Special price on P2 EVAL boards
VonSzarvas
Posts: 3,436
in Propeller 2
Chance to grab a lower-cost entry into the world of P2 !
https://www.parallax.com/product/propeller-2-evaluation-board-rev-c/
Comments
They certainly are quick to plug and probe and are performant with the short even-length tracks to the headers - excepting the SD/EEPROM pins. I still use mine over the newer Edge Card. The heat spreading allows more overclocking than anything else on the market.
I may pick one up to finish out the collection. I have the A and the B.
The EVAL is being discontinued?
Kinda obnoxious when you consider that the EDGE apparently has some issues with signal integrity (not being able to use any of the external RAM accessory boards)
Or, perhaps there is a new version in the making, approaching final stage of the testing almost ready to be released ?
Great price!
I just snagged four of P2 Eval modules for good measure.
Yeah, I assume they're probably going to be replaced with a newer model. Or maybe not?
What I would really like to see is a P2 version of a FliP module, even if it only offered 40 pins...
It would only be possible if the DIP40 pins were surface mounted to the bottom side. Only then would the Prop's QFP100 fit on the top side.
Kiss 100 board works that way if you put pins on bottom. Remaining pins are still available top side.
jim
After listening to Ken’s video explaining all of the changes afoot, I found myself nodding in all areas except one: the retirement of the P2 Eval. I’m certainly not privy to the internal costing/sales data, but a finer first-impression dev board you will not find. I hope in the future Parallax sees fit to revisit this decision, perhaps making a “respin” or “P2 Eval Reloaded” product. I think there will always be a market for this amazing workhorse of a board.
I watched Ken's video and didn't really understand how what he described was different from what they were already doing. I thought they had decided quite a while ago to concentrate on their educational offerings. Anyway, I wish them well.
I know this phenomenon very well. Especially in the computer and electronics business you always have to try out new things to stay innovative and up to date. But only few products are going to become really successful. So from time to time you have to clean up and cut the withered branches. Concentrating on the core skills can't be wrong,.
I hope this frees some resources to finally finish the P2 documentation.
That big breakout board with all pins available + Edge can replace the Eval in most cases
Except this:
Not being able is maybe not a good description. It can, but slow. And of course it affects all kind of fast interfaces, not only the PSRAM. Maybe a new revision of Edge can improve this, while we still have P2-EC32MB.
640 kB 32 MB of ram should be enough for all. Except NeoYume.
I'm wondering who was running those signal integrity tests, and which rev versions of the P2-EC and P2-EC32MB were being used.
And more to the point... would whomever ran those previous tests be willing to repeat and compare results with the very latest Revs of each module?
(P2-EC RevD & P2-EC32MB RevC)
P2-EC32 works OK with its internal PSRAM.
What doesn't work as good as Eval, is a standard Edge with an external PSRAM. I have an external one-chip PSRAM plugin that works up to 340..360 MHz when connected to the Eval board. It doesn't work with Edge+breakout with this kind of speed. It started to somewhat work when I went under 290 MHz (and it was still too much for it so I gave up).
While, in most cases, this 32 MB available on EC-32MB is big enough, NeoYume needs more RAM to run several games. I have no such hardware, but they (Wuerfel_21, and several other users) experimented with several external RAM boards. Maybe they can say more, but as far as I know these boards work with Eval only. I think they can work with Edge's setup, but at lower clocks (250 MHz) or sysclk/4, and that is of course too low for NeoYume.
That's good info, thank you.
Which Rev of the P2-EC and P2-EC32MB did you try ?
Pondering the topic a little, I'd expect the breakout board is the weakest link for highspeed.
Perfect for demo and proof of concept, but not practical to be both low cost and also optimised for super-highspeed end-product use.
Would be interesting to find the best possible single and dual header combination though
I'll take a look at the latest Rev files for the breakouts and edge modules - see if we can identify the headers with the best layout for higher speed flip-flapping.
P2-EC is what you have sent. If I can remember, it is the new version of it.
Standard Edges I have tried are A and B which the university bought (about 40 pieces) for our robotic stuff.
I didn't try to connect this "backpack" to the EC32, only to these RAM-less Edges I have access to. I still can try, I have a pin bank available on my EC32 setup.
I'd agree that the 32MB Edge is enough for most purposes, esp. given the high throughput. (Even NeoYume only needs it for 37 (?) out of 132 working games, though that's a lot of the good ones.)
I myself only have the big JonnyMac breakout, which is obviously unqualified for any high-speed signalling, so I didn't even try running the memory boards on it.
Somewhat relatedly, what's the chances of a breakout with built-in VGA/Audio/USB ?
The prices for the individual accessory SKUs are ridiculous.
Though discussion on that should be in a new thread.
We need a P2 retrocomputer board. A P2, 128 MB of properly connected PSRAMs, HDMI, VGA, audio in (external ADC), audio out, kbd/mouse/joysticks connectors.
Big testing topic, lots to read, here - https://forums.parallax.com/discussion/171176/0/p1
I got close to making such a thing a few times.... Optimised layout for A/V, a mini computer almost. Ideal for the P2 arcade as well as all general AV work. All those peripheral connections mentioned, 4-bit SD not sharing the boot pins, plus lots of on-board PSRAM and one high-speed dual header for memory expansion. Maybe a few tough IOs if space. Could be on a PCB about 50% size of the current EVAL PCB, probably powered by USB and with on-board programmer. Oh, plus a WiFi header of course!
Sounds like such a board would have at least a couple customers. Perhaps we could do a short run "made in EU", and see how it works out.
Make it in a Pi formfactor, so you can use Pi enclosures.
I have been thinking of doing a layout for that, with PSRAM and all. Not sure I could make it all fit, but man, that would be cool.
I forgot about MIDI.
I have now a 3D-printed mechanical keyboard - there were ready-made files for it in the Internet but I modified them to make a place for a stuff inside and several connectors outside.
There are 2 DB9 joystick ports, 2DIN MIDI ports, VGA, HDMI, PS2, DB9 for serial,and mini USB for a P2 programmer (I have a mini USB socket in DB9 format with usb to serial inside - tested with a P2:)
The plan is to use a P1 for the key matrix and PS2 input, and then P2-EC32 for the rest. Or maybe this new board...
No time now for playing: the renovation at home and a nasty project at the university. However, the good side of this project is: they will pay some money after it ends, so I can buy some toys.
Ideal specs for me would be something like this:
Do we have a driver that supports USB hub?
@macca has one. I've been meaning to integrate it for multiplayer in my emulators.
I'm not into retro gaming, but I would be interested in an Edge version of the Hydra.
This sounds very close to what I was considering too some time back after messing about with my RAM breakout boards and other things. I was tempted to build a hat/shield PCB for the P2-EVAL that would sit on top of it and could have been handy for retrocomputer/gaming setups. It would likely have had the following features...with appropriate connectors fitted around its periphery and the memory sitting in the middle.
Not sure it makes sense now the P2-EVAL is going away.