My Parallax Experience

[MicroNut]

I thought since most of the people here have had experience with Parallax as either a hobbyist or employee I would share my hobbyist experience with them.

It started back in 2012 when my friends Terry and Jim from the Microcontroller SIG of the computer club I was attending, told me about OBC's first Unofficial Propeller Expo. I went with them received a Protoboard and met Chip Gracey. Chip's talk about the P2 he was working on got me very excited about the Propeller.

As I looked into it more I found that they had a forum with a Gaming subgroup. Also the back page of Nut and Volts had ads about the Propeller and how to it put the fun into microcontrollers. I went to OBC's other OBC expo and later on some meetups OBC had at his shop in Ohio. I bought boards from Parallax, Spin Studio, Gadget Gangster and Propeller Powered.  When Radio Shack started selling Parallax products I made regular trips to get stuff. I also bought every book I could on the Propeller. I was all in and if anyone asked I would mention the Propeller was the best place to start in microcontrollers. It was definitely a FUN microcontroller.

Then things started to change. Parallax decided to throw their hat in the industrial world. So they shutdown the gaming subgroup, changed their ads and started identifying the Propeller by its part number. I assumed those moves were so the Propeller would be taken seriously and not as a fun microcontroller. I wasn't too happy but still was excited about the P2 even though I was getting tired of hearing the "It will be out next year" every year.

I found this website which rejuvenated my interest in the Propeller, thank you Chris. But OBC's, Beau Schwab and Chris's experiences with Parallax were nails in the coffin for me. By then my own opinion was the P2 was just vaporware since it had never came.

The final nail was when the P2 softcore came out. The forums seem to become an exclusive P2 club which required the purchase of a $300+ FPGA board to join. Also P1 stuff become less available to buy, which I assume was because the P2 development costs was draining their funds.

I totally lost interest in Parallax. With the Arduino and Raspberry Pi gaining popularity I felt the ship had sailed for Parallax and moved onto the Arduino and Raspberry Pi. When I finally heard the P2 came out I was curious but when I saw the price I was not interested in spending that much for it.

At our meetup, Jim, who was also a big Propeller fan sold me his lightly used Prop2 Module Version A, Prop2 Breadboard and Accessory set for a price I couldn't refused. I got some additional accessories and once again excited about the P2. But my excitement has soured a little. The documentation is lacking (No official Spin document) and now the getting onto the forum is like hitting the lottery with all the 504 gateway errors. It is frustrating. Once again Parallax seems to be dropping the ball.

I do like that P2 is the only open source microcontroller and it has smart pins so I'm not willing to quit on the P2 just yet. But I learned it is better to get involved with microcontrollers that are well established across the internet and have hardware standards like the Arduino header. If someone asked me today which microcontroller to start with it would definitely be the newest Raspberry Pico.

That is my experience with Parallax. What's yours?

[JKnightandKARR]

Myself, I haven't done anything with the P2, the dovumentation is kinda confusing to me. As far as Parallax goes, I've not been on for quite sometime, probly before any of the BS2 series got removed.

[Chris Savage]

I had been into the BASIC Stamp 2 line since 2000. I did some commercial work as well. Parallax was so impressed with my support participation in their Yahoo Group (they didn't have a forums yet) and my website, that they offered me a job. It took me over a year to realize they were serious (I lived in NY at the time). During the 12 years I was there, things were like a roller coaster. So many people came and went. So many products came and went. I really liked the Propeller, and while I was there, it had come down in price.

But right after they laid me off (early 2017), many products were discontinued and prices started rising. So many people disappeared from the forums. I didn't touch anything Parallax for years, having had to sell off what I had left just to survive, an action which got me all but banned from their forums. So I moved on to the Arduino, which we had to work with there anyway. I was also working with the Raspberry Pi SBC.

I will admit that when the P2 finally came out in a kit with a dev board, I did buy one. I haven't used it once. Lack of documentation and the years of lack of participation on the forums took it out of me. I still have the kit I bought, but I have used the accessories in other things and haven't powered it up once to see if it even works. Not sure if I ever will. Parallax is a shadow of what it once was, and I can't help but think about something Dave Jones said in The Amp Hour podcast many years ago while I was working at Parallax.

When the P1 came out, Dave was asked what he thought of it. He said he thought it was a novel idea (paraphrasing here), but that he wouldn't take it seriously for commercial design. He didn't have faith in the company being around in the future and I believe he called Parallax a, "Fly by Night" company. At the time I was appalled at the comment since Parallax had already been around for so many years while others had gone under.

