Prop Board to "Shield Interface" to Arduino Shields
John Kauffman
Posts: 653
One of the most common questions I’m getting these days regards how to take one of the hundreds of Arduino shields and use it with a Prop BOE or Prop Activity Board.
Can you help me with that story? There is the ASC+ board. Does that fill the need? (I got no hits for string "ASC+" on these fora but did find a thread by chance that ended 2012.) Currently item is not in stock and I thought there would be more on the Wiki site that was target of catalog link. ASC+ is labeled as prototyping system which doesn't sound like buy, plug any shield, adjust code and fly. Maybe when back in stock I should just order one and experiment.
(There is the Board of Education Shield (for Arduino) Product ID 35000 but that is the other direction: take Arduino board and convert to Prop board layout)
It would be great to have a "Shield Interface" board that fit on the Prop Activity Board and on its top side had the Arduino headers, reset, etc. And (just as important) would be a library in C that handled the programming aspects of pin connections. Not software that would auto-run a sketch on the Prop, rather a library of functions that helped overcome problems.
I know this is not just a quick physical layout kind of job. Probably needs fuses, maybe switches for alternate modes of using pins, ADC/DAC and stuff that is beyond my comprehension. When finished the project would probably need its own forum w/threads for each common shield. I suspect this would be a serious investment in the time and intellectual bandwidth of Plax engineers and us as a community.
But it seems to me it would be an important part of the whole Prop platform for two reasons. First, when talking about Prop we would be including the whole shield ecosystem. Second, I suspect that some shields would run better with 8 cogs than by an Arduinus-interuptus. It would be pretty cool to have shield builders point to great specs with an asterisk that these data are for Prop, expect somewhat lower performance from Arduino.
Can you help me with that story? There is the ASC+ board. Does that fill the need? (I got no hits for string "ASC+" on these fora but did find a thread by chance that ended 2012.) Currently item is not in stock and I thought there would be more on the Wiki site that was target of catalog link. ASC+ is labeled as prototyping system which doesn't sound like buy, plug any shield, adjust code and fly. Maybe when back in stock I should just order one and experiment.
(There is the Board of Education Shield (for Arduino) Product ID 35000 but that is the other direction: take Arduino board and convert to Prop board layout)
It would be great to have a "Shield Interface" board that fit on the Prop Activity Board and on its top side had the Arduino headers, reset, etc. And (just as important) would be a library in C that handled the programming aspects of pin connections. Not software that would auto-run a sketch on the Prop, rather a library of functions that helped overcome problems.
I know this is not just a quick physical layout kind of job. Probably needs fuses, maybe switches for alternate modes of using pins, ADC/DAC and stuff that is beyond my comprehension. When finished the project would probably need its own forum w/threads for each common shield. I suspect this would be a serious investment in the time and intellectual bandwidth of Plax engineers and us as a community.
But it seems to me it would be an important part of the whole Prop platform for two reasons. First, when talking about Prop we would be including the whole shield ecosystem. Second, I suspect that some shields would run better with 8 cogs than by an Arduinus-interuptus. It would be pretty cool to have shield builders point to great specs with an asterisk that these data are for Prop, expect somewhat lower performance from Arduino.
Comments
http://www.parallax.com/product/32214
http://mghdesigns.com/propeller/mgh-designs/propeller-asc-arduino-shield-compatible-1.html
Try searching Google with "Propeller ASC site:forums.parallax.com" and you will find a lot of threads mentioning the ASC.
I agree with Andrew. The best solution is the ASC+ for now - it puts the Propeller into an Arduino format with the shield compatibility you're asking about.
Ken Gracey
Also, the ASC+ comes with a micro SD car slot and optional RTC
Try one. You'll like it!
I got caught short because the demand for the ASC+ comes in fits and starts with long lulls in between. They will be available in a day to two at Parallax with plenty of stock by next week. Also, i'd like to extend an offer of free Wiki space on my site to anyone that has an ASC+ project they would like to document!
For my classes with artists a Prop solution is even more important as they run Macs and using BASIC STAMP (no official Mac IDE) has been a cross between frustrating and non-starter. Just last weekend I had a student walk out in frustration over this issue.
If I understand correctly, most Prop programs need some modifications to make sense when run on ASC with the arduino-type architecture. I would have to be able to pull those modified programs off the shelve for a course (writing all that would not be time/money worthwhile for a course).
You would have a good feel for what has and has not been re-written so far. Two questions for which I could use approximate answers. I just need your general feel if the resources are there to schedule for this year a few trial classes using ASC. If there are programs ready to go and in C then an ASC path would be viable now.
1 - Are people writing Prop code modified for ASC in C, as opposed to spin or asm?
2 - Roughly speaking, is there code ready for use for a intro course that covers: LEDs, switches, analog input of variable resistors, PWM out, servo control, frequency generation for piezo, serial I/O to SD card?
Aside, I have meetings in March with two new makers spaces within the beltway. I'll be working with them on their education program. That will give me two more places to test an ASC or Prop courses w/ students that are tech savvy.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge of the overall ASC resources at this time.
- John
Martin_H wrote an Arduino library for Propeller.
Martin's library is here: http://code.google.com/p/lib-propelleruino
My signature contains various links; that is one of them.
Best to you this New Year!
Martin, do you have any distributors of ASC+ in the UK?
I've got a Gameduino2 on it's way and have already started on a driver for the FT800 chipset, would just make things tidier if I can use the same form factor.
Regards,
Coley