BASIC stamp BS1

[John Gutmann]

so today in the mail i finally got my BS1 from parallax and was wondering if any body had any idea for small project or things like that i could do with it to help me learn, i looked on parallax and that all requires knowledge of it and i am a begginner, i can make my way through programming simple things but the most i have done is making an LED blink repeatedly, haha

[sanddrag]

Drive servos or modified-for-continuous-rotation servos. Or maybe you could drive an LCD. Or maybe you can make a balancing robot.

Parallax sells lots of neat stuff to go along with basic stamps. I'm not sure what all you can do with it just by itself, but if you add some stuff it can be very fun.

[John Gutmann]

i know that but i am talking bout things that dont cost like 50 -30$ each and that dont require high level programming

[Hutch]

Something to make LED's dance is always kind of cool... Otherwise, things that drive servos are nifty (maybe make an arm or something?)

And PS, I responded to your PM ^___^.

[ConKbot of Doom]

Originally Posted by sparksandtabs

i know that but i am talking bout things that dont cost like 50 -30$ each and that dont require high level programming

So get a PIC and a LCD and start messing with that. $2 for the PIC, $ 10 for the LCD, and $5 for a cheam JDM programmer. No high level programming either. You can do it in assembly, so its nice and low level

If you want simple, but still harder, make a LED chaser that changes speed when you push a button.

[John Gutmann]

where do i get PIC's? and how do i programm them?

[sciguy125]

Originally Posted by sparksandtabs

where do i get PIC's? and how do i programm them?

First I have to mention that writing code for PICs (in assembly) isn't for everyone. It's a little daunting at first, but after awhile, it isn't that hard. You have to realize that it's very different from C, Java, or whatever other high level languages you use. You have to personally keep track of the memory that you use, it's hard to work with numbers larger than 8 bits, there's not much meaningful output while trying to debug... But, if you want to learn how computers work, it's a great way. PICs are also a cheap/small processor to use in whatever electronic project you have going. Keep all that in mind if you decide to take this on.

My favorite source for electronics is Mouser. You can get some PICs and parts to build yourself a programmer. The 16F84 seems to be the standard "newbie" chip. You can get a schematic for the JDM programmer here. IC-Prog is a nice loader. Unless you intend on buying a compiler, you'd have to write all your code in assembly. There's lots of tutorials online. The datasheets also make a nice reference manual. I think MPLAB will work to assemble the code, but I don't use it so I'm not 100% sure.

After you have some code, you assemble it and it spits out a hex file to be loaded onto your PIC. You put the PIC in the programmer, connect it to your computer and use your loader to write to the PIC. After that, it's ready to go.

If you decide to get some PICs, don't forget to buy some crystals and a voltage regulator. I made that mistake and had to place a second order.

[Matt Krass]

Originally Posted by sciguy125

First I have to mention that writing code for PICs (in assembly) isn't for everyone. It's a little daunting at first, but after awhile, it isn't that hard. You have to realize that it's very different from C, Java, or whatever other high level languages you use. You have to personally keep track of the memory that you use, it's hard to work with numbers larger than 8 bits, there's not much meaningful output while trying to debug... But, if you want to learn how computers work, it's a great way. PICs are also a cheap/small processor to use in whatever electronic project you have going. Keep all that in mind if you decide to take this on.

My favorite source for electronics is Mouser. You can get some PICs and parts to build yourself a programmer. The 16F84 seems to be the standard "newbie" chip. You can get a schematic for the JDM programmer here. IC-Prog is a nice loader. Unless you intend on buying a compiler, you'd have to write all your code in assembly. There's lots of tutorials online. The datasheets also make a nice reference manual. I think MPLAB will work to assemble the code, but I don't use it so I'm not 100% sure.

After you have some code, you assemble it and it spits out a hex file to be loaded onto your PIC. You put the PIC in the programmer, connect it to your computer and use your loader to write to the PIC. After that, it's ready to go.

If you decide to get some PICs, don't forget to buy some crystals and a voltage regulator. I made that mistake and had to place a second order.

PICs are nice, but I perfer AVRs, they can be programmed in C for free, or assembler, and they're just as easy to use as PICs, I'm currently using an AVR to drive a parallel LCD. You can either shell out the big cash (about $89) for the STK500 starter kit, which is very nice but overkill, or go for about $20 and get an AVR and the components to program it off the parallel port in your computer.

Check out these links for more info on programming AVRs.

http://www.uq.net.au/~zzdkeena/AVR/
http://www.lancos.com/prog.html

[John Gutmann]

thanks i was just looking on the wrong spot on parallax website

[Gdeaver]

Your going to need more then the stamp module. For experimenting you'll need either a work board or a solderless bread board. Look at these.
http://www.parallax.com/html_pages/p...ing_boards.asp
On the stamp web site look at the stamps in class tutorials. They start out with simple projects and progress to some good stuff. The basic stamp is well documented and supported but they're expensive. The basic stamps are also kind of limited. Since you are ready invested you might as well keep going with the stamp. When you want more power but the simplicity of programing in basic you might want to go to this chips. They use PIC 16 and 18 microcontrolers.
Kronos robotics
The Kronos basic allows in line assembler so you can take these chips pretty far. After your skills improve and you want to start playing more with robots, the vex kits provide allot of bang for the buck. Still the buy in is 400$.