Can basic stamp boe bot ram be upgraded or extended somehow?

Bulslayer85

Was just curious if there is a way to upgrade or add to the existing ram on the BS2 version of the boe bot, i noticed the ram only holds about 13 word vars before it maxs out. I'm trying to get it to navigate with both the ping and 3 axis gyro at moment but also have the USB card adapter and would eventually like to store data the robot collects to a USB storage device.

If not then ill look into upgrading to the Prop board now available for the boe bot.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

You could use a different BASIC Stamp module. The other versions have additional "scratchpad" RAM, which is accessed in a different manner (i.e. not mapped into variables). Or you could use the Spin Stamp, a Propeller-based, BS2-pin-compatible module. But, yes, you can also get the Prop-BOE, which promises to be very exciting for robot applications.

-Phil

Bulslayer85

ty, yeah i mean im not saying the ram on my boe bot is small its just not large enough for what i want to do with the bot, 13 words is quite a bit of data space considering each one is 16 bits of data, lol i just wish parallax would make it a bit easier to figure out what variables can be shrunk down in their demo codes with out messing up something.

Martin_H

Here's something to consider to stretch the RAM.

Data logging can be to the eeprom to keep that information out of RAM.

You can add functionality and serially accessed storage to the BS2 by adding some co-processors. Here are two that Parallax sells:

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

http://www.parallax.com/StoreSearchResults/tabid/768/txtSearch/coprocessor/List/0/SortField/4/ProductID/401/Default.aspx

This RAM isn't variable storage, but you can address it serially to load and store from it. Both of these chips are useful in and of themselves, but add RAM as a side benefit.

kingbp

Martin_H wrote: »

Here's something to consider to stretch the RAM.

Data logging can be to the eeprom to keep that information out of RAM.

You can add functionality and serially accessed storage to the BS2 by adding some co-processors. Here are two that Parallax sells:

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

http://www.parallax.com/StoreSearchResults/tabid/768/txtSearch/coprocessor/List/0/SortField/4/ProductID/401/Default.aspx

This RAM isn't variable storage, but you can address it serially to load and store from it. Both of these chips are useful in and of themselves, but add RAM as a side benefit.

Will this allow a bs2 more memory to program if it is full?

Mike Green

No. None of these (except using a different Stamp model) will allow a BS2 more memory to program if it is full. Even using a different Stamp model with more memory won't really do what you want. You're just going to have to shrink down your program by eliminating debug statements and combining small pieces of nearly identical code into subroutines, etc.

Similarly, you'll have to combine several uses of variables (aliases) to make the most efficient use of the limited variable space. If you switch to one of the other Stamps, you'll also get some amount of scratchpad RAM. This isn't quite the same as having more variable space, but it can help.

You could switch to using a Propeller. You can even install a Spin Stamp on a Stamp BoeBot with some minor changes to the BoeBot's wiring to adjust for the 3.3V logic of the Spin Stamp, but you'd be surprised at how much you can cram into a BS2 with a little bit of work.