What market segment do you envision for the P2 ?
Maciek
Posts: 668
in Propeller 2
The title says it all.
I'm asking this here because I have mixed thoughts about where it is to be positioned best to succeed long term on the very competitive market.
I'm asking this here because I have mixed thoughts about where it is to be positioned best to succeed long term on the very competitive market.
Comments
I like learning about hardware and this product allowed me to do that without all the complication of other processors.
Mike
I'm adding commercial control applications (like motor controllers, brains and communications for PLCs, sensor hubs, etc.). What else ?
What you have already stated, cannot be overstated. The Propellers are the ideal for control systems but they remain invisible.
Another huge opportunity is guitars.
Of my seven guitars, only two are conventional. The other five have integrated processors. The problem is that; a $250 piece of wood, now becomes $1,000+
Hex pickups are readily available but what's needed is a P2-based external controller to allow existing guitars to be converted.
That guitar thing is an absolute hit ! It really opens up whole new market with a potential of good margins. Artists tend to spend more on their tools of trade than engineers
My solid body electric does all of the above, at the turn of a knob or floor-switch selection.
I still like to visit the big guitar stores but I have never seen one these guitars on the rack....why? Well it's typical for visitors to plug a guitar in to an amplifier to try it out (or show off). The store doesn't want their customers to realize that a single guitar can do the work of many guitars.
I ask if they sell them and I am always told that they only offer them online 😂
What happens is that the actual string frequency becomes merely a reference and the MCU/DSP decides the output frequency and waveform. Wonderful
When I built my guitar in the woodwork night-school (ahem) 57 years ago (Hank Marvin , Bert Weedon days) , the only pickup available in our local music shop had just two wires and a screen. I was wondering if there was a pair of wires per magnet/string that might make the d.s.p a little easier.
Dave
Here is one
Also, the popular Roland GK-3
These are nice but they would be permanently installed on one instrument.
V Interesting.
So- six strings, six pre-amps, 6 fft's measuring pitch and volume. what then?
Lookup table for key conversions.
Wave samples (or synth) to select from lookup table and volume.
Digital or analog mixer.
What do we have- 8 processors working independently or collaboratively at 150 megops/sec each.
A brain the size of the planet.....
Who is up for it? Interesting challenge!
Now where's Chip gone? He likes messing with sound.
Dave
Curious question, is there not some significant time lag, while the processor determines the frequency?
Christof
What time lag, given the string vibration frequency is in tens of kHz at max, do you consider to be significant ?
I'm not a musician tho.
There is no perceptible latency at all:
After viewing this demonstration, have a read of the comments....people want this technology. They had only one software developer, at Antares, working on this and he retired.
I think P2 would be perfect for the job. I wouldn't bother to compete with the Chinese stuff tho. No need to. I'm not rich enough to buy it. I prefer to pay a fair price for a good quality product and fair doesn't have to mean low.
Borrowed from this thread (authored by bob_g4bby and ErNa) but worth mentioning here as well. Lots of great ideas.
A list of potential Propeller 2 based test and measurement applications:-
"1. AC and DC voltage
2. AC and DC current
3. Power measurement (one channel measures V, another A with a common return for both channels)
4. Frequency counter
5. Time stamped data logging of the above to SD card
6. RLC bridge - https://www.element14.com/community/groups/open-source-hardware/blog/2019/07/23/building-an-lcr-meter
7. Oscilloscope - either using the Propeller A/Ds, or external audio A/Ds, or external high speed A/Ds
8. Distance measurement using time-domain reflectometry
9. I2C and other bus or comms port Analyser / Logger
10. General logic Analyser / Logger
11. Arbitrary waveform generator
12. Light meter / logger
13. Sound level meter / logger
14. Resonance (RF engineers used to use a 'Grid Dip Oscillator' to detect the frequency to which an LC circuit was tuned - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_dip_oscillator
15. Vector Network Analyser - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_analyzer_(electrical) RF engineers need to measure complex impedances or the frequency response of a circuit over a frequency range. Radio Hams have recently been buying the nanoVNA in their 1000s from ebay - it's a credit card size portable instrument based on a simple circuit using mass-produced parts. https://nanovna.com. Looks like a toy - don't be fooled, this is a very useful tool where only modest performance is adequate. Commonly used for measuring antennas, filters, chokes, transformers etc.
16. RF spectrum analyser - RF engineers need to make swept frequency measurements of low-level signals off-air and from circuits under test. Radio Hams have recently been buying the TinySA in their 1000s from ebay - again a credit card size tool with low parts count and uses mass produced parts. https://www.tinysa.org/wiki/. Again - looks like a toy - but this is a very useful tool where only modest performance is adequate.
17. Curve Tracer - a two or three wire device used to display the V-I curve of a passive or semiconductor device. Can also be used to compare test points in a good versus damaged circuit board. Commonly used to measure diode and transistor characteristics. Could be used for matching pairs of diodes or transistors. http://www.parc.org.za/attachments/projects/CurveTracerKR.pdf"
All kind of analog stuff: this thing has 64 ADCs and 64 DACs
This includes MIDI synthesizers and audio/DSP processors.
Much cheaper replacement of small to medium size FPGAs with its 8 cores, 64 pins and unique assembler which makes bit manipulations much easier than other microcontrollers/processors
Retro emulation - with 8 cogs every cog can work as one of the retrocomputers' custom chip, while XBYTE allows fast CPU emulation
Amateur measurement system: a P2, a monitor and several wires gives you an oscilloscope and a logic analyser.
Neural networks and deep learning: several P2s connected together can make a fast, huge network.
Audio/Music devices. I’m currently working on a multi clock that translates between MIDI clock, DIN clock and Ableton Link. It’s P1- based, but the P2 has more potential due to its analog abilities. This will allow me to also produce and consume audio clock.
And then there is the whole Euro-Rack module Zoo. I can imagine nice applications there as well. And the boutique nature is less price sensitive IMHO.