Recent content by jodicalhon

  1. J

    K9

    Just a couple of quick webcam photos of the K9 I made for my son. He was built from clear PVC scrap sheet, (which I got for free from a local plastics firm. Nice blokes!), and which I later painted. He has hi-brightness red LEDs for his eyes, which shine through 3mm red acrylic, and a 10mm...
  2. J

    Cross platform PWMout wizard

    On my Linux box I've been using Kate, with its inbuilt command-line access, to write and download my programs. But I don't have a pwmout wizard, and have not yet heard of one for Linux. If there is one, then I've just wasted 40 minutes. I've written a small Python script for a PWMout wizard...
  3. J

    Eeprom question

    I'm writing a program that saves some phrases to eeprom, that are then displayed at appropriate times on an LCD. The 'write to eeprom' instructions are at the start of the program, before the main program begins. I'm using an 18A. It struck me that once the phrases are written to eeprom the...
  4. J

    Checksum

    I want to add a checksum to my 433MHz transmissions, but am clueless as to the best way to go about it. I know Dr_Acula posted some nice stuff in response to a request from (I think) BendanP a while ago, but I'm unable to find the post. Does some kind soul know where I might find it, or have...
  5. J

    Storing and accessing phrases in EEPROM

    I am storing some phrases in EEPROM on an 18A and, for the moment at least, sending them one after another to an LCD. (Part of a K9 model I'm building for my son.) My coding is pretty clunky I think. Am I going about this in the right way? EEPROM 6, ("Greetings, Master.") '6 to 23...
  6. J

    12V into 5V regulator?

    I'm building a small robot that will contain an 18A controlling an LCD. I'm powering the Picaxe and associated circuitry from a 7805 regulator, but I'm running the motors from 12V (8 x AA's). Is it alright to just tap off the 12V into the 7805, with lots of smoothing caps o'course, or is this...
  7. J

    Electronics basics

    A couple of recent threads have had people grappling with basic electronic theory. This site <A href='http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/index.htm' Target=_Blank>External Web Link</a> may be a good place to start, and has links to sites with more advanced theory. Also includes a link to the Picaxe site.
  8. J

    Picaxe Harmison trainer

    Shows just how useful Picaxes can be. <A href='http://tinypic.com/view/?pic=2h3pg91' Target=_Blank>External Web Link</a>
  9. J

    Stumped!

    I have a small robot that I control via a TV remote sending Sony IR code. The robot has an 08M on board receiving commands via INFRAIN2. 0 = left, 1 = forward, 2 = right, 4 = reverse. Any other commands (3 for example) will stop the robot. I am trying to control it from my computer. The idea is...
  10. J

    Discrepancy in 'Check syntax' byte count

    I downloaded the latest version of the Programming Editor last night. When I use 'Check Syntax..' from the PICAXE menu I'm told that my program uses 100 bytes of 256, yet when I download the program the 'Success' box tells me I've used 141 bytes of 256. I believe the 'Success' box figure is...
  11. J

    If, thens, and gosubs

    My little two-wheeled robot is now controlled by a TV remote controller, using infrain2. Depending on the button pushed, the program chooses a subroutine for turn left, turn right, go forward, or reverse. So far so good! I thought it would be fun to have it perform a sequence from one button...
  12. J

    433MHz Tx supply voltage

    I got all inspired by Stan Swan's &quot;433MHz + Picaxe = Magic&quot; article in the Jan 2006 Silicon Chip, and dashed out to my local Jaycar to buy a Tx/Rx pair. In about 15 mins after arriving home I was transmitting data from my 08M-based temperature logger to my PC. It was almost...
  13. J

    Odometry for wheeled robot

    I have a small two-wheeled robot using differential drive. I've fitted wheel encoders and I'm pretty sure (famous last words!) that I can implement some sort of speed control by counting clicks/time on one motor, then clicks/time on the other, and vary a PWM source to independently control each...
  14. J

    Scaling ADC for higher resolution

    I'm playing with a simple temperature datalogger using an LM335 temp sensor into an 08M. The LM335 gives 10mV/degK. Using normal 8bit ADC at 5 volts gives 5000/256 = 19.5 mV/step. So my temperature reading resolution is down to ~2 degC. Not so good. Using readadc10 gives a resolution of 0.5...
  15. J

    Two things at once? (newbie)

    Hi all, I'm totally new to the picaxe (or any microcontrollers) and have just got a couple of 08's and started mucking about. Built myself a rather dodgy looking download cable and resurrected an old breadboard to stick the circuit on. After blundering about for a while, I have successfully...
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