Parallax Penguin, Manual

Copyright © Parallax Inc.  

Penguin Robot (#27313-27316) 

v1.4  2/16/2010  Page 18 of 23 

3.0 PROGRAMMING THE PENGUIN 

3.1. PROGRAMMING CONCEPT 

Programming the Penguin to walk is a matter of shifting its center of gravity from side to side with the tilt 

servo, coordinated with moving the legs forward and backward with the stride servo. The BS2px24’s high 
speed and expanded memory and RAM are useful for storing motion sequences and for performing the 

computations needed in sensor-based autonomous navigation.  

Close the Debug Terminal before downloading a new program, disconnecting the USB cable, 
or switching off the power to your tethered Penguin!

  If you fail to close the Debug Terminal 

before any of these actions, the port may hang up and the BASIC Stamp Editor may freeze when you 
next try to program your Penguin.  If this happens, close the Editor with the Task Manager. Be sure to 
download the latest version of the BASIC Stamp Editor from www.parallax.com. 

3.2. SERVO CALIBRATION 

The Penguins servos must be calibrated before the Penguin can walk.  This is a crucial step and the 
Penguin will not walk without it.  

1) Run 

Penguin-ServoCalibration.bpx.

2)  Click in the white Transmit area at the top of the Debug Terminal.

3) Press 

Enter

 to enable the servos.

4) Press 

+

 and 

−

 to adjust the tilt servo until the Penguin can stand level.

5)  Press the space bar to switch to the stride servo.

6) Press 

+

 and 

−

 to adjust the stride servo until the Penguin’s feet are in line with each other.

7) Press 

S

 to save the new settings.

8)  Listen for the long beep to ensure that the settings were saved.

Tip: Pressing 1 through 5 changes the coarseness of the adjustments 

3.3. PENGUIN’S BASIC STAMP 2PX24 PINOUT 

I/O Pin 

Description 

Direction 

P0 

Photoresistor – right  

Output 

P1 

Photoresistor – left  

Output 

P2 

Infrared emitter – right 

Output 

P3 

Infrared emitter – left 

Output 

P4 Infrared 

receiver 

Input 

P5 

Front I/O expansion port 

Input/Output 

P6 Servo 

stride 

Output 

P7 Servo 

tilt 

Output 

P8 

7-segment LED clock 

Output 

P9 

7-segment LED data 

Output 

P10 

7-segment LED latch 

Output 

P11 

Rear I/O expansion port 

Input/Output 

P12 Speaker 

Output 

P13 

Hitachi HM55B Compass – CLK (clock) 

Output 

P14 

Hitachi HM55B Compass – CS (chip select) 

Output 

P15 

Hitachi HM55B Compass – DIN/DOUT (data in/out) Input/Output