where to start

Linkster

Hi all,
I've played with electronics for some time now but would like to try my hand with micro processing. I have played a little with a device called DigiBee utilizing Visual Basic programming.
But what I would like to do is experiment with ac and dc voltage monitoring along with current monitoring. I have built a wind turbine that works great but would like to monitor its health with a pc. Perhaps be able to real time monitor the ac sine wave on a graph. Also be able to control set points for things like over speed protection, under and over voltage warnings and if I get real good maybe even a separate unit to monitor wind direction and speed.
So my fellow brothers and sisters of the electron, Can anyone point me in the right direction as to what type of development and programming board and maybe processor chip type to get me started?
So far I like everything I’ve read about Parallax but I have to admit that I’m still a little in the fog.
Thank you in kind
Linkster

RoboticsProfessor

So many chips, so many programming languages, so little time...

There are several areas that can help you nail down some specifics...

Input/Output: You need to match your requirements with the available I/O pins on the chip. Basic Stamp 2 has 15 total pins to work with. The 8051 series have 32 pins; 8 dual purposed for serial I/O and you can use 16 if needed for external memory addresses. Your description sounds like at least 8-10 inputs with almost as many outputs, so the smaller PIC chips won't handle that, but the bigger ones, like PIC16F8680 will. (If you understand multiplexing, all the chips will let you multiplex one way or another to allow using a set of pins for multiple things, but make sure your electronics skills are up for that.)

Start with a list:

Inputs (DC or digital)

Inputs (AC or analog)

Outputs (low power < 10 mA or just to activate other digital circuits)

Outputs (that need to drive motors or other higher power hardware)

You didn't mention any programming experience. It you know C or BASIC or assembler, and don't want to tackle a new language, then restrict your search to your selected language(s). If you don't know programming (I teach all three presently), I'd suggest you avoid assembler as a first language. BASIC is usually the best choice for beginners, but some of my students starting with C first do very well.

The language is important. 8051 uses either C or assembler, Basic Stamp uses PBASIC (Parallax BASIC) similar to the older BASIC variations. Motorola 68HC11/12 uses C or assembler, 3PI uses C, and so on. So narrow down the language choice soon. There are way more hardware options if you use C, but with BASIC, there are enough good chips to do the job.

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Richard Vannoy

Programming and Electronics Instructor
www.RichardVannoy.info
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Steph Lindsay

Hi Linkster, and welcome to the Forums.

For some specific Stamps in Class resources to work toward your goal, investigate these:

What's a Microcontroller?· - this is our starting-point book for learning PBASIC programming with elementary circuits side by side. This book, and the BASIC Stamp development board and component·hardware to do the experiments, comes in both the BASIC Stamp Activity Kit and BASIC Stamp Discovery Kit. The book is a free download as well.

BASIC Analog and Digital - this book goes into more detail on the subject of AD/DA conversion. You can buy the parts kit with or without the book, the book is also a free download.

Renewable Energy Experimenter Kit for the BASIC Stamp 2 - by John Gavlik at LearnOnLine.com. This gets to the heart of your project: monitoring energy produced by a DIY wind turbine, and plotting the 3-phase sine waves with a great graphical software on the PC. There are also solar experiments, lots to do!

I hope this helps, and have fun!

Steph Lindsay

Editor, Parallax Inc.