After doing some research I see that it is possible to connect 2 or more BS2's to work together. My question is, can the same be done with 1 Ea. BS2 and 1 or more BS2SX's?
In terms of them communicating with each other, I don't see why not. The BS2sx is just an enhancement of the venerable BS2 with more memory, faster, and a couple more commands.
I want to control my motors and possibly LED's with the BS2SX. I want to use one or maybe two BS2's to control Sensors and stepper motor drivers. Does this sound feasible?
I know, I should use a Propeller. However, I know PBasic pretty well and spent a lot of timing learning it and I want to get this bot going. I have Propeller chips and demo board. I am learning Spin but do not have it down as well as PBasic. Once I have everything going with the Stamps and PBasic I will convert over to the prop. I want to learn as much as possible by working with both stamps and the propeller.
Sure, you can mix and match different Stamp models. Just be sure you've put the right Stamp model in the $STAMP directive and adjust the timing constants appropriately.
Thanks. Here's a page I did a couple years ago with more multiple Stamp projects. The projects range from 2 and 3 Stamps on up. As you can see, the concept is the same with 2 and 3 Stamps as it is with over 20.
If you are going to communicate serially between the 2, keep the speeds below 9600 to receive reliably, and even slower if your code isnt in hurry.
Also, if one of them is going to only receive data from the other, make the faster one the receiver.
You should also probably consider the bs2p if you haven't yet purchased the bs2sx, it has more commands available to it, including 1wire devices.
It also has a command called SPSTR - which is ideal for receiving small strings of data, it receives them and puts them straight into ram.
Here's the declaration setup I used in my program. It covers BS2, BS2sx and others used in the BSS.
' ---------------------- Declarations -------------------------------
#SELECT $STAMP ' conditional compilations - run on other Basic Stamps
#CASE BS2, BS2E, BS2PE
T1200 CON 813
T2400 CON 396
T4800 CON 188
T9600 CON 84
T19K2 CON 32
T38K4 CON 6
#CASE BS2SX, BS2P
T1200 CON 2063
T2400 CON 1021
T4800 CON 500
T9600 CON 240
T19K2 CON 110
T38K4 CON 45
#CASE BS2PX
T1200 CON 3313
T2400 CON 1646
T4800 CON 813
T9600 CON 396
T19K2 CON 188
T38K4 CON 84
#ENDSELECT
SevenBit CON $2000
Inverted CON $4000
Open CON $8000
Baud CON T9600 + Inverted
I CON 254 ' LCD Instruction prefix value.
CLR CON 1 ' LCD clear-screen instruction
LINE2 CON 192 ' LCD Address of 1st char of 2nd line
L1_C7 CON 135 ' LCD Address of line 1, character 7
L2_C8 CON 199 ' LCD Address of line 2, character 8
n VAR Nib ' LED data light flash cycle
@NWCCTV This is a great idea I wasnt sure about this untill I read here. It will help me with my bigger robots once I learn the language for the BS2. Insted of learning the Prop Just use more BS2's and break the robot up into sections. Now i have to learn about serial communication.
Cooperating multiple microcontrollers is a great way to handle complex control tasks. You do have to be careful that the added "expense" of the communications doesn't slow down the microcontrollers to the point where adding another microcontroller slows things down to where you're worse off. If you're reasonably careful about assigning work to the various microcontrollers, that shouldn't be a problem. Do consider using specialized controllers for specific functions. For example, the ServoPAL and the Propeller Servo Controller can take over the control of multiple motors and save the main microcontrollers a lot of work.
@ Mike
Again thank you for all the info you have provided. I am only looking at only 2 at most 3 BS2's but that is a way off for me. I have to crawl before I run. but I'm learning.
Comments
How are you conceiving them "working together"?
I know, I should use a Propeller. However, I know PBasic pretty well and spent a lot of timing learning it and I want to get this bot going. I have Propeller chips and demo board. I am learning Spin but do not have it down as well as PBasic. Once I have everything going with the Stamps and PBasic I will convert over to the prop. I want to learn as much as possible by working with both stamps and the propeller.
If you are going to communicate serially between the 2, keep the speeds below 9600 to receive reliably, and even slower if your code isnt in hurry.
Also, if one of them is going to only receive data from the other, make the faster one the receiver.
You should also probably consider the bs2p if you haven't yet purchased the bs2sx, it has more commands available to it, including 1wire devices.
It also has a command called SPSTR - which is ideal for receiving small strings of data, it receives them and puts them straight into ram.
cheers,
Chris
@NWCCTV This is a great idea I wasnt sure about this untill I read here. It will help me with my bigger robots once I learn the language for the BS2. Insted of learning the Prop Just use more BS2's and break the robot up into sections. Now i have to learn about serial communication.
Again thank you for all the info you have provided. I am only looking at only 2 at most 3 BS2's but that is a way off for me. I have to crawl before I run. but I'm learning.