Dear SXers:

Today we launched a fabrication run for the SX Blitz (our SX programmer, sans debug). We decided to bring it back to our customers for the following reasons:

• Promotion for the Parallax SX product line
  
• Low-cost entry point for experimenters and education
  
• Relative ease of use for "BASIC Stamp style debugging" with SX/B's SEROUT command and Hyperterminal
  

Additionally, we are facing some mounting challenges obtaining a core component used in the SX-Key, which has forced this product into a firmware/hardware redesign. While we have four months supply of SX-Keys left, we anticipate a short period in which we will have no SX-Keys. The SX Blitz is like an insurance policy in this regard.

Sincerely,
Ken Gracey
Parallax, Inc.

That's great. I used a Blitz for a year or so until I thought I'd burned it out, and bought a Key. It turned out the Blitz problem was just a loose wire on my board; the Blitz was fine, so now I have and use both the Blitz and the Key.

Anyone who, like me, doesn't develop code using software debuggers, will find the Blitz to be just as good as the more expensive Key.

Minor warning - the Blitz and the Key are slightly different lengths. I designed one board with a header for the longer of the programmers, the Key, I think, and the Blitz had a hard time fitting in.

Now that the simulator is integrated into the IDE, the Blitz is a good (cheap) way to get started with the SX.
Bean.

One more point about the SX Blitz.

Peter Montgomery is developing a programming-only menu system on the SX-Key IDE so that SX chips can be easily programmed by non-trained production staff. The SX Blitz was often used for production programming or as a field tool by our customers in the past. The software additions plus the availability of the Blitz should help those with volume programming needs.

Ken Gracey
Parallax, Inc.

The Blitz should also be of great interest to educators.
For less than $50 they can have a microntroller programming workstation (assuming the already have the PC).
Students can write the SX/B code, test and debug it in the integrated simulator. After it works in the simulator they can use the Blitz to program an SX chip (or $10 proto board), and test the actual circuit.

With the USB logic analyzer and USB oscilloscope I "real" microcontroller development workstation would cost only a couple hundred bucks. I would have killed to have something like that when I was in school.

Bean.

Makes building Fluffy2 just an academic exercise.

Actually, with the Sx Blitz and the SX48/52 Proto Board, I can may get some of my extremely frugal Chinese friends finally to budge.