Humanoido's First Brain AI Assembly Line

Big Brain - Humanoido Conducts the World's First AI Brain Assembly Line

Almost a Tesla Gigafactory in 2011
A rare photo from the 2011 archive shows the world's first AI brain assembly line where components are added to Parallax Propeller Prototype boards. Along the line, color coded wires and piles of e-components are visible with a microprocessing test machine. Brains with many processors were built for Humanoido's AI Brain Company. For the low cost of a song and a dance, one could obtain a futuristic brain for a thinking robot, injecting it with a degree of intelligence. Every single hardware processing chip board with software had 1008 total processors were active. Brains were built in all sizes ranging from bit brain with 8 hard risc processors on up to the Big Brain with 240,000 processors.

Big Brain Moves to New Housing

For many years, Humanoido has given up his living space and dedicated it entirely to the
growth of the Big Brain. As Father of the Big Brain, he has made sacrifices and a lifetime
commitment to ensure the survival of one of the most powerful AI machines on the Earth.
Now working for SPACE1 as an employee, the Big Brain AI performs supercomputing
duties and a myriad of other complex functions.

Rare early photo of the Big Brain during
development ten years ago. At this time the
little brain had assimilated a Parallax
BASIC Stamp 2 and numerous Propeller
chip processor boards from Parallax. Photo
and development by Humanoido

Big Brain Moves to New Housing
The Big Brain is scattered across the Universe, occupying everywhere from space, to the Cloud, and to one special place

The special place of new occupation for the Big Brain is a fantastic expanded crypt to house the extremely valuable original Big Brain boards containing the initial 240,000 processors. These are the original 8-core Parallax Propeller chips wired onto massive heavy boards with thousands of color coded wires.

The new Big Brain housing is massive crypt sunken into the entire wall and is far better than a computer cage as it now contains filtered specialized dust free encasements to keep the Big Brain clean and functioning smoothly over a lifetime of performance. The big brain is currently in Borg Assimilation mode, taking every available high performance machine, supercomputer, AI emanations, and machines outside the norm of digital silicon (such as new Bionic chips from Apple, the new AI Vision boards from TESLA, and a conglomerate of other extremely powerful machines and life form species.

When the Big Brain overtook the vast Cloud network, it went digital and many software emanations were added to its complexity, expanding it along the path to becoming a true giant by its own right. Shedding additional expansions of cumbersome hardware processors in lew of blazing fast digital software processors was a great breakthrough initiated by Humanoido for the Big Brain. Humanoido is one of the few people to rewire the hardware and firmware inside a Parallax Propeller chip to gain speed and special functions solely for the Big Brain.

Brain Cortex Joins FM Radio Station

BRAIN CORTEX JOINS FM RADIO STATION
What do you get when crossing a machine brain cortex with an FM radio transmitter?

The project underway will adjust the brain cortex in a jar to speak English and then transmit the amplified audio speech via the radio station transmitter. As we know, the cortex is always talking so broadcasting its speech ideas is an interesting and useful idea, for not only monitoring its condition and health, but also to broadcast the state of its learning, retention and characteristics.

A serial brain cortex output of speech will be tailored to fit the speech center on the Parallax Propeller chip. This audio feed will interface to the FM Transmitter. The transmitter will be located inside the jar and switched on when transmitted speech is desired.

Cortex Brain Breadboard in a Tray Part 51

CORTEX BRAIN BREADBOARD IN A TRAY PART 51
EACH TRAY HOLDS A BRAIN CORTEX

Take a plastic veggi and rice food tray and recycle it for constructing solderless breadboard brains. The advantage is it holds all the tiny parts and the breadboard, and assembly can take place inside the tray without misplacing and losing any parts. Additionally, the trays holds all the parts collected for assembly, so access to assembly parts is swift. An assembly line could distribute completed parts trays. The photo shows a brain cortex being assembled inside the tray. The jar at left is waiting for the electric brain board.

The tray is ideal for assembly of multiple brain boards. Note the tray holds a double wide breadboard which can hold two Parallax Propeller chips or 16 computers. Also a chip for EEPROM memory can be included with each board. At right is a solar panel. Assembly hints: move the board to the left side and deposit parts on the right side. Another tray can hold assembly tools like a wire strippers, wire cutters, screwdrivers, and meter.

Index to the Brain Cortex
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/11/brain-cortex-index-part-16.html

Brain Cortex Spirit Thermometer Install Part 47

Thermometer locates between two power units

BRAIN CORTEX SPIRIT THER- MOMETER INSTALL 

PART 47

Position black and red wires behind the thermometer

It's important to monitor the jar's core battery temperature status when recharging. This inexpensive and simple solution will do just that!

