New to programing! And new to BS
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Posts: 46,084
Dear all,
I used to make many projects with electronic components, but ran into
problems with my last project. I had to get 1200 white LED's divided
in 13 rings on a board. Each ring had to dim up and down separate
from the other rings and in sequence one after the other, starting
the next ring when the previous ring is at a 1/4 of it sickle. To do
this I used 2 Mitsubishi alpha controllers and 13 PWM controllers. I
barely could get it done, It woks but with a lot of work.
I therefore resided to look for other ways of doing this and found
this seemingly wonderfully solution "the basic stamp" until I started
to look at programing. My hope dropped in my shoes because I have no
knowledge of programing at all.
Now My question:
What is the easiest and the fastest way to learn programming in
BASIC, where can I find a program to do it and where do i find a
compiler if needed to test what i have done? first so that I know
how a program should be written and then in Pbasic. I ordered my
first BP2 with board at Radio Shack.
Thank you all.
Willy
I used to make many projects with electronic components, but ran into
problems with my last project. I had to get 1200 white LED's divided
in 13 rings on a board. Each ring had to dim up and down separate
from the other rings and in sequence one after the other, starting
the next ring when the previous ring is at a 1/4 of it sickle. To do
this I used 2 Mitsubishi alpha controllers and 13 PWM controllers. I
barely could get it done, It woks but with a lot of work.
I therefore resided to look for other ways of doing this and found
this seemingly wonderfully solution "the basic stamp" until I started
to look at programing. My hope dropped in my shoes because I have no
knowledge of programing at all.
Now My question:
What is the easiest and the fastest way to learn programming in
BASIC, where can I find a program to do it and where do i find a
compiler if needed to test what i have done? first so that I know
how a program should be written and then in Pbasic. I ordered my
first BP2 with board at Radio Shack.
Thank you all.
Willy
Comments
Go visit our web site -- there are lots of free downloads that will help
you out so you can learn PBASIC OJT style.
-- Jon Williams
-- Applications Engineer, Parallax
-- Dallas Office
Original Message
From: satchid23 [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=x9MGG923ENE1qd8vfrKMIa20spZa9jinYPJnYREtmPdGCAu2W00sjsrPZpdbgYOvMCuaQeidVi1l]satchid@p...[/url
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2003 6:01 PM
To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] New to programing! And new to BS
Dear all,
I used to make many projects with electronic components, but ran into
problems with my last project. I had to get 1200 white LED's divided
in 13 rings on a board. Each ring had to dim up and down separate
from the other rings and in sequence one after the other, starting
the next ring when the previous ring is at a 1/4 of it sickle. To do
this I used 2 Mitsubishi alpha controllers and 13 PWM controllers. I
barely could get it done, It woks but with a lot of work.
I therefore resided to look for other ways of doing this and found
this seemingly wonderfully solution "the basic stamp" until I started
to look at programing. My hope dropped in my shoes because I have no
knowledge of programing at all.
Now My question:
What is the easiest and the fastest way to learn programming in
BASIC, where can I find a program to do it and where do i find a
compiler if needed to test what i have done? first so that I know
how a program should be written and then in Pbasic. I ordered my
first BP2 with board at Radio Shack.
Thank you all.
Willy
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abuse@p....
Relax. It's a lot easier than you think. If you take a look on the Parallax
site, you will find a TON of simple and easy experiments to do with your
Stamp. Start by blinking an LED and then go from there!
Jonathan
www.madlabs.info
Original Message
From: "satchid23" <satchid@p...>
To: <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2003 4:01 PM
Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] New to programing! And new to BS
> Dear all,
>
> I used to make many projects with electronic components, but ran into
> problems with my last project. I had to get 1200 white LED's divided
> in 13 rings on a board. Each ring had to dim up and down separate
> from the other rings and in sequence one after the other, starting
> the next ring when the previous ring is at a 1/4 of it sickle. To do
> this I used 2 Mitsubishi alpha controllers and 13 PWM controllers. I
> barely could get it done, It woks but with a lot of work.
> I therefore resided to look for other ways of doing this and found
> this seemingly wonderfully solution "the basic stamp" until I started
> to look at programing. My hope dropped in my shoes because I have no
> knowledge of programing at all.
> Now My question:
> What is the easiest and the fastest way to learn programming in
> BASIC, where can I find a program to do it and where do i find a
> compiler if needed to test what i have done? first so that I know
> how a program should be written and then in Pbasic. I ordered my
> first BP2 with board at Radio Shack.
>
> Thank you all.
> Willy
>
>
>
> 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.
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
> To visit your group on the web, go to:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/basicstamps/
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
> http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
>
> [noparse][[/noparse]...]
> What is the easiest and the fastest way to learn programming
> in BASIC, where can I find a program to do it and where do i
> find a compiler if needed to test what i have done? first so
> that I know how a program should be written and then in
> Pbasic. I ordered my first BP2 with board at Radio Shack.
>
Willy, if you want to learn about programming in general, a local junior
college class is your best bet, but if you really meant that you want to
understand the specific kind of programming needed in microcontrollers,
you're better off learning on the Basic Stamp itself.
I say this because Basic is not the language that best teaches you overall
programming principles. Many important concepts are almost impossible to
demonstrate in Basic, let alone being made compelling by the structure of
the language. On the other hand, saying you want to "learn programming" is
like saying you want to "learn science." Both terms cover a world of
activities. PBasic is an excellent way to learn how to program
microcontrollers, and the Basic Stamp programmed in PBasic has been adopted
for that purpose at many schools around the United States. (Maybe
internationally as well, but I don't know that personally.)
