Don't sneeze or this robot will crash...

[blueroomelectronics]

I've had wires all over the place in some of my prototypes but...
https://www.botmag.com/articles/bionic_stamp.shtml

**broken link removed**

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

That's REALLY, REALLY bad!!

 

[HarveyH42]

Thank you. Now I feel much better about my wiring...

 

[Omar.M]

My goodness, I agree with Harvey! It makes me feel so much better, hah!
Holy Mother of Electrolytic Capacitors, that's like a jungle. Aw, and look at that cute, little IC socket. Poor thing is being suffocated by the evil wires.

That brings a tear into my eye. Component cruelty.
-Omar
(Okay, I am done now).

 

[blueroomelectronics]

And the builder is an engineer
"Dan Ramirez, an accomplished engineer"

Just shows you that a prototype can look alot different than a final product.
The part that confuses me about the article is the quantum leap from a BASIC Stamp to a high end PIC30F6014 !!!

Troubleshooting faluty wiring would be a treat.

I mean sure a BASIC Stamp is pretty limited, but a 30F6014 in a TQFP is probably light years beyond the target audience. The wiring alone would stifle even myself and I build scads of point to point prototypes.
And the icing on the cake would have to be "no BASIC for you", he recommends C as the language, again quite a leap for those weened on the Stamp. Yes it's good to get away from the Stamp and learn something better like Swordfish BASIC for the 18F, C or MPASM. But why does he call it a "Bionic Stamp" (I see Stamp and think BASIC)

PS I like the standoff tower and the MAX232 hanging for dear life off the 30F6014 socket adapter, I'm not sure but is that an 16F84A on its own PCB? Does the 30F6014 need a coprocessor? More I/O?

 

[mister_e]

Neat stuff

My students actually do better looking stuff than this. I really think he have overcomplicated things.

Bill, it's worst...

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Daniel Ramirez is a Senior Software Engineer with more than 12 years experience working with real-time embedded systems and holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree of Engineering and Computer Science from Northeastern University.

DsPIC work as is, no need for any external stuff. Maybe he's not aware of some I2C I/O expander? even he paid $18 for an adapter... $5 from MikroElektronika (**broken link removed** )

DsPIC are nice, but sure overkill for this one...

ONLY C? yes and no, it's assembler is not as this hard, C is probably faster to start. I know only one Basic compiler for that, MikroBasic for DsPIC. I've never tried it. I stick to Hi-Tech C or Microchip C30.

My calc is still not linked on your site? **broken link removed**

 

[Souper man]

Hey my spagetti robot looks better than that!
Lol you should see my spagetti robot too...

 

[dknguyen]

Neat stuff

My students actually do better looking stuff than this. I really think he have overcomplicated things.

Are you sure? It could be that your TAs tell your students that their circuit has to be nice and neat for check off and they don't overcomplicate things because they just want to get it done (I know I take no joy in building the circuits in my labs). Getting something done because someone told you to and getting something done because it's your choice are two very different things.

 

[Andy1845c]

Looks kinda like somthing I might make. lol

PCB's certinly would help this guy out.....

I like the huge board on the right side of the picture with 2 lonesome capacitors on it, and that tower of nuts by the toggle switch. Whats that all about anyway?

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Thanks for the reminder, I've just added a link your site Steve. Handy calculator (I used it for the CVREF calculations on my Logic_Probe project of the week just posted on my site)

As for the two floating caps, why bother with the PCB when so much else is just hanging on over the sides.

 

[phalanx]

I mean sure a BASIC Stamp is pretty limited, but a 30F6014 in a TQFP is probably light years beyond the target audience. The wiring alone would stifle even myself and I build scads of point to point prototypes.

You would be surprised how easy it is to use the dsPICs. The large dsPICs are no different to operate than 16F devices. Hook up power (decouple adequately) and your ICSP lines and you are up and running. There are a few significant differences in the way memory is paged and how interrupts are handled but after you grasp that, it is just a 16F with more instructions and a lot more I/O pins!

 

[blueroomelectronics]

The level of complexity between a simple BASIC Stamp compared to a simple 16F54 programmed in assembler is quite the leap that many are afraid to take. Add to that the sheer size of the dsPIC30 datasheets and all those periperals can daunt even seasoned PIC programmers.
I agree that the 18F and newer chips are the way to go, even Microchip appears to want people to stop using the ancient 16F chips in favour of something newer.
Parallax has sold millions of Stamps to noobs around the world. I've even got a couple of BS2 chips. They ARE EXPENSIVE for what you get and extremely limited in computing power (A BS2 uses the ancient 16C57)
My point is that with a complex ungainly looking device like "Hero 2007" (the robots name in the photo above) you'll never get the BASIC Stamp crowds attention.

 

[pkshima]

wow thats neat !!!

 

[Nicksan]

Looks like the wiring on my car..... lol

 

[Hank Fletcher]

As a noob, I'd have to agree that it certainly doesn't look approachable. Still, I'll let you know if I ever do anything better (I think I'll start putting some pictures up before the end of the summer...)

For all it is, what does it do? In layman's terms, I mean.