bs2 question and a pic qestion

zemkacz

i know the bs2 uses an onboard interpreter, what xactly does this interpriter do? can i use a interpriter for another pic microcnotroller?

also, would i be able to power a dc moter thats prety small, used in an old cd drive for opening and closing it, with a transitor and another powersupply but using the bs2 as the "trigger" for starting the motor?

lastly is the thing that u could only program the b2 like 1000 times before it starts to slow down extremely and wont be able to be programmed again?

Steve Joblin

you can think of the interperter as the "CPU" of the microcontroller... it is the "brains".

Yes, you can CONTROL all types of motors with a Stamp... as you noted, you need to use a motor controller or a transistor circuit.

The Stamp can only be reprogrammed a limited number of times, but it is more like a 100,000... I have never heard of anyone who wrote so many programs, that they wore out their Stamp, so I would not worry about it.... and no, it does not slow down after many reprogrammings... it just won't let you program it anymore.

allanlane5

The BS2 is a 'module', that has on it a 16C57 PIC chip, along with some other components -- a resonator, an eeprom, a brown-out reset circuit, and a few transistors and resistors. In the on-chip eeprom is programmed the PBasic interpreter firmware, which knows how to 'load' bytes into an on-module eeprom, and 'read' bytes from the on-module eeprom in order to 'execute' them with the on-PIC interpreter firmware.

You can't use the "interpreter" firmware on another PIC chip -- it's programmed inside the PIC already, and can't be read from there. This is Parallax's Intellectual Property, and the only part of their equipment that they don't publish. Everything else -- hardware schematics, how to use the module, etc -- is published and has excellent tutorials.

And yes, with a transistor you can interface an external motor to the BS2.

And yes, the on-module eeprom can only be reprogrammed 100,000 or a million times -- but that's not a problem, really. It IS possible to write to the on-module eeprom from a program -- and in that way 'wear out' a location on the eeprom. A "worn-out" location in the eeprom won't hold its data anymore -- it will always read 'zero'.

But merely through programming it, you won't wear it out. It certainly doesn't "Slow down".