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Clarification of SX design contest rules wanted — Parallax Forums

Clarification of SX design contest rules wanted

Phil PembertonPhil Pemberton Posts: 16
edited 2005-03-03 17:41 in General Discussion
Hi,
Can someone tell me if I absolutely have to use the Parallax SX-Tech (SX-Key) development system to develop my entry for the SX design contest? The contest rules at http://www.parallax.com/sx/sx_design_contest_rules.asp don't say anything about the SX Tech Toolkit, but http://www.parallax.com/sx/sx_design_contest_starterkit.asp does... I'm confused.. if it's a requirement to use the SX Tech kit, shouldn't that have been mentioned on the main rules page?

I've been using an SV-TEHS SX-TIPS-DEV (with Realtime Emulator Module) and SASM to develop my entry. I'm about 80% done - hardware is breadboarded and working, just need to get the firmware tweaked and debugged.

Thanks,
Phil.

Comments

  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2005-02-26 03:28
    I don't believe the tech tool is required, but the grading criteria of a professional looking PCB will likely knock points off from any application which relies on a dev board.
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,401
    edited 2005-02-26 03:57
    Phil/Paul,

    The tool vendor does not matter in this case. You can use any tool you desire. We're showcasing the SX here, not the tools, so your SV-TEHS tool choice is fine. As for the development board approach, you should be able to make up some point through professionalism wiht other aspects (code, documentation, etc.).

    Don't let that deter you. So far we've received only one entry, so I'm really hoping more designers submit their projects by Monday midnight.

    Ken Gracey
    Parallax, Inc.
  • kb2hapkb2hap Posts: 218
    edited 2005-02-26 06:39
    Is there possibility for an extention. I now it was extended once already but it seem as if there are alot of people out there who are just getting into SX's· and there may be alot of good ideas out there just waiting except that there is deadline aproaching shortly.

    I would love to enter except I have been very busy working on a sumobot for the robolympics ;-)

    Maybe you could do a fear factor type of thing were the single person who entered gets a little something the you repost the contest over again, for everybody?

    Its a great product and it is very powerful.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    DTQ
  • Phil PembertonPhil Pemberton Posts: 16
    edited 2005-02-28 10:56
    I've *nearly* got the firmware done for my entry. Still need to get the board soldered up though - no PCB, just a piece of Veroboard and a lot of wiring pen wire [noparse]:)[/noparse]
    Anyway, I've got until about 11PM tonight to get the board done and get the firmware blitzed and mailed off. It's now, what, 11AM GMT - plenty of time [noparse]:)[/noparse]
  • SteveWSteveW Posts: 246
    edited 2005-02-28 11:08
    What's with the 11pm deadline? I thought Pacific was 8 hours behind GMT?
    (Depressingly, this matters since the entire weekend was spent working, not finishing my entry...)

    Steve
  • Phil PembertonPhil Pemberton Posts: 16
    edited 2005-02-28 11:11
    Well, I do want to get some sleep tonight....
  • SteveWSteveW Posts: 246
    edited 2005-02-28 11:26
    Ah, sleep. That's just going to have to wait...
    Thursday looks likely. Maybe the whole of Thursday [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    Steve
  • BeanBean Posts: 8,129
    edited 2005-02-28 12:11
    Sleep is highly overrated. I find that I can go for zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Check out· the "SX-Video Display Module"

    www.sxvm.com
    ·
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,401
    edited 2005-03-01 04:03
    Come on guys, the final minutes are here! Where are those projects?

    You're making it really easy for the submittals we received!

    Ken Gracey
    Parallax, Inc.
  • SteveWSteveW Posts: 246
    edited 2005-03-01 04:30
    Final minutes? Help! I thought I had another 3.5 hours... Can you confirm that I've not messed up my timezones?
    I know that sleep deprivation's kicking in, but am I about to miss the deadline for no good reason?

    Steve
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2005-03-01 06:23
    Ive bowed out, I was going to submit an incomplete project, but when I went to take the pictures, my camera started acting wierd, and I had already dealt with too much already (I would have thrown the camera against the wall to vent my anger if it didnt cost $600).

    Let me just say don't try to use WinCUPL unless you've got massive amounts of time and infinite patience, I spent a week trying to deal with that infernal program and the associated fitter, they both seem to want thier own way of doing things which I can't seem to line up. Plus the fact that although there is copious documentation, it only spells things out in general terms and most of the example programs provided, compile nicely under WinCUPL, but the fitter, well it throws a fit, and·despite the name, thats not what its supposed to do.

