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Can the Stamp do anything "Useful"? — Parallax Forums

Can the Stamp do anything "Useful"?

stevelsstevels Posts: 19
edited 2007-04-10 23:10 in General Discussion
Hello Forum,
·
I am an experienced programmer, but novice Stamp user.· I am trying to make a simple experimental device and I keep coming up short on PBasic and what appear to me to be limitations of the Stamp to do anything remotely useful.· Please take no offense – I am assuming it is me that is the problem. ·I am hoping you can point me to some good resources.
·
Are there any examples anywhere of “useful” PBasic programs that do some basic stuff most people need to do? ·For example, I would love to see some PBasic that supports an LCD menu that is navigated by, say, several push buttons, accepts a potentiometer as an input for adjusting values of speeds for timers and such.
·
While I am able to make all the components work on their own, like the LCD, the buttons, and so on, when I try to make a useful application, I keep falling short and I am assuming it is due to my own incompetence with this product.
·
And for the love of Pete, how can you do anything useful if you can not write functions and pass variables to them?· How can you even pass a string to a subroutine?
·
WAAAHHH!
·
Any help would be greatly respected!
·
Thanks,
·
Steve

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Expert in many fields, dumb as a stump with STAMP

Comments

  • FranklinFranklin Posts: 4,747
    edited 2007-04-10 01:24
    www.parallax.com/html_pages/downloads/siccurriculum/documentation_sic_curriculum.asp
    and
    www.parallax.com/html_pages/downloads/nvcolumns/Nuts_Volts_Downloads.asp
    and this one impressed me. http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=547856
    are good places to start, you'll get ideas and branch out on your own soon.

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    - Stephen
  • QuattroRS4QuattroRS4 Posts: 916
    edited 2007-04-10 09:30
    I have found the stamp to be very 'useful' ...

    food industry..
    www.parallax.com/html_pages/resources/custapps/app_barracuda.asp

    Industrial ....
    video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7703119114106288120

    Regards,
    Quattro

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    'Necessity is the mother of invention'
  • stamptrolstamptrol Posts: 1,731
    edited 2007-04-10 12:06
    Steve,

    Hang in there! You're not the first 'serious' programmer to miss some of the features available with unlimited processing power and/or unlimited memory!

    I found I had to step back a bit and spend some time really understanding what I had to accomplish with the programs. After all, you're moving to a processor with less than 30 commands, small RAM and 2K of memory. By necessity, efficiency is important and you have to be able to see your project in small linear chunks that you literally chain together.

    I did the truck dumper project pointed out by a previous post and am humbled that someone would use it as as an example of what can be done with a Stamp. But, the important thing is, it's not the only one and many of us use the Stamps daily in some pretty industrial/commercial applications.

    A recent project I did has the menu/LCD setup you described. If you're interested, let me know and I'll post it.

    Cheers,

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    Tom Sisk

    http://www.siskconsult.com
    ·
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2007-04-10 21:43
    A tour through the Completed Projects Forum or our Customer Applications pages on our website will provides hundreds of useful projects. Useful really is subjective in microcontrollers anyway. One person might find a blinking LED useful because it keeps their toddler amused while another may find a program that controls active “Art” useful.

    As a matter of point though I have several programs that do exactly what you are referring to. One currently being discussed in the Sandbox Forum is a controller for an Audio Amp/Preamp system. The VFD displays menus which are changed by push buttons and values on these are adjusted by buttons, potentiometers and even a rotary encoder.

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
  • PARPAR Posts: 285
    edited 2007-04-10 23:03
    stevels said...
    Hello Forum,
    ·
    I am an experienced programmer, but novice Stamp user.· I am trying to make a simple experimental device and I keep coming up short on PBasic and what appear to me to be limitations of the Stamp to do anything remotely useful.· Please take no offense – I am assuming it is me that is the problem. ·I am hoping you can point me to some good resources.
    ·
    Are there any examples anywhere of “useful” PBasic programs that do some basic stuff most people need to do?·· ...
    Steve, Sounds like an old problem of yours :>)

    " As for computers, they were a natural for him. His first computer was a TRS-80 his father bought in the seventies. Practically useless, it served mostly as a great introduction to the future of computers, and programming. " ( http://www.coreyware.com/steve.htm·)

    Or, as stated on your website also, " Click here to see the "Dilbert" cartoon that gave Steve the inspiration to go into the Consulting Business ".

    Those are the best sources I can find to point you towards. :>)

    BTW, the sound of your Lister brought back warm memories of when I used to live on a farm and on a ranch when young. Between that put-put-put-..., or alternatively the insistant hissssss of the Coleman gas lantern, gin rummy in the evenings was, well, noisy. At least the kerosene refrigerator was quiet. Wanna know "remote"?· Those were "remotely" useful devices!!· Not a Stamp care in the world.

    PAR

  • boeboyboeboy Posts: 301
    edited 2007-04-10 23:10
    I made this with the BS2P40 http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=622302

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    lets see what this does... KA BOOM (note to self do not cross red and black)
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