Time recorder and uploader project - newbie

Rosso

My project idea is this:
Each time a button is pressed the module records the time. At some point the module is connected to a PC (serial/usb) and all the recorded times are uploaded.

Firstly, is this too advanced for a newbie project.
Secondly, is basic stamp the best microcontroller for this kind of project.

Thanks a lot for your help.
r

Gadgetman

No, it shouldn't be too advanced.

And yes, if you add an external 'Real-time clock', any of the BS2 variants should be capable of handling this task.
(If you want to log a large number of records, you may want to consider the BS2sx, BS2P or BS2Pe as they have more space)

AlWilliamsAWC

This ought to be pretty easy if you use an external clock. By chance, the Stamp Project of the Month·shows how to use a small external clock chip with a Stamp to get a real time clock.

Regards,

Al Williams
AWC
Add Floating Point Math to Your Stamp
http://www.awce.com/pak12.htm
·

Rosso

Thanks guys,

So to reiterate Al, after reading your project of the month. I could write the time/date to the DS1307 each time a button is pressed. Then upload those time/dates to the PC. Would this uploading be possible to do in runtime using your ASP III prototyping board?

Hope I haven't said anything stupid there.
r

Jon Williams

Perhaps this article will give you an idea or two: http://www.parallax.com/dl/docs/cols/nv/vol3/col/nv88.pdf.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax
Dallas Office

AlWilliamsAWC

Well, you have a few options. Every time the button is pushed, you can read the DS chip's time. From there you could store it in the BS2p scratchpad, store it in the DS chip's NV RAM (only 58 bytes though), or store it in the BS2p EEPROM (this eventually wears out, eventually being like 1,000,000 writes). Then when the PC queries the device, it would dump its memory out and reset it.

There are some subtle areas to this, but it isn't anything you can't figure out.

The ASP-III is great for this because it can hold the clock chip, the crystal, the BS2P, and has a PC-compatible serial port onboard. So you would have a single piece of hardware with very few modifications required. You would need to use a few of the spare holes for a pull up resistor and a connection to your switch, but there is plenty of room for that.

Regards,

Al Williams
AWC
KITS!
http://www.awce.com/kits.htm
·