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Achievement Unlocked. Step one completed.

Entry posted by atari2600land August 15, 2013

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So I finally opened the little baggie the USB cord was in and hooked it up to my computer. Took a little while to find out how to do what I wanted it to. Took a while to figure out which USB Port was COM5. But then I uploaded a simple sample program in. After it uploaded it, I was able to push a button and make the LEDs light up. If I pushed the first one, the first light would light up, and so forth until the 8th and last one. I think I now know how to upload programs onto my Propeller chip. Step 2 is up now, and that is try and make a spin program of my own and learning the spin language. I want to make something useful, something more than lights flickering on a board. Is this possible with the thing I have?

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EricBall 239

Posted August 15, 2013

The quickstart has the buttons & LEDs for simple I/O. You can also use the same USB connection for serial I/O so you can have text I/O to the Parallax Terminal software. Then there's the header which provides direct access to all of the pins on the Propeller. This is where you will be connecting the Propeller to the Microvision LCD controller.

But before you do that, you need to learn to read Dan B's schematics, then spend some time probing the Microvision LCD controller with your mulitmeter to determine the input & output voltage levels. Your objective is to determine whether it will be easy / safe to connect the Propeller directly to the LCD controller or if you will need additional parts. (The Propeller has 3.3V inputs & outputs - connecting the Propeller to 9V will fry the pin.).