This QuickStart board is behaving unusually
whiteoxe
Posts: 794
This QuickStart board is half broken , or I've done something to it when soldering. The even pins are odd. I cant use an even pin in my code, no mater which header I inset the wire into I get no voltage. Also yesterday, just touching the pads on the quickstart made them light up, they don't seem to want to do that anymore ? I had tried to use the motor controller chip SN754410NE but the motor would not budge. I gave up. Now I know it was because I was using even numbered pins . Sorry the video is not great.
Comments
The QuickStart has a 40 pin header and these are number from 1 to 40 but the Propeller has 32 I/O pins numbered from 0 to 31. The 40-pin header numbers don't match the I/O pin numbers. I'll find a chart and add it here.
Edit to add:
As see in this post, I use labels to identify which I/O pin goes where.
There are other ways people have come up with to keep track of which pin is where. The Rev. B QuickStarts have the pin ID labeled on the bottom of the board.
There's also the pinfinder.
I know you're not the first to get the header number with the I/O number mixed up. Believe it or not, this sort of pin numbering vs I/O numbering is very common. The Raspberry Pi's GPIO pin numbers don't match the physical pin number on the header either.
You can't always assume that Pin numbers match connectors. Always refer to the documentation and schematic because designers sometimes do strange things.
When in doubt, refer to the documentation.
The "Rookie" part applies dealing with PCBs. I've seen experienced engineers make this same mistake.
I agree with what Genetix says about checking documentation (if available) but I saw this same mistake made over on Let's Make Robots buy professional engineers.
It's often asked "Why would they do it that way?" when there really isn't any other way to do it. Headers start their numbering at 1 and I/O pins start their numbering at 0 which is just the beginning of the reasons why the header numbers don't match the I/O pin numbers.