OOOPS!

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ciseco

Senior Member
Hi, I posted something similar yesterday, it worked when I re-poked the 28x registers over a 40x, but it's I guess not the same for the 18x, would anyone run the code below on an 18x to "see" what values theirs contains and pastse them back in a reply so I can write them back over mine?

Cheers

Miles

main:
pause 500
peek 50,b0
peek 51,b1
peek 52,b2
peek 53,b3
peek 54,b4
peek 55,b5
peek 56,b6
peek 57,b7
sertxd (b0,b1,b2,b3,b4,b5,b6,b7)
pause 10000
goto main

######### yesterdays post ################

Hiya, would anyone do a "peek" into what 50-57 are by default (18x & 40x)

I thought I was following the manual, my code below (I thought) was saving the 8 bytes so I could later retrieve them, but when I do this my XBEE stops communicating with the PICAXE, looks like I've overwritten something vital

Cheers for any assistance

Miles

serin 7,T2400,b0,b1,b2,b3,b4,b5,b6,b7
poke 50,b0
poke 51,b1
poke 52,b2
poke 53,b3
poke 54,b4
poke 55,b5
poke 56,b6
poke 57,b7
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BMW R75/5 specifications
 
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Technical

Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
You need to use $50 (hex) not 50 (decimal) etc. on all chips.
You are using illegal addresses on all parts, and anything could happen!
 
C

ciseco

Senior Member
Hi, I know now, someone else pointed out my silly mistake :), hense why I need to repoke the right ones back in, serial comms has gone on the fritz because of it :mad: I'll take more care in future :D

Cheers

Miles
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Yamaha AN1x
 
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Technical

Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
You do not need to poke the addresses, they are volatile ie they will automatically reset to the correct values when the power is disconnected/reapplied.
 
C

ciseco

Senior Member
Oh, then I've seriously nailed them by "poking" in the wrong place :( my AXE210 boards refuse to recieve now, I've just done this to see if they are happy, using windows hyperterm, I get back the sent STARTED message but I used to get an echo for every character typed.

init:
high 7
pause 100
serout 7,T2400,("STARTED")
main:
serin 7,T2400,b1
serout 7,T2400,(b1)
goto main
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Suzuki RL250
 
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C

ciseco

Senior Member
This is weird, I get nothing, nada, take out picaxe and put the sipex 3232 in and I can send chars from hyperterm on com 1 (serial cable) to com 8 (usb cable, and the one i'm using for programming) without any problems. Put the picaxe back in and it's now recieving charectors but they are all null (decimal 0). I've just disconected the battery gave it two mins and zip, nada again. Tried it on 3 and 4 cell 1.2v rechargables. Swapped to the 3232 again works back and forth, picaxe back in nothing.

Really confused :(
________
buy vapormatic
 
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ciseco

Senior Member
Hi, yes I have, a serial cable into com1 (xbee+3232) and a USB one (on com8) for the programming editor and debugging . What I've done now is wired an xbee to a 28x (suspect I've nailed the 3 or 4 18's so had no blank ones to try, project wants to be on a 28 anyway so 2 birds and all that) and everything is perfect again.

I'd created the same problem on a 40x this morning (that's when it dawned on me, I'd stuffed it) and poking the 28x registers into it brought it back to life, I've since been in a never ending loop of swap this, try that.......... oh fxxk touched the snap connector backwards on my one and only 40x and I think it now toast, arrrrrrgh:eek:

Any how now I've got at least a 28 to work with I'm back to writing code, just been trying them at 4800bps, picaxe output arrives at the PC fine, PC to picaxe is a mess, a space char(32) (usually) is recieved as char(64) not 32 and ocassionaly something different, every character is recieved wrongly at this speed, having tried the next 5 ACSII characters, they all come out 32 above, weird as hell as it's only one way, wonder if it's hyperterminal, just strange it's fine at 2400bps.

Getting really fed up, I don't mind screwing things up at least that's my fault and that's fine but when things are random I just wanna cry.

:(

Miles
________
Ford Skyliner history
 
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hippy

hippy

Ex-Staff (retired)
ciseco said:
... suspect I've nailed the 3 or 4 18's ... I'd created the same problem on a 40x this morning ... and poking the 28x registers into it brought it back to life
Click to expand...
Maybe it's just me, but I'm having no end of difficulty in trying to follow what you have done, or may have done, what you may or may not be doing with PC, PICAXE, 3232, XBee, 18's, 28X's, 40X's, COM1, COM8 and so on - in short, what works and what doesn't, what's connected to what.

A diagram ( ASCII text or even hand drawn in Paint ) would probably help people understand what you have wired up.
 
C

ciseco

Senior Member
Sorry guys for the confusion, ramblings of a man going insane by the minute, think I've tracked it down though, as for the last 2-3 hours been working on my code with the 28x and then it all started to go weird again. Powered it off for 20 mins and it's working again having done nothing more.

