[chbot] stampalikes?

[Andrew Errington]

On Wed, February 27, 2008 09:41, Chris Hellyar wrote:
<snip>
> I was thinking something with a 28pin 40Mhz 18F (2431?) PIC, regulator,
> and resonator on an wide 28pin DIP carrier?.  A sledgehammer stamp for
> about $25.  Good idea, or waste of time?

Both.

It *is* a good idea (which is why the Stamp exists and is popular). 
However, *because* such things exist you might indeed be wasting your
time.  There is the Stamp, the PicAxe, and clones.

For more complex applications there is the Arduino.

http://www.arduino.cc/

I think that anyone who got started with Stamps should be encouraged to
move on to embedded C or assembly.  There are two reasons for this:

1) Flexibility- you get to use all of the features of the chip and eat all
the resources, and you get to choose which chip (with whatever features)
you like.  With a Stamp, people soon hit the limits and get frustrated.
2) Portability- Basic Stamp programs are not portable.  Neither are PicAxe
programs.  C is (to an extent) and assembly routines are portable amongst
the same chip family (although it is the idea that's important- I could
write a divide routine in assembler for any micro, now that I've figured
out how it's done).

I like how gcbasic produces assembly language.  This would make it an
ideal learning tool, and perhaps a way of generating boilerplate code
which can be cut and pasted into other projects.

At the end of the day I applaud your efforts to help your father, but
there's nothing to stop him dropping $50 on a Stamp every time he has an
idea.  The concept of spending about 1/10th of that on a PIC and resonator
if he learns something new might appeal before too long.

A
(Of course, when I say PIC, I could also say AVR, or whatever micro suits
your fancy)