Interfacing Basic Stamp with a Palm

Wavephf

I want to be able to build a weather station with a 5v temp sensor and maybe some other 5v sensors. i would like some help on wiring and programming. I would like to build a program for a palm so i can watch the data real time if any one has any ideas on what i need to do this. i would like to be able to communicate with the palm wirelessly by wi-fi or bluetooth. help would be much appreciated.

Thanks, Chad

Franklin

Write a program for the palm that accepts serial data and displays it. Then write a program for the stamp that reads the weather info, converts it to a serial string and sends it to the palm. Let the palm program do the formatting.

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- Stephen

Wavephf

Does it matter what os and what palm i have. I dont have one yet but ive seen the older ones for cheap and new ones for as low as $150. and I would like to do it wirelessly so maybe a RF tx rx.
Thanks

allanlane5

Well, you have two interfaces, which you are talking about as if they were the same.

The first interface is between the Palm and the BS2. I'm assuming you want the Palm and BS2 platform located together.

The second interface is between the Palm and your PC (or whatever display platform you want to use).

So, to give better answers, we need to know the distance EACH of these interfaces must support.

Tracy Allen

The Stamp does not have bluetooth or other wireless capability built in. So if you want the Stamp to talk to the Palm over bluetooth, you will also need an interface such as the "toothpic" or "embeddedBlue" that is sold at the Parallax web site. You could also go with more conventional wireless, but that would be more difficult on the Palm side.

Only the more recent Palms have built in bluetooth. I know the TX and the Tungsten E2 have it, but the Zires and the older M130 do not. One easy option woulld be for you to install a terminal emulator on the Palm to receive and display the weather data from the Stamp. "Online" from Conklin Systems is pretty nice and supports the bluetooth interface. That would ease your programming requirements on the Palm side. Otherwise serial port programming on the Palm can be fraught with pitfalls in both hardware and in the OS.

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Tracy Allen
www.emesystems.com

Wavephf

I want the palm to be my display for the weather station. The distance between the palm and the weather station will be 20' or less though wood and or thin metal. I have no experiance in stamps and little in coding. most likely I will get a kit from radio shack i think it has the basicstamp, homework board and what is a microcontroller book. From my plans so far i will have my sensors hard wired into one box. This box will include my basic stamp and battery. I also have had thoughts of each sensor having a RF Tx and my stamp having a RF Rx. can one Rx read the signals from more than one TX at the same time.
Thanks.

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Chad

Franklin

Chad, are you able to write the code on the palm to convert serial data to whatever you want for a display> The stamp will send serial data to the palm.

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- Stephen

Wavephf

I have not attempeted to write code for the stamp or the palm. I have yet to buy a palm i wanted to see what way I should go.

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Chad

Franklin

Well it looks like the communications will work now you need to get the hardware or read up on the hardware and start writing code.

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- Stephen

Wavephf

Well I now have a bs2 and a palm visor. I'm getting some software to write code for the palm. I found code for the bs2 in the applied sensors·pdf on page 66.·I am also going to try and interface a barometer.·Does anyone know how to correctly calibrate my·results into C and F on the temp gage, and·psi or in/hg for the barometer.

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Chad

Tex4u

What kind of sensors are you using?

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There are 10 types of people in the world:


Those that understand binary and those that don't.

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Wavephf

They are automotive sensers. I wanted to do it with automotive sensors because I would like to build something similar for my car and if I can use a similar code then it saves me time. The sensor is just a 5v coolant temp sensor

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Chad

Wavephf

new part of the project. im going to use a map sensor from a gm engine. It is a three wire sensor a=gnd b= map signal c= +5v. At 0 pressure/vaccuum w/o powering the sensor·I have 1.5kohms between ac, 17.3k ab, 4.5k·bc. these values don't change with pressure. With 5v power and gnd hooked up it changes to infinite ac, 7.1k bc, infinite ab, these values change with pressue/vaccuum. with vacuum resistance increases. my resistance values just change so i checked voltage out and i have ~3.9v at 0in hg and~0v at 22in hg. these voltges are pretty much constant. i have been using RCTIME for my other sensors but im not sure how to use it for this sensor. my result will change if I have vaccuum then i want to display in hg and if i have pressure then I want psi. please help im not sure if I can use a simple IF THEN statment.

Here is the code I was using for the temp sensor, note I have not converted my values from time units to degrees.

' {$STAMP BS2}

sensor1 VAR Word
sensor2 VAR Word

loop1:
HIGH 1
HIGH 2
PAUSE 1
RCTIME 1,1,sensor1
RCTIME 2,1,sensor2
DEBUG CR, DEC sensor1, TAB, DEC sensor2
PAUSE 500
GOTO loop1

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Chad

Wavephf

well ive changed my mind on the idea im going to just use some ad0831 converters to make thing easier. an interfacing with the palm isnt getting any closer. i have hot paw and code warriers. Since i dont know c+ im using hotpaw, which isnt much easier.

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Chad

Mike Green

I'd stay away from CodeWarrier. Programming the Palm in C or C++ is a lot of work. HotPaw and PocketC are reasonable choices. Both support serial I/O and string manipulation. PocketC is much more straightforward than HotPaw.