Parallax 29158 Manual

BASIC Stamp HomeWork Board
#29158 10-pack of Breadboard version
#29157 10-pack of Through-Hole version
Introduction
It's not often that we start technical documentation with a bit of marketing punch. If you like the low cost of a
BASIC Stamp Rev. D (retails ~$34) and the idea of a half-price BASIC Stamp 2 / Board of Education (retails
~$109) then the BASIC Stamp HomeWork board is the ticket for your class. This is the least expensive way to
get a large educational group started with the BASIC Stamp.
The HomeWork Boards were created exclusively for educators to send home with students with these uses in
mind:
• BASIC Stamp-related homework assignments
• Dedicated science-fair, contest or hobby projects
• Students who express personal interest in further developing their BASIC Stamp projects but can't have
their own Board of Education / BS2 due to it's higher cost
Since it's less expensive than the Board of Education / BS2 module, can the board be used for Stamps in Class
experiments? Possibly, with the following considerations:
• Servo connection ports for robotics are not included on the HomeWork Board. It's possible to use
male/male headers for servo connections with a second power supply jumpered to the HomeWork
Board to control servos.
• 220 ohm resistors are built into each of the 16 I/O pins for current protection so the PBASIC interpreter
cannot be easily damaged. This protects the BASIC Stamp from over-current conditions but also
slightly changes the behavior of the Stamps in Class experiments if used on this board based on the
command being used.
• Stamps in Class circuit pictorials do not match the HomeWork Board. Again, minor workaround once
you understand the difference between the power supply options.
• Power supply is from a 9V battery, not the wall pack.
• Current supply from the on-board regulator is limited to 50 mA versus the Board of Education's amp or
more.
However, these cost-reducing limitations do not limit the use of the HomeWork Board for other projects. In fact,
the minimalist design is simple to use and entirely flexible for most projects.
Parallax, Inc. • BASIC Stamp HomeWork Board ver 1.1
599 Menlo Drive, Suite 100 General: info@parallaxinc.com
Rocklin, California 95765, USA Technical: support@parallax.com
Office: (916) 624-8333 Web Site: www.parallax.com
Fax: (916) 624-8003 Educational:
http://www.parallax.com/html_pages/edu/
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