BASIC Stamp

The BASIC Stamp is a microcontroller with a small, specialized BASIC interpreter (PBASIC) built into ROM. It is made by Parallax, Inc. and has been popular with electronics hobbyists since the early 1990s.

Although the BASIC Stamp 2 has the form of a 24 pin DIP chip, it is in fact a small printed circuit board (PCB) that contains the essential elements of a microprocessor system:

The end result is that a hobbyist can connect a 9 V battery to a BASIC Stamp and have a complete system. A serial connection to a personal computer allows the programmer to download software to the BASIC Stamp, which is stored in the onboard non-volatile memory device: it remains programmed until it is erased or reprogrammed, even when the power of the stamp is removed. If the power is reconnected the stamp immediately starts executing the program in slot 0 (of 8, numbered 0..7).

The BASIC Stamp is programmed in a variant of the BASIC language, called PBASIC. PBASIC incorporates common microcontroller functions, including PWM, serial communications, I²C and 1-Wire communications, communications with common LCD driver circuits, hobby servo pulse trains, pseudo-sine wave frequencies, and the ability to time an RC circuit which may be used to detect an analog value.

Once a program has been written in the 'Stamp Editor', an integrated development environment (IDE) in Windows, the syntax can be checked, tokenized and sent to the chip through a serial/USB Mini-B cable, where it will run.

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