Here's the MicroMite thread from OBC's PropellerPowered Forum. It has all the gory details from day #1. Jeff now keeps the top 3 or 4 posts current with software and hookup information.
On my board above, the reason you can't see the Propeller chip is there is a MicroMite board stuck on top of it (mezzanine style) to keep the breadboard area free for experimenting with either the Prop or the MicroMite.
This little guy is the MicroMite board
Jeff also is making a batch of PEB boards with the Micromite on them - not sure where, maybe in place of the Raspi and port expander and 8 pin dips?
I don't want to appear too negative. This looks like a great board. It would be fine as a stand alone Propeller system.
But I have a few questions regarding it being a Raspberry Pi experimenter board:
1) Why have the video outputs? The Pi already drives TV and HDMI and they are normally used with that.
2) Similarly why have the audio outputs? The Pi already does that.
3) Similarly why have the SD card? The Pi already has one.
4) Similarly why have a keyboard interface?
The breadboard area seems like a great idea. But then again why the I/O expander? A Prop added to the Raspi GPIO is already a big I/O expander for the Pi.
Edit: Of course if one want to use a Pi with a VGA screen this board is a good way to get a terminal interface.
I'll take this one... Originally, Roaster and I were working on very simular boards. In the end, we wound up combining some of the features and going with his design.
My design was to replace our original Pocket Mini Computer with a single board. Roaster had many of the same functions, his design intended to create a multi-use experimenter's board.
The Raspberry Pi connector was from my board design. My concept of using the Raspberry Pi with the Propeller is a little more like having the tail wag the dog, using the Raspberry Pi as a $25 peripheral device. Let's face it, the Rpi with a $2.00 USB wifi connector is about as cheap as a serial wifi card. Start looking at it's extra memory, processing power and we are a few phython scripts from having a truely multi-function addon. This is the direction I've been working with the Raspberry Pi, that is until a squirrel called Micromite ran across my desk.
I powered up the board with a VGA monitor and PS2 keyboard attached and it seems to work. I had to switch it to 64 color mode instead of 256 though. Now that I look at Jeff's assembly instructions, it looks like that is how he has the jumpers set. I missed that the first time through and set it for 256 color mode which produced no VGA output at all. It scared me at first thinking I had made some horrible assembly error but all was well after I switched the jumpers to 64 color mode. Nice board! Now I just need to read through the MicroMite thread to learn how to hook that up.
I'd like to try the MicroMite chip plugged into the breadboard area. I think OBC has already done this but I can't find the thread giving the wiring diagram and software. Can someone point me to it?
I'll get those who issues you ran into added to the documentation for everyone else. Sorry about the confusion regarding the power LED and prop-plug connector.
Here's a couple pics to get you started.
I'm using one of the Propellerpowered Wii adapter (It has the resistors on it) to tie the Wii controller to the Micromite, but two 10k pull-ups on the I2C SDL/SDA lines will work just fine.
Here's the MicroMite thread from OBC's PropellerPowered Forum. It has all the gory details from day #1. Jeff now keeps the top 3 or 4 posts current with software and hookup information.
On my board above, the reason you can't see the Propeller chip is there is a MicroMite board stuck on top of it (mezzanine style) to keep the breadboard area free for experimenting with either the Prop or the MicroMite.
This little guy is the MicroMite board
Jeff also is making a batch of PEB boards with the Micromite on them - not sure where, maybe in place of the Raspi and port expander and 8 pin dips?
That board looks like a convenient way to play with the MicroMite even without the Propeller board. Where did you get it?
That board looks like a convenient way to play with the MicroMite even without the Propeller board. Where did you get it?
They are handy! They're imported from Australia! I bought several of the bare boards and then Ebay'd the parts to kit them up. PM me if you are interested, I still have a kit and will probably order more boards in the near future. I use one for PIC programming since it has the ICSP circuit built into it.
They are handy! They're imported from Australia! I bought several of the bare boards and then Ebay'd the parts to kit them up. PM me if you are interested, I still have a kit and will probably order more boards in the near future. I use one for PIC programming since it has the ICSP circuit built into it.
Do you have a PICkit-3 to program the PIC chips? Did you find a good deal on one? They cost $45 from Microchip. I have a PICkit-2 but I don't think that will work with the PIC32 chips.
I bought this PICKit3 clone for $20.30 and it has worked fine for the PIC32s used with the MicroMites so I presume it would handle any of the chips the PICkit3 supports but I haven't tried any others. You are correct the PICkit2 doesn't work with the PIC32's or some (maybe all) of the PIC-DSP's.
I use the Australian board - it supplies power to the PIC and the ICSP connections. The clone just plugs in and connects and programs doesn't supply voltage to the chips like the PICkit2. It can but I think that is even a bit flakey on teh real PICkit3 at times.
