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Serial Communications Question — Parallax Forums

Serial Communications Question

outerspaceouterspace Posts: 2
edited 2005-11-10 13:50 in BASIC Stamp
I am working on a little project in which I will need to collect·serial data from a gps and a·temp sensor.· I am currently working with a PC104 board and I am wondering if·a basic stamp could do the same for a much lower cost.· I have no experience with basic stamp or microcontrollers and I am a bit overwhelmed with all of the information out there on the basic stamp.· The overall system needs to read in data from a gps, read in data from a temperature sensor, combine these two data strings, and send the new string out to an amateur radio modem for transmission.· It also needs to monitor the incomming data from the modem and watch for control commands which will activate relays.· If anyone out there could give me some directions/solutions to this issue it would be most helpful.

Comments

  • stamptrolstamptrol Posts: 1,731
    edited 2005-11-09 20:16
    Hi,

    What you're looking to do is fairly simple.

    I can send you some code clips if you'd like to try things out.

    Which GPS sentences are you going to use? just the basic lat-long stuff or do you have a more sophisticated unit which can output some of the optional sentences?

    What kind of temperature device are you using?

    Finally, what is the modem expecting in terms of speed, etc.?

    Cheers,

    Tom
  • steve_bsteve_b Posts: 1,563
    edited 2005-11-09 21:13
    Stamptrol is right...the more info you give us...the better we can help you!

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    ·

    Steve

    "Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."
  • outerspaceouterspace Posts: 2
    edited 2005-11-09 21:39
    Hello, Thanks for your reply!

    To answer your questions...
    I want to use the NMEA GPGGA sentence. My temperature sensor simply plugs into my computers serial port (so does my gps). The details of my temperature sensor can be found at http://store.qkits.com/moreinfo.cfm/VK011. (for the record I am not trying to give you more work to do I just want to make sure you know exactly what I have [noparse]:)[/noparse] The temp sensor just outputs the temperature readings at a given rate (whatever I tell it to do). The modem runs on 9600 baud. It is a Kantronics KPC 3+. I hope this answers all of your questions. Feel free to send me some code to look at. It would also be helpful if you could specify some parts that I will need to get to make a complete system. I have to state again that I have never worked with a basic stamp or the like so this is all new to me (but looks quite interesting!!!) Thanks for all of your help!!!
  • SPENCESPENCE Posts: 204
    edited 2005-11-09 23:27
    UNLESS I REMMEMBER INCCORECTLY. THE PC104 IS PRETTY EXPENSIVE.

    CHECK THIS OUT.

    http://www.jkmicro.com/products/flashlite186.html

    73
    SPENCE
    K4KEP
  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2005-11-09 23:53
    Outerspace,

    You could use one of our BS2p family modules and a DS1620 temperature sensor for your application.·Below you'll find a couple useful links.

    http://www.parallax.com/dl/docs/cols/nv/vol3/col/nv83.pdf
    http://www.parallax.com/dl/docs/cols/nv/vol6/col/nv123.pdf

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    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
  • stamptrolstamptrol Posts: 1,731
    edited 2005-11-10 00:39
    ··· Outerspace,

    ··· I checked out your QKITS temperature module. The stamp will handle it quite nicely. Basically, the stamp will issue the interrogate command, "?" I believe, and the unit will send back the temperatures.

    ·· As for the GPS, attached is a bit of the original code from a remotely piloted data collection system I worked on. The stamp I used was the BS2sx, which is ideally suited to such tasks. Note that this piece of code is only part of the system, there are 5 other programs in the chip. In your case, another program segment would send data out the radio modem.

    · If you haven't got a particular circuit board in mind, either of the standard Stamp carrier boards will work fine.

    · Cheers



    ·





    ··
  • Tom WalkerTom Walker Posts: 509
    edited 2005-11-10 13:50
    You also metioned that the Stamp may have to watch for control commands and work some digital output. Something to keep in mind is that the Stamp is single tasking and, therefore, we will need to know something of the timing needed to help you put together programming to accomplish everything without missing anything.

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    Truly Understand the Fundamentals and the Path will be so much easier...
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