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.

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!

Comments

[grenadier]

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

[sam]

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

[insignia96]

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]

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]

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?

[WyoJustin]

Indeed.

[andreq]

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]

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]

Thanks, I'll have a look. J

[WyoJustin]

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]

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...

[abbtech]

Nice job, same idea as this one. Just minus the motor:
http://www.alan-parekh.com/rotating_display.html