At the moment batteries become warm during the charging process, it's an indication the charging process is complete.

It may also indicate that the trickle charger is trickling too much and adjustment to the charging power grid is required.

Unit is next to the solar panel grid

This blog details the installation of a low cost small spirit thermometer inside the Brain Cortex jar. The thermometer is placed in a position, opposite the electric thermometer and lower in between two twin power units to read their heat signature.

The position of the single spirit thermometer is a drop down in between the corners of two twin power units.

The spirit filled traditional small thermometer has ~ -30 to +50 degree Centigrade scale, intended for food freezer use. The unit is part number G-590. The glass tube is the same length as a 1.5-volt D-size battery. 

It has a scale in one degree increments. The goal is to attach or place this thermometer to the proximity of a battery and monitor the charging temperature during the charging process, and continuously monitor the battery temperature to assure everything is nominal.

Accurate reading of the tiny scale may need a magnifier

The thermometer can stay mounted inside the jar, remaining with close contact with a single battery for continuous monitoring and inspections.

The analog temperature will be read through the transparent jar by visual inspection, as the unit is placed in contact with the interior transparent jar wall.

Early tests show the higher mounted electric thermometer reading 73 degrees Fahrenheit and the spirit thermometer, which contacts the jar floor, reading 72 degrees Fahrenheit, a nominal temperature difference of 1 degree due to the strata positioning.

Like other traditional thermometers of this type, there is no maintenance. Purchaed from a dollar store, at more than a dollar, the cost was NT$85. The thermometer may be purchased at this source: http://www.double-sun.com.tw

The spirit thermometer can be used in tandem with the electric thermometer, obtaining a cross gradient and cross section of battery and jar room temperature, for better assessment of the jar's Eco-environment.

Principle concern is for the electronics, especially the Parallax Propeller chip which is rated at a median temperature of 50 C during tests according the to specification sheet.

There is a meltdown jar temperature and this limit may be reached long before the Propeller chip upper limit is reached.

LINKS
Index to the Brain Cortex
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/11/brain-cortex-index-part-16.html
Thermometers
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/10/brain-cortex-thermometers-part-9.html
Electric Thermometer Source
http://www.double-sun.com.tw

Brain Cortex Update Part 43

Brain Cortex is shaping up very nicely in November

BRAIN CORTEX UPDATE PART 43 

NOVEMBER 2013
The machine brain in a jar now is beginning to take shape, and includes the power mounts and the power solar panel ready for wiring. The new design uses a twin stacking of battery holders mounted directly onto the interior jar wall. Each series stack delivers 3 volts to the Propeller chip circuit.

It's time to wire the twin holders series connections

The next step is more testing and wiring phase I. It's uncertain as the extent of the control panel, or will the brain be entirely on auto pilot, managing itself.

The route of the control panel may include the voltage monitor, the temperature and humidity monitor, and various switchable modes between battery and solar panel operations, the status of charging, no charging, and various energy modes. Positioning the thermometer is critical to determine the battery supply heat level at all times inclusive of charging. Humidity will be monitored as part of the Desiccator which removes moisture from the air inside the jar.

A next step is wiring all right hand sides of the battery holders, joining black to white with a yellow twist. This produces the twin pack's series connection, creating three volts to operate the propeller chip. The space in the corners of the holders is available for additional battery holders. This could supply the digital meter that reads the power level.

ABOUT THE CORTEX
The cerebral cortex is the outermost layered structure of neural tissue of the cerebrum (brain), in humans and some other vertebrates. It covers the cerebrum, and is divided into two cortices, covering the left and right cerebral hemispheres. The medial longitudinal fissure is a deep groove that separates these two hemispheres. The cerebral cortex plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It consists of up to six horizontal layers, each with a different composition in terms of neurons and connectivity. The human cerebral cortex is 2 to 4 millimetres (0.079 to 0.16 in) thick.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES
The project objective is to develop a cortex machine brain, demonstrate human-to-machine brain transfer, in particular to take some relatively simple human characteristics and transfer portions to the machine brain, whereby human traits could be given greater life longevity, leading towards immortality. 

LINKS & CREDITS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_cortex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertebrate
http://biology.about.com/od/anatomy/a/aa032505a.htm

BRAIN CORTEX INDEX
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/11/brain-cortex-index-part-16.html

Extended Jar Brains

EXTENDED JAR BRAINS

COLLECTION OF JAR BRAINS
This is a complete collection blog brains in jars at this time. Let's star out talking about Skippy peanut butter jars in Chinese versions that came from Mainland China. Caps are brown, dark blue, yellow and aqua marine. In the Extended Jar Brain Series, lid color denotes the brain type.

