The September/October issue of “Robot” contains a well researched review about ViewPort- tagline: “A deluxe Propeller debugger in a sophisticated development environment”.  Here some extracts:

The new ViewPort Development Studio from Parallax delivers an industrial-strength debugger combined with a Spin editor and a large set of powerful data-analysis views.  As a full-time software engineer working with Microsoft Visual Studio, I have been spoiled by sophisticated commercial development tools.  For me, ViewPort delivers the same power to my hobby as I have when I’m working at the office.  That isn’t saying that using ViewPort is like being at work; ViewPort is a lot more fun.

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Most important, you can set breakpoints and single step your Spin program from this view.  This window is software engineer’s nirvana.

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Let me assure you that, with very little effort, you’ll be able to make immediate use of ViewPort’s basic debugging feature.  To help you learn, ViewPort includes a great manual and many source-code samples and tutorials to help you master each capability.

Thank you Steve!  Past issues of Robot are available online at: http://botmag.com

I’m very excited about my new project- 12Blocks!

Here’s an early screenshot:

This shows 12Blocks’s main interface, consisting of:

* a top row of main actions
* a library of “blocks” on the left, organized into 10 categories
* the “program” sheet where you snap together blocks to create your program
* and the output pane where you can view the live spin code, your variable’s live values, a graph of them, or the status of the io pins

The programmer does not have to worry about cogs, objects, or the associated initialization/data/variables required for each object. You can change a program’s parameters as it’s running. 12Blocks manages the complexity of polling for events such as key/mouse clicks and starting up cogs.
Spinner is ideal for anyone starting out with the Propeller- it makes it easy to take full advantage of all the Propeller’s capabilities. Transitioning to programming in spin with the Propeller Tool is easy as 12Blocks continually shows you the generated code and it opens/saves regular spin files.
A perfect hardware complement is the Propeller Demoboard to let you:

* drive a robot with servos
* draw graphics for vga/tv
* react to keyboard/mouse
* communicate with a terminal
* output music tones, wav files, record and play back sounds, and synthesize speech
* interface with sensors like the PING and a compass
* perform input/output on the pins: measure frequency,pulse, count edges…

Coming Soon!

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Spinner makes it easy to do anything with the Parallax Propeller!
It’s still under development, here’s an early screenshot:

This shows Spinner’s main interface, consisting of:

• a top row of main actions
• a library of “blocks” on the left, organized into 10 categories
• the “program” sheet where you snap together blocks to create your program
• and the output pane where you can view the live spin code, your variable’s live values, a graph of them, or the status of the io pins

The programmer does not have to worry about cogs, objects, or the associated initialization/data/variables required for each object. You can change a program’s parameters as it’s running. Spinner manages the complexity of polling for events such as key/mouse clicks and starting up cogs.
Spinner is ideal for anyone starting out with the Propeller- it makes it easy to take full advantage of all the Propeller’s capabilities. Transitioning to programming in spin with the Propeller Tool is easy as Spinner continually shows you the generated code and it opens/saves regular spin files.
A perfect hardware complement is the Propeller Demoboard to let you:

• drive a robot with servos
• draw graphics for vga/tv
• react to keyboard/mouse
• communicate with a terminal
• output music tones, wav files, record and play back sounds, and synthesize speech
• interface with sensors like the PING and a compass
• perform input/output on the pins: measure frequency,pulse, count edges…

I gave a “Tech Talk” at Google about the projects I’m working on: ViewPort, the premier debugging tool for the Propeller, DanceBot, an interactive vision guided balancing robot, and PropScope, a multi-function usb oscilloscope/logic analyzer/function generator to be sold at retail for $199. See here for the video and here for my slides.

Talking about ViewPort/PropScope/DanceBot at Google

I’ve been busy giving talks and demos of my projects at Silicon Valley’s Homebrew Robotics Club, Willow Garage, Yahoo! and Microsoft.
Here are some Slides and Video

Pick up the March ’09 issue of Circuit Cellar or read the feature article here: Vision-Guided Robotics
A Next-Generation Balancing Robot DanceBot is still a prototype, but you can sign the waiting list here.

We’re proud to work with Parallax to bring ViewPort to a wider audience of electronic enthusiasts, educators, and professionals. Parallax is known for top quality electronic and robotic products- including the Boe-Bot, Basic Stamp, and more recently the multicore Propeller microcontroller.

Here’s some feedback from our users on ViewPort v4.1:

Several magazines picked up the Press Release:
Elektor, Servo, and Nuts and Volts.

During the Christmas Holidays, DanceBot balanced a flute of champagne (yes, it was filled!) on two wheels as part of an art exhibit. We had some accidents but DanceBot survived the ordeal. Read all about it

DanceBot balances flute of champagne

This week I released ViewPort version 4.  It’s taken 7 months of hard work since the last release, but I’m very happy with the result.  I want to thank all the people that helped in ViewPort’s development: Jen for the graphics, Andy for reviewing the manual and catching lots of bugs, my dad for his valuable insights and patience in testing dozens of builds, Harley and Mike for more testing and inspiration, and of course my mom and family for supporting me.  Take a look here!

My local robot club had a line-following theme the other night so I taught DanceBot to follow lines using computer vision. The video signal from a miniature camera is digitized and processed by DanceBot’s Propeller to guide it along a black line.