Nwebie Propeller Quickstart question

jujugoboom · 2013-11-03 19:28

Hello,

I just bought my parallax propeller quickstart 40000 today from radioshack. Ive worked for a while with arduino and decided, why not try out the propeller. I downloaded the drivers and propeller tool and loaded up the touch example. I do not have any external peripherals right now so i just decided to mess around with using multiple cores and printing to the serial terminal. I used this code

CON

  _CLKMODE = XTAL1 + PLL16X
  _CLKFREQ = 80_000_000




OBJ


  Buttons          : "Touch Buttons"
  PST              : "Parallax Serial Terminal"


PUB Main
  cognew(Touch(_CLKFREQ/100), @stack[0])                       






PUB Touch


  dira[23..16]~~                                        ' Set the LEDs as outputs
  repeat
    outa[23..16] := Buttons.State

'
to try to get it to start in a new cog. It gives me the error stating that it expected a , at touch in the cognew command. I was also wondering which way is the best way to have it read which button i press and output it to pst? Such as "Button 0 Pressed","Button 1 Pressed" etc etc. Thanks for any help

Justin

kuroneko · 2013-11-03 20:55

jujugoboom wrote: »

It gives me the error stating that it expected a , at touch in the cognew command.

That's to be expected because the Touch method doesn't take any parameters. Either use cognew(Touch, @stack[0]) or change Touch to accept a parameter, e.g. PUB Touch(delay). You'll also have to define a stack array somewhere.

Duane Degn · 2013-11-03 21:55

I tried to keep a list of QuickStart related links and demos in this thread.

My QuickStart servo tester uses the buttons to set the servo parameters. I gave Joe some instructions on how to use the touchpads as selection buttons starting in post #15 of his QuickStart BOE-Bot thread.

Post #3 of my index has links to various Propeller tutorials.

You might have a hard time going back to the Arduino once you see how useful parallel processing can be on the Propeller.

jujugoboom · 2013-11-04 17:45

Duane Degn wrote: »

I tried to keep a list of QuickStart related links and demos in this thread.

My QuickStart servo tester uses the buttons to set the servo parameters. I gave Joe some instructions on how to use the touchpads as selection buttons starting in post #15 of his QuickStart BOE-Bot thread.

Post #3 of my index has links to various Propeller tutorials.

You might have a hard time going back to the Arduino once you see how useful parallel processing can be on the Propeller.

Thats alot of great resources. Thanks. I am a slow learner though. When i run this code

CON

  _CLKMODE = XTAL1 + PLL16X
  _CLKFREQ = 80_000_000




OBJ


  Buttons          : "Touch Buttons"




PUB Main
  cognew(touch(clkfreq/100), @stack)
  
PUB touch(delay)


  dira[23..16]~~                                        ' Set the LEDs as outputs
  repeat
    outa[23..16] := Buttons.State                       ' Light the LEDs when touching the corresponding buttons

I get an error stating it was expecting a variable at

@stack

kuroneko · 2013-11-04 21:33

jujugoboom wrote: »
I get an error stating it was expecting a variable at
@stack

Correct, all you have to do is define one so it can be used, e.g.

VAR
  long  stack[32]

It's advisable to start with a generously sized stack and adjust it later if necessary.

Invent-O-Doc · 2013-11-06 14:55

I'd try this out with the tutorials or examples in the help menu of the ide. Its hard to go back from parallel processing once you've started. Get an activity board next to try the cool stuff and have fun.

jujugoboom · 2013-11-06 19:38

Alright so ive been doing some looking around and came up with this.

CON

  _CLKMODE = XTAL1 + PLL16X
  _CLKFREQ = 80_000_000


VAR
  long stack[60]
  
OBJ


  Buttons          : "Touch Buttons"
  PST              : "Parallax Serial Terminal"
  NUM              : "Numbers"
PUB Main
  cognew(touch(clkfreq/100), @stack[0])
  cognew(terminal, @stack[30])


PUB touch(delay)


  dira[23..16]~~                                        ' Set the LEDs as outputs
  repeat
    outa[23..16] := Buttons.State                       ' Light the LEDs when touching the corresponding buttons 


PUB terminal
  PST.start(115200)
  
  
  repeat
    PST.clear
    
    PST.dec(Num.ToStr(Buttons.State, Num#DDEC)- 16)
    waitcnt(clkfreq / 10 + cnt)

of course if you compile and run this you will see that it doesn't work, at all. I was able to get the buttons to work in a seprerate cog but then adding PST broke it. Any help would be appreciated.

Oldbitcollector (Jeff) · 2013-11-06 19:57

I'm still staring at your code in the attempt to figure out what broke... Haven't spotted it yet, perhaps MikeG or someone will beat me to the punch...

In the meantime, you may find the Programs on this link useful. IIRC, there is a game or two that used both the Serial Terminal and the Touchbuttons.

Jeff

kuroneko · 2013-11-06 20:08

jujugoboom wrote: »

... of course if you compile and run this you will see that it doesn't work, at all. I was able to get the buttons to work in a seprerate cog but then adding PST broke it. Any help would be appreciated.

