Hello my name is...NOOB
Praetor
Posts: 4
I just picked up the Parallax ("What's a Microcontroller") Homework Board at my local [area] Radio Shack and found it to be interesting, I'm still hesitant about learning this stuff because I have never tinkered with anything like this, and find it a bit intimidating...like maybe I break it some how, and not know it. But so far so good, i am making things go blink, blink (LED blinker). Although I'm far from a novice hobbyist, having know basics of electronics and have been making B.E.A.M bots for the past ten years, this is a bit advanced, yet fun. Can I run small gear motors of this particular board? Has anyone have an indepth description of putting together an LED chaser project?
Comments
Keep working through the manual until you get through it entirely. While a section may not SEEM like it might pertain to something that interests you, you will learn in each section, various skills that are applicable to other tasks once you are familiar with them.
For a very simple LED chaser, instead of having one LED hooked to one pin as in a Blink LED experiment, you could have, say, 8 LEDs hooked to 8 pins, and in the program, sequentially turn one on, wait for a short count, then turn that one off and turn the next on, wait for a short count, then... and so on until you reach the last LED, then loop back to the first one, repeating the code indefinitely.
After you do that manually with all that code, you might try doing it with a subroutine, that just changes the value of which pin to energize, but utilizes only a few lines of code, instead of 8 separate versions of the same thing. Subroutines are covered in the What's a Microcontroller manual.
Then, when you're comfortable with that... the sky's the limit. You can make an LED Chaser with multiple selectable flashing patterns... You can make an LED chaser with hundreds of LEDS! With a few simple chips that you'll learn about (74HC595 shift registers) and the SHIFTOUT command that you'll learn about, you will be amazing yourself in no time.
As long as you're careful with your wiring and follow the manual, you'll not break anything. Remember to initially use resistors to hook up LEDs, switches and other externals to your Basic Stamp board to help minimize the potentials for damage. Those kits are built for NOOBs, with some extra built-in resistors, etc,. to help shield the chip from damage.
Feel free to ask questions on these boards, but do yourself a favor and try to figure out as much for yourself as you can. It shows you're serious about learning, and there's a sense of satisfaction and pride that comes from learning something new on your own that you don't get from having someone else tell you the answer. And the things you learn on your own efforts will stick with you. But for those times when there seems to be no clear way to figure something out, people on here are extremely knowledgable and helpful.
Have fun!
Dave
When you're ready, check out the BASIC Stamp FAQ sticky for tips using a relay, that's the quickest way.
Meanwhile, you CAN run a regular or continuous rotation servo off your HW board.
If you don't have a COM port, how were you able to program the LED blinker circuit? I have the same kit from radio shack. I had to buy a serial to USB adapter to hook to my computer.
http://www.parallax.com/StoreSearchResults/tabid/768/txtSearch/usb/List/0/SortField/4/ProductID/379/Default.aspx
I want to remove the circuit board out of the servo that comes with the kit, remove the motor, and replace it with a small escap gear motor: http://www.micromouseinfo.com/introduction/dcmotors.html
now i don't know what's the gear ratio for the servo motor but what do you guys think? I see it a lot more convenient (that is if it works) and slimmer then the standard servo I plan to experiment with this idea, unless it isn't a good idea (cue suggestions). I plan to further my micrcontroller experiences/experiments and hopefully make a bipedal robot and instead of using the (have no choice) bulky servos at every joint, I want to slim it down, using my idea of the escap motor replacement "project" (recursive "if t works" reference). This way i can research the controlled fall that is walking, simply because it's cool...i mean how would we all feel if we built this, ourselves: http://www.plasticpals.com/?p=2231 exactly! that is how i want to feel, too. buuut, I have time, so...let's get busy. thanks, guys and of course feel free to give opinions, suggestions and ideas.