New to RF communication

Archiver

Recently I had to come up with a sophisticated multichannel timer for
a number of art installations and used the basic stamp with great
success.

I have several program elements in this timer which are all connected
via the software with the go command, and I can use an external
switch to jump the program from one segment to the next etc.
I switch to the segment I want (I use 6 pins for this decision
process) and then press reset to "notify" the stamp to look at the
selelction routine at the beginning of the program.

Everything works great sofar.
Now I would like to remotely switch these segments and I was looking
at the RF Digital transmitters and receivers I found in the Parallax
catalog, but I don't know how to do this.

The problem I encounter is that the stamp can either work off my
program, a 25min. timing sequence, or look for commands from the RF
receiver, as far as I know it can't do both.

But what I had in mind was that the program was in progress and when
I push a button on the RF transmitters the programming sequence
immediately stops and the stamp jumps to the next program sequence.

Can this be done using stamps??

TIA Uwe

Archiver

Hi,

The issue is usually that a BASIC Stamp can't do anything else while
it is timing when using PULSEOUT or PAUSE instructions. An external
(to the Stamp) timer will allow the Stamp to keep processing while
the timing goes on. The idea is to start a timer from the Stamp then
check back periodically to see when the timer is finished. The Stamp
can also be doing other things, like looking for RF commands, while
checking for the "timer finished" signal to go true.

There are lots of ways to make a timer. My favorite is a Co-Processor
made by my company. It also comes as a kit with a PC board that
screws directly under a BoE. It is described as a robotic Co-
Processor but it can be used wherever timers, A/D or servo
controllers are needed. Eight separate timers are included in the
chip. If your timing needs to be extra accurate, we have one timer
that can run in autoretrigger mode. We also use a crystal rather than
a resonator for best timing accuracy.

For lots more product info, technical description, and applications,
information, see www.bluebelldesign.com.

Harry
Stamp Robotics to the next level
www.bluebelldesign.com


--- In basicstamps@yahoogroups.com, "othello159" <othello159@h...>
wrote:
> Recently I had to come up with a sophisticated multichannel timer
for
> a number of art installations and used the basic stamp with great
> success.
>
> I have several program elements in this timer which are all
connected
> via the software with the go command, and I can use an external
> switch to jump the program from one segment to the next etc.
> I switch to the segment I want (I use 6 pins for this decision
> process) and then press reset to "notify" the stamp to look at the
> selelction routine at the beginning of the program.
>
> Everything works great sofar.
> Now I would like to remotely switch these segments and I was looking
> at the RF Digital transmitters and receivers I found in the Parallax
> catalog, but I don't know how to do this.
>
> The problem I encounter is that the stamp can either work off my
> program, a 25min. timing sequence, or look for commands from the RF
> receiver, as far as I know it can't do both.
>
> But what I had in mind was that the program was in progress and when
> I push a button on the RF transmitters the programming sequence
> immediately stops and the stamp jumps to the next program sequence.
>
> Can this be done using stamps??
>
> TIA Uwe

Archiver

Hi,

Thank you for your response, you give me an interesting idea.
If you do not need too much timing accuracy (I don't) you could even rig up a
555 timer, trigger that timer and then check via software as you explained.
I might actually want to try that to better understand the inner works of this
set up.
I will also look at the material on your web site.

regards Uwe


--- In basicstamps@yahoogroups.com, "harrywlewis" <harry_w_lewis@h...> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> The issue is usually that a BASIC Stamp can't do anything else while
> it is timing when using PULSEOUT or PAUSE instructions. An external
> (to the Stamp) timer will allow the Stamp to keep processing while
> the timing goes on. The idea is to start a timer from the Stamp then
> check back periodically to see when the timer is finished. The Stamp
> can also be doing other things, like looking for RF commands, while
> checking for the "timer finished" signal to go true.
>
> There are lots of ways to make a timer. My favorite is a Co-Processor
> made by my company. It also comes as a kit with a PC board that
> screws directly under a BoE. It is described as a robotic Co-
> Processor but it can be used wherever timers, A/D or servo
> controllers are needed. Eight separate timers are included in the
> chip. If your timing needs to be extra accurate, we have one timer
> that can run in autoretrigger mode. We also use a crystal rather than
> a resonator for best timing accuracy.
>
> For lots more product info, technical description, and applications,
> information, see www.bluebelldesign.com.
>
> Harry
> Stamp Robotics to the next level
> www.bluebelldesign.com
>
>
> --- In basicstamps@yahoogroups.com, "othello159" <othello159@h...>
> wrote:
> > Recently I had to come up with a sophisticated multichannel timer
> for
> > a number of art installations and used the basic stamp with great
> > success.
> >
> > I have several program elements in this timer which are all
> connected
> > via the software with the go command, and I can use an external
> > switch to jump the program from one segment to the next etc.
> > I switch to the segment I want (I use 6 pins for this decision
> > process) and then press reset to "notify" the stamp to look at the
> > selelction routine at the beginning of the program.
> >
> > Everything works great sofar.
> > Now I would like to remotely switch these segments and I was looking
> > at the RF Digital transmitters and receivers I found in the Parallax
> > catalog, but I don't know how to do this.
> >
> > The problem I encounter is that the stamp can either work off my
> > program, a 25min. timing sequence, or look for commands from the RF
> > receiver, as far as I know it can't do both.
> >
> > But what I had in mind was that the program was in progress and when
> > I push a button on the RF transmitters the programming sequence
> > immediately stops and the stamp jumps to the next program sequence.
> >
> > Can this be done using stamps??
> >
> > TIA Uwe