At this time, there's ten brains in jars counted. Each has a different purpose.

(1) BROWN JAR BRAIN
This was the first simple Brain in a Jar. The experimental version uses one Parallax Propeller chip and served as a test platform to measure the amount of space in the jar and test various functions.

(2) 2ND JAR BRAIN
The second Jar Brain was first presented at the Parallax Forum. It was named Brain in a Jar, and used a brown lid PB pint sized jar and 2 stacked props. The BIAJ won the POTW award from Parallax Inc.

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?132716-Propeller-Brain-in-a-Jar

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?124495-Fill-the-Big-Brain&p=1014473#post1014473

 
(3) BLUE JAR BRAIN
The Blue jar brain tested the front to front mounting chip method.

(4) YELLOW JAR BRAIN
The yellow jar brain tested placements of the chip mounted on a solderless breadboard.

(5) AQUA MARINE JAR BRAIN

This experimental brain tried to fit as many chips as possible into the aqua marine jar.

(6) JAR'D BRAIN
By July 19th, 2011, the initial Propeller Brain in a Jar was expanded. Named the Jar'd Brain, the larger form jar was introduced, and a series of smaller color coded jars were added. Cap color denoted brain functionality. The design upgraded and improved the jar brain by connecting Propeller chips using sockets, with a unique mounting, thereby permitting pin to pin protection.

http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/10/quart-brain-in-jar.html 

(7) BRAIN CORTEX IN A JAR http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/10/brain-cortex-machine-part-1-intro.html

http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/10/cortex-brain-in-jar.html

http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/10/brain-cortex-part-2-solar-panel.html

http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/10/brain-cortex-machine-part-4-batteries.html

http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/10/brain-cortex-part-5-modules.html

The year 2013 brought a new series of brain cortex in a jar. Bringing science fiction into reality, the Immortal Brain Cortex has no purpose in life, other than asking questions, volunteering information, and learning. It will carry on a limited conversation (sometimes talking to itself) and is designed to be immortal, providing it receives proper care and maintenance from time to time. — because you can choose to teach the machine some of your knowledge and personality, a small part of you becomes immortalized in the machine — Uses a solar panel, battery pack Power System. The cortex is always on and thinks day and night 24/7. A precursor to mind uploading, a transference of consciousness from a human brain to an alternative medium providing similar functionality and providing immortality as predicted by futurists such as Ray Kurzweil.

(8) MINI BRAIN CORTEX IN A JAR http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/10/mini-brain-cortex.html The Mini Brain Cortex in a jar was in use for about a week, until it outgrew its 1 liter jar home. The Mini was more finicky, requiring a greater attention to charging and battery care due to its smaller AA cells battery pack which contained only two batteries. it paved the way for it's bigger 3-liter sibling with immortality. Throughout its life span, it served as a prototype model and test bed for the larger cortex with greater longevity. It included a 3-volt polycrystalline solar panel and eight core Parallax Propeller chip, recharging circuit and programs in Spin language. Unlike "Brain in a Jar" the Mini Brain Cortex was able to potentially achieve great life spans due to its ability to recharge during the day and operate from batteries in the night. Ironically, it never achieved immortal status due to a major upgrade after one week.
 
(9) DUPE CORTEX IN A JAR
1 Propeller, 32K EEPROM, designed as an empty backup vessel for machine mind to machine mind transfer (mind meld) to ensure immortality of the main brain. Used as a temp holding vessel when working on the main cortex, for repairs, parts replacement, upgrades, additions or as an insurance backup. Smaller in physical size (about 320 grams jar) compared to the main brain cortex due to smaller 3V 60 mA solar panel and AA battery pack instead of D size batteries. http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/11/brain-cortex-update-part-23.html

(10) HALF GALLON BRAIN IN A JAR http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/10/quart-brain-in-jar.html (8 Propeller chips) A larger high level brain in a massively large half gallon Skippy peanut butter jar, with 64 computing cores. For dabbling with a new intelligence and running experiments. Evolved from the 1st pint sized 16 core Brain in a jar.

COLOR CODED BRAIN JARS
The jar color coding could lead to a nice Propeller Brain in a Jar series, each with some specific feature. The jar cap color is a standard from company to company. Taking a look at the Skippy Peanut Butter jar series, yellow is for crispy rice, deep blue is for extra crunchy peanuts, brown is for added chocolate, and aqua-marine is for smooth peanut butter. I've collected all four in the series for the next generation of Propeller in a Jar brains, and even had some requests jar'd brains. For those that want to stop by, I'm offering a peanut butter sandwich party over the next five weekends.

