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Basic Stamp Help, Which One do I Get? — Parallax Forums

Basic Stamp Help, Which One do I Get?

ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
edited 2002-11-07 06:03 in General Discussion
Hello,

I am new to this board on the reccomendation of a friend who is
helping me to build a model of a baseball scoreboard. I know this
sounds kind of funny, but I am looking to build this scoreboard by
using the Basic Stamp 2.

I am to the point where I have books coming in the mail and I have
done the research and am getting the books in the mail to help me a
little, but I need to start at square one in the production process.
Square one is trying to figure out what Basic Stamp do I need to get.

People have reccommended the BS2 but which do I get. Do I just get
the BS2 from Parallax or do I need to get a starter kit and if so,
which one. I'm hoping someone can help me out with this. I've been
wanting to build my own scoreboard for quite some time now and this
is the closest I've been. I have time now to actually work on it and
I'd like to get it done and ready for next season (I work for a Minor
League team).

Any help is appreciated and thank you in advance.

Jarrod.

Comments

  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2002-11-05 19:44
    It sounds like all your end result it to turn on and off lights (for balls
    and strikes), display a number for what inning you are in, display a number
    for errors etc.

    The BS2 will likey do all the functions you need. There will be a lot of
    external hardware however that you will need to interface between the stamp
    and actual scoreboard.

    Hope this helps


    [noparse][[/noparse]Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2002-11-05 20:38
    I would recommend the basic stamp 2 starter kit. You will get the
    programming cable, manuals etc all in one ready to go package.
    BS2 starter kit with board of education #27203 $159
    I started off with this kit, and found it invaluable in my learning the
    stamps. It includes a small onboard breadboard. It also comes with jumper
    wires and such to get you going in your first expeirments. With this you can
    plug your I/O sensors directly into the breadboard for practise. When you
    have a bulletproof design you can either buy another stamp only, or use the
    starter kit on site.
    You can also easily plug in a 4 line LCD display or move from there to large
    banner size displays.
    For your data entry and pushbuttons you may wish to go to
    http://happcontrols.com
    They sell all the arcade machine switches and joysticks. They have excellent
    arcade quality push buttons for $2 each with a true microswitch on them. I
    use these switchs in an arcade machine I built and cannot say enough good
    about them.
    I presume you will have an umpire or a scorekeeper that will have to
    manually enter the data into the stamp. You would want a good quality switch
    input for that reason.
    Good luck to you.
    -Kerry




    At 07:24 PM 11/5/02 -0000, you wrote:
    >Hello,
    >
    >I am new to this board on the reccomendation of a friend who is
    >helping me to build a model of a baseball scoreboard. I know this
    >sounds kind of funny, but I am looking to build this scoreboard by
    >using the Basic Stamp 2.
    >
    >I am to the point where I have books coming in the mail and I have
    >done the research and am getting the books in the mail to help me a
    >little, but I need to start at square one in the production process.
    >Square one is trying to figure out what Basic Stamp do I need to get.
    >
    >People have reccommended the BS2 but which do I get. Do I just get
    >the BS2 from Parallax or do I need to get a starter kit and if so,
    >which one. I'm hoping someone can help me out with this. I've been
    >wanting to build my own scoreboard for quite some time now and this
    >is the closest I've been. I have time now to actually work on it and
    >I'd like to get it done and ready for next season (I work for a Minor
    >League team).
    >
    >Any help is appreciated and thank you in advance.
    >
    >Jarrod.
    >
    >
    >To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
    > basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
    >from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and
    Body of the message will be ignored.
    >
    >
    >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
    >
    >
    >

    Very respectfully, your obedient servant.
    Kerry
    Admin@M...
    WWW server hosting [url=Http://mntnweb.com]Http://mntnweb.com[/url]
    Kerry Barlow
    p.o. box 21
    kirkwood ny
    13795
    607-775-1575
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2002-11-06 03:47
    BS2 should be dandy for the scoreboard. You might think 16 pins is too few
    but, between SPI and I2C they end up being a buttload.

