Pre-newbie
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Posts: 46,084
I've just joined this list after visiting the Parallax booth at
SIGGRAPH. I'm looking for advice on getting started.
Parallax has an offer for SIGGRAPH attendees: BS2 Starter Kit with
Board of Education for $159-$50=$109. (It doesn't include a power
supply; where do I get one?)
With this starter kit, what projects can I build? Does the range of
projects change much if I then buy some add-ons?
Can I use this starter kit to eventually make a Boe-Bot?
Dare I ask, how does the BASIC Stamp system compare to LEGO
MINDSTORMS Robotic Invention System (RIS) 2.0? (See
http://mindstorms.lego.com/products/ris/index.asp)
Thanks.
-David
SIGGRAPH. I'm looking for advice on getting started.
Parallax has an offer for SIGGRAPH attendees: BS2 Starter Kit with
Board of Education for $159-$50=$109. (It doesn't include a power
supply; where do I get one?)
With this starter kit, what projects can I build? Does the range of
projects change much if I then buy some add-ons?
Can I use this starter kit to eventually make a Boe-Bot?
Dare I ask, how does the BASIC Stamp system compare to LEGO
MINDSTORMS Robotic Invention System (RIS) 2.0? (See
http://mindstorms.lego.com/products/ris/index.asp)
Thanks.
-David
Comments
Glad you joined us here! There are several ways go to with the Basic Stamp.
You can get the starter kit (the power supply is just a "wall wart" you can
get at Radio Shack or WalMart (no pun intended). The input range is
something like 6 to 30V and you need to make sure the +V is in the right
place (the center, if I recall).
You can add the BoE to a chassis and make a BoEBot.
The BoE's breadboard area is quite small. Right now I have a breadboard of a
programmable power supply for the 2nd edition of my Stamp book (whoops --
you didn't hear that from me) and with a LM324 and a LM317 the breadboard is
pretty much full.
If you want some tips on getting started with the Stamp, check out
http://www.al-williams.com/wd5gnr/stampfaq.htm -- all you really need is the
Stamp. The OEM Stamp is easy to breadboard with, or you might be interested
in our ASP-II set which lets you program a Stamp on any breadboard
(http://www.al-williams.com/awce/asp2.htm). This is handy if you already
have a breadboard or you want to build large projects.
As for Mindstorms, I had occasion to teach 3 groups of elementary school
students robotics last school year (well, two years when school starts
again). We used a mix of Legos (which is what the school wanted) and the BoE
bot (what I wanted).
There is no doubt that the graphical Lego system is easier for the kids that
age to pick up. But I didn't feel like they got much out of it. OK, they
could see how each step has to be done and so forth, but in real life almost
no one builds embedded systems using this sort of technique. PBasic is not
hard to learn and is much closer to what you'd do in a traditional system.
The kids were able to learn PBasic easily, so I felt like for a little more
effort, the payoff was very large.
The downside is kids are facinated with the Legos. If I were going to keep
going on that class I'd probably take a BS2 board (either a breadboard or
something custom) and glue some legos to it along with some way to make
connections to the Lego hardware. That would be something.
Al Williams
AWC
* Floating point A/D
http://www.al-williams.com/awce/pak9.htm
>
Original Message
> From: David Shadovitz [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=6qcGhboYfIXzv-tWBJaWDqHKJnTQ96qvUC4JRQgYDLc-eoPTBbRnflqKIYGpZeva0_YVvV2gGYKghnYH]david@s...[/url
> Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 11:21 PM
> To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Pre-newbie
>
>
> I've just joined this list after visiting the Parallax booth at
> SIGGRAPH. I'm looking for advice on getting started.
>
> Parallax has an offer for SIGGRAPH attendees: BS2 Starter Kit with
> Board of Education for $159-$50=$109. (It doesn't include a power
> supply; where do I get one?)
>
> With this starter kit, what projects can I build? Does the range of
> projects change much if I then buy some add-ons?
>
> Can I use this starter kit to eventually make a Boe-Bot?
>
> Dare I ask, how does the BASIC Stamp system compare to LEGO
> MINDSTORMS Robotic Invention System (RIS) 2.0? (See
> http://mindstorms.lego.com/products/ris/index.asp)
>
> Thanks.
> -David
>
>
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