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Vinculum & Propeller — Parallax Forums

Vinculum & Propeller

El PaisaEl Paisa Posts: 375
edited 2006-12-07 18:26 in Propeller 1
I am really confuse.
I·was convinced·this was a propeller forum.

Comments

  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2006-12-07 17:53
    This IS a Propeller forum. Many of us are busy trying to use a Propeller to do things and some of those things require fancy interfaces to complex devices like the Vinculum. Having the Propeller talk directly to an SD card or host a USB bus is possible, but often a very inefficient use of the Propeller's resources and capabilities, particularly when others are spending lots of money making (and supporting) specialized devices at reasonable prices that take care of all the details (well ... mostly).

    In this particular case, one of the key limitations of the Propeller is that of memory for storing data and particularly programs. The Vinculum is one possible solution to this limitation and happens to have been developed and is supported by a major supplier of Parallax's that has at least some interest in keeping Parallax happy and hopefully buying lots more chips of different kinds. Parallax is in a good position to get extra assistance in getting this chip to work with their processors and in possibly influencing the ongoing development of the Vinculum and its firmware to its benefit.
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2006-12-07 17:56
    It is, USB hosting has been a major request for several years. Vinculum makes that much easier to do now. We felt that the more experienced Propeller crowd would be the correct audience to announce our intention to carry the chips and expose the Stampers to it later after Chris has the opportunity to write some example code for them. We chose to do it this way to help keep the already busy Tech Support Staff from getting even more calls, when a few sample programs would alleviate most of those questions.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Paul Baker
    Propeller Applications Engineer

    Parallax, Inc.
  • El PaisaEl Paisa Posts: 375
    edited 2006-12-07 18:02
    Hi guys,

    I understand the reason of the··Vinculum·and Propeller.

    Now my question is, Is there a specific way to connect the Vinculum to the propeller and get a SD card and propeller talk to each other?

    I like the idea but first I want to know a specific example.
  • El PaisaEl Paisa Posts: 375
    edited 2006-12-07 18:06
    Looking at the http://www.vinculum.com/
    ·i see several products.
    Which one is the proper one to interface the SD card and the Propeller?
  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2006-12-07 18:25
    The Vinculum is a USB host/master. You can directly plug in a USB flash drive. If you want to use an SD card (or other memory card), you will need a standard USB memory card reader/adapter designed to work with a PC without special drivers. The VDIP is the most readily available and most flexible. The VDRIVE is just packaged differently and more simply. Both should work with a memory card adapter or USB flash drive.

    The Vinculum can work like a serial interface with transmit data, receive data, request to send, and clear to send lines or it can work as an SPI device with clock, select, and data (input/output) lines.
  • Graham StablerGraham Stabler Posts: 2,510
    edited 2006-12-07 18:26
    El Paisa,

    You misunderstand Mike, he is just saying that things like SD interfaces and USB are difficult enough to warrent the use of external hardware.

    In the case of SD there are several chips you can buy that will help you read and write but the vinculum is not one.

    EDIT, as Mike says it should be possible to interface to a standard USB SD card reader but you may still want to consider some of the other options available.

    Graham
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