QuickStart QSX ?
cavelamb
Posts: 720
This is what I built for one of my QuickStart boards. The idea was to add TV, stereo, and an IR remote
and leave the rest of the QuickStart available.
TV rather than VGA. Two reasons for that (although VGA could be offered as well) - compatability with
prior pin definitions, and outside the lab it seems that a spare TV is more commonly available than a spare
monitor.
The IR remote is a simple 1 pin interface that can be used as pseudo-mouse/keyboard input.
And take note that the connectors are attached on the bottom side of the board!
Quite neat and low profile.
Pretty simple, but gives me what I wanted for I/O.
With a pass-through connector on top, other boards can still be plugged in on top.
I have my hand-built prototype, but I'm not going to dig into a board layout program at this time.
If someone wanted to make a printed circuit board for this, I'd buy a few of them!
Richard
and leave the rest of the QuickStart available.
TV rather than VGA. Two reasons for that (although VGA could be offered as well) - compatability with
prior pin definitions, and outside the lab it seems that a spare TV is more commonly available than a spare
monitor.
The IR remote is a simple 1 pin interface that can be used as pseudo-mouse/keyboard input.
And take note that the connectors are attached on the bottom side of the board!
Quite neat and low profile.
Pretty simple, but gives me what I wanted for I/O.
With a pass-through connector on top, other boards can still be plugged in on top.
I have my hand-built prototype, but I'm not going to dig into a board layout program at this time.
If someone wanted to make a printed circuit board for this, I'd buy a few of them!
Richard
1024 x 669 - 84K
Comments
That's a pretty slick idea. How about we change the two audio RCA jacks for a headphone connector and make the connector directly pass-though instead of offset? An microSD module connection could also be useful there along with some servo connections.
Jeff
QSX V2 with Jeff's changes is something I'd buy.
That's quite reasonable, Jeff.
I built it with RCA jacks because I was intending to hook up to a TV (DUH!)
and it seems simpler. But they do take up a lot of space on a very small board.
A stereo mini would be fine. Adapters are cheap and maybe more reliable.
The board could easily be extended on the front side - almost a full inch without covering the LEDs.
Plenty of room (and easy trace flow) for uSD, RTC, XM, etc.
Oh, and a power In connection maybe?
Just please keep the IR remote sites (a couple of them facing odd directions?)
BTW, the first one I built was a lot deeper and had a small breadboard.
It also has a second 40 pin connector on the back side
(but I didn't wire all the pins yet - capacitance, you know)
But if one wanted an analog input or 8 bit port expander, they could be
brought to the rear connector (NOT 40 pins in that case, ok?)
Then the breadboard would have Propeller pins down one side and the custom I/O
stuff down the other.
I did the front cut out to keep the mini header open.
But is that really necessary?
Uhm, which connector offset are we talking about here?
the 40 pin is not offset.
What is showing in the pic is the corner of the small 8 pin power header.
The 40 pin header goes straight through.
(Which is why I was asking about pass through headers!)
Jeff,
If there is room on the board, why not add a space to solder on a PS2 keyboard connector, then we can use the new board to build a TV version of the PMC
There may be room on the board, but there is precious little unassigned room in the Quickstart I/O map.
Now, sure, some of those assigned pins, the touchpads and leds, might be reused, if careful.
(and it might be fun to watch the device drivers play with the LEDs).
But that seems to be a complicating factor for the end user.
He may actually want to use those LEDs for something.
Why else buy a QuickStart?
If he really NEEDS VGA, there are a lot of other platforms that can provide it without that kind of conflict.
NTSC video only takes 4 pins.
Add 2 for sound (10 and 11) and 1 for a remote (I use pin 8 or 9).
Total added I/O = 7 pins.
That leaves pins 9 and 24-27 for the end user to play with.
(I2C objects use 28 and 29)
VGA, mouse, and keyboard would leave virtually nothing.
About NTSC video drivers:
The demo board uses pins 12 - 15.
