Looking for logic flow now how.
Velvet Leopard
Posts: 47
Hewwo, all.· I was wondering about the myraid of logic chips out there like decade counters, flip-flops, latches, timers, gates, and on and on.· I want to learn as much about these little things as I can.· Does anyone here know of a "good and worthwhile" source to learn about simple logic chips and their functions.· Maybe a person out there that can chat one on one to give some pointers?· Can anyone out there give me a really useful project idea for adding logic functions OUTSIDE the stamp?· I was thinking if I could use these to do some of the work, then I can save valuable stamp code space and use the stamp to control the logic chips.· Would this be a good path to travel, or would it be adding too much circuitry compared to the stamp II's current capabilities?· Thanks for all your time.
Comments
I promise, outside anything but a simple one-shot or astable mutlivibrator (fancy terms, eh?) that you can do with a 555 and few components, most of the kinds of things that you'll probably want to do will take a bucket-load of ICs.· Then, after you've sweated for hours to make it work (either on a breadboard or with point-to-point soldering)·you decide to make a change ... and then comes hours of circuit changes.
I'm exaggerating a bit of course -- but just a bit.· When the BASIC Stamp first appeared I was building circuits from chips, or trying my best to interface my Timex-Sinclair 1000 to general-purpose IO so that I would have a reprogrammable platform.· When my first BASIC Stamp arrived I had so much fun with it that I played for nearly 24-hours straight and called in sick for work because I was having so much fun.
No product is ever going to be perfect for every application, but once you've had some real time with your BASIC Stamp, you'll find it a pretty gutty little beast.· Does that mean you won't want to checkout other products?· Of course not -- and well you should.· Like any other tool, the BASIC Stamp is indeed a tool and a good one for your arsenal.· It amazes me the number of very large companies, in every possible industry you can imagine (including severe industries like aerospace and defense) that have and do use the BASIC Stamp.· Don't sell your new friend short based on what some say it can't do -- focus on what it can (more than many will give credit for).
And what you will find with us, I believe, is an abundance of training material that will help you with your BASIC Stamp programming -- and even other products should you choose to try them.· One of the docs that you might be interested in (that you can download at no charge) is called "Elements of Digital Logic."· It teaches logic fundamentals that you'd normally learn before moving on to microcontrollers.· Here's the link:
http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=28201
And also have a scan through our Nuts & Volts articles.· Between Scott Edwards, Lon Glazner, and me there are over 100 articles with real code -- stuff that really works and many find very useful.· And my pals Al Williams (no relation ... that we know of) and Tracy Allen have tremendously helpful web sites that you will profit from by spending some time browsing.
Al: http://www.al-williams.com/index.htm
Tracy: http://www.emesystems.com/BS2index.htm
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Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax
Dallas Office