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Best propeller to start off with — Parallax Forums

Best propeller to start off with

SciTech02SciTech02 Posts: 154
edited 2006-06-09 01:42 in Propeller 1
Would the demo board or the stick kit work better for starting off?· I'm looking for a expandible one.· The stick seems like the best one, is it?· Thank you.

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There is always an answer.

There is always a way.
There is always a reason.··· -SciTech02.

Comments

  • Vampyr NoireVampyr Noire Posts: 13
    edited 2006-06-07 23:48
    I do not have a propstick so I might be incorrect in my analysis here, but from what I know about the two products here are the tradeoffs you need to consider:

    Availability of IO pins :
    -The demo board has 8 pins that are entirely free for use in whatever application you want. The other pins are already hooked up to peripherals such as keyboard/mouse ports, VGA port, a microphone jack, and a connector for a TV. This is great if you want to test these features without having to wire up all the ports on your own.

    -The stick has all of the pins free for whatever you want to use them for. This is great if you don't want a mouse port or a VGA port and you want more than 8 pins available to you


    Ease of use:
    -The demo board requires no assembly.....it's ready to go out of the box

    -The prop stick requires assembly and you are responsible for properly hooking it up to whatever board you plug it into


    Misc. points of interest:
    -You cannot remove the propeller chip on the demo board, it is soldered on. The chip on the stick is socketed.
    -The demo board cannot as easily be "plugged" into a board for a project you are working on. It is designed to have the prototyping done on its included breadboard area. The stick is designed to be plugged in as a DIP module on any project you are working on. Handy!


    So to make a long answer short....if you want something that you can use on a working project that demands more than 8 free I/O pins, I would go with the Prop-Stick. If you are looking for a solution that allows you to quickly and easily evaluate all the various I/O capability of the propeller (such as video output or keyboard/mouse processing and such) and you do not require more than 8 free I/O pins to accomplish the things you want, I would go with the demo board. If you do not have much electronics knowledge or soldering skills, I would also recommend the demo board because you might not assemble or connect the Prop-Stick properly. The demo board is significantly more fool proof but less versatile in terms of broad use.

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  • SciTech02SciTech02 Posts: 154
    edited 2006-06-08 23:42
    Thank you for your quick answer.·

    I am personaly going to go for the PROP stick.· I like the ability·to intergrate it·into a project.· I have no problem assembling it (I think it might be fun).· I can also put it directly onto a breadboard for optimum prototyping space (yay), and it's expandible·too.· And it's cheeper.

    All I need is some kind of starters guide to the propeller and programing it (in both languages)...

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    There is always an answer.

    There is always a way.
    There is always a reason.··· -SciTech02.
  • pmartinpmartin Posts: 10
    edited 2006-06-09 01:42
    Check out the downloads link in the Propeller section of the website. I find the articles by Nuts and Volts very informative. Also, Chapter 4 of the manual explains the spin functions and language pretty well.

    pm
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