I ran by the book store today and saw the Robot programming bonanza book today and it got me interested in using the BASICstamp board for my senior project. I am interested in building a robot that can sense out fire much like the contest. My question is: Are these boards sufficient for this type of objective?
The following is a list of things that I will require:
at least 5 IR sensors.
Heat Sensor
4 motors
Line detection sensor, IR
the use of servo motors
Lastly, I am running on a mac right now. I would prefer to use the robotbasic IDE because well its free and i am a poor college student. I can change my mac to a windows computer solely for this project if i have to.
I am looking to spend around 100 to 130 for board and basic controller.
This is always a difficult question to answer. There are several MCUs (Microcontrollers) available. The Basic Atom runs 100,000 instructions per second vs. the BS2px @ 19,000 per second, and the atom pro has built in hardware not found on the basic stamp: here is a brief description:
Basic Atom Pro:
32K of Program Space
32K of EEPROM Storage
2000 Bytes (2K) of User / System RAM
Up to 8 A/D pins
100,000 Plus Instructions Per Second
Code and Pin compatible to the BasicATOM
Hardware-based 32 bit math
More built-in hardware than the BasicATOM
Based on the Hitachi 3664
BS2px - The fastest stamp available:
Processor Speed = 32 MHz Turbo
Program Execution Speed = ~19,000 instructions/sec.
RAM Size = 38 Bytes (12 I/O, 26 Variable)
Scratch Pad RAM = 128 Bytes
EEPROM (Program) Size = 8 x 2K Bytes ~4,000 Instructions
I/O Pins = 16+2 Dedicated Serial
Voltage Requirements = 5 - 15 vdc
Current Draw at 5V = 55 mA Run / 450 μA Sleep
PBASIC Commands = 63
Size= 1.2"x0.6"x0.4"
The Atom Pro has plug-n-play IR sensor support and there are examples available on this forum. The Basic Stamp (ALL MODLES) require an ADC chip to use IR sensors such as the Sharp GP2D12.
You can get the Basic Atom Pro and the ABB board (the carrier board for the mcu for under $130.
Thank you. If anyone else has some comments, they are more than welcome before I start dropping some money into this.
I take it the Basic atom and basic stamp are the same languages ie. basic. Idk if you have read the bonanza book but would that same basic programming working with the atom. They use the basic stamp in the book.
I am pretty much a beginner. I have had several years of programming but when it comes to programming robots, i am very new at this. That is why i am asking so many questions
The eeprom on the BasicAtomPro is 32kbits(4kbytes). Program memory is 32kbytes though. And the BS2 can use the rctime to get a reading from an analog device though you have to setup an RC circuit with the analog sensor and it takes a relatively long amount of time compared to A/D hardware to get the reading.
Oh, and the lanuages are very similar. Main differences are in Atom/AtomPro specific commands and math. AtomPro also has upto 2kbytes of ram for variabels and such as well.
The BS2 line of MCUs have the memory broken up into 2 kb slots x 8 slots. When programming, if your program is going to be larger than 2kb, you will need to write another program to download in another slot. During compile time, the various programs are downloaded to the separate slots to work as a single program with slot 0 being the master program slot.
The Basic Atom Pro does not have this problem, you have full access to the entire memory block since it is not broken up into slots. The differences between Pbasic and Mbasic are hardware specific commands and the use of the PIN command is not used with the BAP (Basic atom pro). The BAP uses {variable P0} where the BS2 uses {variable PIN 0}
If you are planning to use examples out of the book you might find using a stamp a little easier to learn on regardless the need for external circuits to make it do certain things. There are tons of examples available to do the things you want to do using the stamp. If you try to port over the BS2 code to work on the BAP there may be some headaches involved. The BS2 line of MCUs are definitely a beginners microcontroller.
Nice thanks man. I went over to the store today and purchased the BS2 and the board today because it was only 75 bucks. It should be able to hold all the code for it… It really isnt much because itll be following a pre determined path. Thanks for all your help though.
