BasAVRa LiTe

Notes

Because BasAVRa LiTe is not a product of Parallax you can not buy it from their website (www.parallax.com). Of course you will buy Basic Stamp 2 OEM chip.

Keep in mind that you can not use parallax Basic Stamp Editor to program BasAVRa LiTe. You must use BasAVRa Editor instead. This action has no affect to your PBasic programs, because BasAVRa Editor uses Basic Stamp tokenizer library (with simple words your PBasic code stays the same).

The graphical user interface (GUI) of BasAVRa Editor is very close to Parallax's Basic Stamp Editor, so it will not be difficult to use.
Download the program from this page: BasAVRa Editor

In order BasAVRa LiTe to work, you need to download the appropriate firmware to ATTiny2313 (see below). To do that you need a programmer supporting ATTiny2313 (e.g. STK500).

If you don't have such a programmer and you don't want to buy a new one, there is an alternative. You can make your own. If you search the internet you will find many implementations and schematics, but I recommend building the one presented in this page: A simple SI-Prog.
I have included a simple tutorial on how to download the firmware using the previous programmer (see below), to help you out.

Components

• Four 10KΩ resistors (1/4 Watt).
• Four 4.7KΩ resistors (1/4 Watt).
• One 180Ω resistor (1/4 Watt).
• One 240Ω resistor (1/4 Watt).
  Attention: Don't replace it with another resistor.
• One 390Ω resistor (1/4 Watt).
  Attention: Don't replace it with another resistor.
• One 1000μF electrolytic Capacitor (16 Volts).
• One 330μF electrolytic Capacitor (16 Volts).
• One 470μF electrolytic Capacitor (16 Volts).
• One 1μF electrolytic Capacitor (16 Volts).
• Seven 100nF capacitors.
• One transistor BC557B.
• Two 1N4148 diodes. Note: You can replace these diodes with two BAT85 Schottky diodes.
• A common red LED.
• One 20MHz piezoelectric crystal.
• One 8MHz piezoelectric crystal.
• One Basic Stamp 2 interpreter chip (DIP).
• One 24C16 memory chip (I²C).
• One AVR ATtiny2313 chip.
• One LM2940 LDO voltage regulator (with the appropriate cooler, if you plan to drag more than 500mA).
• One LM317 voltage regulator (TO-92 package).
• One Bluetooth to serial converter module. (You can use the module constructed by Sure electronics or anything else compatible with it). Note: Remember BasAVRa works with 9600 baud. Buy a Bluetooth module supporting the previous baud rate.
• One ALPS button (a digital push button. Not switch) for a manual reset feature.
• One power jack.
• (Optional) Two single row female pin headers (one with 16 pins and one with 13. If you have headers with more pins, just cut them).
• (Optional) Two female double row pin header with 20 pins totally (If you have headers with more pins, just cut them). You need 16 pins for the I/O ports and 13 for power (look at the schematic).
•  (Optional) One small breadboard.
• A 28 pin DIP socket (for BS2 chip).
• A 20 pin DIP socket (for the AVR chip).
• A 8 pin DIP socket (for the memory chip).
• A Veroboard - StripBoard (or a PCB but I don't include a layout. Make your own).
• Wire for connections
• Solder and soldering iron

Also you will need a stabilized 12V, 9 Volt or even 6Volt external power supply, due to the low dropout voltage regulator. I recommend using six NiMH rechargeable batteries.

Schematic Diagram

Here is the schematic diagram of BasAVRa LiTe (Click on the picture to enlarge).

Attention: Solder the 100nF capacitors as close to the ICs power supply pins as possible. Same thing with the piezoelectric crystals. Solder them, as close as possible to the XTAL pins of the ICs. Don't replace the resistors of the LM317 regulator with other values. That regulator is used to generate the necessary 3.3Volts for the Bluetooth module. If you don't have the low-dropout voltage regulator LM2940, you can replace it with the standard 7805 regulator.

Some Notes for the Bluetooth module

Bluetooth to serial converter
UART interface 9600 bps by Sure electronics

F.A.Q.

Downloading the firmware to ATTiny2313 (Only for the first time of use)

Here I will describe the downloading procedure in few steps, supposing you have built the simple SI-Prog.

Step 1: First download the hex file of the code (firmware). BasAVRa LiTe firmware

Step 2: After unzipping the file, open PonyProg2000

Step 3: From menu select "Device" "AVR micro" "ATtiny2313"

Step 4: Remove ATTiny2313 from BASAVRa LiTe and place it on the programmer. Then connect the programmer to your computer's serial port. Power on the device. Select menu setup select "Interface setup..." and the I/O port setup window will pop-up.

Select the serial port you connect the programmer (usually COM1). From the dropdown list select "JDM API" or "SI-Prog API". The window must look like the above picture.

Attention: SI- Prog and PonyProg2000 require a physical serial port on your computer. IT WILL NOT WORK with a USB to Serial converter.

Step 5: Select "Command" "Security and Configuration bits..." and the Security and configuration bits window will pop-up, after automatically reading the device. Uncheck all the boxes like you see in the picture below. Press the button "Write". Then Press "OK"

Step 6: Now we are ready to load the hex file. Select "File" "Open Device File...". Browse to the directory you unzipped the hex file and press "Open"

Step 7: Now we are going to program the chip. Select  "Command" "Write All" and press yes to the pop-up message. Now you will see the programming procedure initialized. First the program will write the code and the automatically will verify it.

Step 8: If you see the write successful notice, then the procedure has been completed. Now, the firmware has been downloaded and your chip is ready to go. You don't have to repeat these 8 steps anymore.

Note: If you have a write error message please try again. Make sure you have powered the device on during the whole procedure.

Source Code

BasAVRa LiTe is Open Source and you can download the code from the following link. The program is written with the demo version of BASCOM-AVR by MCS Electronics.
You can download directly BASCOM-AVR Demo for free from this link: BASCOM-AVR Demo

Download BasAVRa's LiTe source code: BasAVRa LiTe

Note: You can compile the code with BASCOM-AVR Demo, but remember that the code for the flash and eeprom are saved to separate files. The hex file is for flash and the eep file for the eeprom. You must download both of them to the chip or it will not work. To save you time from the extra work, I have created a single hex file, ready to download it to the chip (see above).

Pictures