Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by wayne garris on January 5, 2008 at 9:52am

well its actualy two languages , spin & assembly. spin is object oriented and i find it easy , but the assembly language runs much much faster and has way more "power" but requires a good understanding of the mechanics of processers. assembly is of course directly translateable into binary.

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Permalink Reply by James Hall on January 5, 2008 at 11:33am

Does the propeller, with its COGS, allow parallel processing?

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Permalink Reply by wayne garris on January 5, 2008 at 2:02pm

absolutly !! thats what makes it soooooo sweet you basically have 8 x 80mhz 32 bit processers that have some shared ram and other resorses and Kbytes of variable space . you should read up on it at parallax you can down load the compiler program and mess with it before you buy. they also have an extensive forum on stamp and prop ICs. i personally love it and have had some success at it . .I am very excited about the Kalmn filter object that just came out should be getting an imu next week.i am going to start a blog on a ap using the prop and i will post some code

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Permalink Reply by problah on January 5, 2008 at 3:09pm

James,
so far from what I can tell spin looks inline with a little bit of C, and python. I'm still going through it though, but that's what it looks like to me. It's wierd, but it shouldn't be too hard to pick up.

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Permalink Reply by James Hall on January 6, 2008 at 6:56pm

Well..I printed out the Propeller Manual and read through it and it sounds like I will have to fork out some bucks for a propeller chip and board. Its a nice processor. Does anyone have an suggestions as to which chip and board would get me into this chip for the lowest cost?

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Permalink Reply by problah on January 6, 2008 at 8:26pm

The proto board would be the one I would get. As long as you're not afraid of a little soldering, it should be fine.

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Permalink Reply by James Hall on January 7, 2008 at 9:01am

Is this the board your were referring...seems to me like a great value!


Propeller RPM Board

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Permalink Reply by problah on January 7, 2008 at 9:18am

Actually this one, it's cheaper, and has the same chip in a 40(44?) pin assignment.

Proto Board

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Permalink Reply by James Hall on January 7, 2008 at 9:24am

Yea..I saw that one, but the RPM board already has a serial connector, what does the 44 pin vs 40 give me? 4 extra PINs?

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Permalink Reply by problah on January 7, 2008 at 9:37am

Maybe weight (As the serial proto has rca out, and serial, etc, and the USB proto doesn't)
The USB proto has 64K eeprom, while the Serial proto only has 32K.

USB has 3.3, or 5 volt options, while the serial looks to only have 3.3v. The regulator can output 500mA on the serial vs 1.5amps on the USB.

I think the USB one is cheaper because you've got to spend some loot on the usb plug. 0]

Otherwise, it's completely up to you. I find the USB board a little more updated over the serial, and I'm also looking at this as an install and fly board.

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Permalink Reply by paul hubner on January 11, 2008 at 10:02am

James,

I have found SPIN to be straigh forward to learn and quite capable. I refer to the manual all the time for syntax and usage examples, but mostly I ask on the Parallax forums. They are REAL programmers with incredible experience and a fantastic community to share. I have learned the most from the members online.

There are many many libraries that people have posted. These 'legos' are easily fitted together into usable programs.

IO suggest that you download the latest Propeller Tool so you can read through some SPIN code with highlighting and easy library access. Its free at Parallax's site

Also, I recommend the Proto board - its about $25 and has what you need to get started. You'll also need the USB prop clip dongle for another $30 or so for programming, and the accessory kit is a good package ($15) with header pins and parts for video out. If soldering isn't your thing, the development board is ~$139 and has this preinstalled.

Keep us posted!
Paul
www.pnav.net

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Permalink Reply by James Hall on January 11, 2008 at 10:45am

Thanks Paul. I have done just that last week, read the manual, downloaded the programming IDE and I just today ordered the Spin Proto board and prop plug. :) Very excited to start working on this. It looks like SPIN is easy to learn as I am I a programmer by profession, my difficulty is more in how to program to pull in various states from sensors and so forth. But the forum and this site should help with that! I did buy some extra header pins for servo connectivity for now. No need for VGA, mouse or keyboard yet.

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