[Coco] OT: Cheap controller chips

[Frank Pittel]

Steve,

Very cool and thanks for the info and link. Just a month ago I bought into
the Parallax (maker of basic stamp) Propeller. It's a nifty little microcontroller
with 32 I/O pins (4 dedicated during startupt but general purpose after that) 8 cores
all running at 80Mhz and is available for $7.99 in single quantities.  After I spend
sometime with it I'll be taking a look at the picax.

For now though I have a couple of projects that I'm working on that will is being built
around the propeller which is taking up all my "puttering" time.

The Other Frank


On Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 12:19:39PM -0700, Steve Bjork wrote:
> Good Day All,
> 
> I know many of you like to build little CPU controlled gadgets and
> the reason for this Off topic post...
> 
> This time of year I'm very busy with my Halloween Yard Haunt.  (See
> ScaryLane.com) After building a Ghost Town facade last year, I'm
> adding more than a few micro-controller props including talking
> skulls, popping up ghouls and lighting and thunder storm.
> 
> Many of the props are using PICAXE controller because their ease of
> use and how cheap they are.  PICAXE are based on PIC controller
> (like BasicStamp) and uses the BASIC for coding (like BasicStamp).
> The PICAXE chips start a $3.00, unlike BasicStamp $30.00 stating
> price.
> 
> PICAXE are not new,  but I feel they are a good choice for a
> programmable controller that is easy to work with.  I got up and
> running for less than $25 with a PICAXE 18M2 ($5), PICAXE 18 Pin
> Power Project Board ($12) and a few parts and shipping.  The docs
> and Editor/Programmer are free if you download them from the
> Internet.  You can buy the PC to project board cable (use for
> programming and debugging) or make you own RS-232 to stereo plug.
> It took less than 5 minutes to make the cable out of spare parts.
> 
> A good source in the U.S. for PICAXE stuff is SparkFun.com. The have
> a good collection of the PICAXE line at great prices.   PICAXE.com
> is the main source for news, downloads and information on the chips.
> They have free coding software Windows, OS-X (Mac) and Linux.
> 
> Quick note about the PICAXE 18 Pin Power Project Board, don't forget
> to remove the link (R9) that connects the CPU and the Output driver
> power supplies.  This link makes easy to use main +5 Volt of the CPU
> is supplied to the power driver output section.  Putting another
> power supply on the driver circuit will feed into the 5 Volt circuit
> via the R9 link.  (Say bye-bye PICAXE chip.) The warring in board's
> docs is a bit small and easily past over.
> 
> The PICAXE line is a cheap and easy way to make those one of a kind
> gadgets with a bit of smarts.
> 
> Thanks for reading,
> 
> Steve
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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