However, irony is not without a sense of humor. I really do question the longevity of the company now. Because of that, I have avoided getting into the P2 for fear it may not be available in the future. I'd hate to hedge my bets on a company that gave me glowing reviews and told me I'd be there for life, then pulled the rug out from under me in the wake of losing my wife. That's a difficult thing to get past and, looking at the state of them now, it seems logical.

P.S. - I can't speak for why hundreds of people I knew from the Parallax forums are gone, not to be heard from again, but I have a good idea.

[Jeff_T]

This is all so true, I am still logged on with Parallax because I could not get back in to log out from two days ago.

I used to live and breathe Parallax and the Stamp and I tried to get into the Prop (Chris even gave me a P1 PDP way back when) but Spin was too unique for my liking and my hobby. Over time it seemed the P1 & P2 got more serious and so did the forum members and it took the edge off my experience. When they introduced C for the P1 that was interesting but micropython and forth for the P2 left me disappointed.

I have three P2 edge boards and the edge PDP with the accessories but hardly ever get it out of the draw. But still, the over a decade of involvement with the Parallax forum was enjoyable and memorable and I made friends with a few people that have the same interests. I still check in at least once a week.

I found ESP32 and recently Pi Pico much more economical and with many more resources, Savage circuits is one of those resources and is diverse enough to hold my interest. I don't log in here very day but I do visit usually at least twice a day.

[Chris Savage]

I too have had issues getting into the Parallax Forums. Looks like this has been recently discussed there.

Thread: What is wrong with the Forum?

I get irritated by threads like this. Looks like I'm not the only one.

[JKnightandKARR]

I too have had issues getting into the Parallax Forums. Looks like this has been recently discussed there.

Thread: What is wrong with the Forum?

I get irritated by threads like this. Looks like I'm not the only one.

WOW..... That's an interesting layout.... I am confused by that Waitcnt thread?..... Looks like they are too. lol

[granz]

I get irritated by threads like this. Looks like I'm not the only one.

It is also irritating to me. On ZappMan's site, JDisme apparently got angry about something (https://zappbots.altervista.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=453,) and deleted all of his posts. It's pretty rude to delete stuff where he posts helpful info and suddenly it is gone. People need to grow up - just because someone disagrees with you politically does not mean that you should hate them.

[Chris Savage]

It is also irritating to me. On ZappMan's site, JDisme apparently got angry about something (https://zappbots.altervista.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=453,) and deleted all of his posts. It's pretty rude to delete stuff where he posts helpful info and suddenly it is gone. People need to grow up - just because someone disagrees with you politically does not mean that you should hate them.

Yeah, that's exactly what it was about too. And sadly, he was made at me, so why do that to everyone else? His websites are all gone anyway, as far as I can tell.

[doggiedoc]

It is also irritating to me. On ZappMan's site, JDisme apparently got angry about something (https://zappbots.altervista.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=453,) and deleted all of his posts. It's pretty rude to delete stuff where he posts helpful info and suddenly it is gone. People need to grow up - just because someone disagrees with you politically does not mean that you should hate them.

Yeah, that's exactly what it was about too. And sadly, he was made at me, so why do that to everyone else? His websites are all gone anyway, as far as I can tell.

You never know what someone is going through personally, but there is a lot of petty behavior these days on most forums it seems.   Probably something to do with veiled anonymity. 

Happens in person too:  at one of the brewpubs I enjoy going to, there was this one "friend" I always enjoyed chatting with.  He's a techie nerd kind of guy and pretty knowledgeable it seems.   His political views are the polar opposite of mine but I don't have a problem with that because I just don't engage in those conversations.  One of the bartenders asked him to stop with the political comments one day and he got pissed, left and has never been back.

Go figure.

Doc   

[Chris Savage]

Happens in person too:  at one of the brewpubs I enjoy going to, there was this one "friend" I always enjoyed chatting with.  He's a techie nerd kind of guy and pretty knowledgeable it seems.  His political views are the polar opposite of mine but I don't have a problem with that because I just don't engage in those conversations.  One of the bartenders asked him to stop with the political comments one day and he got pissed, left and has never been back. Go figure.

I'm saying this in a completely politically neutral stance; our country has never been more divided since the civil war era. Seems we've come full circle and that is sad, indeed. 

[doggiedoc]

Yep, sad.