BS2P Motherboard?

bkiba

I am working on a project right now that will act as a controller/monitoring system for my marine tank. I already have a BS2PE chip on a homework board and a BS1 board. The major drawback for me is the use of the breadboard, as I'd like to have a more permanent connection for wires or better connectors. I saw the BS2P mobo and it seems like a nice little package. I'm also using primarily 3-wire serial devices and this seems to have a nice interface for those.

Has anyone used this product yet? Does it have any significant drawbacks/advantages over the regular setups? I think I remember seeing some programming that it might not handle, is this true?

thanks for any comments.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Can you elaborate a little about which (and how many) 3-wire serial devices you're using? Are there other devices besides those that need to be interfaced?

There's a lot still coming for this system that may prove useful to you. Here's a sample [noparse][[/noparse]status in brackets]:

····1. 7-segment LED display daughterboard (4 characters per daisy-chainable board, up to 32 characters total) [noparse][[/noparse]in production queue].
····2. Prototyping daughterboard (solder type) [noparse][[/noparse]in production queue].
····3. Aluminum extrusion housing [noparse][[/noparse]seeking a supplier].

By the way, I designed the MoBoStamp-pe for Parallax and will be most happy to answer any questions and respond to suggestions for add-ons, improvements, etc. And I'll try not to let any bias show through!

-Phil

bkiba

What is the difference between this and the regular BS2PE on a homework board (basically my question)?

3 wire devices I'll be using:
20x40 serial display
simpleLAN module
DS1620 temperature sensors
humidity/temperature sensor (from parallax)
IR distance sensor

I'll also be running a 4-key keypad, so I could potentially have a 3-wire serial for that, but I might just use 4 pins off the basic stamp for that. I will also be communicating with at least 1 additional basic stamp, and running about 4 or 5 A/C relays.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

In a regular BASIC Stamp, all 16 I/O pins are uncommitted. You can use them for whatever you like. In the MoBoStamp-pe, some of the pins are committed to certain onboard functions (like the Red/Green LED), and others are brought out to the two daughterboard connectors.

Interface to the Stamp is usually done via one or two daughterboards: either standard ones, like the PWR-I/O-DB; or ones that you wire yourself, like the upcoming Proto-DB. In addition to the Stamp signals, there are two AVR coprocessors on the motherboard, each of which has four connections (two shared with BASIC Stamp pins) to its respective daughterboard connector. In nearly all cases, you will not need to program the AVRs yourself. Each daughterboard that requires AVR support will have its own ready-made driver firmware that you simply upload to the AVR. However, the general-purpose firmware that comes pre-loaded with the MoBos can fill a lot of needs by itself.

The following summarizies the signals available at each 12-pin daughterboard (A/B) connector, and some of their capabilities.

····Vin/NC: Vin supply.
····Vdd/Vdd: Vdd (+3.3V or +5V) supply.
····+5V/+5V: +5V supply.
····Gnd/Gnd: Ground (Vss).
····P8/P0: General digital I/O, SDA for I2C; series resistance protected and pulled up to Vdd.
····P9/P1: General digital I/O, SCL for I2C; series resistance protected and pulled up to Vdd.
····P2/P2: General digital I/O, Inter-daughterboard communication (usually open-collector); series resistance protected and pulled up to Vdd.
····P3/P3: General digital I/O, Inter-daughterboard communication (usually open-collector); series resistance protected and pulled up to Vdd.
····P12(A3)/P5(B3): General digital I/O, and shared with AVR (A & I/O, which have a PWM out capability; series resistance protected to the Stamp; no pullups.
····P11(A2)/P7(B2): General digital I/O, and shared with AVR (A & I/O, which have a PWM out capability; series resistance protected to the Stamp; no pullups.
····A0/B0: Connected to AVR pins only, which are capable of general digital I/O and 10-bit A/D conversion; no series resistance or pullups.
····A1/B1: Connected to AVR pins only, which are capable of general digital I/O and 10-bit A/D conversion; no series resistance or pullups.

Each coprocessor also has a dedicated pin that connects to its own BASIC Stamp pin for communication purposes.

Other distinguishing features of the MoBo include:

• Choice of 3.3V or 5V for Vdd.
• Ability to power the entire system from the USB connector.
• Ability to kill the serial I/O echo from the Stamp on port 16.

When deciding whether to use a standard BASIC Stamp or the MoBoStamp-pe, you will need to weigh the MoBo's compactness and integrated capabilities against the Stamp/carrier board's availability of more pins for interface. This may be a factor for your app, since you have a lot of stuff to connect.

-Phil