For that more immediate goal of learning to program microcontrollers, your
BS2 is an excellent choice. Parallax works with schools to develop course
material based on the Stamp and a great deal of very useful material is
available for download on their web site. Here are some important links with
comments:
Parallax home page: http://www.parallax.com
Their "Getting Started" page, intended just for folks like you:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?N13212CD6 where you can find a link to a
complete slide show tutorial prepared by Southern Illinois University on
programming the Stamp.
Your Stamp product package includes a CD that has a good PBasic compiler,
but an updated version is available on line and I recommend it:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?S2B252CD6 Several changes in this update make
PBasic easier to use.
The Parallax page of Published Books is at
http://makeashorterlink.com/?K66221CD6 With astonishing generosity these are
not only for sale in bound form, but a lot of the material is on line to be
downloaded at no charge. You'll find material here written by several
regular contributors to this group as well as others, but written in a
careful expository fashion that is not practical as Q&A on a discussion
group. Well, perhaps it is possible, but it certainly is not fair to expect
them to repeat the effort on a one-to-one basis after going to the trouble
of writing a book<g>.
One of those books is an excellent jumping off point: Stampworks by Jon
Williams, http://makeashorterlink.com/?J37221CD6 which takes you through a
series of experiments that let you learn how to use the Stamp and how to
program at the same time. The Introduction to Programming text is available
for download and starts from the earliest techniques. This is not the way I
would start teaching you how to program a word processor -- still less an
operating system or a chess-playing automaton -- but it's exactly what you
need to learn how to program the Stamp. I believe Al Williams' book:
Microcontroller Projects Using the Basic Stamp also will let you start from
the first principles as a complete beginner -- but I'm not so sure about
that one. Can you tell us, Al?
After the Stampworks level, you have a world of material on-line and in
print that will take you in the direction of your interests, whether it be
process control, robotics, or... or cat doors and doorbells.
Good luck,
Gary
P.S. Proofing this, I see it needs a disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with
Parallax in any way. Just a retired professor who would have found the Stamp
a great teaching tool.
>
> I used to make many projects with electronic components,
> but ran into problems with my last project. I had to get
> 1200 white LED's divided in 13 rings on a board. Each
> ring [noparse][[/noparse]...] To do this I used 2 Mitsubishi alpha controllers
> and 13 PWM controllers. I barely could get it done [noparse][[/noparse]...]
>
And incidentally, for encouragement, let me say you're on the right track.
This sort of thing is meat for a microcontroller. It would make a very
appropriate early programming exercise -- right after all those experiments
in Stampworks.
Now if you wanted the LED's to exhibit a dancing moire pattern that
gradually coalesces into a recognizable image of your date for the
evening... well, that's a graduate exercise.<g>
Gary
Who assumes you still have a stout power supply
around, but that's not a programming issue
> >
> > I used to make many projects with electronic components,
> > but ran into problems with my last project. I had to get
Thank you,
I wil receive the stamp here in 2 or 3 weeks. I started to learn in
the "What's a microcontroller". Is there a way to test the working of
the programs before I have a fisical stamp?
Willy,
started. Review the help file and learn about variables and controlling
IO. While you can't test for function without the Stamp, you can check
to see if a program is syntactically correct by using the Memory Map
function. This will compile your code and if it does compile without
errors, you'll see how RAM and EEPROM space have been allocated.
-- Jon Williams
-- Applications Engineer, Parallax
-- Dallas Office
Original Message
From: satchid23 [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=2PeoOrdE7WL5lhFot5grIf3fejh-IizbhpZPx1h1CoaFxJc1on2Ka2grgz4baEpNaklwP_IBj7yXrtc]satchid@p...[/url
Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2003 5:16 PM
To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Re: New to programing! And new to BS
> From: "satchid23" <satchid@p...>
> >
> > I used to make many projects with electronic components, but ran
> > into problems with my last project. I had to get
Thank you,
I wil receive the stamp here in 2 or 3 weeks. I started to learn in
the "What's a microcontroller". Is there a way to test the working of
the programs before I have a fisical stamp?
Willy,
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is a fairly interesting exercise. One of the interesting ways a friend of
mine did it was to have an individual board ID and a sub-LED. Lighting a
single LED in the large (thousands) array was a matter of sending a
control code to the primary board with the on/off command, the sub-board
ID and the light ID. Each sequence of connected boards would either
service the request, or pass it on to the next board. It gets even
trickier for PWM, because you have to have PWM processors and send PWM
frequency commands down the 'bus.'
On Sat, 20 Dec 2003, Gary W. Sims wrote:
> From: "satchid23" <satchid@p...>
> >
> > I used to make many projects with electronic components,
> > but ran into problems with my last project. I had to get
> > 1200 white LED's divided in 13 rings on a board. Each
> > ring [noparse][[/noparse]...] To do this I used 2 Mitsubishi alpha controllers
> > and 13 PWM controllers. I barely could get it done [noparse][[/noparse]...]
> >
> And incidentally, for encouragement, let me say you're on the right track.
> This sort of thing is meat for a microcontroller. It would make a very
> appropriate early programming exercise -- right after all those experiments
> in Stampworks.
>
> Now if you wanted the LED's to exhibit a dancing moire pattern that
> gradually coalesces into a recognizable image of your date for the
> evening... well, that's a graduate exercise.<g>
>
> Gary
> Who assumes you still have a stout power supply
> around, but that's not a programming issue
>
>
>
> 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.
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
> To visit your group on the web, go to:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/basicstamps/
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
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>
>
>
Sean T. Lamont, CTO / Chief NetNerd, Abstract Software, Inc. (ServNet)
Seattle - Bellingham - Vancouver - Portland - Everett - Tacoma - Bremerton
email: lamont@a... WWW: http://www.serv.net
"Do not fear mistakes, There Are None" - Miles Davis