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The Hardware
The Propeller Education Kit is the hardware platform for the program, containing everything a student needs to get started except a 9V battery and a PC. Students begin by building and testing the foundation Propeller circuit with a P8X32A-D40 chip, regulated 3.3V and 5V power, power indicator LED, external crystal oscillator, reset button, 32 KB EEPROM, and Prop Plug for programming via a PC USB connection. A pin map sticker for the Propeller DIP chip greatly facilitates accurate wiring. The components are also sold separately as the Propeller DIP Plus Kit.
Once the setup and testing is complete, students use the additional electronic components in the kit to build the circuits shown in the Propeller Education Labs. This collection of resistors, LEDs, capacitors, potentiometers, photoresistors, op/amp, A/D converter, and piezospeakers was chosen to allow for a wide range of common common circuits while keeping a student's budget in mind. These componets are also sold separately as the PE Kit Project Parts.
The high-quality breadboard platform was chosen for this program to maximize the prototyping area and access to I/O pins, which allows the students to fully explore the capabilities of this multiprocessing chip. When students have a fully designed and tested application they wish to make permanent, they can move it to the Propeller Proto Board, an inexpensive PCB with a surface-mount P8X32A-Q44, regulators and power jack built in.
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