Review of Basic Stamp Homework Board

[Eric R Snow]

All who are interested in Basci Stamp microcontrollers,
I bought one of the Homework board kits advertised in Nuts & Volts. I
am pleased with the product. At the $80.00 sale price it's a good way
to learn about the Basic Stamps. The only drawbacks so far are the
lack of a power switch and too small resistors. I cut traces on the
pcb and added a switch. I bought an assortment of resistors with
larger diameter leads and better markings. I'm learning a lot about
these devices and can hardly wait to use them in my machine shop for
real money making uses. Not just as toys. They can be used as a PLC.
Not as powerful as one from, say, Automation Direct, but the
programming language is easier for me to understand. And the Basic
Stamp modules will be easy for me to interface to some of the older
CNC equipment in the shop. All the standard Disclaimers apply.
Eric R Snow,
E T Precision Machine

 

[John F. Miller]

Hi,

I agree. I got one at (dare I say) Radio Shack last week for $79 + tax.
I'm in the process of evaluating options for some signal
processing/generation and this is a quick and convenient way to try out the
technology. Ultimately, I suspect the Parallax solution will be too slow
for my needs (being interpreted) and will probably move to the native
Microchip PIC that the Parallax is based around.

John.

"Eric R Snow" <etpm@whidbey.com> wrote in message
news:2s3ag0tap61nsum4nrrcspbhtp9ha6tf96@4ax.com...

All who are interested in Basci Stamp microcontrollers,
I bought one of the Homework board kits advertised in Nuts & Volts. I
am pleased with the product. At the $80.00 sale price it's a good way
to learn about the Basic Stamps. The only drawbacks so far are the
lack of a power switch and too small resistors. I cut traces on the
pcb and added a switch. I bought an assortment of resistors with
larger diameter leads and better markings. I'm learning a lot about
these devices and can hardly wait to use them in my machine shop for
real money making uses. Not just as toys. They can be used as a PLC.
Not as powerful as one from, say, Automation Direct, but the
programming language is easier for me to understand. And the Basic
Stamp modules will be easy for me to interface to some of the older
CNC equipment in the shop. All the standard Disclaimers apply.
Eric R Snow,
E T Precision Machine