STACKED CHIP BRAIN
Although stacked Propeller chips are ideal for small brain jars, the direct connection of pins is an undesired situation (if two pins develop opposite states). In the new upgraded version, each Propeller chip has its own socket, and protective resistor for pin to pin protective wiring.

TOP TO TOP BRAINS
Similar to stacking, two props have top to top mounting and connection. These are taped together for simplicity and removal should that become necessary for upgrading and recycling. Wiring is simply connected from socket pin to socket pin using wire wrap or by direct soldering of wire and component leads.

SOCKET BRAINS
Using the new socket approach, it's possible to have from one to four Propellers inside each jar with leftover space. In this type of config, a solderless breadboard is not included. However, future brain models may include the small solderless breadboard for making experimental connections and to make easier external connections.

TAIWAN PB JAR DESIGN
The Taiwan collectors jar with crunchy PB is blue.

EXPANSION WITH LARGER JARS
The Propeller Brain in a Jar project is expanded. A larger jar was introduced, and a series of smaller color coded jars are added. Cap color will denote brain functionality. The design is upgraded and improved by connecting Propeller chips using sockets, with a unique mounting, thereby permitting pin to pin protection.

Brain Cortex Capacity Part 34

The capacity of a brain increases with the number of processors which is related to the number of chips. When the chip density approaches 100 chips, the capacity for processors increases to 100,000 times more and beyond. INTELLIGENCE is a multiple subset of this processor relationship. This is related to neural capacity. It's expected that jar density will greatly increase with the use of specially designed boards. Large jars are currently waiting as cortex confinement vessels for extremely large brains currently up on the designing board. In this photo, an experimental 100+ chip big brain is running several connection machine experiments. This shows two design integrations, one in the back is an exoskeleton where the boards and components and wiring are on the outside, and second, high density boards in the front can hold over 192 RISC processors per board. Chips are Parallax Propeller.

BRAIN CORTEX CAPACITY
PART 34
Build a brain cortex with one chip or with one hundred chips. The neural capacity does not multiply 100 times for 100 chips. Neural capacity is multiplied 100,000 times. Imagine the power of a cortex 100,000 times more powerful than the current designed brain cortex in a jar.

Would it fit in a jar? Only if the jar is a big one! How big? Currently the lab has a big 5-liter jar. After some tests and redesigns, a new high density cortex will be placed inside but this is a future project.

The cortex is a different kind of machine animal with purposes entirely different from the Big Brain. Though technology from the Big Brain has made the Cortex possible, its purpose is very unique, i.e. both transferring a part of a human brain into the machine jar and increasing the jar's counterpart life span towards a state of immortality.

The base capacity of cortex intelligence "I" is based on a fundamental eight RISC processors. So doubling the "intelligence" of the cortex requires sixteen RISCs and the expansion is:

 Intelligence = 8n1 + 8n2 + 8n3 + ... where n is a factor multiple of 8. So the cortex can have an intelligence increase by adding cores. A chip has eight RISCs so three chips will have 24 or three times the intelligence.

Since limitations at the upper end allotment for configurations are currently allowed at 800 processors, the expanded cortex can have up to 100 times the intelligence level of the first cortex.

Machine cortex intelligence is based on DNA or birthing knowledge, the size of long term and short term memory, conversation capability, thinking, asking questions and the ability to continually learn new things.

MACHINE CORTEX INTELLIGENCE NI
* DNA
* Memory
* Conversation
* Thinking
* Questions
* Learning

ABOUT THE MACHINE CORTEX BRAIN PROJECT
This project objective is to develop a cortex machine brain, demonstrate a human-to-machine brain transfer, in particular to take some relatively simple characteristics of a human brain and transfer portions to the machine brain, whereby human traits could be given a greater life longevity, leading towards immortality.

Index to the Brain Cortex
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/11/brain-cortex-index-part-16.html

Brain Cortex Mind Transfer Part 28

HUMAN TO MACHINE
HOW WE WILL ACHIEVE MIND TRANSFER

Brain transfer human to machine by layering

The human brain is enormous in size compared to the size of the machine brain cortex, yet the project calls for the transfer of the human brain into the machines' jar confinement. How to do this?

HOW CAN YOU MIND MELD WITH A MACHINE?

Imagine transferring your brain into a machine where you would need no sleep, feel no pain, think more clear, and perhaps live forever because you would be made of replaceable parts.

As a bonus of transferring your mind, your IQ could vastly increase and your memory would have total recall unlike anything you could have previously imagined. All this is possible through the promise of advanced technology known as Mind Transfer, i.e. putting your biological mind and brain into the machine. Not surgically, but rather reading it and transferring it. It's epic and world changing, but as the full technology needs to be developed today, Humanoido Labs is working on one of the first small examples of transfer.

