Nuts and Volts - July/August 2018

Vintage Computing

80 m=t//10
90 PRINT “Elapsed Time =
“;s;”.”;m;””sec”
100 DISPLAY 13,13: PRINT “Again
(Y/N)?”
110 k=INKEY : IF k=0 THEN GOTO 110
120 IF k<>”N””AND K<>”n””THEN GOTO
10
130 PRINT “Bye!”

Closing Odds and Ends

Let’s conclude with one other trick for the Mentor’s Friend that you and your protégé may find useful. Several popular microcontroller boards can accept “hats” or “shields” that extend their functionality by plugging a daughterboard into headers on the host board. The Amigo Experimenter’s Section uses the same breadboard and header placement as several popular boards from Parallax, and they offer a little through-hole kit that makes it easy to convert breadboard circuits into permanent “shields.”

FIGURE 9: Another trick for your Amigo: Using the Parallax circuit overlay board to create hardware “shields.” Shown here on the Experimenter’s section headers is a shield containing four solid-state relays which is being used to hack a toy RC car controller.

If you’re interested in converting your own world-changing breadboard projects into permanent shields for your Amigo, check out the Circuit Overlay Board from Parallax (P/N 32999). Shield layout and construction are really easy using the Parallax kit, and if you need plug-and-play convenience (I do mini-Maker Faires with the Amigo, for instance), shields are a great way to go.

Figure 9 shows a solid-state relay shield sitting comfortably on my Amigo.

That completes this update of Amigo Color BASIC 2.2L commands. I hope these additional commands (plus the tricks we discussed) will send you and a young helper on another adventure with your Amigo. Have fun and be well! NV

Perhaps the easiest way to build your own Amigo is from the kit available from the Nuts & Volts webstore, which provides everything you need, including the circuit board, all components (including an EEPROM pre-loaded with Color BASIC), and a 2GB SD card with sample programs. If you already have a Propeller board with connectors for a PS/2 keyboard, VGA monitor, and 2GB SD card, you can “roll your own” Amigo by downloading the Color BASIC source from the Nuts & Volts website, updating the I/O pin assignments to match your hardware, and then loading the compiled Color BASIC binary to the EEPROM on your board. Or, if you are truly ambitious, download the Amigo schematic from the Nuts & Volts website and build out the circuits using your favorite construction techniques, then download the Color BASIC source or binary and Flash it to your EEPROM.