Simple "On-Off" technique for the Homework Board

Rong

I have been using a Parallax Homework board for some time. I had built a battery enclosure with a switch that led to a nine volt connector to hook up to the board. Recently I started simply snapping in only the + side of the nine volt battery to the terminal on the board, and by simply twisting the battery down or up, I turn the board on or off. This overcomes the shortcoming of this board, no power switch... This works well for non-mobile applications, where there is no vibration. Simple, and saves wear and tear on the battery terminals on the board....

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Ron Giuntini

San Francisco

MST3K

I just purchased a homework board and was also looking for an easy way to turn it on/off. I was thinking of soldering a 9V battery snap connector to a switching power supply and just plugging/unplugging the power supply from the wall outlet. The power supply output is adjustable to 3, 3.3, 5, 6, 6.5 and 7 volts. The current rating for the supply is 2100 mA. Will this power supply work okay set at 6, 6.5 or 7 volts without damaging the homwork board?

Kevin Wood

You can just wire an on/off switch inline with the 9v adapter.

If you have questions about the power supply, send an email to tech support.

Andy Lindsay (Parallax)

By putting this code at the beginning of your program, it makes it possible to use the BASIC Stamp HomeWork Board's Reset button as a toggle on/off switch. Granted, it doesn't disconnect power, but it does cause the application to stop and put the BASIC Stamp into low power mode.

ResetOnOff DATA 0

temp var byte

READ ResetOnOff, temp

temp = temp + 1

WRITE ResetOnOff, temp

IF temp.BIT0 = 0 THEN END