Page 22 - The Definitive Guide to Building Java Robots

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CHAPTER 1 ■ A PRIMER 3

Figure 1-2. The IOGear USB Serial Adapter (GUC232A)

The Microcontroller Setup

You should have a microcontroller you can program in PBASIC. I used the BASIC Stamp 2 for
all the examples in this book because it does the job well. It was my first microcontroller, and it
cost the least.
The BASIC Stamp 2 (shown in Figure 1-3) operates at 20MHz and can execute approximately
4,000 instructions per second. It has 16 I/O pins, plus two dedicated serial pins, one for transmit,
and one for receive.

Figure 1-3. The Parallax BASIC Stamp 2

You can purchase one from www.parallax.com for $49.

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