the technology before i use an obex object. I do understand some topics like vga from scratch arent to viable without video but i feel like you guys could get deeper teaching simple things like pwm, bit banging,interfacing to 74logic chips lile counters and analog mux. These things can all be learned from scratch no objects needed. the pwm episode was a great start and i thank you so much for covering it whisker made alot of the fundamental concepts just make seansec.
  • TymkrsTymkrs Posts: 539
    edited 2012-09-26 03:20
    Yeah rw, I'm totally with you when it comes to writing your own drivers before using objects. I prefer that as well. If I don't understand how an object works, I tend to not use it. But for some of the modules we've worked on, the object makes things /that/ much easier.

    I'll see if I can get some PWM example working on spin for a motor - duty cycle style and then post it
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2012-09-26 03:59
    Having lights blink at prime number intervals. This is impossible to do with threading a single processor.

    1x 3x 5x 7x 11x 13x on six cogs. You could do 17x and 19x as well, but it is rather hard to see the difference.
  • lardomlardom Posts: 1,659
    edited 2012-09-26 07:24
    There is far too much ground to cover to ever really run out of ideas especially if you take a look at intermediate level subjects. I agree with localroger that some basic pasm could be covered. Counters and pasm are similar in that you have to understand bit fields and registers.
  • Prophead100Prophead100 Posts: 192
    edited 2012-09-26 19:36
    Have you considered how to make an object?
  • TymkrsTymkrs Posts: 539
    edited 2012-09-26 23:44
    Prophead100 wrote: »
    Have you considered how to make an object?

    Oo :) Now that's going into *angels chorus* territory haha :)

    That's certainly an option.
  • frank freedmanfrank freedman Posts: 1,983
    edited 2012-09-27 00:19
    rwgast_logicdesign wrote: »
    Ya I listened to the servo episode today it was more in depth than I thought but I want to run a DC motor or LED array with PWM. I think alot of beginners here alot about PWM around here but maybe dont understand exactly what it is how to use it r how to code it. I would say im in this catagorey.

    I think shift registers are also a great thing for the beginner the hc595 seems to be used a bit, maybe show how to make a button matrix using shift register?

    As far as RTC goes I have both the 1307 and 1302, why are more people into the 1307 it lacks the sram which comes in handy, is it just becuase its i2c?

    Depending on how many buttons were needed, one could always use a 74C923 which is a 20 key scan matrix encoder.

    http://www.fairchildsemi.com/pf/MM/MM74C923.html, even includes debounce circuits..... All on a single chip!!!

    But wait, there's more......

    FF
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