SXList embedded ethernet starter contest.

For the new year, my goal is to get YOU involved in SX development especially if:

• You have worked with other microcontrollers and are looking for something
  • a bit faster ( 50-100 MIPS Not just MHz, MIPS!),
  • where you can watch it run (on-chip ICD),
  • and crank out new solutions with the same hardware (virtual peripherals).
• You have time but not necessarily money. Students, mature kids, hobbiests, retired persons and devoted computer enthusiasts. SX processors are one of the lowest cost systems to get started with where you actually get a complete and professional development environment.
• You like to learn new things but don't necessarily know anything about computers. There is no better way to learn than to just get started...

To make that happen, starting in January 2002, I will:

• Give away at least one development system a month to the most deserving applicant (in my humble opinion) who has written an original SX program and is ready to debug it.
• Give away Ethernet SX Stack Evaluation Kits like the ones used in the SX FAST EMBEDDED ETHERNET contest to anyone who presents me with source code for an SX stack application that is ready to debug on the eval kit.
• Answer questions, provide resources and make suggestions as needed... just post using the form below and be sure to check back or include an email address.

What do you have to do? Just send me code...

Current Entries:

November

Entries: NONE

October

Entries:

• Simon Armstrong has entered his PC Keyboard and mouse interface to the Play Station 1. This allows standard stuff to be used with this very powerfull and low cost workstation (pretending to be a game box).

Winner: ....guess....

September

Entries:

• Alberto Geraci of BTX Sistemas says:

  This project use the Ubicom SX28 micro controller to made a digital reverb and echo effect from an audio signal. It is for beginners, that want to learn more about A/D conversion, read and write SRAM's and digital audio basics.

Winner: Alberto of course... how about some competition???

August

Entries:

• Phil says:

  Here's my submission for the SXList contest. It's an RS-232 humidity sensor. It's about 90% done and just needs debugging and a bit of extra code (bitbanged RS232). All relevant files are attached, assemble HUMID.ASM with MPASM. Add salt to taste :-)

Winner: Phil of course...

July

Entries:

• Randy Glenn says:

  My entry for the contest is an SX-based contestant lockout system, for 8-player, 2-team games, like Reach For The Top (where Alex Trebek got his start). It's like Jeopardy, but with 2 teams of 4 members each. One member answers the question by "buzzing in", at which point a tone sounds, their light lights, and everyone else is locked out.

  My system adds a twist - an auto-reset 4 seconds after the sound ends. This is due to my own experiences, where moderators forget to reset the board, and no one can buzz in for the next question.

  The code uses the RTCC interrupt to generate the tone, and the RB interrupt to detect when someone has buzzed in. I've designed it to run on a 4 MHz oscillator, in Turbo mode. Details on hardware connections are in the attached ASM file.

Winner: Randy of course... entering this contest is getting to be a sure thing...

June

Entries:

• George F Hotz Says:

  I entered in the ethernet starter contest, but I wasn't able to finish my code. I have been working with SX microprocessors for about a year now, but had some difficultly because I was never able to debug (I have the SX-Blitz). When I saw this contest I decided to write a keyboard interface for the SX.(There are plenty for the PIC, but none for the SX) I wanted it to write to an LCD the keyboard scan code. (Maybe later it will support Ascii or a TV Out) For info on TV-Outs see NTSC TV for the SX.

Winner: Duhh!

May

Entries:

• Aquarium Monitor V1.0 by Mike Woods. Designed to grab the temperature and pH of an aquarium and send the data to a PC via serial port. The PC then inserts the data into a database where the data can be graphed and viewed from the web. I would like to skip the serial step and have the SX directly insert data on my webserver. Listed below is the link to the code and the PCB schematic zoomed out to make it easier to view. All done for 1206 surface mount components. Eventually I will make the SX itself surface mount with connectors to program directly. More information on that will be available soon.

Winner: Ummm, with only one entry, who do you think won!

