Csum On
This configures StampPlot to expect 3 byte values plus a 4th for the checksum value. To understand what is occurring consider the example if our data were 10, 20 and 30 for the 3 values. Instead of sending a character for 1 then a character for 0 2 bytes for the value 10 it sends a single byte of the value 10 and similarly for 20 and 30. The largest value that may be sent is 255 since that is the maximum value for a byte. Checksum means that the values of the individual bytes in each data set...
Controlling the ADC from the BASIC Stamp
To prime the ADC0834 for taking a measurement, the CS pin has to receive a signal from the BASIC Stamp module that starts high, then goes low. This signal has to stay low for the duration of the conversion. Next, the BASIC Stamp module must tell the ADC0834 which channel to convert. This is done by sending a serial data code via the DI line. Then the CLK input must receive a single clock pulse to signify that the conversion should start at the next clock pulse. For this device, a clock pulse...
Appendix A LearnOnLines REEL Power Project
Figure A-1 A 21st Century Learning and Teaching Project sponsored by LearnOnLine, Inc. LearnOnLine's REEL Power Project, which stands for Renewable Energy Education Lab, is the inspiration for this course on energy. REEL Power is designed to help students understand and apply the math and science they are studying by means of a motivationally enhancing make that fun filled renewable energy project. REEL Power is both classroom-based and Internet-based and makes excellent use of both these local...
Section Configure From Macros Text Scripts
Of course, all this great stuff of drawing, graphics, sounds, controls and math takes up room on your BASIC Stamp module, and in some cases you may not be able to modify the controller code to perform such operations. Macros are simply text files that contain configuration information and can be used for the processing of data. Below is a simple macro. V Use the Macro menu Edit Macro with NotePad V Provide a name, such as macroTest V Answer yes to create twice . V Use the Macro menu Run Macro,...
Appendix C Programming StampPlot Pro
StampPlot Pro is a serial computer interface program for data acquisition and control for the Parallax, Inc, series of BASIC Stamp microcontroller modules. StampPlot is a very versatile program with many great features. With the large number of choices available, the program can be a little intimidating to the new user. This guide will discuss many of the most popular features of StampPlot, though only brief examples are provided to help you get started. Here is a partial list of StampPlot...
Testing the AD Converters Upper Limit Channel
V Disconnect power to your BASIC Stamp module. V Next, add a 1 kQ resistor between pin 3 CH0 and pin 1 Vdd of the ADC0834 as shown in Figure 1-8 and Figure 1-9. This will apply 5 VDC to the CH0 input channel. V Restore power to your BASIC Stamp module. V Save and run the hacked code. Testing The A D Converter's Upper Limit Wiring Diagram Testing The A D Converter's Upper Limit Wiring Diagram V Restore power to your BASIC Stamp module. From here on we will assume you are in the habit of...
Building the AD Converter
Schematics and wiring diagrams are provided for the majority of the circuits. You will ' be using the A D converter circuits with others from each chapter. Please follow the parts placement EXACTLY V Disconnect power to your BASIC Stamp module always do this before building or modifying circuits. V Install the 14-pin ADC0834 DIP Dual Inline Package chip as show in Figure 1-7. Note that the DIP is oriented with the notch pointing down. This is done intentionally for reasons that will become...
Activity Shielding The Solar Panels
This experiment uses the same circuits from the previous experiments to read the solar panel voltages. A cardboard hood and a servo will be added to the solar panels, and the servo will be connected to the board. You will also need the following household or school-room items that are not included in the kit Cardboard box or sheet of heavy paper for a hood Before mounting the solar panel to the servo it will first be necessary to add a box-like hood around the solar cells. The reason for this...
Activity Programming The Sun Tracker
Once again, we will be building upon our previous program. These additions let us read and compare the voltages generated by the two solar arrays. Remember, you may either follow the directions to build on your program for each experiment, or download the programs from www.parallax.com. V In the BASIC Stamp Editor, open DuelingSolarCells.bs2. V Rename and save the program as SunTracker.bs2. V Update the title to read as follows ' Experiments with Renewable Energy v1.0 - SunTracker.bs2 ' Tracks...
Activity Testing The Stampplot Graphical Plotting Software Interface
In this activity, we will use the PlotIt.bs2 program to create a graph in StampPlot. This will allow us to test both our program and our connection to StampPlot. V Open PlotIt.bs2 in the BASIC Stamp Editor. V In the Piot_it subroutine, change the values of ch0 through ch3 as shown below. ch0 0 ch1 0 ch2 0 ch3 0 checkSum 0 ch0 25 ch1 5 0 ch2 75 ch3 100 checkSum 0 V Note that the checksum 0 statement remains unchanged. V Download the modified code to the BS2 by clicking on the Run icon or by...