The Hydra drivers use pins 24 - 27.
I haven't dug into any differences in these objects.
Is there a preference here?
There are a lot of objects and demo programs configured to run on the Propeller Demo Board and I can run most without modification using the following pins:
Sound is on pins 10 & 11
NTSC (TV) video on pins 12,13, 14, 15 However pin 15 is not needed 99.9% of the time, so I keep it as a free pin.
Keyboard is on Pins 26 &27.
I put my SD Card on pins 16, 17, 18 and 19 (however, the VGA PMC uses pins 0, 1, 2, 3) ; I did this so I could have 10 pins in a row for user functions pins 0 thru 9. I have Servo Headers on pins 0 thru 9. There is no SD card on the Propeller Demo Board.
The Quickstart touch pads are on pins 0 thru 7. The Quickstart LEDs are on pins 16 thru 23. If a user uses any of these pins for other purposes, in most cases, the Touchpads and LEDs won't interfer or cause problems.
I have permission from Nick to do a run of the GG Quick Proto board. I'm going to do a "lite" version of this. I could add keyboard pads and we would have a very functional NTSC setup with pads for microSD.
Jeff
Not sure what you by "lite" version?
I just looked at the existing GG Quick Proto Board, and it is an interesting starting point for a new board.
For a really killer NTSC Board, I would loose part or all of the prototyping area to have two things; a WII Connector and Pads for a 23K256 DIP SRAM. I would give up the Power Connector or Screw Terminals to get these.
We could have: Power, Stereo Audio, NTSC Video, Keyboard, microSD, WII connector (for game pad) SRAM, and IR Remote.
A user could just populate his desired I/O.
If there is any spare area on the board, we could add unconnected servo header pads and/or a "tiny" prototyping area.
If you don't design this board, maybe I will.
Regards,
zappman
On that same note, if you switch the IR receiver to P8, your board will be compatible with the Human Interface Board. I've attached a copy of the schematic and layout in case you are interested.
David Carrier
Is it to late to say You shall have one more diode on this board
Power IN --> Diode --> 5V Regulator (VDD)
The diode is there, it is just downstream of the regulator. (Power IN --> 5V Regulator --> Diode --> VDD) I played around with the order for a while, but I don't remember off hand why I had it in that order. I think it may have been to reduce the minimum input voltage before the regulator goes into dropout.
— David Carrier
Now that I Googled, I can sleep better knowing the answer!
Dave,
Thanks for the advanced look at the Human Interface Board.
It looks great.
I will keep an eye out for the product announcement.
Regards,
zappman
Sorry -- You don't understand.
You have
(Power IN --> 5V Regulator --> Diode --> VDD)
I will have
(Power IN --> 1.Diode --> 5V Regulator --> 2.Diode --> VDD)
1.Diode
> Used to secure V-Regulator if anyone use Bad power wall-wart --- ie. AC instead of DC else DC one that have reversed polarity
Hello David,
I have to side with Sapieha on the placement of the Diode. By putting one in front of the regulator right where the power comes it will help if someone tries a wrong polarity adapter or somehow reverses battery polarity. For those that are worried about the voltage drop on the input you could add a couple free pads connected to each end of the diode and someone could just add a wire jumper if they want to bypass the protection diode. This may also help in a classroom environment or people just starting out.
It would be nice to see some QuickStart proto boards (Parallax or Propeller powered) at the Radio Shack stores. They have the Quickstart board and cable but no protoboards to leverage that. Right next to those are a few Arduinos and a whole group of plug-in shields of which two variations are protoboards.
Robert
If You use - 1N5820-E3/54 and equivalent You will have only about 0.4V voltage drop
You've almost completed described my VGAplus board.
Jeff
Yep. But I'd like to have a board that doesn't cover the leds and touchpads.
That's all...
Richard
Jeff (etal),
Any possibility of this happening any time soon?
If not, could someone point me towards a shop that could do it for me?
Richard