April

Entries:

• www.geocities.com/bmwbmwfan/contest.html (cached 20020423)
  Hi I am interested in you reviewing this for you contest. I am interested in the idea of microcontrollers and the SX28 seems so cool right now. At 19 it seems like I will be ahead of the class if I can start learning how to use this stuff now. I also saw the ubicom ip2022 and that looks even better than the sx but I think my time may be best spent learning the simpler one right now. I do really like the idea of being able to incorporate ethernet into a project. That just seems like it would literaly oopen up worlds to me. I realize that my project is sort of "reinventing the wheel", I know that ubicom already provides info on motor control, I haven't tried theirs yet but I think mine might work pretty well.
• SX On-hold messaging switch The SX On-hold Messaging switch device adds a level of flexibility to any company that has a PBX and wants to add Message or music on hold features, they would be able to play different music or messages depending on which external telephone line a call is on; +
• SX Weather StationThe Station is designed to include Wind-speed and Direction, A Temperature sensor, a Barometric-pressure sensor, a Humidity sensor, and a Rain-guage sensor. It is intended to be built as a portable module to link up to an Ethernet cable and place on the porch (for example). This would give the User a quick reference to outside weather conditions (via an indoor PC), and allow the User to upload (to a File, Database, etc) continuous Weather Data throughout the Day/Month/Year/etc. The User could then project Daily/Seasonal/Annual/etc Graphs for his/her local Weather.

Winner: All the entries this month are excellent and I've declared a 3 way tie. I'm sending Ethernet Demo Boards to all three contestents and one box also has an SV-TEHS SX-DEV DEBUGGER. The packages were shuffled so luck of the draw will decide who gets it.

March

Entries:

• John Coleman [jlsilicon at yahoo.com] has entered his "ROV - Remote Operated Vehicle" entry with game boy camera and motor controller circuits ready to add to the Ethernet Demo board. His code looks ready to debug with the embedded web server and will allow remote operation from any web browser! Just add an 811.12 wireless ethernet adapter and John will have a true virtual presence from the internet.

Winner: Ummm, with only one entry, who do you think won!

February

Entries:

• Timothy Stranex [perspex at dream.za.net] send along his "first ever microcontroller project." Digilight
   
  It "...changes the intensity of 6 lamps using pwm, the pwm values are changed through an rs232 port. The lamps could be coloured Red, Green and Blue and create some nice colour sequences for discos (and for my imax-in-house project)." Timothy hopes to expand this project into the Ethernet demo board
   
• Guenther Daubach sent a very nice "description and the source code for a Morse code keyer using an SX 28 device."
   
  Guenther is obviously a pro and admits that he is writing a book on the SX chips for publication later this year. I'll be looking to buy a copy when it comes out if it has more projects like this on in it! He says he want to win the debugger to give it to a student of his. Lucky guy.
   

Winner: Timothy Stranex. Tim  has one SV-TEHS SX DEBUG and an SX Ethernet Demo on the way.

In the works:

• M. Adam Davis [adavis at ubasics.com] says

  What I'd like to create is a smart terminal, with power over cat5. At minimum the terminal would consist of a simple keypad and LCD for direct user interaction. Ideally it would also have IR input, a microphone, temperature sensor, and speaker. Depending on physical resources it would also have some sort of expansion connecter (single wire serial, for instance) to connect door, window, ir, and other sensors.

  That should all be possible, but it may be a lot of work... I hope to help this great idea get completed one step at a time.
   

• Keith Christopher [keithc_21211 at yahoo.com] is working on "a device that will monitor two server type machines remotely and report back the i/o to a log server" He has already done something like this with serial ports only on the PICs, but wants to extend it to Ethernet.
   
  The Ethernet demo board is a great start, and since he is able to use UDP only, there will be lots of room for code in the SX 52 after the SX-Stack. Waiting to see the code.

January

Entries:

• the Bindicator remote display by Timothy L. Hosey
• http://sx.bigdaddymike.com BigDaddyMike has started on a VTEC controller. VTEC makes another set of cam lobes activate so the engine can get more AIR/FUEL. Nice flowchart, waiting to see code.

Winner: Timothy L. Hosey. Tim has one SV-TEHS SX-DEV DEBUGGER and an SX Ethernet Demo on the way.

Interested:

Questions: