Homecoming with the P2

Dave Matthews · 2020-01-26 00:10

To me the hits from Parallax just keep on coming and topping the charts. I have used the P1 in numerous projects for hobby, industry (weld automation, recording studio controls, and automotive plant instruments), and it always fit my programming style. I am a pedestrian, plodding programmer, but the end products work perfectly and seem to be bullet-proof. I have used the Parallax propeller proto-boards exclusively using headers and motherboards to interface with the project. No issues with radiated HF RF interference.

Decades ago (~1980) I was involved in an industry that required FORTH proficiency, and I was fortunate that the home 6809 machine I was using had a FORTH operating system ROM. I learned FORTH and completely enjoyed it! (Still have the Leo Brodie book.)

I have the P2_B evaluation board and sundry accessories. I am delighted to discover that a FORTH kernel is in the boot ROM available for use! TAQOZ - Tachyon Forth for the P2 BOOT ROM Such a great joy to see the familiar ok and to use the interactive mode that makes FORTH so perfect for me.

Everything about the P1 was perfect for me and my system designs, and the P2 promises exponentially more! I have a few new systems to produce and the P2 is going to be the engine for them...

Dave, KI4PSR

msrobots · 2020-01-26 01:56

Hi @"Dave Matthews",

yes the boot rom TAQOZ is a full FORTH alas made by some guy living down under and he has his own goals with his variant of FORTH, so it might not be the standard FORTH you where used too, but very targeted to micro controllers.

@"Peter Jakacki" build a tremendous little gem and got it into the ROM. I still fight with FORTH in general, but I really like what he did there.

As you can imagine he did not stop after the ROM was finished, so there is a way more extended version of TAQOZ available in his DropBox.

He also has Tachyon for P1, the twin of TAQOZ, and he usually answers any questions.

so have fun with it...

Mike

Peter Jakacki · 2020-01-26 03:20

Dave Matthews wrote: »

To me the hits from Parallax just keep on coming and topping the charts. I have used the P1 in numerous projects for hobby, industry (weld automation, recording studio controls, and automotive plant instruments), and it always fit my programming style. I am a pedestrian, plodding programmer, but the end products work perfectly and seem to be bullet-proof. I have used the Parallax propeller proto-boards exclusively using headers and motherboards to interface with the project. No issues with radiated HF RF interference.

Decades ago (~1980) I was involved in an industry that required FORTH proficiency, and I was fortunate that the home 6809 machine I was using had a FORTH operating system ROM. I learned FORTH and completely enjoyed it! (Still have the Leo Brodie book.)

I have the P2_B evaluation board and sundry accessories. I am delighted to discover that a FORTH kernel is in the boot ROM available for use! TAQOZ - Tachyon Forth for the P2 BOOT ROM Such a great joy to see the familiar ok and to use the interactive mode that makes FORTH so perfect for me.

Everything about the P1 was perfect for me and my system designs, and the P2 promises exponentially more! I have a few new systems to produce and the P2 is going to be the engine for them...

Dave, KI4PSR

Good to hear that you are happy with the P1, and now with the P2, and happy with Forth to boot (rom). Although TAQOZ in ROM is a cutdown version of TAQOZ it still has all the elements to write complete programs plus a lot of support built-in for debugging hardware issues or just test driving the P2. Buf if you want to try out TAQOZ RELOADED (the full version) then just rename this file to _BOOT_P2.BIX (forum issues) and copy it onto a microSD card for your P2 and connect a terminal at 115200 baud. While the RAM version has been artifically constrained to the first 64k with room to spare, it packs a lot into little and besides all the usual extensions it also has full disk reporting and formatting tools (format >32GB as FAT32) as well as playing wave files, viewing BMP graphics on 640x480x8 VGA, and also playing BMP formatted movies etc. Have fun too with the Mandelbrot routines and you can still load up more including a breakout game. The VGA graphics can switch to different modes, even 1080p mono.

BTW, the reason that Tachyon/TAQOZ is not standard is simply because it is not a PC Forth, and the Prop is not even your standard micro. If we are already comfortable with using a "weird non-standard micro" because we want the edge that it gives then certainly Tachyon/TAQOZ complements that mindset and is designed to get the job done while still being very familiar to Forth users (and while being a lot of fun).
Don't forget too that it compiles everything, including interactive command lines so you can include everything that you would include in a definition such as loops and conditionals etc and it will run at compiled speeds. For instance, this is timing and reporting one million FOR NEXT loops, so that means each loop took 32 cycles or 128ns.

