[Coco] re:Radio Shack STAMP Developer's Kit

[KnudsenMJ at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/25/06 1:54:11 PM Eastern Standard Time,  
cappy2112 at gmail.com writes:

>There are many beginners stamp packages  available.
Another posting mentioned a few sources.  But I wonder if the  convenience of 
just paying cash and taking it home from Rat Shack is worth the  $90 price?  
Learn the tricks from that kit, then decide on buying other  stuff?

>But  this didn't come with the beginners manuals that these kits  provide.
>These manuals are very detailed, and at the right pace for  most beginners.
Well, I'm no beginner, but would probably need some help from the manuals  
getting the PC stuff to talk right.  Probably the hardest part is  remembering 
what nice features of Coco BASIC you can't use in the STAMP  dialect!


>Nuts and Volts used to have a monthly article on stamp projects  and you used
>to be able to download several applications notes in PDF  form, either from
>Parallax or Scott Edwards.
Yeah, N and V is a good mag, but I don't see it very often.

>Depending on what you want to do, there are already several  companies making
>midi processors out of PICS or PIC-like  processors.
I need some flexibility in processing the MIDI commands, probably not  
available in any stock devices like merge boxes and patch mappers.

The  basic stamps  have  some good instructions for doing serial IO, as  well
as sending out DTMF tones.
If they can generate tones, they must be pretty quick, or have special  
hardware.  A question is whether they tie up CPU cycles in bit-banging  serial I/O, 
or have UART sections that do it "for free", like an RS232 Pak on a  Coco.  
And how many such UARTs running at 32 KB could a PIC attend  to?

The the  instructions really take the drudgery out of setting up the IO line,
but if  you're a low-level guy, then this isn't something you'd  want.


I don't want to do anything low-level at the serial level, just with the  
bytes as they come and go.  Total automation of the serial I/O would be a  big 
plus for more.
 
Thanks for the info, Mike K.