    However, I wouldn't make that first purchase based on the requirements of
    the scoreboard. For one thing, until you've sussed everything out and know
    how to use the thing, you won't really know what the requirements of the
    scoreboard will be. Here's some tips I can think of, seeing as how I just
    went through the same leap about two months ago:

    1) Buy the BS2 to start. If it proves unsuitable for the scoreboard you can
    always use it for something else later (once you get going its amazing how
    many other ideas pop into your head!). Its not like a PC where you're stuck
    with the same controller for years. Once you've built something using the
    BS2 you'd have to go buy another microcontroller for the next project
    anyway.

    2) Buy a nice big breadboard. I purchased the board of education myself but
    I didn't get far before the tiny breadboard drove me nuts. Found
    instructions for making a voltage regulator and serial cable at Mr.
    Anderson's site http://www.phanderson.com/stamp/intro2/intro2.html, bought a
    nice big breadboard and never looked back. I'm just trying to figure out how
    I can remove the BOE breadboard and make a PCB in its place. Make a nice
    carrier board for something.

    3) Budget extra cash for useless (at the moment) chips. You're going to make
    mistakes and buy chips that turn out to NOT be what you needed. Thankfully,
    $6 is about the highest price I've seen for a single chip. More often its
    $2-$3 for a pack of 2-5 chips so its not a LOT of extra cash [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    4) Do scrounge around for old electronic equipment. Its amazing how many
    good chips, motors, transistors, etc, etc, you can salvage.

    5) Buy a multi-meter - this is a must! When things aren't doing what you
    expected its often the only way to prove to yourself that you really are an
    idiot (for me at least). You swear you used the right pin in software but
    guess where the voltage is [noparse]:D[/noparse] Those damned Resistor markings still elude me
    too. Meter is always sitting beside me when I start putting them away.

    6) Never buy ONE of a chip (though most come in multi-packs). If you do,
    then it'll be on a friday of a long weekend, you'll start work on the
    project 2 minutes after the store closes and immediately fry the ONE chip
    you bought and be completely stuck until the following tuesday. Of course
    the boss will make you stay late and you'll rush to the store, only to see
    the closed sign flip down just as you're parking.

    7) Don't purchase all the supplies for your early projects in one go. Buy
    just a few vital chips and experiment with them. I spent 5 evenings just on
    the DS1302 clock and 24LC256 EEprom. Screwing around with logging, julien
    dates etc. You'll find yourself re-designing the project with every new
    purchase due to the new knowledge you've gained (and hair you've lost).
    Think about it, if you tossed a 24LC256 (32 kbytes) into your scoreboard
    controller, you could track a buttload of games and generate a LOT of stats.
    If you wanted to, you could hook up a dataflash thingy and have
    multi-megabytes of stats stored away.

    Presently I'm playing with an Atmel ATMega8 controller. Its *way* cheaper
    than a stamp ($9 canadian) and has a lot more capabilities. If I hadn't gone
    with a stamp first though, there's no freaking way I'd have a chance of
    figuring this thing out. In the time it took to figure out the 24WC16,
    24LC256, DS1620, DS1302, AD590/92, LM34, PCF8574, 74HC595, TLC2543, LM358,
    LCA110, pH and ORP meters, and the entire Earth Measurements book on the
    stamp, I've managed to hook up an ISP cable to program the Atmel and a
    serial cable back to the PC so I can see what I'm doing... Oh and I have an
    LED flashing once a second [noparse]:D[/noparse] I don't begrudge spending nearly10x the money
    on a stamp at all! Parallax support documentation is un-paralled by anything
    else I've seen.


    Original Message
    From: "stpeteannouncer" <dj@s...>
    To: <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
    Sent: Tuesday, November 05, 2002 11:24 AM
    Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Basic Stamp Help, Which One do I Get?


