SX Blitz to return for our Parallax SX customers
Ken Gracey
Posts: 7,401
Dear SXers:
Today we launched a fabrication run for the SX Blitz (our SX programmer, sans debug). We decided to bring it back to our customers for the following reasons:
We expect the retail price for the SX Blitz to be between $29-39. With the SX Proto Board, free SX/B, and a few chips you·will be able to program the SX for less than fifty bucks.
Additionally, we are facing some mounting challenges obtaining a·core component used in the SX-Key, which has forced this product into a firmware/hardware redesign. While we have four months supply of SX-Keys left, we anticipate a·short period in which we will have no SX-Keys. The SX Blitz is like an insurance policy in this regard.
Sincerely,
Ken Gracey
Parallax, Inc.
Today we launched a fabrication run for the SX Blitz (our SX programmer, sans debug). We decided to bring it back to our customers for the following reasons:
- Promotion for the Parallax SX product line
- Low-cost entry point for experimenters and education
- Relative ease of use for "BASIC Stamp style debugging" with SX/B's SEROUT command and Hyperterminal
We expect the retail price for the SX Blitz to be between $29-39. With the SX Proto Board, free SX/B, and a few chips you·will be able to program the SX for less than fifty bucks.
Additionally, we are facing some mounting challenges obtaining a·core component used in the SX-Key, which has forced this product into a firmware/hardware redesign. While we have four months supply of SX-Keys left, we anticipate a·short period in which we will have no SX-Keys. The SX Blitz is like an insurance policy in this regard.
Sincerely,
Ken Gracey
Parallax, Inc.
Comments
Anyone who, like me, doesn't develop code using software debuggers, will find the Blitz to be just as good as the more expensive Key.
Minor warning - the Blitz and the Key are slightly different lengths. I designed one board with a header for the longer of the programmers, the Key, I think, and the Blitz had a hard time fitting in.
David
Bean.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
"SX-Video·Module" Now available from Parallax for only $28.95
http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=30012
Product web site: www.sxvm.com
Available soon!! Video overlay(OSD) module...
"I'm a man, but I can change, if I have to, I guess"
Red Green
·
Peter Montgomery is developing a programming-only menu system on the SX-Key IDE so that SX chips can be easily programmed by non-trained production staff. The SX Blitz was often used for production programming or as a field tool by our customers in the past. The software additions plus the availability of the Blitz should help those with volume programming needs.
Ken Gracey
Parallax, Inc.
For less than $50 they can have a microntroller programming workstation (assuming the already have the PC).
Students can write the SX/B code, test and debug it in the integrated simulator. After it works in the simulator they can use the Blitz to program an SX chip (or $10 proto board), and test the actual circuit.
With the USB logic analyzer and USB oscilloscope I "real" microcontroller development workstation would cost only a couple hundred bucks. I would have killed to have something like that when I was in school.
Bean.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
"SX-Video·Module" Now available from Parallax for only $28.95
http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=30012
Product web site: www.sxvm.com
Available soon!! Video overlay(OSD) module...
"I'm a man, but I can change, if I have to, I guess"
Red Green
·
Actually, with the Sx Blitz and the SX48/52 Proto Board, I can may get some of my extremely frugal Chinese friends finally to budge.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
G. Herzog in Taiwan