need view on prop vs BS2

boeboy

I am a hard core BS2 fan and I need to know how different the BS2 is from the propeller chip if some one could show me how hard it is to transition from one to the other.

thanks in advance
PS. if you could give me two examples one in basic and one in spin

lairdt

Without a specific example, the easiest thing I can think of would be to check out the examples in the Spin code for beginners sticky...

James Long

Boeboy said...
I am a hard core BS2 fan and I need to know how different the BS2 is from the propeller chip if some one could show me how hard it is to transition from one to the other.

thanks in advance
PS. if you could give me two examples one in basic and one in spin

Although I would write a program....I may later in this thread.

I'm a past Stamp2p user.·Spin is a steep learning curve at first. You must realize you are learning a new language. Also the transition to 8 cogs is a difference....that you have to be aware of. The passing of variables/values can be a difficult to comprehend.

The more you comprehend computer memory and accessing it seems to me(from my prospective)·will help a lot. I have to say....I don't understand these things well.....so I can only give my viewpoint.

I would say......it would be imperitive for you to buy a demo board....and play with it...if you think there is a remote possibility of needing it's resources.

If you are marginal with reguards to needing the propellers abilities......You may need to do some serious reading.

I believe that the propeller has great possibilities compared to any other micro out there. It is not impossible to learn Spin...but it takes more time than PBasic. Remember this is my opinion.

I know this is not exactly what you were looking for......but the best I can do at this time.

James L

·

CJ

let't not forget, if you decide to go for a spin and get dizzy, there is always the BS2 function library to ease the learning curve

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Who says you have to have knowledge to use it?

I've killed a fly with my bare mind.

lairdt

If you have a good background using the BS2, then it won't be a problem for you. You can enjoy the faster processing and larger memory capacity and then get into more involved stuff. You can do everything you can with a BS2 and just use one cog until you have some time using spin. All of the common programming structures are there, just with a slightly different syntax.

My experience so far with Propeller:
Yesterday - got my kit at 10am. Using basic examples (example#1 and Ping demo) with the Propeller Tool plus additional info here, I was able to get things running by 1pm. I assembled the Propeller Education kit (on GS PB-105 board) and interfaced it to the Ping sensor (5v), with output to my Seetron 4x20 LCD (5v, inverted TTL interface) I had handy. Had to create a new object for the Seetron display to make things work for the display, wasn't a problem. Time - 3 hours.

Today - Reviewed examples 1-16, didn't build anything, just read. Created first complete main program skeleton for my future robot project. Allocated Ping sensor to it's own cog, display updates to another cog, created 8 LED's to track active cog status, and allocated 6 remaining cogs random length tasks to give me a binking sequence of busy lights like the old 28 proc Sequent Balance system I always wanted to recreate. Cogs will each do more as I slowly build things up for the robot. Time - 2 hours.

Tomorrow - who knows. Have to figure out what hardware I want to use, but the Propeller has made the hardware interface a non-issue. Budget is the only limiting factor I can see slowing me down. If you've got a box full of parts for your BS2 projects and can do it with a BS2, I'd say you're set to be able to do whatever you want in only a few hours. Time - more than I'll count...

boeboy

Thanks a lot for all the info and on the fast response.

Dennis Ferron

I used to use the Basic Stamp for everything, now I plan to use the Propeller in all my projects.

Spin was a lot to learn but it's very straightforward. It's was very satisfying going from pBASIC to Spin because although Spin is very different from pBASIC, there are things in Spin that I can point to and say "Parallax must have learned that trick from experience with the Basic Stamp." I can't think of anything I could do in pBASIC that I can't do in Spin with the same convenience. For instance, in pBASIC I can say "LOW 6" to bring pin 6 low. In Spin it is "OutA[noparse][[/noparse]6]~" to bring it low. The syntax looks stranger but the key idea is still the same - the language includes all the features that make your life easier.

So you don't lose anything going from pBASIC to Spin, and you gain a lot, especially objects.

Definitely either get the demo board, or get the PropStick USB and wire it up just like the demo board. That helps a lot. One difference between the Propeller and the Basic Stamp is that the Stamp is actually a serial port, eeprom, and microcontroller packaged together, while with the Propeller you have to provide an eeprom and programming interface. If you buy the demo board or the PropStick, then you get those included. And if you get the demo board, you get the keyboard and video jacks, etc.

LoopyByteloose

Lightyears [noparse][[/noparse]the Propeller] of speed versus Dog years [noparse][[/noparse]the BasicStamp] of speed.
Parallax is commited to support its past customers and the many schools that use the BasicStamp,
but the Propeller does everything better and more. And, it really is cheaper.
You can even get it reaching into radio wave transmission.

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"If you want more fiber, eat the package.· Not enough?· Eat the manual."········

···················· Tropical regards,····· G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse]·黃鶴 ]·in Taiwan

Bryan K.

I also made the switch from the Basic Stamp 2 to the Propeller Chip, and it is so much easier now with the BS2 Functions download. I used the BS2 mainly in Robotics, competing in several Penn State competitions, this year being my first for the prop 1. So far, I love it, especially being able to parallel process, one thing that the Basic Stamp 2 could not do. The robot I used last year worked, but the motion was extremely erratic, because in order to multitask on the BS2, I ran several programs, but split them up into sections, joining all the bits and pieces together into a main program. With using the Propeller Controller this year, there is no erratic movements, just seamless movement and functions of the robot. I would highly recommend the Propeller micro-controller, you just have to learn the programming.

Gavin

There is a Prop stamp coming out, sign up to be a tester and compare for yourself.
Prop takes a bit of getting used to, not about what it can do but trying to find something it cannot do.
Think of it as 8 faster SX stamps in one chip.
The Spin language itself feels similar to Pascal with a touch of C and Basic.
The software tools make it easy to read and help a lot.

M. K. Borri

I'm coming from Python and Spin took a couple of weeks to learn -- good stuff. The BS2 library is really nice to ease the transition... one thing I keep being asked by the other team in my lab that's working with a Prop is if I can write a basic interpreter, so there may be demand for that -- I'm not good enough to write something that's decently efficient.

Prop asm takes a bit to get used to, I feel.

Dennis Ferron

Gavin said...
There is a Prop stamp coming out, sign up to be a tester and compare for yourself.
Prop takes a bit of getting used to, not about what it can do but trying to find something it cannot do.
Think of it as 8 faster SX stamps in one chip.
The Spin language itself feels similar to Pascal with a touch of C and Basic.
The software tools make it easy to read and help a lot.

Actually the more I work with Spin the less it seems like *any* other language I've ever tried. From whence does Spin derive? Most languages I know arose from someone taking 1 existing language and mixing in some things from 1 or 2 other languages. Spin on the other hand makes me go - whoa, where did that come from? But in a good way.

The experience of programming in Spin reminds me a lot of the experience of programming in Ruby, but not because the languages are similar, it's just that they're both very convenient to use.