POV on Basic Stamp

I was surprised when I could not find any persistence of vision projects on the web using a basic stamp.

Initially I used a piezo speaker to beep each time the pov pattern was complete. This allows you to synchronize your waving motion with the message display. The final pov implementation uses a Memsic accelerometer to figure out when to reverse flash order.

Step 1: Build the circuit

I used the integrated bar LED DIP, but a row of single LEDs should work just fine.

Step 2: Code the BS2

Edit pov.bs2 with your pattern and upload to the basic stamp. The code should not be difficult to figure out. The piezo version is still supported: set USE_MEMSIC to 0. The light pattern can be found in the DATA directive near the bottom of the file.

pov2.bs24 KB

Step 3: Give 'er a whirl

For extra credit, design a simple switch out of a banjo string to detect the direction changes! As in http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/05/make_podcast_ken_murphys_blink.html Ken Murphys Blink. Let me know if you make any improvements!

grenadier says: Sep 28, 2008. 12:29 PM

instead of 10 470 resistors on cathodes. use 1 on anode

sam in reply to grenadierFeb 11, 2010. 9:55 PM

I don't think that works, as the resistance required varies with how many LED's are being lit up.

insignia96 in reply to samMay 22, 2011. 8:14 PM

This would likely work OK, the problem you would run into is that if you have instead of 10 resistors dissipating power (let's say 0.1W) you have 1 resistor dissipating all of it (1W total, would need a bigger resistor). But you're still right. There would be less consistency in the brightness.

Itsgoofytime says: Jun 8, 2008. 12:44 PM

I agree. PIC is vastly superior to BASIC STAMP 2. The basic stamp 2 is overpriced, underpowered, and inferior to many microcontrollers out there. BASIC programming language teaches you bad programming habits that can sometimes make it hard to switch languages.

ruawake in reply to ItsgoofytimeJul 31, 2009. 2:18 PM

Could anyone explain why you will not likely develop bad habits, like "go to", which leaves you with no trail of breadcrumbs. Does pic use python or list?

zoltzerino says: Jul 16, 2009. 2:42 PM

Picaxe

Ebay says: May 9, 2008. 11:08 PM

(removed by author or community request)

WyoJustin (author) in reply to EbayMay 10, 2008. 4:05 AM

Indeed.

andreq says: Jun 3, 2006. 9:20 AM

If you really want a cheap solution for starting with Pic : 1 - Get Pic sample from microchip (free but don't abuse) 2 - Get a cheap $15 serial pic programmer from ebay 3 - "find" pic basic programmer" to "try" it enjoy

botronics in reply to andreqSep 9, 2006. 9:45 AM

You can make a programmer that uses IC-PROG (free) very cheaply with my Pic-Key programmer. Use Pic-Pro-Basic and cheap pics and stop using those $50 stamps.

http://home.comcast.net/~botronics/pickey.html

WyoJustin (author) says: Jun 3, 2006. 9:31 AM

Thanks, I'll have a look. J

WyoJustin (author) says: Jun 3, 2006. 9:14 AM

I had all the parts laying around from a class. It would have cost me over $100 to get up and running with a PIC. That is unless you can tell me how to get started with PIC for $3, I'm stuck with my free basic stamp...

andreq says: Jun 3, 2006. 12:54 AM

If you ever feal like doing basic for pic... but don't want to blow up $40 on a ......... get yourself : PicBasic Pro Compiler (not free...but....anyway..) you actualy have many Basicstamp function in this...