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Re: Parallax "Stamp"

The Stamp comes from 

Parallax Inc  
3805 Atherton Rd #102
Rocklin, CA 95765
916-624-8333

and yes, Internet:  http://www.parallaxinc.com

Where you can download a version of their basic language & manual.

I think it is only PC based at the moment.

The Stamp is an eeprom chip that is programmed by writing a sort of 
basic-like program which is downloaded to the chip by way of the 
parallel port.

Parallax's optimized basic lacks almost 99% of 'real' basic commands 
but what you get instead are a handful of commands that are almost 
perfectly optimized for input & output to the real world.

There are commands to read a potentiometer or even serial input and 
of course various ways to time an output pulse to various pins.  They 
have an 8 port and 16 port model (which I wish they had when I wrote 
a rather complex program this past summer).

The memory on the chip is rather limited, so you either have to gang 
several of them and have a decent handle on calculating loads or 
become a very economical programmer - which I prefer partially for 
the challenge and mostly for less spaghetti & less moving parts.

The debugging aspect, until their next software release, is not that 
reliable. My suggestion here is to really, truly understand what the 
program is doing, how memory is being used, etc.

One feature I enjoy quite a lot is the fact that you can write a   
program that can alter its own program by overwriting memory under 
certain conditions.  This has allowed me to write user-programmable 
programs and also create a default operating mode. (Dave is probably 
chuckling by now - later for that story.)

Oh yeah, another great feature is that your program can be saved as 
a binary file so that you could send your customer a disk and a cable 
which would automatically reprogram your project with say, your 
Version 2 beta.

BTW, beware of the Light Sequencer program that comes with the Stamp. 
It has a severe bug.  What the author thinks he's doing is not really 
what's happening.



> You all have me interested in "The Stamp."  What exactly is it and where 
> can I order one to experiment with?  Could a Mac download code to it via 
> the serial port?
> 
>    -John
> 
> 
> 
> 
Kenny Greenberg   Neon Artist, Scenic Specialist, Columnist - Internet World
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