Protoboard overall cog

EdKirk

Guys,

I have found these component programs:

1. Monitor.spin
2. Keyboard.spin
3. Mouse.spin

I have been successful in having my new protoboard chip respond to Keyboard.spin·or Mouse.spin·while each was running·alone; I was able to see data arriving at the pdata pins using my Parallax Optascope.·

I presume· that these are designed to·communicate with each·other while running·simultaneously in separate cogs.· Is there··an example of a spin program that might be used to get all of these working together in order to hasten debugging of my robot program?

Ed

Mike Green

I couldn't find a demo program in the library installed with the Propeller Tool that uses all three or even the mouse and keyboard together. The 3 pieces are really independent of each other. You just have to call their start methods in your program initialization routine. Look at the demo programs for each (like MonitorDemo.spin, keyboard_demo.spin, and graphics_demo.spin (for the mouse)).

EdKirk

Mike,

Thanks for your suggestions. I followed up on them but still could not get the pc monitor to respond to my Protoboard and the kit parts. Finally added the P12 thru P15 connections and resistors to my TV monitor having the RCA connector for video.

I have it working with Spin programs named KeyboardDemo which calls TV_Terminal,TV, Graphics, and then I added Keyboard. Now the hex or dec numbers corresponding to the ASCII characters appear on the screen. How can I use the keyboard to access varioables in my spin programs and then display their current values on my screen?

I guess I have Parallax Glossary issues. They call Propeller Tool software, but spin files are called programs. Is that the way of it? I find the uses of the words TV, Monitor, Terminal to be used in ways that seem ambiguous to me. Is there a Glossary?

EdKirk

Mike Green

EdKirk,
The various demo programs are just that, demonstrations of concepts, demonstrations of the use of various I/O drivers like TV/Graphics/Keyboard. You will need to write your own program to do what you want. The keyboard I/O driver just supplies characters received from the keyboard. Your program will have to interpret them. There is an object in the Propeller Object Exchange for parsing input from the FullDuplexSerial I/O driver. You can use that object, modify it slightly to use input from the keyboard instead of input from a serial channel, and you will have similar routines now to parse numbers, etc.

There is not a glossary as you seem to want. The Propeller is still new enough so documentation is still being produced. There are some 3rd party books in development that may help when they're done in a few months. You might try a web search for the term on the Wikipedia for your term and Wiki. For example, Google "wiki terminal" and you'll find links to various definitions of the word "terminal" including "computer terminal".

Specifically, the Propeller Tool is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that combines an editor, compiler, and a downloading utility routine. It is indeed software as is really pretty much any program. Spin files are usually programs in source form. TV, Monitor, Terminal are used ambiguously because conceptually they are ambiguous terms. The initials TV stand for TeleVision, but a television these days may function as a general purpose display as well and a general purpose display can function as a television with the addition of a tuner or other video source. A Monitor can be a simple display or something more complex, occasionally a monitor may be an audio-only monitor (speaker). A Terminal usually consists of a keyboard, character display, and some control logic to interpret special character codes. It can be a program on a general purpose computer. It can be other things as well.