Overview
The Parallax BASIC Stamp Discovery Kit contains everything you need to get started with microcontroller programming and electronics, including a BASIC Stamp 2 microcontroller, a Board of Education (BOE) platform, and all of the electronics components you need for dozens of fun projects. The included What’s a Microcontroller? (5MB pdf) booklet guides you through over 40 activities that teach you how to program the BASIC Stamp to control simple circuits. The text contains clear explanations, defines electronic terms in a friendly manner, and teaches you the skills and concepts you need to get started with building your own electronic projects.
Note: This kit requires a power supply or 9 V battery, which are not included.
Features
Here are some of the things you can do with the parts included in this kit. You will learn how to do these things by completing the activities in the What’s a Microcontroller Text (6MB pdf) included in the kit:
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Parallax BASIC Stamp Discovery Kit (USB) – Project on a board. |
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- Send signals with blinking LEDs
- Sense contact with pushbuttons
- Read a dial using a potentiometer
- Measure brightness with a light sensor
- Control an RC servo (a special motor with built-in electronics that allows it to maintain a certain position, often used in radio-control cars for controlling steering)
- Make music on a piezo speaker
- Display data on a 7-segment LED
- Expand your projects with peripheral ICs
- Combine several circuits to prototype an invention
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Parallax BASIC Stamp 2 Module #BS2-IC. |
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Kit Contents
The BASIC Stamp Discovery Kit includes the following parts.
- BASIC Stamp 2 microcontroller module — The main controller or “brains” for the projects in this kit. You will learn to program the BASIC Stamp with the PBASIC programming language.
- Board of Education (BOE) USB development board — A handy carrier board for the BASIC Stamp that makes it easy to connect the Stamp to your computer for programming and to your circuits that are being controlled by the Stamp.
- USB cable — A standard USB A to Mini-B cable for connecting the Board of Education to your computer’s USB port.
- Printed What’s a Microcontroller? text (5MB pdf) — A textbook that guides you through over 40 activities that will help you learn basic programming and electronics.
- Printed BASIC Stamp Manual (5MB pdf)
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Parts kit:
- Input components: pushbuttons, single-turn potentiometer, phototransistor
- Output components: LEDs, 7-segment display, servo, piezo speaker
- Passive components: resistors, capacitors, jumper wires
- Integrated circuits: digital potentiometer, transistor
Note: You will need to install the Basic Stamp editor software from Parallax’s website to write PBASIC programs for downloading to the BASIC Stamp.
What to Expect
A great way to get an idea of what you will learn with this kit is to look at the What’s a Microcontroller Text (5MB pdf), a printed copy of which is included with this kit. To give you a general idea of how a project would go, here are the steps you might take to make a system that turns on an LED once it gets dark in the room:
- Plug in the BASIC Stamp into the socket in the Board of Education.
- Build a circuit that includes a light sensor and an LED in the prototyping area of the Board of Education. This kit contains all of the parts you need to build such a circuit.
- Add wires to connect the LED and light sensor to the correct pins on the BASIC Stamp using the BASIC Stamp access points surrounding the prototyping area.
- Write a program in the PBASIC programming language on your computer in the BASIC Stamp Editor. The program will read the BASIC Stamp pin connected to the light sensor and activate the pin connected to the LED once the light sensor indicates the room is dark.
- Connect the Board of Education to the computer with a serial or USB cable, and download the program onto the BASIC Stamp.
- Leave the board connected to the computer, or disconnect it from the computer; either way, the BASIC Stamp will be running the program to read the light sensor and will turn on the LED once the room is dark.
This version replaces the older #27207 BASIC Stamp Discovery Kit – Serial.
