Activating Cowlacious Boards

[JonnyMac]

Note: This topic was lost in our original forums crash so I'm re-posting.

Carl's boards take an active-low trigger input.  On each board he uses a two-pin male header to which you can connect a button, switch, or shunt (for looping).  To connect to a Prop-1/2/SX you need to have common ground between the two boards; this is easy if you're powering Carl's board from the V+/GND terminals of your Prop-1/2/SX like we do.

If not, you must establish common ground; you can do this by connecting the GND terminal of the Prop-1/2/SX to the Ground side of the power supply input on Carl's board.  Be very careful when you do this as a cross connection could let out some blue smoke.  Once you have common ground then use one of the OUTx terminals to start Carl's board.  Let's say you wanted to use OUT0.  Connect this terminal to the trigger side of his input pins (one side will be connected to ground, the other side is the trigger). 

The code is easy -- this is the software version of pressing and releasing a button:

Start_Cowlacious:
  HIGH 0
  PAUSE 25
  LOW 0

... though you may want to use a symbol to rename "0".  Note that if you forget to that the pin back low the Cowlacious board could go into looping mode.

Here's picture of my demo setup with one of Carl's orginal boards (I just received a CAR/P-200 and will connect it shortly).

[CoffinBound]

Since Carl provides a small, 2 conductor cable with his boards for triggering purposes, is it possible to crimp pins onto this cable and connect it to the TTL pins for triggering the sound board?  If so, which two pins would you use? I would guess the R and B pins.

[JonnyMac]

Your guess would be wrong and you'd certainly let out the blue smoke if you used R and B.

WARNING: USE THE ADVICE BELOW AT YOUR OWN RISK

If you want to use the TTL side, which we DON'T recommend, you would need to use the W (trigger) and B (ground) connections -- do not connect R.  To leave the CAR/P alone you need to make the IO pin an input; to activate the board make it an output low.  Do not, under any circumstances, make it an output high.  And do not use the TTL connection unless you are providing power from the Prop-1 to the Cowlacious board (as I did above).

Define the audio control pin like this (use the pin #, not PINx):

SYMBOL  AudioStart      = 5 

Then code it like this:

  LOW AudioStart
  PAUSE 250
  INPUT AudioStart

That third line is absolutely critical; if you make the pin HIGH instead of an input you will probably damage one or both boards.  Okay, I think I have beaten my point into the ground.  In the end, just use the OUTx terminals and save yourself the possibility of breaking something.

[CoffinBound]

I understand your extreme words of caution.  In my haste to enter the last post, I left out what might be some important information.

What prompted my question was that I own the updated boards, and I noticed that there are not only trigger pins that are dry contacts, but also a set of trigger pins that can accept an array of voltages.  Are you willing to comment if this changes anything, or is the information you provided earlier still true for the newer boards as well?

I appreciate your knowledge and willingness to teach the rest of us.

[JonnyMac]

The devil is in the details... I just received a CAR/P-200 board about 10 days ago and now the 300 series is out; you didn't tell me which you had.  If you use the voltage input on the 300 series, yes, that changes things -- it does because the board has an opto-isolator on it that keeps things clean.

[BigRez]

Here's picture of my demo setup with one of Carl's orginal boards (I just received a CAR/P-200 and will connect it shortly).

Jon - what material are you using to mount the boards?

[JonnyMac]

That happens to be a sheet of black ABS -- we had that at Parallax.  ABS is soft (it doesn't crack easily) and easy to work with and you can often find it at local plastics stores.  If they don't have ABS then you can use 1/8" acrylic which is more stiff -- just be careful when you're drilling it as it can crack.

[mhein68]

That happens to be a sheet of black ABS -- we had that at Parallax.  ABS is soft (it doesn't crack easily) and easy to work with and you can often find it at local plastics stores.  If they don't have ABS then you can use 1/8" acrylic which is more stiff -- just be careful when you're drilling it as it can crack.

Has anyone found a source for 1/8" black ABS? I did a web search but didnt really come up with much... Maybe looking in the wrong places?? ???

[BigRez]

I too had a hard time finding a source, but found that 1/4" or 3/8" fiber board (mdf or monkey board?) works really well.  I can cut it nicely with my saws and drill it easily, and then put a nice coat of paint if needed.  Best of all it's very cheap and readily available at most hardware stores. I've built some with little "legs" using 1/2" strips running down the edges to raise the board off the mounting surface.

[JonnyMac]

If you're going to make a lot of panels you might consider laser-cut acrylic from Polulu.com -- this is what we use for our panels.  The accept a number of file formats for the design and the turn-around is really good.

[dacostasr]

Jon,

Can you hook up the chipcorder using say OUT2 and the (+) of the PROP 1 and leaving the jumper on the pins of the chipcorder to trigger it ?

I'm running a 24 volt wallwart.

Thanks

Dennis

[JonnyMac]

You need to be very specific about your Cowlacious board; Carl has more than one product and some of the newer ones are really easy to connect to the Prop-1/2/SX; just let us know what you have.

[dacostasr]

Cowlacious ISD® ChipCorder®Recorder / Player Board
2006 – V1 Computer


On the back it says CB-CAR/P100-A

Thanks again,

Dennis

[JonnyMac]

I can't find docs for (or a picture of) that particular board so you may want to give Carl a call.  I think, though, that instructions in this thread will probably work for you.

[reddragon]

Can you post a pic of the board that you have?