We've got batch #2 of PEB boards in stock today. We'll give everyone in the Propellerpowered/Parallax forums a shot at them before we unleash them into Tindie in the morning.
That is the loader from the default branch of propgcc.
I recently got it working again. I lost the source to the one I made many months ago. I had to make some changes so that it was useful on platforms other than the Pi. It is working well on a MIPS based router here,
You should be able to program a Propeller from a Pi over a direct connection to the the Pi UART and a GPIO for the Propeller reset signal with:
OK Bill, I have to dig out a Pi a try it there. I have been cross compiling it on a PC for MIPS based routers where it all goes fine. I have never seen any "-mp2" issue no matter how I built it.
OK Bill, I have to dig out a Pi a try it there. I have been cross compiling it on a PC for MIPS based routers where it all goes fine. I have never seen any "-mp2" issue no matter how I built it.
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo /opt/parallax/bin/propeller-load -p /dev/ttyAMA0 -Dreset=gpio,17,1 -r test.binary
Using GPIO pin 17 as Propeller reset (HIGH).
error: no propeller chip on port '/dev/ttyAMA0'
Well, all right, I don't know if it actually works. I have no Propeller on the UART. But at least the cross-compiled code runs and tries to use the GPIO and UART.
I'm stuck for testing this now. I have one Pi with a broken SD card holder. A second that crashes out all the time, probably due to a bad power supply here. And a new Model B+ that has gone walk about some place without telling me where.
pi@elf ~/heater $ sudo ./parallax-rpi/bin/propeller-load -p /dev/ttyAMA0 -Dreset=gpio,17,1 -r RoboPi.eeprom
Using GPIO pin 17 as Propeller reset (HIGH).
Failed to write value!
error: no propeller chip on port '/dev/ttyAMA0'
pi@elf ~/heater $
Here is what I got with the old version:
pi@elf ~/test1 $ sudo /opt/parallax/bin/propeller-load -p /dev/ttyAMA0 -r RoboPi.eeprom
Using GPIO17 as Propeller reset
Propeller Version 1 on /dev/ttyAMA0
Loading RoboPi.eeprom to hub memory
32768 bytes sent
Verifying RAM ... OK
I'm stuck for testing this now. I have one Pi with a broken SD card holder. A second that crashes out all the time, probably due to a bad power supply here. And a new Model B+ that has gone walk about some place without telling me where.
I appeciate the efforts you guys have done here. I've not had a chance to grab my Rpi board to test this as I've been trying to get the other project put to bed.
I'll run this on the PEB as soon as I get a chance as well.
Great. Now I wonder where that "Failed to write value!" message is coming from...
This should work on any system that has a modern kernel that supports /sys/class/gpio so I'm fairly sure it's good for Beagles and the like. We have it running on two different MIPS based SoCs already.
You can also put that "reset=gpio,17,0" option into the .cfg file you are using with your Propeller board. Then you don't need it on the command line. This is supposed to make it usable from SimpleIDE but I have not tested if that works yet.
That does not seem satisfactory to me as using GPIO or not for reset is not really anything to do with the Propeller board itself. But then, if you have this one dedicate board piggy backed to a Pi or whatever then why not?
I have SimpleIDE on my RPi & BPi, and I was trying to get the download working from the IDE.
I made a RoboPi board type, with "reset: gpio,17,0" and 100MHz clock in it - no dice, it would not reset the prop either from SimpleIDE or even from the command line. It was in the path, I updated the propeller-load executable in /opt/parallax/bin, and I even suid't the exe - it could not detect the prop, so I am guessing that the board config reset was not picked up.
I also could not recompile it from the sources
The good news is that I can still use the binary you provided, as long as I sudo it, to load eeprom images
Great. Now I wonder where that "Failed to write value!" message is coming from...
This should work on any system that has a modern kernel that supports /sys/class/gpio so I'm fairly sure it's good for Beagles and the like. We have it running on two different MIPS based SoCs already.
You can also put that "reset=gpio,17,0" option into the .cfg file you are using with your Propeller board. Then you don't need it on the command line. This is supposed to make it usable from SimpleIDE but I have not tested if that works yet.
That does not seem satisfactory to me as using GPIO or not for reset is not really anything to do with the Propeller board itself. But then, if you have this one dedicate board piggy backed to a Pi or whatever then why not?
Comments
Here's the MicroMite thread from OBC's PropellerPowered Forum. It has all the gory details from day #1. Jeff now keeps the top 3 or 4 posts current with software and hookup information.
On my board above, the reason you can't see the Propeller chip is there is a MicroMite board stuck on top of it (mezzanine style) to keep the breadboard area free for experimenting with either the Prop or the MicroMite.
This little guy is the MicroMite board
Jeff also is making a batch of PEB boards with the Micromite on them - not sure where, maybe in place of the Raspi and port expander and 8 pin dips?
I'll take this one... Originally, Roaster and I were working on very simular boards. In the end, we wound up combining some of the features and going with his design.