    > Hello,
    >
    > I am new to this board on the reccomendation of a friend who is
    > helping me to build a model of a baseball scoreboard. I know this
    > sounds kind of funny, but I am looking to build this scoreboard by
    > using the Basic Stamp 2.
    >
    > I am to the point where I have books coming in the mail and I have
    > done the research and am getting the books in the mail to help me a
    > little, but I need to start at square one in the production process.
    > Square one is trying to figure out what Basic Stamp do I need to get.
    >
    > People have reccommended the BS2 but which do I get. Do I just get
    > the BS2 from Parallax or do I need to get a starter kit and if so,
    > which one. I'm hoping someone can help me out with this. I've been
    > wanting to build my own scoreboard for quite some time now and this
    > is the closest I've been. I have time now to actually work on it and
    > I'd like to get it done and ready for next season (I work for a Minor
    > League team).
    >
    > Any help is appreciated and thank you in advance.
    >
    > Jarrod.
    >
    >
    > To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
    > basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
    > from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and
    Body of the message will be ignored.
    >
    >
    > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
    >
    >
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2002-11-06 05:27
    Can you give more details of the scoreboard? If you are planning to use LEDs
    then look at Nuts and Volts column 70. It demonstrates how to interface a
    BS2 to a Max 7219 LED driver chip.
    <http://www.parallaxinc.com/html_files/downloads/Nuts_volts/nv_2_2.htm>

    Nick


    on 5/11/02 2:24 PM, stpeteannouncer at dj@s... wrote:

    > Hello,
    >
    > I am new to this board on the reccomendation of a friend who is
    > helping me to build a model of a baseball scoreboard. I know this
    > sounds kind of funny, but I am looking to build this scoreboard by
    > using the Basic Stamp 2.
    >
    > I am to the point where I have books coming in the mail and I have
    > done the research and am getting the books in the mail to help me a
    > little, but I need to start at square one in the production process.
    > Square one is trying to figure out what Basic Stamp do I need to get.
    >
    > People have reccommended the BS2 but which do I get. Do I just get
    > the BS2 from Parallax or do I need to get a starter kit and if so,
    > which one. I'm hoping someone can help me out with this. I've been
    > wanting to build my own scoreboard for quite some time now and this
    > is the closest I've been. I have time now to actually work on it and
    > I'd like to get it done and ready for next season (I work for a Minor
    > League team).
    >
    > Any help is appreciated and thank you in advance.
    >
    > Jarrod.
    >
    >
    > To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
    > basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
    > from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and Body
    > of the message will be ignored.
    >
    >
    > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
    >
    >
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2002-11-06 14:08
    A few resources you might enjoy:

    Unofficial Stamp FAQ: http://www.wd5gnr.com/stampfaq.htm
    LOSA: http://www.hth.com/filelibrary/txtfiles/losa.txt
    Stamp Prototyping: http://www.al-williams.com/asp2.htm
    http://www.al-williams.com/car1.htm

    As for which Stamp to get, the BS2 is a good workhorse. The BS2P has
    more features but costs more. I'd avoid the BS2SX since it draws so much
    power and the BS2P is (I think) almost as fast.

    Regards,

    Al Williams
    AWC
    * Control 8 servos at once
    http://www.al-williams.com/awce/pak8.htm