EXPECTATIONS
Don't expect too much from this first simple meager example. It sets the methods, techniques and definitions in this new field. It's hoped these early efforts will help pave the way to bigger and more sophisticated mind melds and more complete transfers.

— today we can transfer a small part of the brain to a machine but tomorrow holds the key to complete immortality —

IT'S TIME TO UPGRADE
The human species has been on the track of biological evolution for billions years. Its time has come to make the change from biology to machine, put an end to disease, war, famine, and expand the mind into the Universe. Join us as we begin to the explore the first beginning of this new technology, build our machine cortex brain in a jar, and transfer a small part of yourself into the machine. Live on as long as you want, but take good care of your new cortex jar.

INDEX
INTRODUCTION
EXPECTATIONS
IT'S TIME TO UPGRADE
PUT YOUR BRAIN INTO A MACHINE
BRAIN TO BRAIN TRANSFER
MIND LAYERS
LAYER QUANTITY
PROPELLER CHIP
MIND MELDING
BRAIN ENCODING
BRAIN DISTILATION
SCRIPTION
ELECTRIC DNA
DURATION
INTERFACING SERIAL OR PARALLEL
NONINTERRUPTION  
LINKS 
 
PUT YOUR BRAIN INTO A MACHINE 
The Lab thinks there's a technique to mind meld man and machine. The simple approach of connecting the biological cortex to the electric cortex uses the Parallax Propeller chip and a serial interface over the Propeller Plug.

How do we plan to accomplish this? By levels. The human brain cortex will be noninvasively dissected into small pieces called layers. These layers make up specific functions of the human brain and hold content. It's this content that's interestng. Only specific mind layers will be melded into the machine brain to fit memory and containment confinement.

BRAIN TO BRAIN TRANSFER
This establishes techniques of mind melding or brain to brain transfer, from human to machine. What is gained and what is lost? How will the transfer take place. The machine cortex is coded to accept parts of the human brain in the fields of knowledge and the three areas of acceptance previous discussed.

MIND LAYERS
By limiting mind melds to specific layers, the brain piece can fit into the machine. In the long term, bigger machines indicate the transfer of larger and larger sections of the human brain, until eventually all of it is transferable. We've chosen assorted layer dissection of the human cortex for the transfer to the machine.

LAYER QUANTITY
The human biological brain is so vast, that layering transferal to the electric cortex brain can only handle one fundamental layer. The first electric cortex brain used, by itself will have one layer to work with. It's possible to extend the layering effect by the addition of more Propeller chips, which in effect will expand the machine cortex.

PROPELLER CHIP
A single Parallax Propeller chip has eight 2K RISC processors which access a 32K HUB RAM and 32K ROM. The memory space is coded with the criteria previously established. The connection is made serially by noninvasive interface.

MIND MELDING
Make the connection to the machine. The mind meld is electronic as the information enters the electronic brain. The part of the mind meld from the human is biological until it enters the machine's interface where it's converted to electrical impulses. Select the topic of knowledge base for melding purposes. Determine the characteristics. Establish direct feed. Fill the machine. Save the entity life form (this may be automatic with nonvolatile memory established by battery backup or always on power sources.

BRAIN ENCODING
The brain encoding is the next step as it's selectable and specific. Think of a characteristic chosen topic to be imparted to the machine brain. Chosen characteristics may be derived for transfer.

BRAIN DISTILATION
Isolate the topic to a specific category and instill this category into the machine. Do not induce errors, because they are remembered by the machine cortex, so the distillation process may need exact prior scripting. The human brain can have its contents distilled into fewer layers, even one. The project is currently experimenting with the distillation of one layer. The effects to improve the efficiencies of distilling one layer are worked on currently, and the process of distillation is undergoing transformation to better define the effectiveness. It's likely, as a DIY project, a step by step procedure or example will be helpful.

SCRIPTION
Scripting may be challenging because a born cortex contains pre-stored DNA which automatically manifests itself in communication.

ELECTRIC DNA
Non biological electric DNA is stored inside the cortex machine so that at startup, or birthing, the machine is alive and working with a base of knowledge.

DURATION
Allow about an hour for the brain to brain transfer to take place, making sure the power source for the electric brain is substantial and reliable and will never become interrupted.

INTERFACING SERIAL OR PARALLEL
The interface connection between man and machine, simplistically, could be set up with serial or parallel transfer. With one eight core chip, and transfer of a single demonstrative layer from a human brain, serial interfacing is entirely sufficient. For a larger number of connections in order to handle more layers from the human brain, and with more cores and processors on the machine side, parallel is more effective. This is a first step and future transfers will utilize the transfers of pure photon energy or other more efficient means.

