Activity Board WXs needed
PapaLev
Posts: 5
in Propeller 1
Our local K-8 school made a big committment to Blockly Prop, the Activity Bot 360, and the Activity Board WX since their beginning. Our students have had a lot of fun with them, and I've enjoyed being the STEM Club advisor. We hoped to get more hardware to accomodate more students and projects, but the Activity Board WX is no longer in production. Does anyone have unused boards collecting dust that would like a new home, and thereby give joy to countless 12-16 year olds? If so please PM me, we are interested in buying some. Thank you.
Comments
Looked around... Would have given for free. But, can't find any. I'll keep looking though...
Thank you!
It says the Activity board is "out of stock". Did you see somewhere that "the Activity Board WX is no longer in production." statement somewhere. Usually Parallax will have an "EOL" , if they are ending a product.
Ray
Yes, on their web pages Mouser, Jameco and Digikey all state it is out of stock and discontinued, leading me to confirm that with Parallax.
Further confirmed as discontinued.
WOW. I noticed that there is quite a few WX WiFi DIP modules still available. I wonder what is going on with Parallax, are they shifting everything to the micro:bit area. It looks like some big changes occurring at Parallax, at a very slow fashion.
Ray
Now that it is official, is their a replacement for the Activity WX board in the works. Any early hints to what that could be, and what it would look like.
Ray
Parallax encouraged me to use the FLiP module with the FLiP protoboard. That's a good start, but breadboard space, ADC, and an XBee socket must be added if needed. I'm designing a PCB that fits on the Activity Bot and has all these features. The old "Propeller Platform" will plug in on the bottom.
The key things for me, when using the Activity WX board, the ADC, and the WiFi. Of course you have to have Simple IDE to use all of these things in a simple fashion.
I tried using the Flip as the main component, but I had lots of problems trying to implement an ADC, let alone the WiFi. Since I am a big fan of Simple IDE, I would like to have available components that would be directly accessible with Simple IDE C language. I guess maybe this is to much too ask for.
I think Parallax is giving up on supporting C, and they are pushing micro:bit and micropython among other languages that can be used.
Ray
Ray- about FLiP and WiFi - it works really well with the latest SPIN Tools IDE. (and therefore I assume any wireless enabled IDE, including SimpleIDE)
This product was launched to demo FLiP with WiFi, and AFAIK the Downloads tab at that product page has some resources that talk about how it works, or how to wire up the WiFi successfully. If not, reach out to support or Ken, as they had some YouTube demos / etc... at the time.
https://www.parallax.com/product/flip-holiday-light-kit/
In short, to program via WiFi, you need FLiP + WiFi module with latest firmware. And if you want to be able to program via USB cable and WiFi at the same time, then you need one diode. That linked product should have all the details.
ps. Apologies to @PapaLev for the change of topic! We'll move this to a new thread if any other questions arise.
Sorry PapaLev, I did not mean to hi jack your thread.
Since I did not get any indication for an Activity WX board replacement, it is either top secret or their is no replacement. Since PapaLev is creating his own board, I guess their is no replacement. That is to bad, the Activity WX board was a quick and dirty setup for some quick experiments.
I checked my storage boxes and found one Activity WX board, plus I have one that I just completed an experiment with. I guess I have to make absolutely sure that I do not damage them. I am not sure about going with the FLiP module again, I am at a point where I just want to plug and play and program. That means I do not want to plug in an ADC chip then they figure out the wiring plus create my own code for the ADC usage. I guess it is time to rethink where I am going with all of this.
Ray
Hi Ray. No worries about hijacking! I appreciate the off ramps because it makes me think about other other points of view.
I am not sure what the next step is, and what is best for the kids. But, with a full classroom, I want things to be consistent and not have to deal with "this board" or "that board". The board I am working on will be plug-and-play, probably using the mcp3202, so BlocklyProp will work OK with it. XBee is easy and servo ports are easy, but I'll need to look into the WiFi module because I've never used it.
Until Parallax comes up with suitable replacement, would you like to collaborate on the board I'm working on, or something else that is suitable ? If you could send me a PM we could get this going.
September is coming too soon and I wasn't ready for this surprise.
Rich
A few years back I was experimenting with the WiFi and the Activity Bot. Since I am a big fan of Simple IDE, the use of WiFi was relatively simple. With the WiFi I had made a WEB page and was able to control the bot via any suitable browser. The only problem was, because you are operating it remotely, you had no visual as to where the bot was going. I was trying to figure out a way of using a Raspberry Pi camera with the bot, but that was getting to be way to complex for the small bot. If Parallax was able to get a Raspberry Pi camera to work directly with the Activity bot , that would have been great.
Simple IDE is C based. I see you mentioned BlocklyProp, you might want to consider exposing your students too a higher language. Doing a remotely controlled WiFi Activity Bot might work for you. The other small WiFi project I did was an Activity board with a BME680. Just a few ideas for you to consider if run out of things to do.
Ray