    >
    Original Message
    > From: stpeteannouncer [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=a6Fa0vx6s3hTp-2O7qM1a8KmRWOdxPvCgKD-UxvMmzYlKm9BOyXJFYDLTEr9UfG_OahuH56ZsqeO_aFb5F6Y]dj@s...[/url
    > Sent: Tuesday, November 05, 2002 1:25 PM
    > To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
    > Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Basic Stamp Help, Which One do I Get?
    >
    >
    > Hello,
    >
    > I am new to this board on the reccomendation of a friend who is
    > helping me to build a model of a baseball scoreboard. I know this
    > sounds kind of funny, but I am looking to build this scoreboard by
    > using the Basic Stamp 2.
    >
    > I am to the point where I have books coming in the mail and I have
    > done the research and am getting the books in the mail to help me a
    > little, but I need to start at square one in the production process.
    > Square one is trying to figure out what Basic Stamp do I need to get.
    >
    > People have reccommended the BS2 but which do I get. Do I just get
    > the BS2 from Parallax or do I need to get a starter kit and if so,
    > which one. I'm hoping someone can help me out with this. I've been
    > wanting to build my own scoreboard for quite some time now and this
    > is the closest I've been. I have time now to actually work on it and
    > I'd like to get it done and ready for next season (I work for a Minor
    > League team).
    >
    > Any help is appreciated and thank you in advance.
    >
    > Jarrod.
    >
    >
    > To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
    > basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
    > from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the
    > Subject and Body of the message will be ignored.
    >
    >
    > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
    > http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
    >
    >
    >
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2002-11-07 06:03
    Al,

    Thanks for the info. The big question I had was do I need to get a starter
    kit or just the Basic Stamp2.

    Thanks for the links, I will be checking those tonight.

    Jarrod.
    Original Message
    From: "Al Williams" <alw@a...>
    To: <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
    Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 6:08 AM
    Subject: RE: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Basic Stamp Help, Which One do I Get?


    > A few resources you might enjoy:
    >
    > Unofficial Stamp FAQ: http://www.wd5gnr.com/stampfaq.htm
    > LOSA: http://www.hth.com/filelibrary/txtfiles/losa.txt
    > Stamp Prototyping: http://www.al-williams.com/asp2.htm
    > http://www.al-williams.com/car1.htm
    >
    > As for which Stamp to get, the BS2 is a good workhorse. The BS2P has
    > more features but costs more. I'd avoid the BS2SX since it draws so much
    > power and the BS2P is (I think) almost as fast.
    >
    > Regards,
    >
    > Al Williams
    > AWC
    > * Control 8 servos at once
    > http://www.al-williams.com/awce/pak8.htm
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > >
    Original Message
    > > From: stpeteannouncer [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=ADfEr64-_ZdkBDJBp0D-LhUgUaS3OvNOx4mlRSgy0XTZonoIRTVr2B5XolrlpkagDgi27DUd_ZA3qb8AX_DFosQ]dj@s...[/url
    > > Sent: Tuesday, November 05, 2002 1:25 PM
    > > To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
    > > Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Basic Stamp Help, Which One do I Get?
    > >
    > >
    > > Hello,
    > >
    > > I am new to this board on the reccomendation of a friend who is
    > > helping me to build a model of a baseball scoreboard. I know this
    > > sounds kind of funny, but I am looking to build this scoreboard by
    > > using the Basic Stamp 2.
    > >
    > > I am to the point where I have books coming in the mail and I have
    > > done the research and am getting the books in the mail to help me a
    > > little, but I need to start at square one in the production process.
    > > Square one is trying to figure out what Basic Stamp do I need to get.
    > >
    > > People have reccommended the BS2 but which do I get. Do I just get
    > > the BS2 from Parallax or do I need to get a starter kit and if so,
    > > which one. I'm hoping someone can help me out with this. I've been
    > > wanting to build my own scoreboard for quite some time now and this
    > > is the closest I've been. I have time now to actually work on it and
    > > I'd like to get it done and ready for next season (I work for a Minor
    > > League team).
    > >
    > > Any help is appreciated and thank you in advance.
    > >
    > > Jarrod.
    > >
    > >
    > > To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
    > > basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
    > > from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the
    > > Subject and Body of the message will be ignored.
    > >
    > >
    > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
    > > http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
    > >
    > >
    > >
    >
    >
    > To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
    > basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
    > from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and
    Body of the message will be ignored.
    >
    >
    > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
    >
    >
    >
    >
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