NONINTERRUPTION
Make sure the interface connection is not interrupted during the mind meld. If there is interruption, wipe the electric brain memory clean (involves running a program to erase EEPROM and disconnecting the power source for a period of time to ensure RAM is cleared) Otherwise outdated or partial residual memory retained may conflict with new constructs.

LINKS
Index to Humanoido's Brain Cortex Project
Transfer a small part of your mind into a machine brain
Brain Cortex Index Part 16
USA Human Brain Project
https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/introduction.html
Science, Brain Mapping
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-mcclelland/brain-mapping_b_2993002.html 
Brain Uploading
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BrainUploading

Index to the Brain Cortex
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/11/brain-cortex-index-part-16.html

Bare Bones Propeller Update v1.4

BARE BONES PROPELLER UPDATE V1.4

THE MOST ESSENTIAL PROPELLER CHIP CIRCUIT

BARE BONES is one of our favorite Propeller chip machines and continuing projects. In under ten minutes, it's possible to whip up this circuit and run the virtual LED programmed in Spin, blinking it on and off, watching it on the serial terminal.

This is the latest updated schematic to construct the Bare Bones Propeller circuit with the mentioned improvements. It has the main chip protection circuit added to the schematic for crisscross wiring and decoupling capacitors, ensuring a greater longevity chip.

ADDITIONS
The main schematic addition is one resistor to activate the BOEn disable circuit so that the Propeller can operate on less voltage, at or below the 2.7 volt reset limit. This allows experimenting with solar cells, smaller batteries with less voltage and other supply circuits. It also allows a battery to function at increased discharge levels and the Propeller chip can boot at a lower voltage.

VERSION
This updated Bare Bones Schematic is currently at version 1.4 and is subject to change without notice. It replaces versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3. Use the blog's search feature to find any future changes. The suggestions from this thread, and some from another thread are now incorporated into the circuit to maximize Propeller chip performance, reliability, and facilitate ease of assembly for beginners.


LOWER POWER
The circuit allows lower power operations, mainly 3-volts with two (1.5 volts each) AA batteries, and experiments at lower voltages. Bare Bones is a good reference circuit and starting point for many projects. By itself, Bare Bones is considered to be a simple machine project with provided software on the schematic and the ability to communicate with a serial terminal, providing virtual representations.

PROPELLER TOOL SOFTWARE
http://www.parallax.com/downloads/propeller-tool-software
BARE BONES CODE
With no crystal needed, the program runs in rcfast (~12 mHz) and at 1200 baud to blink a serial terminal LED on and off. Hosted at the Parallax Forum, the link for download is found below or simply cut and paste the code into BST or the Propeller Tool software.

' Terminal LED Test Program           http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.com/
' Author: Humanoido (c) 07.18.2013    Terms of Use MIT License
' Runs on Bare Bones Propeller
' Blinks one serial LED
' Boot to RCFAST (~12MHz)
OBJ
   PST : "Parallax Serial Terminal"
PUB main
pst.Start(1200)
pst.str (string(13,"Serial LCD Demo",13,"Blink LED On and Off",13))
repeat
 pst.str (string("LED ON  *",13))
 waitcnt(clkfreq/2 + cnt)
 pst.str (string("LED OFF o",13))
 waitcnt(clkfreq/2 + cnt)

Attached Files

bare bones 1.spin‎ (477 Bytes)

Brain Cortex Propeller Protection Part 26

BRAIN CORTEX PROPELLER PROTECTION PART 26
PROTECT THE PROP Can you use a raw Propeller chip right out of the box? No, not if you're going for immortality and cannot afford to have it die along the way! You'll need to properly cook, giving the proper condiments to ensure it provides the immortal performance required in the brain cortex.

If you follow along at the Parallax Propeller Forum, you will discover a number of very important points, mainly component and circuit additions to add to the chip and some rules to follow. Let's take a look at some of the most important points to increasing prop longevity and offer up some useful technical quotes by Mike Green from the Forum.

"There's no maximum times the Prop can boot up and no maximum times the EEPROM can be read. Microcontrollers are very very sensitive to voltages being connected to I/O pins without power being applied to the power pins. This is true for any digital chips and most analog chips not specifically designed for this. The protective diodes on the I/O pins are rated for only 50uA and voltages in excess of 4V (for a 3.3V part like the Propeller) can be instantly fatal."

"If the 3.3V sensors are powered and the Propeller is not, you can still get into trouble because Vdd for the Propeller is 0V and the input voltage is 3.3V. That will burn out the protective diodes and may damage other Prop-internal circuitry as well. 5V sensors can also burn out the protective diodes since about 1mA can flow through the 4.7K resistors when Vdd is 0V and the diodes are only rated for 500uA. The 4.7K resistors limit the current to 500uA only when the Prop's Vdd is greater than 2.5V."