Chapter Experiment Half and Full Wave Rectification
This experiment in half and full wave rectification begins your study of AC or alternating current energy principles. Alternating current, as opposed to direct current, which you studied in the first three experiments, is used primarily for the transmission of high voltage electrical power over long distances. In addition, low voltage alternating current is used to directly power many common household devices such as light bulbs and motors. While your television and computer are also powered by...
Activity Assembling The Threephase Ac Alternator
The three-phase AC alternator kit is used to generate the AC voltage for the half wave and full wave rectifier circuits. While we could have supplied you with a simple wall transformer that converts 110 VAC to a much lower voltage like 10 VAC, that would not have been as much fun. Instead, we chose to supply you with a miniature wind-powered AC alternator that will be both fun to build as well as fun to use. Plus, you will use it in the next experiment to demonstrate how three-phase power is...
Activity How The Half Wave Rectifier Program Works
Remember our floor and superstructure analogy from the earlier part of this manual. Well, by commenting out these calls, what we've done is sealed off the first three floors of our software building while we work on the final two floors, just as we sealed off the Battery Charger experiment on the first floor while we worked with the solar cells. Also notice how simple, yet elegant, this is. By just a single comment in each call to Exp_1, Exp_2 and Exp_3 we have effectively disabled their...
Activity Centering The Servo
Before we can use the Parallax Continuous Rotation Servo, it must be centered. This servo motor is designed to hold a steady position when receiving 1.5 ms pulses, and to rotate when it receives pulses less than or greater than this center value. Our Sun Tracker program design makes use of this characteristic, but the servo must first be manually calibrated to make sure it does hold steady when receiving the 1.5 ms pulse. 1 Parallax Continuous Rotation servo Parallax Screwdriver If you are...
Activity Building The Full Wave Rectifier Circuit
Now it's time to build the full wave rectifier circuit. To do so you will need all the components you used in the half wave rectifier circuit plus The schematic is shown in Figure 5-22. The parts placement should look like that in Figure 5-23. Examine how the four diodes are inserted into the breadboard. V Disconnect power to your board. V Remove the 1000 F capacitor for the time being. V Add the diodes to the circuit, being careful to observe the directions of the diodes' anodes and cathodes....
Rectifying Three Phase Power
Our wind turbine produces three phase alternating current AC , which we'd like to rectify to direct current DC . Recall the bridge rectifier circuit of Chapter 4, which used 4 diodes. In the bridge circuit, two diodes were active during the positive part of the waveform, and the other two diodes during the negative part. By adding two more diodes, this circuit can be expanded to rectify all three phases from our wind turbine. With 6 diodes, the three-phase rectifier can rectify all three...
The Danger of Overcharging NiCad Batteries
The charging technique just described will work only as long as the overcharging current is limited to a value such that the rate of oxygen liberation at the anode is less than or equal to the rate of diffusion across the separator. If the overcharging current is too high, excess oxygen is produced at the anode. And since not enough oxygen can diffuse across to make up for the reduction at the cathode, the excess cadmium hydroxide is used up. Hydrogen is then formed. This leads to a dangerous...
Wiring the Wye Coils
For our wind turbine, we will use the Wye coil arrangement. Each set of coils is color-coded by two wires of similar coloring, as shown in the table below. The colors are shown in the schematic in Figure 6-6. Pay particular attention to the blue and blue-white wire placement. This is not a mistake. It is necessary to flip the source-return orientation of this coil relative to the other two coils to achieve the proper three-phase operation.
Activity Building The Half Wave Rectifier
With the three-phase AC alternator assembled, it's time to construct the half wave rectifier circuit on your Board's prototyping area. You can remove all but the A D Converter circuit from the breadboard area since we are done with the DC portion of our experiments. This experiment uses the A D converter, and adds to it 1 Assembled wind turbine three-phase, wind driven AC alternator 1 Table fan not supplied Wire strippers not supplied V Remove all but the A D Converter Circuit from your...
ACTIVITY ADDING THE SERVO TO THE SOLAR PANELS Parts Required
1 Parallax Continuous Rotation servo 1 1 hexagonal standoff, pre-drilled 1 1 4 panhead Phillips screw 2 7 8 panhead Phillips screws 2 4 hex nuts Parallax screwdriver Hand drill with a 36 bit -OR- Hobby knife such as an X-acto knife with a slim, sharp tip Optional Diagonal cutters or other flush clippers such as toenail clippers Below are the directions for mounting the servo on the solar panel tray, as shown in Figure 4-13 and Figure 4-14. V Unscrew the servo horn from the servo, being careful...
