stamp not starting
tedbeau
Posts: 48
I am building a project using a BS2 purchased on ebay and a book called 123 robot experiments for the evil genius.
I built the included pcb per the book instructions but had to make a few substitutions of parts because I couldnt find the parts listed.
I had to cut down a 40 pin socket to 24 pins to mount the stamp.
I also could not find the reset swith that they specified so I used a tactile switch.
They did not have the plastic 9 volt battery case so I used a wire harness for the 9 volt. I had to assume the positive (red) lead went to the pcb trace that went to the reset switch and then to stamp pin #4 and also to stamp pin #23. is this correct?
The black battery cable lead goes to vin near the breadboard and also on to stamp pin #24.
otherswise everything seems OK
I checked the connections for shorts.
When I put the stamp in the board and put the 9 volt and try to run the hello world app, I get a message that the stamp was found on com2 but cannot start, check power supply. The battery is new and I tried another. I the found using my DMM that the reset switch was showing continuity accross all 4 points. The board has two parallel switch symbols and the switch I bought seemed to have 2 independent switch circuits as the board symbol indicated. I thought pehaps I had turned the switch 90 degrees so I unsoldered it and retried. It seems to me that the serial port might becausing the connection because if I unconnect the 9db serial cable the switch contacts are open. I have removed the switch for now.
To trouble shoot, I have removed the serial cable and switch, put the battery in and taken voltage reading at each of the stamp pins. here are the results:
Black·DMM lead on vin testing stamp pins with red lead
pin········· ·volts
1············· 5
2············· 5
3············· 5
4·thru 12··· 9
13·thru 23· 9 volts
24············ 0
checking the connector strip near the breadboard
with red DMM on red battery lead I get VDD·· 0 volt
····················································· Vin··· 9 volt
······················································ VSS· 0 volts but switch to black battery cable Vss reads 9 volts
any suggestions?
Thanks
Ted
Post Edited (tedbeau) : 2/9/2008 3:39:25 PM GMT
I built the included pcb per the book instructions but had to make a few substitutions of parts because I couldnt find the parts listed.
I had to cut down a 40 pin socket to 24 pins to mount the stamp.
I also could not find the reset swith that they specified so I used a tactile switch.
They did not have the plastic 9 volt battery case so I used a wire harness for the 9 volt. I had to assume the positive (red) lead went to the pcb trace that went to the reset switch and then to stamp pin #4 and also to stamp pin #23. is this correct?
The black battery cable lead goes to vin near the breadboard and also on to stamp pin #24.
otherswise everything seems OK
I checked the connections for shorts.
When I put the stamp in the board and put the 9 volt and try to run the hello world app, I get a message that the stamp was found on com2 but cannot start, check power supply. The battery is new and I tried another. I the found using my DMM that the reset switch was showing continuity accross all 4 points. The board has two parallel switch symbols and the switch I bought seemed to have 2 independent switch circuits as the board symbol indicated. I thought pehaps I had turned the switch 90 degrees so I unsoldered it and retried. It seems to me that the serial port might becausing the connection because if I unconnect the 9db serial cable the switch contacts are open. I have removed the switch for now.
To trouble shoot, I have removed the serial cable and switch, put the battery in and taken voltage reading at each of the stamp pins. here are the results:
Black·DMM lead on vin testing stamp pins with red lead
pin········· ·volts
1············· 5
2············· 5
3············· 5
4·thru 12··· 9
13·thru 23· 9 volts
24············ 0
checking the connector strip near the breadboard
with red DMM on red battery lead I get VDD·· 0 volt
····················································· Vin··· 9 volt
······················································ VSS· 0 volts but switch to black battery cable Vss reads 9 volts
any suggestions?
Thanks
Ted
Post Edited (tedbeau) : 2/9/2008 3:39:25 PM GMT
Comments
The positive 9V should go to Vin (pin 24) on the Stamp and the negative 9V should go to Vss (pins 23 and 4). Check your wiring against what's in the manual BEFORE you put the battery in.
Post Edited (Mike Green) : 2/9/2008 3:39:30 PM GMT
How can I check the stamp to see if it is damaged?
Ted
That sounds a bit simplistic, but the regulator they use is designed to protect against power supply
reversal and Stamps are pretty resilient anyway.