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HeartBeat Monitor (so you can tell if the Propeller is still alive) — Parallax Forums

HeartBeat Monitor (so you can tell if the Propeller is still alive)

GenetixGenetix Posts: 1,754
in Propeller 1

I was trying to run a program earlier today and it did nothing so I wasn't even sure if my Propeller was alive or dead.

At work one of the controller boards has several microcontrollers on it, and aptly named 'Heartbeat Monitors' are attached to each.
It's just an LED with a current-limiting resistors attached to one of the I/O pins.

The Propeller Activity boards and Flip modules have LEDs on P26 and P27 that could be used for this.

I could waste a Cog running a Blinker program, but maybe someone has a more elegant solution.
I am using my QuickStart at the moment, but I also have an Activity and Demo board.

Comments

  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366

    Try running a simple LED blink program at RCFAST clock. If that works your PLL may have been damaged.

  • GenetixGenetix Posts: 1,754

    Publison,

    I verified that my QuickStart works with JonnyMac's QuickStart Demo - works perfectly!

    This program I was testing was supposed to send messages to the screen but I saw absolutely nothing.
    I tried programming the Propeller and reseting it and still nothing.
    A HeartBeat Monitor would at least tell me that my Propeller programmed and is running a program.

    It's something that I thought would be usefull to add to Propeller programs as a sanity check; It's my program not my Propeller.
    If my program doesn't do what it's supposed to then I know it's not the Propeller.
    I could even change the blink rate each time I make changes to the program.

  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2022-02-06 15:25

    Time to post your program so we can look at it. :)

    I have a Quickstart on hand to test.

  • VonSzarvasVonSzarvas Posts: 3,488

    @Genetix said:
    I was trying to run a program earlier today and it did nothing so I wasn't even sure if my Propeller was alive or dead.

    At work one of the controller boards has several microcontrollers on it, and aptly named 'Heartbeat Monitors' are attached to each.
    It's just an LED with a current-limiting resistors attached to one of the I/O pins.

    The Propeller Activity boards and Flip modules have LEDs on P26 and P27 that could be used for this.

    I could waste a Cog running a Blinker program, but maybe someone has a more elegant solution.
    I am using my QuickStart at the moment, but I also have an Activity and Demo board.

    What about using a counter ?

    NCO mode could work well- check the example on page 4 of the Counters AppNote : https://www.parallax.com/package/an001-propeller-p8x32a-counters/

    Set APIN to the LED pin on your board.

    ''Demonstration of NCO counter mode (%00100)
CON
 _clkmode = xtal1 + pll16x
 _xinfreq = 5_000_000
PUB NCO_single_ended_mode
' mode PLL BPIN APIN
 ctra := %00100_000 << 23 + 1 << 9 + 0 'Establish mode and APIN (BPIN is ignored)
 frqa := $8000_0000 'Set FRQA so PHSA[31] toggles every clock
 dira[0] := 1 'Set APIN to output
 repeat 'infinite loop, so counter continues to run
  • GenetixGenetix Posts: 1,754

    Publison,

    I finally got it to work.

    Stupid me forgot to call Main from my starting Init method..... DOH!

  • GenetixGenetix Posts: 1,754

    VonSzarvas,

    The program I was playing with used both counters, but not at the same time so I could do that.

  • VonSzarvasVonSzarvas Posts: 3,488
    edited 2022-02-28 10:40

    I was curious to try that code snippet, so grabbed a FLiP module. I use the LEDs quite a bit for diagnostics, but never thought to use a counter. Never really had a need, but it's a neat idea and I'm sure I'll use this the next time I write a driver for something. Setting the frqa rate is so simple!

    I'll drop what I tried here for future reference!!

    CON
 _clkmode       = xtal1 + pll16x
 _xinfreq       = 5_000_000

 LED_PIN        = 26
 TOGGLE_RATE    = 27 ' (4,294,967,296 / clkfreq) / 2

PUB NCO_single_ended_mode

 '       mode PLL BPIN APIN                   
 ctra := %00100_000 << 23 + 1 << 9 + LED_PIN  'Establish mode and APIN (BPIN is ignored)
 frqa := TOGGLE_RATE 'Set FRQA so PHSA[31] toggles approximately every second
 'frqa := $8000_0000 'Set FRQA so PHSA[31] toggles every clock

 dira[LED_PIN] := 1 'Set APIN to output

 repeat 'infinite loop, so counter continues to run
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366

    @Genetix said:
    Publison,

    I finally got it to work.

    Stupid me forgot to call Main from my starting Init method..... DOH!

    Cool Beans!

  • GenetixGenetix Posts: 1,754

    VonSzarvas,

    I don't who came up with that scheme but it seemed like a clever idea so I thought I would put it to use.

    Seeing as both the Flip and PAB has 2 LEDs, you could be clever and make it pattern similar to a real heartbeat.
    Atdiy (is that correct?) would know how it should look.

  • GenetixGenetix Posts: 1,754

    VonSzarvas,

    How did you come up with that Rate of 27?

    It seems to blink slower than once a second and I would like to be able to change it as I make program changes.

  • VonSzarvasVonSzarvas Posts: 3,488
    edited 2022-02-28 11:52

    @Genetix said:
    VonSzarvas,

    How did you come up with that Rate of 27?

    It seems to blink slower than once a second and I would like to be able to change it as I make program changes.

    TOGGLE_RATE = 27 ' (4,294,967,296 / clkfreq) / 2

    It won't be super accurate as that value is rounded to the nearest integer, and you will see the cumulative period error (rounding error) increase over time. I don't know how to correct for that yet, but I can try to explain the math....

    The counter mode toggles each time the counter overflows.
    The counter max is a 32-bit integer. So we divide that maximum integer by our clock frequency to figure out how many clock ticks are needed to overflow the 32-bit counter (at the code clock frequency).

    The max counter at 32-bit is 2^32 (= 4,294,967,296)
    Our clock frequency "clqfreq" depends, but in my code I was using 80 MHz (= 80,000,000)

    We know that our clqfreq equates to a 1 second period, and I remember it like this :
    clqfreq is the total number of clock ticks in 1 second, and the period of 1 clock tick of the Propeller is 12.5ns
    80,000,000 clock ticks * 12.5ns = 1,000,000,000ns (= 1 second)

    So the counter math is :
    4,294,967,296 / 80,000,000 = 53.6870912

    Which means at 80 MHz clock freq, the counter will overflow after 53.6870912 lots of 80 MHz clock ticks.

    We divide that by 2, because we are toggling the LED in two states (on/off) within the 1 second period :

    53.6870912 / 2 = 26.8435456

    And then I rounded that result up to 27.

    Edit: Perhaps that formula in the code comment needs brackets... just adding them now!

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