Section Perform acquisition and control over the Internet
StampPlot also installs a program called the TCP-Serial Gateway. This program allows monitoring and control over the Internet by creating a link gateway between your serial port and your Internet connection. The typical configuration is shown
Wye versus Delta Selection in the Real World
At this point you may be asking Why use a Delta arrangement at all when the Star arrangement produces more power This is a very good question and here's one answer. In commercial wind-driven AC alternators such as the ones described in the end of this chapter , the three-phase coils are automatically switched between Wye and Delta based mainly on the speed of the blades. When the wind turbine is just starting up, the coils are configured as a Wye, which allows the wind turbine to generate the...
StampPlot Software
Before going too much further it would be best to concentrate on the StampPlot Pro graphical plotting software that will add a tremendous visual aid to the experiments. We will be using the StampPlot Pro version with the Free Home Educational Standard License. Developed by two professors, Martin Hebel and Will Devenport at Southern Illinois University, the StampPlot graphic plotting software brings the voltages produced in the experiments alive Figure 1-1 shows just one example of a single...
AC versus DC
An important advantage for AC became apparent with the invention of the transformer in 1883. This meant that the voltage from an AC generator could be efficiently increased for transmission and then decreased at the other end for use in the home or factory. From our previous explanation, electrical energy is proportional to voltage times current, so that boosting the voltage means that the same amount of energy can be transmitted with less current flow. Since heat produced in the line is a...
Registering Your Software
StampPlot Pro has two types of registration licenses Developer's License for users who wish to use the development features of StampPlot to create configurations, which include drag-and-drop design using the Object Editor and Macro editor to quickly design Graphical User Interfaces GUIs . Standard Users License for those not interested in development. As discussed in this documents, development work may still be done, but not as simply as with the Developer's License. StampPlot may be used with...
Your Turn Sampling and Displaying the ThreePhase Voltage Outputs
If you look at the code under the label Exp_5_Retrieve_For_Piotting, you'll notice that only one of the four read statements are not patched out, and only the read of phase 1 is active. We will build up to the entire four-channel plot on an additive basis by taking out the comments from each read statement one-at-a-time. If we showed you the entire four-channel plot at this time, you would become very confused as we were when we first saw it . So we'll lead up to the four-channel display slowly...
How the AD Converter Routine Works
This routine references names aliases defined in the Declarations section. The first four pin directives give names to the BASIC Stamp I O pins that identify which pin of the ADC0834 they are connected to. These aliases will be used in commands that enable communication between the two devices. A2dChipSel A2dDataIn A2dClk A2dDataOut The four con directives that follow are specially coded to let the ADC0834 know which channel, 0 through 3, that we want to convert. One of the first things the...
Methods of Converting Energy to Electricity
There are basically six popular ways to convert energy to electricity Mechanical - wind turning blades connected to a generator Chemical - batteries, fuel cells, anaerobic digesters biomass Combustion - burning fuel to generate steam heat to drive a generator Hydro - running water over the turbine blades connected to a generator Heat - creating steam which in turn operates a generator Photovoltaic - extracting electricity from the sun using semiconductor materials As you may have already...
RAM vs EEPROM
The BASIC Stamp's EEPROM can hold 2048 bytes, or 2 KB, of information. Part of the storage space, starting at address 2047 and growing toward address 0, is used to hold the PBASIC program. The unused space which remains can be used to store data, which builds from address 0 toward address 2047. EEPROM is different from RAM random access memory variable storage in several respects RAM is volatile memory, meaning that the memory contents are lost when power is removed EEPROM is non-volatile. The...
The BASIC Stamp Microcontroller Module
At the core of each experiment is the Board of Education carrier board along with the BASIC Stamp 2 microcontroller module sold separately . The Board of Education carrier board has an ample solderless breadboard prototyping area for all the components that will be used in all five experiments. To complete the experiments in this text, you will need to have your BASIC Stamp Editor v 2.0 or higher installed and running on your PC. Then, you will need to have your BASIC Stamp 2 module installed...
The Experiments with Renewable Energy Parts and Text Kit
Similar to most Stamps in Class Student Guides, you need a BASIC Stamp 2 module with a Board of Education carrier board and the Parts Kit. The content of the Experiments with Renewable Energy Parts Kit is listed below. These replacement parts are available from Parallax but may also be sourced from common electronic suppliers. In an effort to provide the best quality and most up-to-date products for our customers, you may find that some of the actual parts received with this kit may differ from...