TAQOZ# LAP 1,000,000 FOR NEXT LAP .LAP --- 32,000,139 cycles= 128,000,556ns @250MHz ok

This binary version identifies as a P2D2r4 but it will run the same on the EVAL without the extras such as RTC and clockgen etc.
^C from the console to reset, esc esc esc esc to reset at any time even when it is "stuck", or ^Z ^Z ^Z ^Z to do a full reboot. Do a ^C after connecting the terminal to see the startup screen.

Bob Lawrence (VE1RLL) · 2020-01-26 14:26

I just started working with TAQOZ on the P2 (Version

this weekend. Peter did a great job getting it built in the P2 . It will be real cool if I can learn to use it. I can see lots of opportunity in the automotive field's for the P2 such as simulators, Testers etc and I'm currently learning TAQOZ to be able to read EEPROMS and ECU's . Now I'm off to learn a few new WORD"s

ke4pjw · 2020-01-26 16:09

Dave, glad to see a fellow Nashvillian in the P2 forum! I know a couple of other people that are interested in the Prop (2) as well. Maybe we should organize a meetup.

Regards,
Terry

PS: Judging by your callsign, you took the exam with my wife Holli, formerly KI4PSP, now AK4ER.

Dave Matthews · 2020-01-26 17:40

Good to meet you, and small world!
I am actually in Brentwood, and with WCARES
I will be in touch...

Publison · 2020-01-26 18:45

Dave Matthews wrote: »

Good to meet you, and small world!
I am actually in Brentwood, and with WCARES
I will be in touch...

I lived in Franklin for 6 years, look at moving back there or Columbia.

Dave Matthews · 2020-01-26 20:24

BTW, the reason that Tachyon/TAQOZ is not standard is simply because it is not a PC Forth, and the Prop is not even your standard micro. If we are already comfortable with using a "weird non-standard micro" because we want the edge that it gives then certainly Tachyon/TAQOZ complements that mindset and is designed to get the job done while still being very familiar to Forth users (and while being a lot of fun).

I look forward to using this most excellent FORTH version!

Dave Matthews · 2020-01-26 21:37

Publison wrote: »

Dave Matthews wrote: »

Good to meet you, and small world!
I am actually in Brentwood, and with WCARES
I will be in touch...

I lived in Franklin for 6 years, look at moving back there or Columbia.

WoW! Did you live in Rockvale for awhile?

Publison · 2020-01-26 21:51

Dave Matthews wrote: »

Publison wrote: »

Dave Matthews wrote: »

Good to meet you, and small world!
I am actually in Brentwood, and with WCARES
I will be in touch...

I lived in Franklin for 6 years, look at moving back there or Columbia.

WoW! Did you live in Rockvale for awhile?

PM sent

Peter Jakacki · 2020-01-26 22:44

What's a virtual hamfest without some Morse!

A couple of years ago I wrote a Morse keyer for Tachyon. Here is a version for the P2 that runs on TAQOZ RELOADED, a binary of which is included. To compile the MORSE.FTH source simply copy and paste into the terminal, no delays necessary.

Connect a piezo transducer to a pin, or feed it into an amp. To output Hello World in Morse to P0 try this:

0 MORSE PRINT" HELLO WORLD" CON

TAQOZ

pub *MORSE*	PRINT" Morse code keyer 200126-0000 " ;

byte dotms	word _pitch

--- The character speed is related to dot length in seconds by the following formula:
--- Speed (WPM) = 2.4 * (Dots per second)
pub WPM ( wpm -- )	1200 SWAP / dotms C! ;
pub PITCH ( hz -- )	600 MAX 1000 MIN _pitch W! ;

24 WPM 800 PITCH	--- set some defaults

0 TABLE _morse
( A )	%01_11			|| %11_01_01_01		|| %11_01_11_01		|| %11_01_01		||
( E )	%01			|| %01_01_11_01		|| %11_11_01		|| %01_01_01_01		||
( I )	%01_01			|| %01_11_11_11		|| %11_01_11		|| %01_11_01_01		||
( M )	%11_11			|| %11_01		|| %11_11_11		|| %01_11_11_01		||
( Q )	%11_11_01_11		|| %01_11_01		|| %01_01_01		|| %11			||
( U )	%01_01_11		|| %01_01_01_11		|| %01_11_11		|| %11_01_01_11		||
( Y )	%11_01_11_11		|| %11_11_01_01	||

