MoBoStamp Board
skylight
Posts: 1,915
As you will realise from another thread on this forum I am in two minds as to what is best to interface with the colour sensor DB that Parallax sells.
I am now looking at the MOBOStamp as a serious contender due to its ease of connecting to the PC rather than DB to BOE to PC
But i'm not sure if im understanding the concept of this device properly.
Am i right in thinking it already has a basic stamp onboard ready to be programmed A BS2pe?
If so are there connectors accessible for all the I/O pins or is this achieved through another DB?
Will one be able to interface an LCD display easily to this board or is an LCD DB board in the pipeline and·would it interface through plugging it into a slot·with all the necessary connections to the BS2pe?
Sorry for so many questions but i'm at a junction as to which way to go and what to purchase.
·
I am now looking at the MOBOStamp as a serious contender due to its ease of connecting to the PC rather than DB to BOE to PC
But i'm not sure if im understanding the concept of this device properly.
Am i right in thinking it already has a basic stamp onboard ready to be programmed A BS2pe?
If so are there connectors accessible for all the I/O pins or is this achieved through another DB?
Will one be able to interface an LCD display easily to this board or is an LCD DB board in the pipeline and·would it interface through plugging it into a slot·with all the necessary connections to the BS2pe?
Sorry for so many questions but i'm at a junction as to which way to go and what to purchase.
·
Comments
First of all, yes, it does have a 2pe processor, as well as a USB input for programming.
Access to I/O pins is another matter. There are two daughterboard sockets, and you _could_ stick wires in there to access the I/O pins, but you're not going to want to do that, I think. As the manual points out:
Important: Never insert jumper wires into the daughterboard sockets. Unlike 0.1” header sockets,
these are not big enough to receive most jumper wires without damage.
The $15 "Power Input 3-pin Header" daughterboard gives you access to I/O pins:
http://www.parallax.com/Store/Microcontrollers/BASICStampDevelopmentBoards/tabid/137/CategoryID/9/List/0/SortField/0/Level/a/ProductID/470/Default.aspx
However, you don't get access to all of the pins. If you put one of these daugtherboards into the motherboard's A socket, you get access to pins 2,3,8,9,11, and 12. Adding another of these daughterboards to the B socket adds access to pins 0,1,5, and 7. Pins 13 and 14 control green and red LEDs on the motherboard, and are not available for other use. Pins 4,6,10, and 15 are also reserved for other uses. In addition, some of the AVR functions use pins 5,7,11 and 12, so if you're using the AVR coprocessors (for example, for ADC), you're going to use up some of your I/O pins for that.
It's quite easy to connect a standard serial LCD to the 3-pin headers on the daughterboard - a standard LCD extension cable works nicely. I've done that, when I used my 2pe MoBo to display data from the Parallax GPS.
I think you're going to want that Power Input daughterboard to go with the MoBo - order the two together, and save yourself headaches.
"Am i right in thinking it already has a basic stamp onboard ready to be programmed A BS2pe?"
Yes, there's a BS2pe on board, which can be jumpered to run at either 5V or 3.3V. It can also be powered directly from the USB port, obviating the need for an external supply when connected to a PC.
"If so are there connectors accessible for all the I/O pins or is this achieved through another DB?"
Certain of the I/O pins are brought out to the daughterboard connectors. Typically, access to these pins is facilitated via a particular daughterboard. Parallax offers a prototyping board (the Proto-DB, which allows you access these lines in any way you wish. There's also the PWR-I/O-DB, which has several 3-pin headers for servos and Parallax serial devices.
"Will one be able to interface an LCD display easily to this board or is an LCD DB board in the pipeline and would it interface through plugging it into a slot with all the necessary connections to the BS2pe?"
The serial LCD display plugs right into and is powered via the PWR-I/O-DB referenced above.
-Phil
Extract from the MoBoStamp manual pdf
Finally, to use the general-purpose I/O firmware pre-installed in the AVR coprocessors, download the
GPIO user’s guide here:
http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=28300
This link seems to be broken, is the guide still available?
Post Edited (skylight) : 9/21/2008 6:23:27 PM GMT
-Phil