@DD, I finally broke down and ordered the Nordic tranceivers. Is there instructions anywhere as to how to use these devices? You had mentioned them in my Wild Thumper thread and I would like to try and get them working with that first off.
It's on my todo list to write a bootloader which will allow the Propeller to be programmed wirelessly with these transceivers.
In order to program over the Nordic modules you'd need the Propeller to be pre-loaded with code to allow such programming. The idea is to send the new program wirelessly and have the receiving Propeller store the new program to its upper EEPROM. Once the entire program had been safely transmitted, the Propeller would then overwrite the lower EEPROM with the new program. The Propeller could then reboot itself and run the new program. The main danger in this arrangement (I can see) is if there is a power failure while writing to the lower EEPROM. If a power failure occurred while writing the lower EEPROM, the program would likely be corrupted and a new program would need to be loaded the old fashioned way.
This will also require code to send the new program from some sort of master.
I'd want to include code to detect problems with the data as the program is being stored in upper EEPROM. Lower EEPROM wouldn't be overwritten until it was clear upper EEPROM held the correct data.
There are several wireless programming options which don't require some sort of bootloader. Wixels and Bluetooth are two that come to mind.
I have some better (fast) Nordic code which runs most of the driver within the PASM cog. I need to remove a few proprietary pieces before I can post it. This has been on my todo list for over a year. Hopefully I'd get it done this coming week.
Comments
Post #9 of this thread has a pair of demo programs.
I just added a schematic and PCB layout of the ebay modules to post #1 of my index.
Not, yet.
In order to program over the Nordic modules you'd need the Propeller to be pre-loaded with code to allow such programming. The idea is to send the new program wirelessly and have the receiving Propeller store the new program to its upper EEPROM. Once the entire program had been safely transmitted, the Propeller would then overwrite the lower EEPROM with the new program. The Propeller could then reboot itself and run the new program. The main danger in this arrangement (I can see) is if there is a power failure while writing to the lower EEPROM. If a power failure occurred while writing the lower EEPROM, the program would likely be corrupted and a new program would need to be loaded the old fashioned way.
This will also require code to send the new program from some sort of master.
I'd want to include code to detect problems with the data as the program is being stored in upper EEPROM. Lower EEPROM wouldn't be overwritten until it was clear upper EEPROM held the correct data.
There are several wireless programming options which don't require some sort of bootloader. Wixels and Bluetooth are two that come to mind.
I have some better (fast) Nordic code which runs most of the driver within the PASM cog. I need to remove a few proprietary pieces before I can post it. This has been on my todo list for over a year. Hopefully I'd get it done this coming week.