What it’s about
The Propeller microcontroller is a capable tool. It has 8 distinct processing cores (also called “cogs”) that can each run their own small programs. Many of the sensors you will learn about in future BlocklyProp tutorials use one or two of these cores to read values from the sensor and to prepare them for you to use in your program. You can use these extra cores too, and this tutorial will show you how.
Hardware needed
This set of lessons requires only your Propeller development board, its source of power, and its USB programming cable. It was written for the Propeller Activity Board WX in the BlocklyProp Starter Kit, but the Hackable Electronic Badges will also work fine.
Before you start
Complete the two tutorials below first, so you have a solid foundation for understanding these BlocklyProp Functions and Multicore tutorials.
After you finish
Upon completion of this tutorial, you will be ready to build more powerful and compact Blockly programs with your own custom-made functions, and run those functions in the multicore Propeller’s processors. You will also understand how other BlocklyProp blocks make use of the Propeller’s multiple cores, such as those for various sensors, which is helpful when building projects with lots of parts.
