Propeller Platform Prototyping Board Gets An Upgrade

October 19, 2010 by Mike Szczys 13 Comments

[Nick] over at Gadget Gangster has a new version of his prototyping hardware for Propeller microcontrollers, called the Propeller Platform USB. A little more than a year ago we looked at the last version which was larger, used a DIP processor, and came unassembled. The new version does come assembled because of the migration to surface mount components (which may take some of the fun out of it if you just love soldering kits). This not only reduces the board footprint, but makes room for more goodies. As the name implies, there’s now a mini-USB socket with a USB to UART bridge, a microSD card slot as been added, and the onboard EEPROM has been doubled. This is a nice hardware upgrade but the price has been upgraded by $25 as well. No worries, it’s open source so you can roll your own if you have the parts on hand.

Homemade Music Player

October 17, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 20 Comments

Sadly, this pocket mp3 wav player doesn’t come close to the capabilities of even an iPod generation 1 yet, but you have to give [Owen] props for making it in less than 24 hours. The system consists of a Propeller MCU (cleverly wired to be swappable with “shields” similar to Arduino systems), SD card for song storage, and an LM386 for audio. While the setup is a little dull, and only plays through songs non stop with no controls whatsoever, it certainly is a good start in the right direction for a cheap and simple portable music player. Of course some planned changes are in the works, include an accelerometer (gesture based controls?), etched PCB, docking station, and a case. We’re surprised there is no form of screen planned, considering Owen appears to have a rather good handle on touch interfaces; perhaps he’s waiting for revision 3.

Turtles All The Way Down, 40 Propeller MCU Skyscraper

October 8, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 29 Comments

Why bother interconnecting 40 Propeller microcontrollers one on top of the other? For the power that comes from parallel processing of course! [Humanoido] put the setup together for a total of 1280 ports, 640 counters, and more all running at 6.4 billion instructions per second for the low low price of 300-500$ by our count. The “skyscraper” even comes complete with software and schematics, promising developers the ability to expand or adapt for any venture. Why would we need such a setup in the first place? For any of the following: vision tracking/modification, artificial intelligence, advanced robotic control, or more.

Related: [Humanoido] loves putting MCUs together, check out one of his other creations the Basic Stamp supercomputer.

[Thanks Logan996]

Spirograph Generator

July 23, 2010 by Mike Szczys 8 Comments

The Agnewgraph I can turn out a pretty nice Spirograph drawing. Instead of relying on meticulously acurate CNC hardware, it uses a Spirograph stencil similiar to that business card we’re so fond of. The key to the [Mpark’s] design is an analog joystick which is attached to the pen. As the pen follows the plastic guide around, a Propeller microcontroller calculates the angle of travel based on that joystick. These measurements are used to decide how to move the two stepper motors that provide horizontal and vertical motion to the frame. We’ve attached a video after the break just in case our rough description didn’t do it for you.

Continue reading “Spirograph Generator” →

Morse Code Clock

June 22, 2010 by Mike Szczys 14 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQwGw0s2qAc&w=470]

[Johnny Carlo] put another spin on clock displays with his Propeller-based Morse Code clock. He repurposed a tap light, using the tap function as a switch input and actuating the bulb inside with the help of a transistor. If you want to know the time just give it a tap and the device will transmit back to you in a series of flashes. This is great if you’re contemplating a career as a Navy Signalman or just need another way to practice Morse Code.

[Thanks Mike]

Talking Clock Sounds Just Like You

May 23, 2010 by Mike Szczys 18 Comments

[vimeo=http://www.vimeo.com/10852914]

We’d bet a large portion of our readers don’t remember when you could call the phone company and get the time of day. Gadget Gangster is bringing back the tried and true method with this talking clock. Just press the button and the ‘operator’ will read the time of day to you. Record your own voice and place the WAV files on an SD card, from there a Propeller chip takes care of the rest.

As a side note, we’re big fans of the method used to breadboard the power supply using the TO-220 package leads as their own jumpers. We’ve always been partial to using a breadboard regulator on a PCB but this method is simple and takes almost no space at all.

Internet Radio Player Wins Propeller Design Contest

April 5, 2010 by Mike Szczys 33 Comments

It’s got a NIC, a remote, a character display, and can record and play back streaming audio. Thumper is [Harrison Pham’s] contest-winning Internet radio player.His finished board is roughly the same size as the 16×2 character display and piggy-backs the device for a small form-factor. It can be controlled via an infrared remote control, or through a remote web interface. Source files are available from the link at the top, but the really juicy details are included in the shockingly comprehensive PDF writeup.

The photo above is a bit misleading. The board has a micro SD slot on the back even though a USB card reader is shown. This project would need USB host control for Propeller chips in order to use that reader. Don’t forget to check out some of the other submissions to the the contest once you’ve had your fill of this one.

[Thanks Drone]