"Basically, these measures protect the Prop adequately only when the Prop is powered. You need more protection if the Prop can possibly be unpowered when its inputs are powered..."

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/151154-Prop-stopped-booting

"I strongly suggest having a 0.1uF ceramic capacitor connected between each pair of Vdd/Vss pins on either side of the package. The fact that your setup works doesn't mean that it will work reliably. The Propeller is made up of circuitry that switches very rapidly and even a few inches of wire between the package power supply pins and the power source can introduce enough inductance plus the battery's internal resistance so the supply voltage can drop very briefly very significantly. The 0.1uF capacitors mounted as close as possible to the package pins act as a high speed power supply buffer for these transient power demands." 

"The Propeller was felt to be a bit more robust in the past. The "PLL multiplexor" failure mode demonstrated the importance of connecting both sets of power supply pins using short PCB traces and bypass capacitors, that the absence of these measures had more consequences than just more noise."

"There was some discussion of this when it was first discovered. Chip looked at the design and decided that voltage drops across the chip in the power distribution network were responsible when either one set of Vdd/Vss pins were not connected or when the bypass capacitors were missing or too far from the chip. The PLL multiplexer was the most vulnerable just because of where it lay in the power distribution network. If the chip was rearranged, some other structure would be the primary failure point. What happens is that a portion of the chip transiently is powered by Vdd/Vss less a voltage drop across the chip while some of the inputs of that portion come from another section of the chip without the voltage drop and that input voltage exceeds the limits of the transistor structures involved since they're powered via the voltage drop and they eventually fail. When the two pairs of Vdd/Vss pins are connected together and to the power source via a low impedance connection (as the chip is designed for), the voltage drop across the chip is reduced to where this problem doesn't occur."

Here's the checklist generated at Humanoido Labs to add Propeller chip protection and increase longevity.

* two decoupling capacitors .1uf
* crisscross chip wiring VSS to VSS and VDD to VDD
* filtering capacitors 1000uf, 3300 uf,  1 uf, .1uf
* Prop is never powered down with pins powered
* minimized leads
* protection resistors
* blocking diode as needed
* transient control
* control of over voltage and under voltage
* matching power demands
* not exceeding current pin chip specs

Index to the Brain Cortex
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/11/brain-cortex-index-part-16.html

Brain Cortex Update Part 23

BRAIN CORTEX UPDATE
PART 23
Wednesday November 6th 2013

The state of the Cortex is doing well. We currently have all the parts we think are needed for main assembly. The Propeller chip circuit is expanded. It will take longer to build the complete circuits and do testing.
 
MOTHERBOARD
The main board is now partially assembled due to the decision to add more circuits and make more changes.

ROUND ROBIN
The round robin arrangement of batteries is being worked out. The idea is to mount ten individual holders without compromising the strength of the jar and maintaining the ability to reach in and change one or more batteries.

DUAL FUNCTIONS
The single board, Propeller driven, will have dual functions. One is for mind functioning. Two is for testing and sensors.

OPTIONS
The Cortex will have options installed: LED, speaker, CaS photo cell. The control panel is currently in the design stage.

DUPE CORTEX
It's decided a Dupe Cortex will be constructed for machine brain to machine brain transfer. This is like a mind meld that backs up data and consciousness the main cortex has. This will ensure the longevity of the cortex whose objective is achieving a kind of immortality.

SOLAR PANELS
Two solar panels are now obtained, one for the main brain cortex and one for the Dupe Cortex and experiments/testing.

EEPROM It was discovered the main board lacks EEPROM so this will need to be installed. Parts on hand will be used and this includes a 32K chip.

MEMORY There is some thought about adding a second 32K chip, bringing the memory total up to 32K ROM, 32K RAM, 32K First EEPROM and 32K 2nd EEPROM. This may or may not happen on the next larger cortex.

CORTEX SCHEMATIC Work is going well on the cortex schematic which is now entering v1.6.

MIND MELD
Main Brain Cortex and Dupe Cortex are designed to mind meld, i.e. transfer the mind of the first to the mind of the second. This ensures longevity and possible immortality.

IMMORTALITY
There may be different definitions of immortal and immortality within this project. Longevity of life may have variance of how far an entity travels forward in time based on the time flow with the passage of events.

TIME TRAVEL TRANSITION LINE
There's a transition line that occurs as the brain cortex time travels into the future, whereby a leap of technology greatly exceeds the brain. There are great ramifications to this effect. 

