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Propeller Robot Controller

The Parallax Propeller Chip is one of the most exciting things to come around for the electronics hobbyist in a long time. With eight (8) 32 bit CPU cores on one chip, it offers possibilities that in the past could only be achieved by a nightmare of circuitry. The Shoppe at Wulfden is proud to offer the PRC a Propeller based board designed from the ground up with robotics in mind. But a design flexible enough to serve as almost any kind of controller or just a a platform for experimentation using Parallax's sexy new chip! Here's just a brief overview of what it has to offer.

• can simultaneously power and control up 28 servos or sensors (more if multiplexing ciruitry used)
• on board high current, 1.5A low drop out 5 volt supply and .5 A 3.3 volt CPU supply.
• on board power traces extra heavy to minimize power loss
• jumper selectors and a second set of terminal blocks allow a separate power supply for the servos
• Bank 1 (A0-A15) servo connectors can be powered separately from Bank 2 (A16-A27), each has the option of 3.3V, 5.0V or whatever is supplied by secondary connector
• The servo power bus has a 1000 uF cap on it to handle surges
• servo bank connectors are in groups of four with slight physical separation to allow room for many connectors
• Female socket headers provide access to Servo Bank 1 (A0-A15) as well as by the servo connector from ther breadboard area
• All the pins (00-27) have .100 socket headers set .3" apart for direct connect (wire jumper) or resistors (individual 1/4 watt or isolated resistor network dips). A final product board would leave out the headers and have jumpers, resistor, or resistor packs soldered directly in place
• All connectors come pre-cut ready to solder in place
• comes with a compete set of resistors in values 220 ohms (30), 330 ohms (15), 1Kohms (15), and 4.7Kohms(15), for easy interfacing any peripheral in 3 volt or 5 volt to the 3.3 volt system.
• We also offer the P1, which is a Propeller/Basic Stamp Programming Adapter. It is a simple and inexpensive RS232 based programming adapter using discrete componenets and will interface to any legacy serial port or any USB-to-Serial adapter that supports simple control of DTR. It is easy-to-plug in, easily removed and available in kit form as well as assembled and tested.

• There are available two PRC-IO boards, the PRC-TVIO and PRC-VGIO. They plug onto the board in the Servo Bank 2 (right side of chip (A16-A27) and provide an SVGA port and a PS2 Mouse and Keyboard port (PRC-VGIO) or a Composite Video, Simple Sound, Serial adapter and PS2 Mouse and Keyboard port (PRC-TVIO). Either board can be attached or removed in seconds, providing the ability to do local level debugging
• There is now an adapter kit to retrofit Rev 1.02 PRC boards to accept the new IO cards.The 1.02 board requires some simple modifications to accept the new boards. The kit includes a replacement for the 1000uF capacitor which must be removed and bottom mounted and a replacement for the 5.000 MHz crystal that is several mm shorter than the original and as several 1x3 .100 socket headers to use in place of the 2x3 socket headers that come with the PRC-IO kits.

The PRC is a board designed initially by Mark McCann for the Parallax Propeller chip. The current design is being managed and upgraded by Brian Riley

DOCUMENTATION A PDF format file containing pictures, parts layout, schematic,tips and ideas is now available. It is called The PRC v2.00 Builder's Notes (3.1 MB) and was last updated on Sun, 10 Feb 08 at 1819 hours.

The old Rev 1.02 Builder's Notes is available. It is called The PRC v1.02 Builder's Notes (1.4 MB) and was last updated on Sun, 10 Feb 08 at 1817 hours.

Russ Ferguson did up a Power Point presentation for v1.02 which I ran through Acrobat to make a compact PDF file. It is a collection of annotated photographs showing all the connections and jumper settings. A handy quick reference to the PRC and still valid through PRC 2. It is called The PRC Diagram Pub (3 MB) and was last updated on Sun, 10 Feb 08 at 1822 hours

All done ordering? Be sure to check out shipping surcharges

I could easily fill up a hard disk with all of the possible combinations for bundles. Look over the website and email me with a list of what you want and I will get back to you with a quote.