Run-Time Configuration

[DougLowe]

Hi everyone! Hope all the prop programming is coming together now that we're down to the wire!

The one thing I wish I could or would take the time to endow my props with is more run-time configuration.

For example, I never know quite how long I want to delay between the trigger (eg PIR detecting movement) and the effect (eg pop-up a creature). Inevitably, when I get the entire scene together, I realize that the timing is wrong. But by then, the controller board is burried deep in the scene, and getting to it for reprogramming is a pain in the butt.

Next year I should probably incorporate a pot into the design, and mount the pot somewhere that is easily accessible -- at least to me -- not to the victims:)

Another thought I had is that my Prop-1 usually has six unused pins. I use 7 for serial to the I/O boards and 0 for the PIR, but 1 through 6 are just sitting there. Couldn't I hook up a DIP switch to those pins, mounted externally, and read the PIN status to determine run-time settings?  That might be just about as useful as a POT, or maybe more because I could use it to control multiple settings within the program.

I

[JonnyMac]

Or you could use header shunts like those used on the SETUP jumpers.  The ULN acts like a pull-down so you could put a shunt between the Px.W and Px.R pins to make the pin read as a "1"  With six IO pins you could read between 0 and 63; like this:

  config = PINS & %00111111

The second value masks out the Sio and Trigger pins.