Hi Diane, > > I expected that if there was silver in the solution that it would show > > up as a Tyndal effect (if even dimly). The taste says "CS", but the > > Tyndal effect is simply not present. What I *think* is that I must have > > an incredibly small particle size ?!?!?!?!? > > > > Suddenly I am more confused about this than I was to begin with. > > > > Just keeping everyone informed :-). > > I am impressed at your experiment anyway. Where do you get one of these > Basic Stamps and how do you program them?
The people that make them have a web site at http://www.parallaxinc.com Lots of good information there! I don't work for them, I'm just a quite happy customer. I recommend that people start out with the Basic Stamp 1 (BS1 or BS1IC, I think the product id is?!). I found the BS2 to be "sensitive" (well, I think so, others may argue that :) and manged to blow one up while accidentally plugging in the communications cable wrong. $49 + carrier board + shipping down the tube in microseconds :-). Yes, I was probably more careless than I should have been, but things like these happen and I have yet to blow up a BS1 with all the stuff I have done with them :-). The BS1 should do you for a long time, I've had mine for over three years now and still find them quite useful for 90+% of the stuff I want to do :-). The only problem I have had with these to date is that one of them has a blown port pin (the other seven function just fine) and I am currently using that particular controller for the experiment with the H-Bridge. I would not doubt that something in one of the MANY projects I have used that for I did wong or slipped or something. Very robust little beasts :-) Your desires and milage may vary :-). Programming them is done in a BASIC like language, most people have been exposed to that at some point in their education and it is a VERY easy language to learn. The stuff you use on the stamp is a pretty small subset of other BASICS. Further there a LOTS of example applications for this out there and you can find things that "sorta" do what you want and borrow circuits and ideas from those to do what you want to do, that is how I started with them. They are by no means the be-all-end-all of microcontrollers, but for a lot of things they are far more than adequate. More importantly, they are easy and relatively cheap to get started with. If you have an internet connection you can download the manual and applications examples and even give your printer a good workout and print them. If you are handy, you can even build the interface cable, the specifications are in the manual. At that point you need a board of some type to mount them on (I prefer to use the "protoboards" until I get things worked out enough to make a board for it), the stamp and a 9V battery and then load the software (editor / interface to the stamp) connect up the cable and you are off to work :-). Figuring out how to make them do what you want to do in terms of external circuitry takes longer :-). Hope this helps! If you have other questions, I'll try to answer them. Take care, Vikki. -- Victoria Welch, WV9K, DoD#-13, Net/Sys/WebAdmin SeaStar.org, vikki.oz.net "Walking on water and developing software to specification are easy as long as both are frozen" - Edward V. Berard. Do not unto others, that which you would not have others do unto you. -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. To join or quit silver-list or silver-digest send an e-mail message to: [email protected] -or- [email protected] with the word subscribe or unsubscribe in the SUBJECT line. To post, address your message to: [email protected] List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
