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Can I drive hard disk using BS2? — Parallax Forums

Can I drive hard disk using BS2?

maxxmaxx Posts: 14
edited 2006-03-28 03:45 in BASIC Stamp
Hello Everyone,

I've Basic Stamp board of education and I pretty much mastered all the excercises provided by the text. I also have a 20 giga byte hard disk that i no longer use. I'm thinking of building something like a hard disk mp3 player, but i'm not sure if i can do that using only BS2. If this idea is impossible, is there anyway that i can some how control the hard disk with the BS2 to save data on the h.d.d?
thanx for all ur help and ur time in this forum, as it really provide a great source of info and support.

Comments

  • Bruce BatesBruce Bates Posts: 3,045
    edited 2006-03-24 06:48
    Maxx -

    In one word "no", not with out a good deal of difficulty, and even then you would only be able to perform very primative functions (read-a-byte). There is also the matter of speed with MP3, which speed microcontrollers in general, lack.

    Regards,

    Bruce Bates

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    Post Edited (Bruce Bates) : 3/24/2006 7:57:39 AM GMT
  • Kaos KiddKaos Kidd Posts: 614
    edited 2006-03-24 16:48
    Maxx, it took conserdable amount of effort to read a hard drive. At that, it was byte level access only. THere's no file system, just bytes... lots and lots of bytes..

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    Just tossing my two bits worth into the bit bucket


    KK
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  • maxxmaxx Posts: 14
    edited 2006-03-25 09:21
    thanx guys for your replays.

    But,now I wonder if i can build some kind of audio circuit interfacing the mic with the BS2.
    I don't if it's possible to make the BS2 to differentiate between two words. For example, "LEFT" and "RIGHT".
    I guess what i want is to make a simple program that will print on the screen left or right when i say left or right through the mic!
  • T&amp;E EngineerT&amp;E Engineer Posts: 1,396
    edited 2006-03-26 14:44
    You may want to look at my first BS2 / SX Video module project involving voice recording / playback for a video clock.

    www.sxvm.com

    1/2 down.
  • maxxmaxx Posts: 14
    edited 2006-03-27 06:48
    I just checked ur great web site, and i liked it alot. But I wonder if there's anyway to get around the ISDxxx chip. I don't understand the necessaty for another sound processing chip. If somebody can explain this i'd appreciate it. Another question, Can't the BS2 deal with the sound processing directly, maybe with a help of an extra memory chip.
  • menehune1menehune1 Posts: 20
    edited 2006-03-27 09:19
    The ISD25120 is the chip that holds the sound. You can think of it as a digital tape recorder.
    The BS2 counts the time and controls the other chips in the clock.
    The 74HC595 interfaces the BS2 to the ISD25120 and the LM386 chip drives the speaker.
    The BS2 also sends the time data to the sx-video chip to be displayed on the TV screen.

    No, the BS2 does not have enough memory to hold and power to process audio file onboard.
  • T&amp;E EngineerT&amp;E Engineer Posts: 1,396
    edited 2006-03-27 12:32
    Maxx,

    Menehune1 is right. You will need some sort of an audio processing chip such as an A/D converter with related circuitry (mic, resistors, capacitors,·etc.). The ISD25120 is essentually a 2 minute recording / playback·chip which includes an internal custom A/D stored on an internal custom EEPROM memory chip.

    BTW: The website is belongs to "Bean" (Hitt Consulting) and I only have a customer application.
  • maxxmaxx Posts: 14
    edited 2006-03-28 03:18
    *Will a Pic16f876 subtitute the ISD chip?

    ** If I used the ISD will it be able to differentiate between the recorded sound?
    for example, Would it be able to differentiate beteween "Right","left", and tell the BS2 wich one i just recorded.
  • T&amp;E EngineerT&amp;E Engineer Posts: 1,396
    edited 2006-03-28 03:45
    I don't know much about the PIC chips but in my program,·your own voice recordings are addressable as set in the data statements and comments. Yes you can address voice commands such as left, right, etc within the BS2 program.

    In my BS2 code you record your voice clips and then you test the address·it was set at·within the ISD25120. Once a good playback test is created,·the address is saved into a DATA statement manually by you. Then the record section subroutine is commented out and the playback subroutines are uncommented to play your voice clips. The total length of any one or all of them can not exceed 2 minutes for this version IC (ISD25120 = 120 seconds = 2 min). The ISD2560 = 60 seconds = 1 min.). However, in my circuit, many voice clips were needed to be recorded (e.g. one, two, three,...fifty) so the 60 second version was not long enough. You may want to look at Parallax sound boards one of·which uses the 60 second ISD2560 which I'm told has a better sampling rate for better quality output.

    http://www.parallax.com/html_pages/products/audiovisual/sound.asp

    The EMIC sound very human like but uses a better chip.

    ·
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