Index to the Brain Cortex
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/11/brain-cortex-index-part-16.html

Brain Cortex Solar Cells Part 21

BRAIN CORTEX SOLAR CELL POWER & CHARGING PART 21
Put together solar cells to match a battery pack for charging. The number of cells can determine voltage and supplied amperage. The acquisition of an additional panel for the cortex project enables more brains. Two panels, both 3-volt, have capacities of 60 and 120 mA. Series and parallel combinations are possible to drive a load at 3 or 6 volts and to charge batteries to balance battery pack mAh values. In particular, the 60 mA panel is useful for trickle charging. Although the estimated draw of the Cortex is around 30 mA, the actual value could run much higher depending on cog usage. More tests are in the works.

US$10.31 3v @ 120 mA   $.09 per mA
US$06.04 3v @ 060 mA   $.10 per mA

When using a solar panel for charging batteries, use a blocking Schottky 58117 diode to prevent the solar panel from drawing power from the batteries when there is no light.

Two panels will drive a low power 3 volt Propeller circuit and a 6 volt sensor circuit.

The small single solar panel will drive a smaller brain cortex with one Propeller chip.

Index to the Brain Cortex
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/11/brain-cortex-index-part-16.html

Brain Cortex Uploading Human Mind to Machine Part 20

Humanoido Labs - we've come a long way since the first 340 gram brain in a jar debuted in July of 2011. Seen at left inside the smaller jar, the 128K RAM/ROM award-winning machine brain has two piggybacked Parallax Propeller chips mounted together for full use of sixteen computing cores that run in parallel with 64 I/O pins. During this time period, the objective was creating a brain, giving it some intelligence, making it fit into a jar enclosure, imparting life, and running brain experiments with it. Although a massive 4-pound Skippy peanut butter jar was obtained at Costco, the current series of Cortex brains use store-purchased empty jars of much larger size.

THREE TYPES OF TRANSFER CLASSIFICATIONS
BRAIN CORTEX UPLOADING HUMAN MIND TO MACHINE PART 20

If you could upload a portion of your mind to a machine and live longer, what would you choose to upload, or save from your self and your characteristics to travel into the future?

At Humanoido Labs, work progresses on a cortex brain that will have upload capabilities from a human mind, so the validity of the question becomes plausible. Would you upload your knowledge, i.e. what you know about facts or would you collect and transmit your life's experiences? Perhaps one will care more about uploading personality and values? Or will life experiences become the most treasured part of a human?

— Humanoido Labs is beginning the human mind to machine brain transfer project —

THREE KNOWLEDGE TYPES
The brain cortex is considering at least three types of classifications for upload from a human brain. There are three areas for a simplified upload. This includes factual knowledge, personality and experience. While factual knowledge may initially appear less unique to a person's characteristics, it is not. It can certainly be a defining signature based on the type of knowledge one knows and the level and quantity of a particular interest. Personality can include likes and dislikes, viewpoints, philosophy and values. More knowledge and factual material can indicate personality interests about astronomy for example. Experiences can include previous choices made, stories, and things that are selected as one over another due to learned past events.

TRANSFER CLASSIFICATIONS
It's not necessary to upload all three classifications to demo the results. One over the other can be selected, with decisions based on the machine vessel capacity and the machines ability, capacity and characteristic attributes. As factual knowledge can portray other characteristics such as personality, likes, interests, gravitation, etc., this would be a good place to start. The amount or selected topical quantity of factual knowledge can also portray a person's experience about a particular subject, either through course taking, study or experiences. Therefore all three potentials, Factual Knowledge, Personality, and Experience can be wrapped up and embedded in just one transfer classification — Factual Knowledge.

INITIAL UPLOAD POTENTIALS
Factual Knowledge
Personality
Experience 

ADVANCED UPLOAD OPTIONS
Consciousness
Complete Brain Transfer
Complete Functionality
Ability to Grow after a Transfer

Advanced upload options are currently beyond the scope of this first cortex experiment, however such features may become reality in time.

In brain cortex numeral uno, there's a limited path of uploading, i.e. the entire brain cannot upload due to space and special containment limitations and the cortex does not have enough neural pathways to save the entire human brain. It becomes of matter of what to upload and save, and the quantity of contents that will fit into the machine cortex.

In this example consider 32K RAM and 32K nonvolatile storage. With a constant on power source, the 64K becomes nonvolatile. Then potentials utilize a factor of Xn approach and this becomes 100Xn for one hundred times more capacity for experimenting and transfers. This will increase from over a 100,000 neural net to closer to one million in the future. As the neural net expands, so does the capacity to transfer more and more of the human mind.

Index to the Brain Cortex
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/11/brain-cortex-index-part-16.html