Experimenter's Board

[So Cal Technologies]

Hi

We picked one up.

Any tips or hints about using it for the first time?

Have a nice day

Bob

 

[erco]

I want one! https://picaxe.com/hardware/teaching-systems/picaxe-experimenter-board/

PDF at https://picaxe.com/docs/axe091.pdf and https://www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/9439

 

[So Cal Technologies]

Thank you erco



Here is a picture of it.

Any tips about using it?

Have a good evening

Bob

 

[hippy]

Any tips or hints about using it for the first time?

My recommendation would be to progress through the traditional 'first step' circuits to get a feel for where the connections are and gain confidence in using it.

First step is toggling a LED, then reading a switch to light the LED when pushed, and then it's onwards and upwards, testing each of the hardware items on the board.

One thing to get familiar with is using SERTXD and DEBUG to be able to see what the actual hardware is doing. For example -

#Picaxe 08M2
#Terminal 4800

Symbol LED = C.1

Do
    SerTxd( "LED on", CR, LF )
    High LED
    Pause 2000
    SerTxd( "LED off", CR, LF )
    Low LED
    Pause 2000
Loop

 

[So Cal Technologies]

Thank you Hippy

We saw a note saying do not use a 9 volt battery on the battery clip harness.

Always use the 3 1 and 1/2 volt battery holder.

Will this board take a power supply?

Does it have a barrel jack to connect a power supply?

Have a nice day

Bob

@10 am California time

 

[bpowell]

Will this board take a power supply?

Does it have a barrel jack to connect a power supply?
@10 am California time

What does the PDF document linked above say?

 

[eclectic]

Thank you Hippy

We saw a note saying do not use a 9 volt battery on the battery clip harness.

Always use the 3 1 and 1/2 volt battery holder.

Will this board take a power supply?

Does it have a barrel jack to connect a power supply?

Have a nice day

Bob

@10 am California time

https://picaxe.com/docs/axe091.pdf

Page5

There are two options on how to provide power to the Development board, but
ensure only one option is connected at any one time. The green PWR LED indicates
power to the board.
1. Battery - connect a 4.5V (3xAA cell, not supplied) battery box to the screw
terminals, ensuring correct polarity. Do not use 6 or 9V battery packs.
2. Power supply - connect a regulated 9V DC power supply with 2.1mm (positive
tip) connector (not supplied e.g. part PWR009A).

I own two of these boards and from experience, my advice is

1. Buy three PICAXE chips, one for each position. (8/14/20) 18, 28 pin

2. Buy a set of "Dupont" style connectors.

3 Play.

e

 

[So Cal Technologies]

Thank you bpowell & eclectic

Here's a screenshot of page 5



We will use the 9 volt power supply.

Have a nice day

Bob

@3 pm California time

 

[hippy]

For my setup I have a bench power supply connected to the screw terminals. That allows the voltage to be adjusted so one can test PICAXE chips and circuits at 3V3 and other non-5V voltages, but most importantly means the supply is current limited. That can be useful for those times where one does make a mistake, short an output or something to 0V and similar.

But perhaps the biggest advantage is there's a switch on the supply which allows the board to be easily powered on and off without having to disconnect the supply. Useful anyway and it makes a power-cycle Hard Reset easier when needed.

 

[So Cal Technologies]

Thank you hippy

Sounds there is no on/off switch on this board.

Yes.One of those is a good thing.



We would say these are the sort of connectors are on the board.

In manual we thought they mention 'center positive'. For the 9V power supply.

That sounds like a barrel jack.

We'll find out when board gets here.

Have a nice day

Bob

10:45 AM California time

 

[So Cal Technologies]

eclectic

We heard you when you said buy some PICAXE chips.

Here is what is coming with the board:

1pcs,pic axe-20m2 micro controller chip
1pcs, pic axe-18m2 micro controller chip
2pcs, pic axe-28x2 micro controller chips
2pcs, pic axe-40x2 micro controller chips

Another question about your post.

What are 'DuPont' connectors?

Have a nice day

Bob

 

[erco]

Sure looks like a barrel (jack) of fun to me.

 

[eclectic]

eclectic

We heard you when you said buy some PICAXE chips.

Here is what is coming with the board:

1pcs,pic axe-20m2 micro controller chip
1pcs, pic axe-18m2 micro controller chip
2pcs, pic axe-28x2 micro controller chips
2pcs, pic axe-40x2 micro controller chips

Another question about your post.

What are 'DuPont' connectors?

Have a nice day

Bob

AKA Breadboard connectors.
MIKROE-513, Breadboard Jumper Wire Kit | RS (rs-online.com)

 

[So Cal Technologies]

Thank you erco and eclectic

Looks like it has a barrel jack.

Read up on power connections in the little .PDF manual.

Screw connectors run right into board bypassing 7805 regulator.

9V barrel jack runs through the regulator.

This may be the first development board we've gotten with this kind of dual power circuits.

We have a 16F628 board with screw terminals.

Here is the power supply we run it with,



Looking forward to getting this PICAXE board.

Scheduled to get here tomorrow with the mail.

Have a good evening

Bob

@6:15 PM California time

 

[So Cal Technologies]

Hi

We have an alert saying OLDMarty responded to this post.

We don't see anything.

Why is that happening?

Happy Holidays!

Bob

@11 AM Saturday California

 

[hippy]

It could be that OLDMarty posted something then deleted it, perhaps because they felt it didn't add anything to the thread or what they posted was not as relevant as first thought.

 

[So Cal Technologies]

Hi Hippy

Sorry it took so long to get back to you.

We will use breadboards at first to test PICAXE.

No way we want to cook this PICAXE board by mistake.

Sure would help if PICAXE would sell the breadboard programming adapter assembled.

Happy Holidays!

Bob

Monday 12/26 @7 pm