Stampdock software package for propellor

APSpijkerman

Hi,

I have been working on stampdock software for "BASIC stamps" and "javelin stamps", but it should work with propellors too !
The idea was that a stamp is connected via serial port to a PC, so you can run a program on PC to provide services to a stamp.
The software runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.

So what the software can do is provide one or more full color graphics displays to a stamp, so you don't need
expensive LCD displays and save on I/O pins.
It provides a GUI for basic stamps, with buttons, indicators, regulators, meters, video, slideshows etc.
Note that the GUI is completely definable in a text file, so you can add parts, switch parts.
Use background pictures or patterns for parts, or use pictures as buttons etc etc.
It provides an ANSI color text debug window.
It can use the harddisk of a PC to store data on, or load data from.
It can provide a 64KB ramdisk.
It has a system so stamps can detect it is connected to a PC (docked) and then store collected data to
disk, or draw graphs on the screen.
You can have several 'players' in a window, which can do picture slideshows with different transitional fades,
or play video from disk, or play video streams from internet or play MP3's.
It can generate synthesized voice sound and make other sounds.
It can send messages to a log file on disk with time and date.
It provides a real time clock.
Once selected it remembers serial port and speed, so if you start it automatically you don't need to set serial port.
etc

Now the software comes with one generic demo that demonstrates the default GUI, and with 5 other demos.
The generic demo was made for basic stamp and in java for the javelin stamp.
As the java is very close to C i tried to translate it to something that might run on
things like the propellor chip or arduino .. but as i don't actually have a propellor chip
i can not test it.
You can find the demo as 'demo.c' in the archive, perhaps someone can have a look at the code
and tell me how to finish it for propellor, of try to convert it to propellor.
(note that for propellor the 'echo' filter button in the GUI should probably be 'off')

You can download the software at http://apsdev.com/stampdock/

There are other demos in the archive, but they only have programs for "BASIC stamp" and "javelin stamp",
and as the propellor is a bit different from stamps they might need some more work to get running.

Other demos are:

There is the oscilloscope for basic stamp and javelin with xt, xy and recorder mode.
With a fast AD converter it should make a nice instrument with propellor.

http://apsdev.com/stampscope/home.html

An FM radio/scanner that can produce a graphical scan of the FM band,
and it will place channels under buttons and you can use several methodes for tuning.

http://apsdev.com/stampradio/home.html

There is a wireless weather station program for javelin that uses a 433mhz receiver module to
graph the weather data received and also graphs the puls train it received.

http://apsdev.com/stampweather/home.html

There is a demo to show how you can use an optical mouse with a ADNS-2610 sensor
as a real camera for your robots checking out a room using a basic stamp or javelin stamp.

http://apsdev.com/stampeyes/home.html

And there is a demo that shows how to use a basic stamp or javelin as
a universal infrared remote control, including a graph of the IR pulses received.

http://apsdev.com/stampremote/home.html

I know the graphics of the demos aren't that great, but to get an idea what you
can do with the GUI engine you can see here, it is a video application but in this
case it does not use a basic stamp to control the video but a small main program.
But the GUI definition files from that program also work with the stampdock program,
and from a stamp you can also display pictures or start video:

http://apsdev.com/merlinapp/home.html
http://apsdev.com/seq/home.html


More demos to come.

Greetings AP..

Invent-O-Doc

Most interesting. Thanks for sharing. The prop community has a sophisticated application called Viewport that does a lot of this stuff and more and has prop software that automates the data collection process. Existing code requires very little alteration because tagged variables are sent to viewport by an application running in another cog.

On the other hand, viewport costs money and the Stampdock appears to be free. This might be a useful option for those who don't want to pay for a commercial application. If you want adoption by the prop community, I suggest creation of a Stampdock application/utility for prop and posting it in the object exchange.

Thanks for sharing!

APSpijkerman

Thank you for your suggestions.

I was not aware of the existence of the Viewport software, as i do not
have a propellor chip yet.
But Viewport seems to be Windows only, while stampdock also
runs on PPC and Intel Macs and Linux.
Also it should be useable from other chips like SX, arduino
and of cause "BASIC Stamps" and "Javelin Stamps".

But i am looking forward at trying to make a demo for the prop.
Looking at the chip brings back memories of programming
C-64's and Amigas in assembler
In the days of C-64's when making your own computer involved
programming EPROMS and needing a bus between processor RAM
and ROM we could only dream of a chip like this.
I remember seeing the advertizements of the first basic stamp
on the back of the german "Computer technik" magazines,
hoping it would be computing easier.