What I have are 4 axe210 boards with 18's on, just using a pair not all of them at once. one has the sipex 3232 chip in and connected to com 1 via a serial cable. The other has the 18 on and is connected via the USB cable (com8) to the editor. I do from time to time take it off the USB cable to check all is functioning without it being pluged in (had issues with noise and grounding on a previous unrelated project so know to test often).

To "interface" to the other chips I've taken an 18 pin DIL socket and soldered three wires to it (gnd, xbee in and out) then stuck this in place of the 18 taking it to one of my boards (which usually work better)

What has just struck me is the voltage regulators might be the issue as when my board powered separately is used it works a lot better, the reason mine started to play up I suspect is a low battery thus "emulating" the previous issue. I'd already changed batteries on the 18's and axe210 without sucess, which is why I'm starting to think it might be the ZTX regs (will look up the dropout as this might give me more of an idea)

Does this help dippy & hippy (what are your real names, that just makes me giggle)

Cheers

Miles
________
BMW X5 M
 
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ciseco

Senior Member
The Zetex voltage regulators on the AXE210 have a dropout of 1.7v, which I think means to be at the stated voltage the input needs to be 1.7v higher, that means a minimum of 5v, as the AXE210's are supplied with a 3 cell box, it'll never be that high. I read the Xbee will work lower than 3.3, but when my 3 nimh cells are running at rated voltage of 1.2 (3.6v total) that'll only leave 1.9 which to me sounds low, could this be why my data via the Xbee isn't being heard? I've got some 6v sealed lead jobs somewhere, I'll give it a blast on them and see if things are happier.

Miles
________
vaporizers
 
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M

moxhamj

New Member
Yes I think it might be power supply etc, because as per your original post poke 50,b0 - see http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8795 which is hippys suggestion about reading out registers. I tested this recently on an 08M. 50 (decimal) or $32 (hex) happens to be the location where b0 itself is stored. So poke 50,b0 will just overwrite the register with the same value it had before. It shouldn't cause the chip to malfunction etc.

I know lots of people like to use 3 batteries to power picaxes but over and over there seem to be posts about things not working - mainly as batteries go flat. There are so many variables one needs to get right in a picaxe project that the complication of a flat battery is not needed. I prefer stable 5V supplies for everything - either from a 9V source or a single 1.2V cell and a stepup. And if an ADC pin ever is free, use it to monitor the volts going into the 5V regulator and produce some sort of low battery signal. I also do all my debugging work on a protoboard running off the 5V from inside the computer, but this is just a personal preference.
 
D

Dippy

Moderator
Forgive me for sounding dumb, as I dont have one of these project boards.

How have you connected yor PC to the PICAXE? (When running your 'echo' test code)

You use Serin/Serout 7.

If you've got cable plugged into programming socket I don't see how this works, but I haven't got a full schematic so maybe there is something which I haven't seen? e.g. links.

I see what you mean about battery pack & 3.3V regulator. Is it really a Zetex?

Can you replace it with an MCP1700-3302 e.g. Farnll code 129-6588? Looks better and cheaper , ul have to check pinout yourself.


PS. If I put ZTX330 into Zetex website search I get an obsolete transistor ???

PPS. How does search work on Rev-Ed PICAXE store? If I put AXE210 (or AXE050) I get zero results?? Eh???
 
Technical

Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
Zetex ZSR330 not ZTX330

Search in the store on AXE210 and AXE050 both work for us - quick serach top left. Dont use space or hyphen e.g. AXE 050 AXE-050
 
hippy

hippy

Ex-Staff (retired)
ciseco said:
dippy & hippy (what are your real names, that just makes me giggle)
Click to expand...
I cannot speak for Dippy, but if I wanted to be identified by my real name I wouldn't be using an alias :)

Under English Law, an alias is as real and as good as a 'real name' in most circumstances.


ciseco said:
The Zetex voltage regulators on the AXE210 have a dropout of 1.7v, which I think means to be at the stated voltage the input needs to be 1.7v higher, that means a minimum of 5v, as the AXE210's are supplied with a 3 cell box, it'll never be that high... could this be why my data via the Xbee isn't being heard?
Click to expand...
I've run my AXE210's from 3xAA Alkalines and NiMh and not had any problems. I'd normally side with Dr_Acula ( probably a real name ! ) and always recommend a proper PSU, especially where the unit like the AXE210 has the regulator built in, but that's a bit of a pain with a portable device like XBee.

For testing, and getting things to work, it's always IMO better to use a PSU then move to batteries.
 
D

Dippy

Moderator
Thanks, I'm behind the times again...

My real name is David Ippy.
Hippy is my cousin and his real name is Harold Ippy.
 
