BASIC Stamps

Lt. Sniper · Post by **Lt. Sniper** » 21 April 05 9:18 pm

Has anyone had any experience working with BASIC Stamp microproccesors or anything along those lines?

Map Monkey · Post by **Map Monkey** » 21 April 05 9:42 pm

A new cache in the making, Lt.

Agsmky

Papa Bear_Left · Post by **Papa Bear_Left** » 21 April 05 10:13 pm

Lt. Sniper wrote:Has anyone had any experience working with BASIC Stamp microproccesors or anything along those lines?

PM or email me and we'll talk code!

aussiecoder · Post by **aussiecoder** » 21 April 05 10:30 pm

I found they look read cheap, until you need to buy a development system - then they get rather expensive.

Have you ever programmed one of these things before ?

How about the hardware design ?

Udderchaos · Post by **Udderchaos** » 21 April 05 10:51 pm

a work mate spend a stack of time playing with pic's

much cheaper....

Papa Bear_Left · Post by **Papa Bear_Left** » 21 April 05 11:46 pm

Andrew&Leesa wrote:a work mate spend a stack of time playing with pic's

much cheaper....

A Stamp is a Pic, but built up with most of the usual bits'n'pieces (clock and power supply and RS232 chip, etc.) on a module. Quite convenient for people who want to _do_ stuff with a micro using simple BASIC programs, rather than wanting to learn all the ancilliary things you need to do to make a microcontroller work.

The setting up is fairly costly, though, and there's cheaper ways to get an MCU up and running.

EcoTeam · Post by **EcoTeam** » 22 April 05 9:59 am

The PIC-AXE chips are now stealing all the limelight from the BASIC Stamp.
HEAPS cheaper, a single chip solution, and programmable in BASIC with free tools.
http://www.microzed.com.au/PICAXE/picaxe_chips.htm
You can get them from other places in Oz to, like here:
http://www.oatleyelectronics.com/componts.html

There have been a ton of articles in Silicon Chip mag recently about using the chips:
http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/searc ... rds=picaxe

You won't be the first with a PIC in a waypoint decoder. I used one for my Macgyver cache, and Odlid Dave used one in his Play It Again Sam cache. I even demonstrated one at the second Sydney cachers picnic, but have never got around to placing it!

UberGeek EcoDave

aussiecoder · Post by **aussiecoder** » 22 April 05 3:29 pm

EcoTeam wrote:The PIC-AXE chips are now stealing all the limelight from the BASIC Stamp.
HEAPS cheaper, a single chip solution, and programmable in BASIC with free tools.
UberGeek EcoDave

So how do you power these little guys ?

How long would you expect them to operate ?

dave

EcoTeam · Post by **EcoTeam** » 22 April 05 4:54 pm

aussiecoder wrote:
EcoTeam wrote:The PIC-AXE chips are now stealing all the limelight from the BASIC Stamp.
HEAPS cheaper, a single chip solution, and programmable in BASIC with free tools.
UberGeek EcoDave
So how do you power these little guys ?

How long would you expect them to operate ?

dave

They are regular PIC chips (just programmed with a BASIC interpreter), so you power them from your usual 2V-6V DC supply voltage as you would any PIC chip.

What do you mean by "how long do you expect them to operate"

EcoDave

Papa Bear_Left · Post by **Papa Bear_Left** » 22 April 05 5:21 pm

aussiecoder wrote:How long would you expect them to operate ?

It depends almost entirely on the duty cycle i.e. how much time they spend 'asleep' vs how much timer they're 'awake' and doing something.

So, a device that sits in a plastic box until someone presses a button would probably last for as long as the battery shelf-life, while a device that continuously flashed a LED might go for a few hours, days or weeks on a couple of AAs (depending on how quickly the LED flashed.)

The current drawn by most modern small MCUs (Pics, MSP430, HC08, Atmega, LPC900, etc.) in stop mode (waiting for something to happen) is under a microamp; zero for most practical purposes. When they're running, they typically draw somewhere between 1 and 10mA (which would flatten a couple of alkalines more often than you'd be happy to replace in a cache waypoint!)

Udderchaos · Post by **Udderchaos** » 23 April 05 6:46 am

i have a similar cache with about a 30mA load.

I got around the battery problem by using a 7ah 6v sla emergency light back up battery, This should last for nearly a year on this load.

just gotta go grab it an charge it once every 6 months

EcoTeam · Post by **EcoTeam** » 23 April 05 9:39 am

My MacGyver decoder used 4 AA's and lasted the shelf life of the battery. It was in sleep mode until you pushed a keypad button to wake it up, but even then battery drain was only 1mA total. Used an LCD screen.
It would have lasted maybe 5 years between battery changes, too bad the cache didnt' last that long! The first decoder got swept away in the flood and the second just went missing

EcoDave

aussiecoder · Post by **aussiecoder** » 23 April 05 10:08 am

EcoTeam wrote:My MacGyver decoder used 4 AA's and lasted the shelf life of the battery. It was in sleep mode until you pushed a keypad button to wake it up, but even then battery drain was only 1mA total. Used an LCD screen.
It would have lasted maybe 5 years between battery changes, too bad the cache didnt' last that long! The first decoder got swept away in the flood and the second just went missing

EcoDave

Sorry about the cache, but pleased about the battery life.

Was this a picaxe or a stamp ?

thanks

dave

EcoTeam · Post by **EcoTeam** » 23 April 05 12:19 pm

aussiecoder wrote:
EcoTeam wrote:My MacGyver decoder used 4 AA's and lasted the shelf life of the battery. It was in sleep mode until you pushed a keypad button to wake it up, but even then battery drain was only 1mA total. Used an LCD screen.
It would have lasted maybe 5 years between battery changes, too bad the cache didnt' last that long! The first decoder got swept away in the flood and the second just went missing

EcoDave
Sorry about the cache, but pleased about the battery life.

Was this a picaxe or a stamp ?

thanks

dave

Mine was a PIC16F628 programmed in HiTech C, wasn't a PICAXE or STAMP.
The PIC used the 4MHz internal oscillator when operating with a total consumption of 2mA including LCD display. This dropped to 32KHz during SLEEP mode drawing 50uA, so no need for interrupt wake on keypress etc which makes your code simpler. 50uA gives you over 6 years life on AA's.

Both the PICAXE and STAMP support sleep modes, but they aren't all that powerful in this respect. If you want the ultimate battery life then you compile direct for the PIC chip itself and select the clock speed accordinly.
Of course, you wouldn't use LEDs if you want the lowest power consumption, an LCD display gives you much greater bang for your power budget.

STAMPs and PICAXEs are fairly limited in how much code you can put in them, so you won't be able to do anything to complex, but for simple jobs they do the trick. But I don't use them as I'm as I'm fully kitted up to program regular PICS in C.

EcoDave

Lt. Sniper · Post by **Lt. Sniper** » 23 April 05 4:42 pm

I have had a few cache ideas in mind for a while now, I told jFreak (a QLD cacher) about a year ago since he worked with PIC systems for work but it seems heÃ‚â€™s dropped out of caching so I am stuck for where to get started.

I know a fair bit of BASIC from back in school but its been like 6 years now from those classes.
I wouldnÃ‚â€™t know how to make a basic program that would run off a dedicated system for use as part of a cache.

Does a PICAXE or STAMP have an RTC, because the first 'smart' cache I have in mind must be able to keep an accurate track of the time and date.

I would just love to say what IÃ‚â€™m planning but since we are all competing for interesting caches I cant

Thanks Bear_Left and EcoTeam for your suggestions

Geocaching Australia

BASIC Stamps

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