Bring Back the DemoBoard?
localroger
Posts: 3,451
in Propeller 1
What ever happened to the DemoBoard?
I have been following the discussion about a new Spin Standard Library with interest, and it occurs to me that much of the difficulty n00bs are having both learning basic principles and using code from the Obex has to do with the fact that you can't get DemoBoards any more.
Most of the objects in the Obex, particularly the older ones, were coded to the DemoBoard, which is why a lot of them use TV output; you didn't have to figure out how to configure them because the board was just right. The keyboard port was also always just there. And of course you had the prototyping area if you were coding for something not already on the DemoBoard.
It could have been more practical; I'd have liked to see a real serial port, again with fixed pin positions. But the important thing was what was there was always there and would just work, so when you made the DEMO for your object, you didn't have to worry about teaching your n00b to configure everything before they could see whether it worked. It was especially great for video drivers, having both TV and VGA in fixed places, and that was a big thing and still is sometimes. And hey, if you coded for the DemoBoard and built the accessory kit onto a Protoboard, you were also set.
Nowadays we don't have such a standard, not even the old DemoBoard which is so useful when trawling the Obex, and I see that as a real problem for n00bs. Sure we have more and better and cheaper boards most of which are more suitable for permanent inclusion in projects, but we don't have anything quite so standard and generically useful for learning the Propeller by easily running other peoples' code.
The flexibility of the Propeller (I have projects with eight serial ports) makes it inherently unstandard. But I think there is a use for a standard platform for running demo code. Maybe it needs to be a little different nowadays, with TV displays getting hard to find and XMM being a thing for C. Maybe it would even make sense for it to be a QuickStart shield. But I think it's a problem that I can't just toss together a demo for a new driver without including a tutorial on how to hook it up.
I have been following the discussion about a new Spin Standard Library with interest, and it occurs to me that much of the difficulty n00bs are having both learning basic principles and using code from the Obex has to do with the fact that you can't get DemoBoards any more.
Most of the objects in the Obex, particularly the older ones, were coded to the DemoBoard, which is why a lot of them use TV output; you didn't have to figure out how to configure them because the board was just right. The keyboard port was also always just there. And of course you had the prototyping area if you were coding for something not already on the DemoBoard.
It could have been more practical; I'd have liked to see a real serial port, again with fixed pin positions. But the important thing was what was there was always there and would just work, so when you made the DEMO for your object, you didn't have to worry about teaching your n00b to configure everything before they could see whether it worked. It was especially great for video drivers, having both TV and VGA in fixed places, and that was a big thing and still is sometimes. And hey, if you coded for the DemoBoard and built the accessory kit onto a Protoboard, you were also set.
Nowadays we don't have such a standard, not even the old DemoBoard which is so useful when trawling the Obex, and I see that as a real problem for n00bs. Sure we have more and better and cheaper boards most of which are more suitable for permanent inclusion in projects, but we don't have anything quite so standard and generically useful for learning the Propeller by easily running other peoples' code.
The flexibility of the Propeller (I have projects with eight serial ports) makes it inherently unstandard. But I think there is a use for a standard platform for running demo code. Maybe it needs to be a little different nowadays, with TV displays getting hard to find and XMM being a thing for C. Maybe it would even make sense for it to be a QuickStart shield. But I think it's a problem that I can't just toss together a demo for a new driver without including a tutorial on how to hook it up.
Comments
Well done, you make a very well explained point in your note. I often revert to the old Demo Board.
-Phil
It has VGA and TV and Audio at the same pins and also the expansion header has the same pinout. TV is on the same jack as Audio instead of a separate RCA.
Also the price is about the same.
The other standard board today is the ActivityBoard, if you don't need Video or Keyboard/Mouse connectors.
Andy
I really wish the demo board would be brought back too. The only changes I would make is a 64K EEPROM and an SD card socket. Oh and USB powered would be nice too.
Bean
Most features are on board already, like 64K Eeprom, breadboard, A/D, micro-sd, couple test leds, XBee socket.
And if TV out is important, then the next revision (PAB WX) will have that on the jack socket (like the QS+Human Interface Board).
IMO this is a fantastic dev. board, with a lot going on for $50.
Sure nothing will match the demo board pin-4-pin, but thinking aloud.... If someone could figure out the pin substitutions required for the OBEX demo-board code to match those of the PAB (Activity Board), maybe we could get those posted somewhere for everyone to use? Perhaps that will help leverage all the code resources.
I was just looking at the Propeller Amigo, and it looks like a close replacement for the demo board.
VGA, SD card, Keyboard, Audio, WII, 4 LEDs, SRAM, the Propeller, EEPROM and SRAM are socketed.
The downside is that there is no USB, so you would have to use the Prop Plug to program it.
Bean