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??Send a signal from PC to BS2/BOE — Parallax Forums

??Send a signal from PC to BS2/BOE

ctdahlectdahle Posts: 29
edited 2010-11-20 20:09 in BASIC Stamp
Wow, I spent the afternoon learning and playing with code and now I am full of nutty new ideas...

I am wondering if there is a way to send a signal...any signal from a com port to the BOE. I'm thinking out loud here, but not just to see my own words. Any ideas, please throw them at me...

This is related to my "Glockenspieler" project. I got to thinking that it would be kind of cool to mount the glockenspiel on the wall somewhere and use it as a warning bell...a way to remind me and the students that there were only a few seconds left in the class period. "OK time to pick up, clean up, straighten up the lab....etc..."

I'm thinking that all that would be necessary would be a pair of wires, one binding ground on the PC and the BOE, and another from one pin on the com port to an input pin on the BOE.

I speculate that the stamp could read the signal on a particular pin as it would any other sort of sensor input. It would run a continuous loop that would periodically poll the pin and then react by playing a tune on the glockenspieler...

For that matter, it could play different tunes at different times depending on the signal it detects...it could just be various sets of 0s and 1s sent from the pc in a repeating sequence at for a second or two at the desired "reminder" time.

So, the real question is how do I get a PC to send a signal to the com port at a scheduled time? I would want to do this in the background using some sort of a program that would load on start-up.

Assuming there is a way to do that, and assuming that I would run all this off of an otherwise unused com port, then I guess the question becomes why not just run the whole shebang directly from the PC and free up my BOE for some other project...

I can see that this whole electronics and micro-controller project is going to be going on for a couple several many years.

Comments

  • $WMc%$WMc% Posts: 1,884
    edited 2010-11-16 11:32
    ctdahle wrote: »
    Wow, I spent the afternoon learning and playing with code and now I am full of nutty new ideas...

    I am wondering if there is a way to send a signal...any signal from a com port to the BOE. I'm thinking out loud here, but not just to see my own words. Any ideas, please throw them at me...

    This is related to my "Glockenspieler" project. I got to thinking that it would be kind of cool to mount the glockenspiel on the wall somewhere and use it as a warning bell...a way to remind me and the students that there were only a few seconds left in the class period. "OK time to pick up, clean up, straighten up the lab....etc..."

    I'm thinking that all that would be necessary would be a pair of wires, one binding ground on the PC and the BOE, and another from one pin on the com port to an input pin on the BOE.

    I speculate that the stamp could read the signal on a particular pin as it would any other sort of sensor input. It would run a continuous loop that would periodically poll the pin and then react by playing a tune on the glockenspieler...

    For that matter, it could play different tunes at different times depending on the signal it detects...it could just be various sets of 0s and 1s sent from the pc in a repeating sequence at for a second or two at the desired "reminder" time.

    So, the real question is how do I get a PC to send a signal to the com port at a scheduled time? I would want to do this in the background using some sort of a program that would load on start-up.

    Assuming there is a way to do that, and assuming that I would run all this off of an otherwise unused com port, then I guess the question becomes why not just run the whole shebang directly from the PC and free up my BOE for some other project...

    I can see that this whole electronics and micro-controller project is going to be going on for a couple several many years.
    '
    Take a look at JustBasic. Its a free windows complier.
    '
    http://www.justbasic.com/
  • icepuckicepuck Posts: 466
    edited 2010-11-16 14:06
    Have you looked into some sort of wireless control?
    The following should give you some ideas

    http://www.parallax.com/Store/Accessories/CommunicationRF/tabid/161/CategoryID/36/List/0/SortField/0/Level/a/ProductID/550/Default.aspx

    or

    http://www.parallax.com/Store/Accessories/CommunicationRF/tabid/161/CategoryID/36/List/0/SortField/0/catpageindex/3/Level/a/ProductID/639/Default.aspx

    or the entire list

    http://www.parallax.com/Store/Accessories/RFWirelessComm/tabid/161/List/0/CategoryID/36/Level/a/SortField/0/Default.aspx

    or you could add a clock and set it up with your time schedule and let run all by itself

    http://www.parallax.com/Store/Components/IntegratedCircuits/TimeMathCoprocessors/tabid/617/CategoryID/82/List/0/SortField/0/Level/a/ProductID/233/Default.aspx

    or use the wireless only when you need to change the time and other settings.
    hope this helps.
    -dan
  • ctdahlectdahle Posts: 29
    edited 2010-11-20 20:09
    icepuck wrote: »
    Have you looked into...

    ... add a clock and set it up with your time schedule and let run all by itself

    Thank you Dan, it helps a lot, and is a much better plan I think.

    I have obtained a DS 1307 real time clock, a crystal, and also a couple of 24lc16B EEPROMs. Not quite what Parallax sells, but they came with advice at an unbeatable price.

    I'm now up to my ears in setting up a communications bus and learning all I can about I2C. My brain hurts a bit. So many cool possibilities, so little time.

    I am realizing that if I think of the Stamp as a brain rather than a device, I can offload many functions.

    Many things yet to learn, but I have a pretty good plan of attack mapped out.
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