    Im still going to work on it till its done, cause in the end Ill have a sweet @ss full featured,·50Mhz (75MHz·via external clock)·Logic Analyzer to show for it. I'll probably post the completed project in the projects forum and sell my remaining 2 PCB's to any interested parties.

    But now Im going to turn in, cause the end of the quarter is quickly approaching and I have alot more work to do before then. My only regret with this whole experience was burning 4 vacation days trying to complete it, oh well not like I had any trips planned for the near future.

    Gnight, and good luck to those of you still racing against the clock to get yours in.

    Paul
  • Randy GlennRandy Glenn Posts: 25
    edited 2005-03-01 06:56
    I'm in the same boat as you, Paul - except in my case, two profs deciding I needed two midterms and an assignment due today (along with 2 labs, 2 other assignments and another midterm this week) meant that my stuff wasn't going to be anywhere near done.

    But it will get done - mark my words.
  • SteveWSteveW Posts: 246
    edited 2005-03-01 07:24
    Well, mine's just gone in. Digicam 1 won't write to SM cards, and the backup camera's hiding somewhere. That leaves the dodgy webcam. Hey ho. And, of course, Acrobat distiller has decided to hang Protel irretrievably if I dare to print, meaning that the schematics are printed to a postscript file, then ghostscripted into PDF. Yay!
    However, it's left the building, not bounced back, and dawn is breaking here in sunny (ha!) Cambridge. I'm off to bed. Got to be at work in, err, an hour and a half [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    'night, all...

    (and the moral has to be - probably don't leave it all until the weekend next time, especially if customers are going to want me to work through [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    Steve.
  • Beau SchwabeBeau Schwabe Posts: 6,568
    edited 2005-03-01 09:14
    Arghhhhhh!!!!

    I hate Dialup - Yes I still have a Dialup connection at the house....

    8.5Megs ---Uploading...Uploading...Uploading... 250K to go.....Uploading.....SPLAT!!!! connection reset by peer!!!

    Blaahhhhhh! double Arghhhhhh!!!!

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Beau Schwabe - Mask Designer III

    National Semiconductor Corporation
    (Communication Interface Division)
    500 Pinnacle Court, Suite 525
    Mail Stop GA1
    Norcross,GA 30071
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2005-03-01 16:07
    I for one didnt leave it all till the weekend before, I have spent every spare moment since the new year (and about half my free time during december) working on this thing. I just suffered from the "my eyes are bigger than my stomach" syndrome, I had to do quite a few things I had never done before to get the project completed, and as such I was unable to properly plan how long each subtask would take, oh well no sense in bemoaning the situation, Ive got bigger fish to fry at the moment.

    Paul's last rant about the prediciment he got himself into.
  • SteveWSteveW Posts: 246
    edited 2005-03-01 16:25
    Yeah, I do feel your pain [noparse]:([/noparse]
    If this contest has taught me only one thing, it's probably that I ought to seriously investigate SX/B for future projects.
    Life's just too short to be juggling assembly, unless I do it daily (which I don't, and, frankly, hope not to evereverever)
    Since Parallax people seem to be getting good results with it on code size / density, and since I'm not needing to wring the last cycles out of my chip (yet), it looks to be a no-brainer. Shame I didn't work this ought _before_ making my life hard. Hey ho, all good, character-forming fun, I guess...
    However, I think that any spare time I get soon will be spent reimplementing my project in SX/B - easier now I know better what I'm coding, but even so, I suspect it'll be another bunch of learning, which was kind of the point of the exercise for me [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    Steve
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,401
    edited 2005-03-01 16:29
    Beau and Steve:

    Received both of your projects in tact. Looking good, too! I'm sure it was worth your effort.

    Beau's project came in via Jon Williams since my e-mail (or his) was acting up.

    Nice work, guys!

    Ken Gracey
    Parallax, Inc.
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2005-03-01 16:40
    Congrats you guys, I hope you do well.
  • Phil PembertonPhil Pemberton Posts: 16
    edited 2005-03-03 17:41
    Well, I got mine in on time too (just). Shame my wonderful ISP's mailserver decided not to speak to Parallax's server.. the end result being that my 4MB submission got tossed into the ether. In all fairness, SMTP was never designed to send huge gobs of mail halfway across the planet.. I've got a prototype here - Veroboard and wiring pen. My project was a logic analyser [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    Anyway, I hope I at least get an honourable mention for my efforts.. I've burned this weeks' supply of Midnight Oil already, and I need some more. That and I broke a set of multimeter probes and ended up spending £35 on a new set (not to mention clumsily smashing the plastic display protector on my mobile phone).
    C'est la vie I guess.
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