( 1 )	%01_11_11_11_11		|| %01_01_11_11_11	|| %01_01_01_11_11	|| %01_01_01_01_11	||
( 5 )	%01_01_01_01_01		|| %11_01_01_01_01	|| %11_11_01_01_01	|| %11_11_11_01_01	||
( 9 )	%11_11_11_11_01		|| %11_11_11_11_11	||

( . )	%01_11_01_11_01_11	|| %11_11_01_01_11_11	|| %01_01_11_11_01_01	|| %01_11_11_11_11_01	||
( ! )	%11_01_11_01_11_11	|| %11_01_01_11_01	|| %11_01_11_11_01	|| %11_01_11_11_01_11	||
( & )	%01_11_01_01_01		|| %11_11_11_01_01_01	|| %11_01_11_01_11_01	|| %11_01_01_01_11	||
( + )	%01_11_01_11_01		|| %11_01_01_01_01_11	|| %01_01_11_11_01_11	|| %01_11_01_01_11_01	||
( $ )	%01_01_01_11_01_01_11	|| %01_11_11_01_11_01	||

--- Translate the character into a Morse code word composed of 2-bit codes for space/dot/dash
pri MC@ ( ch -- code )
---       0123456789.123456789.123456789.123456789.123456789.123456789.
	" ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890.,?'!/()&:;=+-_ $@"
	'"' OVER 51 + C! ( TEMPORARY KLUDGE TO EMBED A " INTO THE STRING )
	0 ( ch str cnt ) BEGIN OVER C@ WHILE 3RD 3RD C@ = IF NIP NIP 2* _morse + W@ EXIT THEN 1+ SWAP 1+ SWAP REPEAT
	3DROP 0
	;

pri GAP			MUTE dotms C@ * ms ;
pri TAP:		?DUP IF dotms C@ * _pitch W@ HZ ms 1 GAP THEN ;

--- Switch character output to morse keyer 
pub MORSE ( pin -- )
	PIN EMIT:
pub TAP ( ch -- )
	DUP $20 >
	IF --- convert lower case to upper case & offset
	  $7F AND DUP $5F > IF $20 - THEN
	  --- index morse table and convert 2-bit codes to Morse taps
	  MC@ 8 FOR DUP 14 >> 3 AND TAP: 2 << NEXT DROP 3
	ELSE
	  DROP 7
	THEN
	GAP
	;

( Usage: 0 MORSE PRINT" HELLO WORLD" CON )

END

ErNa · 2020-01-26 23:10

Hi Peter, nice to hear from you. .-- .... .- - .- -... --- ..- - - .... . .--. ..--- -.. ..---

JRoark · 2020-01-26 23:17

As long as we’re having a bit of a ragchew here, does anyone else think that a Prop 2 and some simple analog bits would make a really fun, low-buck, dedicated JT9 xmitter/rcvr?

Peter Jakacki · 2020-01-27 00:32

ErNa wrote: »

Hi Peter, nice to hear from you. .-- .... .- - .- -... --- ..- - - .... . .--. ..--- -.. ..---

well done! There have been so many holidays and CNY and even today is a holiday! With a slight modification to the keyer I can output ASCII (PIN > 63).

TAQOZ# CRLF 64 MORSE PRINT" P2D2s SHIPPING THIS WEEK! 73 (" CON --- 
.--. ..--- -.. ..--- ...  ... .... .. .--. .--. .. -. --.  - .... .. ...  .-- . . -.- -.-.--  --... ...--  -.--.  ok

BTW, these are the two words that have been modified to allow ASCII output.

pri GAP ( len -- )	@PIN $3F > IF DROP $20 CONEMIT ELSE MUTE dotms C@ * ms THEN ;
pri TAP: ( 0-3 -- ) 	?DUP IF @PIN $3F > IF "  . -" + C@ CONEMIT ELSE _pitch W@ HZ   dotms C@ * ms   1 GAP THEN THEN ;

Homecoming with the P2

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