My design was to replace our original Pocket Mini Computer with a single board. Roaster had many of the same functions, his design intended to create a multi-use experimenter's board.
The Raspberry Pi connector was from my board design. My concept of using the Raspberry Pi with the Propeller is a little more like having the tail wag the dog, using the Raspberry Pi as a $25 peripheral device. Let's face it, the Rpi with a $2.00 USB wifi connector is about as cheap as a serial wifi card. Start looking at it's extra memory, processing power and we are a few phython scripts from having a truely multi-function addon. This is the direction I've been working with the Raspberry Pi, that is until a squirrel called Micromite ran across my desk.
Posts 1-5 are now all the configuration details, explainations, and software for the Propeller/Micromite project.
http://propellerpowered.com/forum/index.php?topic=574.0
I'll get those who issues you ran into added to the documentation for everyone else. Sorry about the confusion regarding the power LED and prop-plug connector.
Here's a couple pics to get you started.
I'm using one of the Propellerpowered Wii adapter (It has the resistors on it) to tie the Wii controller to the Micromite, but two 10k pull-ups on the I2C SDL/SDA lines will work just fine.
They are handy! They're imported from Australia! I bought several of the bare boards and then Ebay'd the parts to kit them up. PM me if you are interested, I still have a kit and will probably order more boards in the near future. I use one for PIC programming since it has the ICSP circuit built into it.
I use the Australian board - it supplies power to the PIC and the ICSP connections. The clone just plugs in and connects and programs doesn't supply voltage to the chips like the PICkit2. It can but I think that is even a bit flakey on teh real PICkit3 at times.
Jeff
Could you check out my latest propeller-load for the Pi ? https://github.com/ZiCog/pi-propeller-load
That is the loader from the default branch of propgcc.
I recently got it working again. I lost the source to the one I made many months ago. I had to make some changes so that it was useful on platforms other than the Pi. It is working well on a MIPS based router here,
You should be able to program a Propeller from a Pi over a direct connection to the the Pi UART and a GPIO for the Propeller reset signal with: Where the gpio thing is saying use GPIO number 17 and positive logic, high is reset the Prop. Use 0 for a low to reset the Prop.
Should work with normal Spin binaries. Not so sure about using it with C and SimpleIDE yet.
I just tried to build it, here is what I found so far:
1) It needs PATH=$PATH:/opt/parallax/bin (I did not have it in my PATH on my new Raspbian install, my bad)
2) It fails to build as it is set up for P2
3) I removed the "-mp2" but it still tried to assemble p2 instructions
Thank you for working on this again!
Could you try this out https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81267937/parallax-rpi.tgz?
It's propgcc for the Pi but this time I tried a new experiment. I cross-compiled it on the my PC.
I put my latest propeller-loader for the Pi in the bin directory there.
This propgcc is the default branch.
I'll try and get a Pi up and running later .
Yay! It works!
Well, all right, I don't know if it actually works. I have no Propeller on the UART. But at least the cross-compiled code runs and tries to use the GPIO and UART.
I'm stuck for testing this now. I have one Pi with a broken SD card holder. A second that crashes out all the time, probably due to a bad power supply here. And a new Model B+ that has gone walk about some place without telling me where.
Hope someone can give it a spin.
I tried it, here is what I got:
Here is what I got with the old version:
Best guess? The new reset code does not work.
Btw, love being able to specify the reset pin!
Try inverting the sense of the reset pin with "-Dreset=gpio,17,0"
WOHOOOO!!!!! IT WORKS!!!!
I love -Dreset, I am hoping it will let be program RoboPi from a BeagleBone Black, or other ARM board.
Nice work Heater!
I'll run this on the PEB as soon as I get a chance as well.
Jeff
This should work on any system that has a modern kernel that supports /sys/class/gpio so I'm fairly sure it's good for Beagles and the like. We have it running on two different MIPS based SoCs already.
You can also put that "reset=gpio,17,0" option into the .cfg file you are using with your Propeller board. Then you don't need it on the command line. This is supposed to make it usable from SimpleIDE but I have not tested if that works yet.
That does not seem satisfactory to me as using GPIO or not for reset is not really anything to do with the Propeller board itself. But then, if you have this one dedicate board piggy backed to a Pi or whatever then why not?
I have SimpleIDE on my RPi & BPi, and I was trying to get the download working from the IDE.
I made a RoboPi board type, with "reset: gpio,17,0" and 100MHz clock in it - no dice, it would not reset the prop either from SimpleIDE or even from the command line. It was in the path, I updated the propeller-load executable in /opt/parallax/bin, and I even suid't the exe - it could not detect the prop, so I am guessing that the board config reset was not picked up.
I also could not recompile it from the sources
The good news is that I can still use the binary you provided, as long as I sudo it, to load eeprom images
What error messages do you get out of the compiler?