Not being negative, but ...
RichardF
Posts: 168
Why no Debug command for the Propeller Tool editor? Not that I have much programming experience, but I have always been able to read my variables results on the editor screen, no matter what editor/language I was using. Is there something unique about the Propeller that would have made this so difficult, or have I completely missed the boat and there is a way to debug using the IDE? Just curious. For now I have set up some Led's on output pins to give me a little bit of debug capability.
Thanks,
Richard
Thanks,
Richard
Comments
An very easy way could be to use the PropTerminal which is a program running on your PC and operates as the TV output of your Propeller. You can use your PC keyboard and mouse to control the Propeller using special drivers which are used as replacements of the TV text driver and the standard keyboard and mouse driver of the Propeller.
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=649540
I found the circuit diagram for a video output on page 90 of the manual. As far as I can se it is never mentioned again until Exercise 11 (page138) and then video out is used using the video output jack on the Demo Board. I am using the PE board which has not been wired for video. Using the circuit shown on page 90, do you use the display.spin object file for your video out? If so did you have to chage any pin numbers in the object methods?
Thanks,
Richard
Easiest way is to use the TV_Text Object (It hides some of the more complex parts of the TV object when you start out), and wire it up according to page 90 of the manual. Using tv_text, you just pass it the first pin you are using and your good to go!
TV_Text.start(12)
Starts the TV_text object at base pin 12. (Of course you had to declare TV_Text in your OBJ section).
TV_Text.str("I LIKE PIZZA")
prints that string to the screen.
When you get more familiar with it, you can use the TV object directly, but I've still had no need, but I'm sure there are many out there that differ on this.
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There is that serial method too, but I found this TV method pretty easy. I just had to hack an RCA cable in half because I didn't have any breadboard mount ones.
Post Edited (Chicago Mike) : 6/3/2007 9:21:04 PM GMT
Mike,
the first part of what you said is right, but the first pin is number 12 and it is wired to a 1,1K resistor, which you have to use to initialize the TV object.
Thomas
Graham
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Definetly a E3 (Electronics Engineer Extrodinare!)
"I laugh in the face of imposible,... not because i know it all, ... but because I don't know well enough!"
If you want to view and even edit variables in your program, Viewport might be just the ticket. Once initialized from your program, it runs in a separate cog sending your variables to a viewer on your pc. On your pc you can see the real-time values, as well as looking for trends over time- data from variables is graphed over time. If you want to change the value of a variable, you can do that too.
Since you're not littering your program with "print" statements, debugging is a lot less frustrating.
Viewport uses a 2,000,000 baud connection to transfer data very quickly- anywhere from 1 byte at 200,000/second to dozens of longs and bytes a bit slower. The program made it possible for me to build an affordable balancing robot- mydancebot, more about that later.
Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Download it here: http://mydancebot.com/products/viewport
Thank you very much for the information. I am first going the simple route of Parallax's 4x20 backlit LCD because it will mount on my robot platform and I can follow it around looking at info generated internally to the bot. This gives me a debug capablity when the bot is sitting on my desk and a real-time monitor when it is doing its' thing. I am the guy with the recent "servo problems" post. What a learning experience that was.
Richard