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Pixy5 compatibility with Basic Stamp/Boe-Bot — Parallax Forums

Pixy5 compatibility with Basic Stamp/Boe-Bot

LoudmindLoudmind Posts: 8
edited 2014-07-27 08:48 in BASIC Stamp
Hi there, my son and I are interested in adding a Pixy5 camera and an xBee wireless module to our Boe-Bot. Before purchasing it, we have a couple of questions:

1. Is the Pixy5 compatible with the Boe-Bot Basic Stamp, or just with Arduino? If the former, are there any special connectors I need to buy to connect it to the BOE?
2. Would an xBee wireless module work together with a Pixy5 through the BOE?

Thanks in advance for your help - happy to clarify or answer any questions.

Thanks again,
Roger

Comments

  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2014-07-07 09:38
    Hi Roger,

    The Basic Stamp is great as a way to introduce someone to microcontrollers and robotics but it's a very limited controller. I have my doubts it would work well with the Pixy.
    Loudmind wrote: »
    1. Is the Pixy5 compatible with the Boe-Bot Basic Stamp, or just with Arduino? If the former, are there any special connectors I need to buy to connect it to the BOE?

    The Pixy can be used with any microcontroller capable of communicating with it. Since the Pixy can communicate via asynchronous serial, SPI and I2C, there aren't many microcontrollers which aren't able to communicate with the Pixy to some degree.

    That said, I don't see it being a good match for the Basic Stamp. IMO, it would require too much of the Stamp's resources just to communicate with the Pixy.
    Loudmind wrote: »
    2. Would an xBee wireless module work together with a Pixy5 through the BOE?

    You didn't say how you want to use the XBee. With what would the XBee be communicating? If you wanted to have the Pixy external to the BOE-Bot, it should be possible to use the XBee to communicate with the Pixy using its UART interface option.

    The Basic Stamp doesn't have a buffer for incoming serial data. When the Basic Stamp wants to receive a serial signal, it needs to stop and listen for it. This blocks the program until the signal is received or a predetermined timeout period is reached.

    There are lots of successful examples of the Basic Stamp being used with XBees so using the BS2 with XBees shouldn't be too hard. I don't know of any examples of BS2s being used with the Pixy. I imagine it's possible but I doubt it's very practical.

    I haven't used my Pixy much, but myself and a few others have posted our experiences about using the Pixy with a Propeller in this thread.

    One thing I don't like about the Pixy, is many of its settings have to be adjusted with a program running on a PC. So if one wants to adjust the brightness level of the Pixy, the Pixy has to be connected to a PC via USB in order to have this adjustment made.

    I think there are a lot of other sensors which are much better fit for the BS2 than the Pixy. A Ping sensor and/or various IR sensors work will with the BS2.

    Hopefully someone with more experience with the BS2 will add their opinion. I haven't used the BS2 much since discovering the Propeller.
  • LoudmindLoudmind Posts: 8
    edited 2014-07-27 08:48
    Thank you!
  • E_TexasTeslaE_TexasTesla Posts: 15
    edited 2016-02-01 22:23
    This is an old topic but has anyone had any luck using cmucam5 with the basic stamp?
    I have a group of Boy Scouts taking the robotics merit badge and we have four boe bot kits.
    I would love to show them this pixycam tracking a ball as seen on two youtube videos.
    I have bs2 code for the cmucam1 but the cmucam5 doesn't send the same data out.


    Thanks, CJ

  • twm47099twm47099 Posts: 867
    I have a Pixy CMUCAM5 that I use with the propeller microcontroller.

    Pixy has a number of modes for transferring data to the micro. These are SPI, i2C, UART and DAC.

    I don't know if the Basic Stamp can use any of these, and I think Duane's response says that the first 3 probably won't work. But if there is a Basic Stamp program for analog to digital conversion, the PIXY DAC method is very simple for tracking one color.

    The link Duane posted above has my experiences using the DAC mode with my Activity Bot.

    The different data transfer modes for PIXY can be found here:
    cmucam.org/projects/cmucam5/wiki/Porting_Guide

    There is a lot of other good info about PIXY on that web site.

    Hope this helps.
    Tom
  • E_TexasTeslaE_TexasTesla Posts: 15
    Thanks for the information and fast reply.
    I will post an update if i have any luck with this.
  • wperkowperko Posts: 66
    Hi,

    I just started working on this idea myself. The BS2 can send/receive serial data via many of the PINs ... this is how the PIXYcam5 talks to any MCU chip/module.

    OTOH, getting the info I need from the PIXYcam5 (x,y position and color code) seems to be something that should be straight forward and even posted on the PIXY wiki or forums ... but so far I'm not finding a simple list of bits/bytes that come from the PIXYcam5 anywhere. the basic standard 9600 baud should be plenty fast to send data to be parsed by the MCU application for thousands of simple projects.

  • wperkowperko Posts: 66
    Loudmind wrote: »
    Hi there, my son and I are interested in adding a Pixy5 camera and an xBee wireless module to our Boe-Bot. Before purchasing it, we have a couple of questions:

    1. Is the Pixy5 compatible with the Boe-Bot Basic Stamp, or just with Arduino? If the former, are there any special connectors I need to buy to connect it to the BOE?
    2. Would an xBee wireless module work together with a Pixy5 through the BOE?

    Thanks in advance for your help - happy to clarify or answer any questions.

    Thanks again,
    Roger


    Hi, YES you can use a PIXY or PIXY2 with your BS2 projects. I used it with a PICAXE chips and 28X2 module (smarter than the BS2, but still BASIC language)
    PIXYbot Sees a Big Fat Belly

    "RoboGuts™ S.T.E.A.M. Education Program" http://www.R2Pv1.com/ YES, you can use a BS2 on the RoboGuts™ circuit board.

    RoboGuts™ Intelligent content for 3D printing, a S.T.E.A.M. Education Program for beginners and a smarter RoboGuts™ circuit board for hobbyists http://www.r2pv1.com/

    http://www.r2pv1.com/RoboGutsBuildUp/RoboGutsChips&Modules2c600.gif


  • wperkowperko Posts: 66
    E_TexasTesla wrote: »
    This is an old topic but has anyone had any luck using cmucam5 with the basic stamp?
    I have a group of Boy Scouts taking the robotics merit badge and we have four boe bot kits.
    I would love to show them this pixycam tracking a ball as seen on two youtube videos.
    I have bs2 code for the cmucam1 but the cmucam5 doesn't send the same data out.


    Thanks, CJ

    Hi, YES you can use a PIXY or PIXY2 with your BS2 projects. I used it with a PICAXE chips and 28X2 module (smarter than the BS2, but still BASIC language)
    PIXYbot Sees a Big Fat Belly

    "RoboGuts™ S.T.E.A.M. Education Program" http://www.R2Pv1.com/ YES, you can use a BS2 on the RoboGuts™ circuit board.

    RoboGuts™ Intelligent content for 3D printing, a S.T.E.A.M. Education Program for beginners and a smarter RoboGuts™ circuit board for hobbyists http://www.r2pv1.com/

    http://www.r2pv1.com/RoboGutsBuildUp/RoboGutsChips&Modules2c600.gif

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