Re: TECH: Basic Stamp controlled pinball machine

On Mar 15, 1:01 pm, Terry Cumming <tcumm...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://pinnovations.com/pnv/sr2004/index.html

I controlled a Solar Ride game with Basic Stamps, BasicX (and earlier)
Picaxe's. Connected to PC with the PC doing display sounds and game
logic.

Stamps are great but kind of slow for switch matrix scanning directly.
I used the faster BS2p modules. Limited on board memory too.

My current game in progress uses Atmel Atmega32. Other projects have
used Microchop PICs and others. Running C or assembler code you will
see orders of magnitude improvement in speed versus a Stamp for
critical operations.

Terry Cumming

On Mar 14, 2:31 pm,EvilOompaLoompa<jukin...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:> Hello All,

As you may (or may not) know, I have been dabbling with the idea of a
project based on a custom computer controlled system for an old
pinball playfield.

(snip)

Hello Terry, I just got back from your Solar Ride website and I am
impressed with what you have done. It seemed like you didn't have
much success with the PIC microcontroller system. While the price is
an attractive selling point, the reason why I preferred the Basic
Stamp is that it is very easy to make changes to the programming,
whereas with the PIC system, you have to pull the chip out and
recompile everything. Moreover, the chip burner and compiler are
pretty expensive pieces. It also seems that while I was under the
misconception that the PIC controllers are faster, it seems that by
your findings that the Basic Stamp is faster (at least the variant you
chose).

Overall my take on the PIC system is that it is good if you want to
create MANY items using one code. Such as something that you want to
produce and sell. In that aspect the PIC system shines, but not for a
system like this in which you want to make quick changes.

Towards the end of your document it seemed that you were using a PC
for most functions on your Solar Ride. I guess than the Basic Stamp
was too slow after all? Even using the upgrated BS-2?

Anyway, you mentioned the Atmel system and Mark mentioned this system
too. How easy is this system to use and how much faster is it in
comparison to the Stamp. Is it easy to update like the stamp? Or is
it a tedious process like programming a PIC.

Anyway, if you invested in the Atmel system I would like to hear your
take on it. Mark is suggesting that I go with an entirely different
approach and go with a full MPU system such as that of the Pinball2000
system. The trouble is that system is pretty expensive. I am now
discussing with him the possibility of reprogramming an existing
system to see if that would be a better way to go.

I thought that I may be able to do a simple game with just a Basic
Stamp system, but you can't get much simpler than Solar Ride and if a
Basic Stamp proved unsatisfactory for that application, then I guess
it is just not suited for this task as I originally thought.

Still even for an EM game playfield conversion, I still find it a bit
hard to believe that the Stamp is too slow for even that kind of game.

I guess I just have to forge ahead and leave the Stamp behind for this
application and see what the newer formats offer. Maybe I can get
lucky and get a Pinball2000 system for a good price, perhaps Atmel is
a solution. We will just have to see. I know I have to do a lot more
research now.

E.

.

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