The Touch Buttons objects I know of need to be started (e.g. Buttons.Start(rate)). I can't find this call in your example. Also, depending on how the State method is written the terminal cog and the display cog may get into each others way.

Also, what's the idea behind PST.dec(Num.ToStr(Buttons.State, Num#DDEC)- 16)?

dgately · 2013-11-06 22:55

jujugoboom wrote: »

Alright so ive been doing some looking around and came up with this.

CON

  _CLKMODE = XTAL1 + PLL16X
  _CLKFREQ = 80_000_000

VAR
  long stack[60]
  
OBJ

  Buttons          : "Touch Buttons"
  PST               : "Parallax Serial Terminal"
  NUM              : "Numbers"

PUB Main

  cognew(touch(clkfreq/100), @stack[0])
  cognew(terminal, @stack[30])

  repeat                                         ' <==  need this repeat to keep the HUB running

PUB touch(delay)

  Buttons.start(delay)                        ' <== need to start the Buttons object

  dira[23..16]~~
  repeat
    outa[23..16] := Buttons.State              ' Light the LEDs when touching the corresponding buttons 

PUB terminal

  PST.start(115200)
  
  repeat
    PST.clear
    
    PST.bin(Buttons.State,8)             ' <== use "bin" as it will show a binary representation of the button state (8 bits worth!)
    waitcnt(clkfreq / 100 + cnt)           ' <== need to give a little time for PST to keep up with this tight loop!

There are still issues with how quickly the two loops run. The display of the button states to PST flicker and the LEDs of non-pressed buttons light unless your touch is very light.

dgately

jujugoboom · 2013-11-07 07:22

dgately wrote: »

CON

  _CLKMODE = XTAL1 + PLL16X
  _CLKFREQ = 80_000_000

VAR
  long stack[60]
  
OBJ

  Buttons          : "Touch Buttons"
  PST               : "Parallax Serial Terminal"
  NUM              : "Numbers"

PUB Main

  cognew(touch(clkfreq/100), @stack[0])
  cognew(terminal, @stack[30])

  repeat                                         ' <==  need this repeat to keep the HUB running

PUB touch(delay)

  Buttons.start(delay)                        ' <== need to start the Buttons object

  dira[23..16]~~
  repeat
    outa[23..16] := Buttons.State              ' Light the LEDs when touching the corresponding buttons 

PUB terminal

  PST.start(115200)
  
  repeat
    PST.clear
    
    PST.bin(Buttons.State,8)             ' <== use "bin" as it will show a binary representation of the button state (8 bits worth!)
    waitcnt(clkfreq / 100 + cnt)           ' <== need to give a little time for PST to keep up with this tight loop!

There are still issues with how quickly the two loops run. The display of the button states to PST flicker and the LEDs of non-pressed buttons light unless your touch is very light.

dgately

I dont have my propeller with me right now but this looks like it should work. Are you saying that it just needs some delays because i can easily add that in. So all i needed to do was start buttons? Thanks

Duane Degn · 2013-11-07 07:39

jujugoboom wrote: »

So all i needed to do was start buttons?

And you were using the Numbers object incorrectly. PST has some built in methods for dealing with numbers so you don't need the "Numbers" object at all.

I think you'd get a better looking display if you didn't clear the screen with each loop but instead use the PST Position method to print the same line over the same location. I think the clear screen command will make the screen flicker a bit.

dgately · 2013-11-07 09:30

Duane Degn wrote: »

And you were using the Numbers object incorrectly. PST has some built in methods for dealing with numbers so you don't need the "Numbers" object at all.

I think you'd get a better looking display if you didn't clear the screen with each loop but instead use the PST Position method to print the same line over the same location. I think the clear screen command will make the screen flicker a bit.

Yes, I was quickly trying to solve his issue and wasn't really thinking about why the flicker. Always best to just update by setting the X,Y position of the cursor, especially when the output is a known number of characters.

Thanks Duane! As usual, great advice from a sage Propeller dude :thumb:

dgately

jujugoboom · 2013-11-07 16:17

dgately wrote: »

Yes, I was quickly trying to solve his issue and wasn't really thinking about why the flicker. Always best to just update by setting the X,Y position of the cursor, especially when the output is a known number of characters.

Thanks Duane! As usual, great advice from a sage Propeller dude :thumb:

dgately

And, sorry to ask so many questions, without putting in into the code, how would you propose doing that? Thanks

dgately · 2013-11-07 16:25

jujugoboom wrote: »

And, sorry to ask so many questions, without putting in into the code, how would you propose doing that? Thanks

You can check-out all of Parallax Serial Terminal's functions/methods in its .spin file... But, here's an example...

I dont remember of the .Position method is ZERO-based or not, so try one of these in place of 'PST.clear':

    PST.Position(0, 0)

OR

    PST.Position(1,1)

dgately

jujugoboom · 2013-11-07 16:33

dgately wrote: »
You can check-out all of Parallax Serial Terminal's functions/methods in its .spin file... But, here's an example...

I dont remember of the .Position method is ZERO-based or not, so try one of these in place of 'PST.clear':
    PST.Position(0, 0)

OR

    PST.Position(1,1)
dgately

Yes using

PST.Position(0,0)

is the proper one to use

Nwebie Propeller Quickstart question

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