Hello sparkfun users! im sorry for the noob question im about to ask, but what is a good for a novice or someone wanting to get started in electronics?
I read a few posts, and i didnt get me far. What i want to do (right now) is build a “flight controller” for a rocket project. Its from a book i got, and the book outlines it for the BASIC stamp. I was wondering if i could do the same things the basic could do, but with another controller (say an arduino). later down the line i might do other projects, but thats later.
I know the basic stamp has great documentation, but down the line, i believe the switch from a basic to another more powerful controller would be harder than starting out with a controller that has room to expand. correct me if im wrong.
Also, what is the difference from a “stamp” or module and the chip itself?
Sorry if wasted someones time
theDark:
Hello sparkfun users! im sorry for the noob question im about to ask, but what is a good for a novice or someone wanting to get started in electronics?
I read a few posts, and i didnt get me far. What i want to do (right now) is build a “flight controller” for a rocket project. Its from a book i got, and the book outlines it for the BASIC stamp. I was wondering if i could do the same things the basic could do, but with another controller (say an arduino). later down the line i might do other projects, but thats later.
I know the basic stamp has great documentation, but down the line, i believe the switch from a basic to another more powerful controller would be harder than starting out with a controller that has room to expand. correct me if im wrong.
Also, what is the difference from a “stamp” or module and the chip itself?
Sorry if wasted someones time
you are right, you should start with a C language platform as they are by far the most popular, also an arduino is many magnitudes more powerful than a stamp.
the difference from a “stamp” or module and the chip itself, is that they have the oscillator, voltag regulator, ect already there, with just the chip alone you need to add all that before you start building your own project
Thanks for the reply
Ok, so a stamp is standalone, but can it be used with a development board? or i have to rig it to a breadboard and program it via serial?
Also, so any microcontroler can pretty much do what any other microcontroler can do? so an arduino (and PIC, another one im looking at) can do the same things the BASIC can do?
for what each chip can do, read their datasheet, some can do TWI, some can’t, some have ADCs, some don’t, etc, each manufacture has a range of chips from the bare bones to something that can do everything. most manufacture sites offer a comparison chart for all their chips
the basic stamp is missing a lot, no ADC, timer, interrupts, SPI, TWI, the list goes on and on.
I think that if you have a specific project in mind, and it’s set up to use a Stamp, and this is your first project, you should use a Stamp. You’ll learn a lot, and wind up with a working project.
I don’t think that switching to a different processor later for other projects will be nearly as difficult as it might be made out to be, though of course you’ll need all new hardware. Most of the concepts are transferable.
Each processor has its own advantages and quirks. Stamps are extremely easy to program (and yes, there are plenty of development boards available for them, so you don’t need to rig your own power and serial interface), but they’re very slow and as noted above, don’t have ADC or any timing (those are the big disadvantages from Frank’s list). Arduinos are a little harder to program, much faster, and include ADC, a timer, and so on. For the most part you won’t find the programming to be an issue - but you’ll come across some things that’ll have you tearing your hair out until you figure it out. If that project you mentioned already has Stamp source code with it, that won’t happen if you go the Stamp route. If you do that, don’t just plug the code in and forget it - go through the code to make sure that you understand it.