LCD - Basic Stamp Microcontroller

I purchased a nice 4 X 20 Character LCD off of Ebay for a much better price than most other sites. (look up www.web4robot.com for the LCD)

As you can see, it's up and running on the first night!

I noticed a few errors in the manual, so I improvised and figured out that PBASIC used $FE instead of 0xFE commands. (the 0x = $ for all the hex code)

Little bit of tweaking and I created an ASCII character

Here's the basic wiring.
On the LCD, Pin1 = power, Pin3 =RX, Pin5 = ground
I connected to Pin1 on my Basic Stamp for the TX pin

You can download my BS2 code HERE.
I took the time to add a lot of notes so that anyone can learn the tricks quickly.

Please excuse the video quality, but hey, it's my first attempt.

XBox Project

The 'standard' Xbox system is pretty much a computer and the controller ports are modified USB ports. Since I have an aversion to green (especially in LED's!) I decided to give this guy a makeover... GEEK STYLE

Phase 1: Change All LED"s to BLUE

Phase Two: Fix the 'jewel' to be frosted clear and.... BLUE

Night shot

Night shot with error message

Phase Three: Add the skin

There's no way I was going to allow the XBox controller to be green.

Here's my version with BLUE plastic and LED's.

Oh yeah... and the LED's light up with the rumblers!

Even the 'jewel' lights up when you power on the system.

Box Computer Project

Ever wanted a computer that looks more like a decorative piece rather than an ugly box? Me too.... I was looking for a computer to put in my entertainment center that would not stand out too much.

Here is the box I decided to work with. $20 from TJMaxx

My work area at the time was my coffee table, and yes, I did use my couch to muffle the sound of the jigsaw when the time came.

The motherboard fit very snug and it was fun squeezing everything into the small box.
I built supports for the board and disassembled everything I could to save space.

What better way to turn the computer on and off but with a wireless remote?
I hacked apart a wireless doorbell and used the computer's power supply to power it.

In the end, the box looks nearly identical to the original box. I added an in/out fan system to create more airflow through the box later even though I had no heat issues. There is also a touch sensitive switch on the side of the box that is flush mounted just in case you wanted to turn the PC on directly. Lastly, I used fiber optic cable to port the LED indicators out to the side of the case. (very subtle). When it's all up and running, you can barely tell. The video cable goes straight out of the back of the entertainment center and into the T.V. I used a wireless keyboard and mouse that can get stashed under the coffee table for surfing the web.

Microcontroller - Putting It All Together

(reserving spot for final setup)
Now it's time to put all the parts together.
I have the computer interface, software, firmware, and the hardware.

List of materials:
(1) Computer
(1) Camera
(1) Basic Stamp Microcontroller
(1) Photogate Trigger (when an object breaks a light beam the camera takes a picture)
(1) Bowl of water
(1) Funnel full of water (water flow controlled by a servo)

As you can see from this picture, it's an elaborate setup just to capture a drop of water the moment it hits the bowl of water. Meh.... it's what I do :)

Final Result:
Here are some of the pictures that were taken thanks to the help from the microcontroller.

(pic 2)
(pic 3)

Microcontroller - The Electronics

Now for the really fun part.... the Electronics!
I started off going through the projects in the book to get a good idea of how it all works together. As usual, I never could resist making everything unique.... within the first hour I was creating my own electronic circuits and wound up losing another night of sleep.

Here is a quick example on how I tested the Visual Basic code and the Basic Stamp code at the same time.
(enter picture here..... )

Yes, simple LED's configured so that when the corresponding 'Pin' is '1' then it would light up.
Nothing fancy but it sure helped work the bugs out of the serial communication code.

Note: The microprocessor can control a certain number of 'Pins' by executing a '1' for ON and a '0' for OFF. By controlling which pins are off and on, a programmer can control just about anything.

Individual Items:
Camera Trigger - I found THIS SITE that gave a quick and easy answer on how to use the microcontroller to take pictures. I (of course) modified it somewhat.

Here are three shots showing the circuit in action

*Note: The LED is just for testing and is not needed

Sensors - I found HiViz after some searching around and they offered a simple answer to creating circuits that will help take pictures of fast moving objects . I'm going to purchase one of each kit and mash them together and control them with the microcontroller. (go figure)

Microcontroller - I'm going to stick with the Basic Stamp 2 this time around.

Microcontroller - Writing the code

After reading through the book that came with the Basic Stamp 2 kit, I felt ready to write my own program. I did some research online and found Shaun's Website. He had sample code for both the Visual Basic side and the Basic Stamp side. WOW! It was nearly perfect the way it was. I had to do some major work on the Visual Basic interface, but the serial communication code on both sides gave me a BIG help. (Thanks Shaun)

I tweaked the Visual Basic code to do the following:
1. Look like the back of my camera
2. Have buttons pre-assigned to a task (such as focusing the camera)
3. Configured a 'Settings" page with variables that would pass between forms.
4. Configured timers to assist with tasks
(such as a 500ms timer from when you take the shot and release the shutter button)

I also tweaked the Basic Stamp code to create my own subroutines but it's fairly siimilar to Shaun's example.

Here are some helpful links for programming the Basic Stamp 2 module

Parallax Documentation

*will link more later

Microcontroller - Camera Interface

Ok... I've had the microcontroller for about a week and decided that a cool project would be to create a way to interface the computer to my camera. Since I'm not just an ordinary geek, I decided to add a few twists.

1. The interface must look like a camera on the screen (with similar buttons)
2. The interface must be configurable from within the program (for flexibility)
3. The interface must be able to have some logic built in to prevent erroneous entries

Setup:
1. I used Microsoft Visual Basic Express 2008 to create the interface.

2. I grabbed an image of my camera (Canon 400D) and photoshopped it to remove existing buttons.

3. I searched on Google to figure out what the heck I was doing.... (<--amateur coder here) 4. Obsessively design code / interface day and night. (barely slept for 4 days....ugh)

The back of my camera looks like this image

Here is the initial draft of the interface without buttons

And here is the initial iteration of the program with the buttons

Not too shabby for my first time....
(although I'll probably change it a hundred times..... )

Microcontroller - Basic Stamp 2 Homework Board

I was looking for a quick way to learn about microcontrollers and happened upon the What's a Microcontroller BASIC Stamp Kit at Radio Shack for $89.99.


It comes with all the items needed to get started.
1. Book
2. Microcontroller
3. Accessories (servo, LED's, resistors, etc.)

According to the salesperson, that kit is required for the microcontroller class offered at the local colleges. Well, I finished half of the book in the first night!

I'll show off a few of the projects that I end up creating with this cool device!

Hello World

Well... I guess it's time to start a blog about my crazy geek projects.