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Slick way to see if the stamp is still working? ?? — Parallax Forums

Slick way to see if the stamp is still working? ??

ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
edited 2001-10-19 12:15 in General Discussion
How about sleep for shorter period say 30 seconds, wakeup pulse out to an
LED for 1/2 a second then go to sleep again. This should save considerable
battery power and still give an indication that it is still alive.

Original Message
From: John Walton [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=0JW_sIsmI5-Is6BvORTfyZNtylsPHC51GoCLwntj8aW0SRl7Q6ZO78x-m3YfWzFZaatOn2UGj1qfgVA]john@l...[/url
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2001 10:05 AM
To: Basic Stamps
Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Slick way to see if the stamp is still working???


My current stamp project uses a stamp to sleep for a long period of time (3
hours), wake up, open a solenoid for about 10 seconds, then sleep again. My
question is this:

Is there any way to tell when I check the stamp while it is running if
everything is still ok? This project runs off of batteries, so I need to
conserve every bit of power I can. Otherwise I would just put a LED on the
project, that could be my indicator.

Anyone have a slick idea on how to check to make sure everything is still
running, short of waiting up to 3 hours to see if the solenoid opens?

Thanks,


John


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Comments

  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2001-10-18 23:28
    The output pins are gonna blip every so often when the chip is asleep, no?
    Why not monitor one and build a pulse-stretcher to flash a low-power LED.

    Original Message



    > How about sleep for shorter period say 30 seconds, wakeup pulse out to an
    > LED for 1/2 a second then go to sleep again. This should save
    considerable
    > battery power and still give an indication that it is still alive.

    > My current stamp project uses a stamp to sleep for a long period of time
    (3
    > hours), wake up, open a solenoid for about 10 seconds, then sleep again.
    My
    > question is this:
    >
    > Is there any way to tell when I check the stamp while it is running if
    > everything is still ok? This project runs off of batteries, so I need to
    > conserve every bit of power I can. Otherwise I would just put a LED on
    the
    > project, that could be my indicator.
    >
    > Anyone have a slick idea on how to check to make sure everything is still
    > running, short of waiting up to 3 hours to see if the solenoid opens?
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2001-10-19 05:38
    At 05:28 PM 10/18/01 -0500, you wrote:
    >The output pins are gonna blip every so often when the chip is asleep, no?

    I would agree.


    >Why not monitor one and build a pulse-stretcher to flash a low-power LED.


    Umm, got an English version of that laying around? I'm pretty new around
    here [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    I knew you would have a good idea, I'm still amazed at the suggestions you
    had for the robot guy trying to keep his machine upright.

    Thanks,

    John
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2001-10-19 12:15
    Build a cicuit to recognize the short change on a stamp pin. Add a way to
    stretch the duration of this blip enough that you can see an LED flash. A
    555 can be used for this if I remember right.

    Original Message

    > >The output pins are gonna blip every so often when the chip is asleep,
    no?
    >
    > I would agree.
    >
    >
    > >Why not monitor one and build a pulse-stretcher to flash a low-power LED.
    >
    >
    > Umm, got an English version of that laying around? I'm pretty new around
    > here [noparse]:)[/noparse]
    >
    > I knew you would have a good idea, I'm still amazed at the suggestions you
    > had for the robot guy trying to keep his machine upright.
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