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C

ciseco

Senior Member
Dippy, the pc is conected to the PICAXE via USB cable (com 8) - previous post - "The other has the 18 on and is connected via the USB cable (com8) to the editor" :)

Had a fun and productive day, Dr A thanks for the inspiration of PC powered, I'm using my laptop so wandering inside to pickup +5v from a molex isnt an option so I measured the "recieving" xbee (3232 equipped no PICAXE) and it's about 70ma, coooool, found a spare usb cable and hacked the end off (use red and black only, screen, green and white not used), encased the whole thing in an old casette tape box, right thats one end sorted :)

For the other end I got 2 x 3 cell battery boxes, put in only 5 batteries and wired them all in series giving me a nominal 6v (nearer 7 but hey) put it into a neat cardboard box with a hinge lid (network card I think), mmmmm, angled surface, have no choice, need to play ........ so with 2 x 4.5v solar cells now glued to the front, wired in series a BAT85 it'll self charge if I leave it on the window sill (40ma wont be able to overcharge the 2000ma cells I hope, C rating anyone?). Made a cardboard prop to keep it at the right angle. Then got a vero out and installed a few caps, terminal blocks and a 7805 reg, coool, now we have 4.98v steady, I've a couple of those zetex regs but they are so tiny (200ma max) I'll find something that'll do 500-1000 for when I start to test the PRO xbee, I'll put some bannana sockets on the front and I'll have my own self charging portable PSU :)

Right back to business, now the power issues are sorted lets test.......

Everything appears fine with my 28x, did notice however (dont know if it's the truth just appears this way) that if my 28x goes low on battery and starts misbehaving, putting fresh batteries in does little to help, HOWEVER, put new batteries on and REPROGRAM and hey presto back in business again (only done this twice, it's hard to replicate). Tonight I'll try the same with the 18's and see where I end up, it's now after 3 so certainly time for lunch, I'll let you all know how I get on.

Technical.... only a suggestion might it be worth shipping LDO regs for 3.3 or supplying with a 4 cell battery box?

Cheers for all the input guys

Miles
________
GPiX Concept
 
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B

BeanieBots

Moderator
ciseco said:
(40ma wont be able to overcharge the 2000ma cells I hope, C rating anyone?)
Click to expand...
That will be fine but with such a low charging current it would be worth periodically (maybe every six months) doing a faster charge/discharge cycle.
Very slow charging can grow large crystals which can sometimes get so large they puncture the insulation between the plates.

@Dippy. To be quite frank, I thought your only cousin was JB. Then again, I guess it doesn't take much to work out Harold's identity;)
 
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ciseco

Senior Member
Right guys, everything is working again, no changes in config at all except giving them a re-code over the top (still appears when battery voltage gone low they stop working till a program download, mmmmm, strange), I'll put the AXE210 boards on 6v 12AH SLA's as 3/4 cells lasts only about a day and see if all remains stable. Then maybe I'll try 4800bps and see if it helps.

Miles
________
Dodge Dakota specifications
 
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D

Dippy

Moderator
I meant, where/how is it connected at the PICAXE 18X end? To the normal programming pins?
I just couldn't see how your 'echo' programme could work if so. I may have gone temprorilay insane at his point however, and as I haven't got a AXE210 in front of me I couldn't try it.

Anyway, as its sorted now then I can return to my padded cell and get on with my switcher calcs.


BB: "..to be quite frank". I prefer being quite earnest. Who is JB?
(I've never understood why the use of @ ? At? Isn't there a shorthand for 'To' apart from 2. Ah well, I'm off to play tennis now.)
 
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hippy

hippy

Ex-Staff (retired)
BeanieBots said:
@Dippy. To be quite frank, I thought your only cousin was JB. Then again, I guess it doesn't take much to work out Harold's identity;)
Click to expand...
Dippy said:
BB: "..to be quite frank". I prefer being quite earnest. Who is JB?
(I've never understood why the use of @ ? At? Isn't there a shorthand for 'To' apart from 2.
Click to expand...
JB is James Bond ... obviously, PICAXE-007 :)

As 2 @ ... shorthand for "directed at ..." methinks.
 
B

BeanieBots

Moderator
F.A.O. Dippy,
@=at, as in 'directed at'. Sounds somewhat rude when it's put like that.
As for JB, for someone who likes to read manuals, I thought you might have worked it out. Oh well, never mind, I'm sure Harold got it!
 
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ciseco

Senior Member
Guys, thank you so much for all your input, it was low voltages causing hopefully all the issues, I've been testing for the last 24 hours without any issues, haven't had time (bloomin meetings) to try everything at 4800bps yet.

Miles
________
Ford Explorer picture
 
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Dippy

Moderator
... you mean we spent all that time for nearly nothing ? :)

Strange, this usually only happens with threads entitled "My homemade download circuit doesn't programme therefore my PICAXE must be duff".
 
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