Stamp Code

[Tom Droege <tdroege@veriomail.com>]

Ron and Chris,

The first question to decide, is whether or not to keep the present 8 
character ascii string to communicate with the stamp.  I think this is a 
decision for Chris.  There is nothing sacred about it.  It could be done 
with no more than half the number of characters by someone who is not 
programming in QBasic.  The problem is getting around special codes that 
QBasic interprets as control codes, like ^C.

Another problem is how to test the stamp code.  We will at least need some 
way to talk to an RS-232 port.  What say, Chris, what is the right way to 
do this for testing?  For production code?  We probably need a Windows and 
a non windows way.

Ron, the first step is to go to www.parallaxinc.com and download the Stamp2 
manual.  It is a 100 pages or so.  I can send you a stamp, or you can buy 
one from many places.  JDR, Digi-Key, others.  They cost $50.  You can buy 
a manual, stamp2, and a prototype board for $100, or you can build it for 
$1.37 after you download the manual.  Hmmmm!  I seem to recall that you 
sent me a book on the stamp.  Thank you again.  So you probably know what 
to do.  I can send you a set of drawings.  I think that is in order anyway 
so that you can scan them and we can put them up on the web site.

One has to keep looking at the drawings and figuring out how to make the 
stamp set bits in particular registers or to make pulses to make something 
go.  A project like this will produce a lot of good documentation as I will 
have to write you how things are supposed to work.  This is much easier to 
do when you for example, ask me "how do I make the scan start?"  "How do I 
make the shutter open?"  I can then write up what has to happen.

There are two projects.  A short range one to make ARNE work better and a 
long range one to do it right.  I think I have to do the short range 
project as I cannot see getting someone else up to speed fast enough 
(except possibly Chris or Arne ).  They have not yet volunteered.  So I 
plan on doing the quick fix, and would be happy if Ron wants to take on the 
long range project.  Note that if it is done right, we should be able to 
run the present QBasic code by changing only one sub routine as all 
interactions with the stamp go through one call.

Tom

At 05:10 PM 9/18/00 -0700, you wrote:
>hi Tom and Chris,
>
>i was waiting to see if a Stamp Expert came forward, but i dont' believe
>that anyone volunteered to work on the Stamp code.  i'm not a Stamp expert
>but will get a protoboard so i can test out code here, and then send the
>code to one of you for interaction testing with the rest of the hardware.
>maybe even look at the interaction myself with Chris's remote internet
>setup.
>
>Tom suggested that Chris take a look at the whole software project and
>possibly change the interaction in a major way, but i'm willing to work on
>a patch for ARNE and TOM as they now are, and then redo it if Chris needs
>something completely different.
>
>-ron
>
>On Thu, 14 Sep 2000, Tom Droege wrote:
>
> > A long story to get to the question.  Does someone want to take on the job
> > of rewriting the Stamp code in a workman like way?  While the stamp is
> > small, this is not a small job (I think).  The biggest problem is
> > understanding how everything works.  I will have to send the person who
> > volunteers a drawing set and I would expect to hand hold a lot.  The best
> > person would be Chris, but I suspect he is busy as we have not heard much
> > from him.  He has a complete test set up and could test as he
> > writes.  Anyone else will have to send me or Chris or Arne code to check.