Stamp Plot problem

rme_2001

Hey,

I'm having a problem with the process control macro's in stamp-plot.
The first couple of macro's (light level ect.) worked fine, but as soon
as i went into the transistor part of chapter 3 i have the following problem:

I download the program to the BS2, the debug terminal shows output like:

%1
[noparse][[/noparse]255,*,.0196]

And the 255 changes while i turned the potentiometer, or did something else to affect the circuit.
So the output seems correct.

Then i start stamplot, load the macro, select com4 and press connect in stampplot, i see its connected and recieving info
but the yellow field that is supposed to tell me the voltage (in the macro) goes black, and it does nothing, no plotting, nothing.
Its like that for all the chapter 3 and chapter 4 macro's.
There is no real error either, apart from the occaisional "port overrun" error.

What have i tried:
- Updated to the latest version of stampplot from the website, instead from the version on CD
- Tried XP (i'm using Vista)
- Tried other physical USB port
- Downloaded Datamonitoring.bs2 from parallax website to make sure it wasn't a typo or anything

The only thing i can't explain that happends if i download a program, the debug window shows a "y" with 2 dots on top in the send window, and this also appears in the recieve window, only at the start and only once.

Anyone can give me any tips as to what could be causing my problem?

Jessica Uelmen

Hi rme_2001,

When running StampPlot Lite, are you also running the Debug Terminal in the Stamp Editor? If so, this may be the cause of your problem. Both programs cannot access the same COM port simultaneously. When you want to view data in StampPlot Lite, be sure to close the Debug Terminal before clicking "Connect" and "Plot Data", or else the program will ignore StampPlot Lite and print the results to the Debug Terminal.

Hope this helps!

- Jessica

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Jessica Uelmen
Education Department
Parallax, Inc.

Martin Hebel

Hi rme,
Could you do me a favor and pop open the Log (Immediate/Debug) window in StampPlot, Select the Analog, cntl and POBJ checkboxes, and collect a little data? I'd like to see how it is interpreting the data. It doesn't copy and paste, but if you could use alt prnt-scrn on your keyboard to capture an image and paste into paint.exe then post I'd very much appreciate it.

Which activity and macro are you using specifically?

If the color of a box changes color, it usually means it is trying to interpret the data incorrectly. It happens sometimes when I'm setting up code, but I've not seen an issue with Process Control code before.

Thanks,
Martin Hebel

rme_2001

Jessica Uelmen (Parallax) said...
Hi rme_2001,

When running StampPlot Lite, are you also running the Debug Terminal in the Stamp Editor? If so, this may be the cause of your problem. Both programs cannot access the same COM port simultaneously. When you want to view data in StampPlot Lite, be sure to close the Debug Terminal before clicking "Connect" and "Plot Data", or else the program will ignore StampPlot Lite and print the results to the Debug Terminal.

Hope this helps!

- Jessica

Thanks for your reply Jessica, i'm using Stampplot Pro (Personal / Educational Licence) 3.8, and i allways closed the debug before connecting in Stampplot, also its allways succesfull in making connections and the R in the bottom left also blinks, signaling its recieving data.

Martin Hebel said...
Hi rme,
Could you do me a favor and pop open the Log (Immediate/Debug) window in StampPlot, Select the Analog, cntl and POBJ checkboxes, and collect a little data? I'd like to see how it is interpreting the data. It doesn't copy and paste, but if you could use alt prnt-scrn on your keyboard to capture an image and paste into paint.exe then post I'd very much appreciate it.

Which activity and macro are you using specifically?

If the color of a box changes color, it usually means it is trying to interpret the data incorrectly. It happens sometimes when I'm setting up code, but I've not seen an issue with Process Control code before.

Thanks,
Martin Hebel

Thanks for the advice Martin, i will do this as soon as i get home, which unfortunately isn't until 10PM GMT, and post the results here.

rme_2001

Ok heres the screenshot:

Currently i am at activity #1 in chapter 4 (Testing Opto reflective switch)

The macro i'm using is: ..\Macro\SIC_PC\Ch4\sic_pc_opto_plot.spm

Previous (Chapter 3) macro's using the output from "datamonitoring.bs2" give exactly the same problem

For the record, there is no plotting happening on the background, the "gauge" on the far right (with the needle going up and down with the voltage) is working tho.

Hope this helps.

Martin Hebel

Um, what country are you in?

Ok, the issue is that you are using number set that is not US, where 100 * .0196 would equal 1.96, but your system shows it as 1,96.

StampPlot uses comma delimited data and it is reading the value as 1 and then 96 - which will not be used properly and will cause objects to change settings, such as background text.

While I've dealt with this issue recently on some special builds, I can't recall if it's in the normal release or not.

The simplest fix is to change your number system to something with decimals.

Control Panel --> Region and Language and select English (United States).

It only came to my attention a few months ago the "," issues with numbers. I'll see if I can find a fix to correct at least in part.

-Martin

Martin Hebel

rme,
I've posted an updated EXE file here that should fix the comma-value issue.
http://www.selmaware.com/stampplot/sp_test/home.htm

You will need to unzip and replace the EXE in your current StampPlot directory.

Please let me know if helps.

Sincerely,
Martin Hebel
·

rme_2001

I live in Holland, and have Vista configured for the dutch decimal settings.
We indeed use the , for our decimals.

Your modified exe seems to fix it, (just a quick test before work).

The VCE field is properly updating, there is just no plotting happening but that could also be related to the activity, i had no time left to grab the book to check.
Once i get back from work i'll test with more activities / macro's

Thank a lot for the help [noparse]:)[/noparse]

Post Edited (rme_2001) : 2/11/2009 9:50:39 AM GMT

Martin Hebel

Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad we could resolve it.

I believe you are on experiment where you need to click the button to plot a point, but be sure to check out a normal plotting one as well.

-Martin

rme_2001

I've tested it with several other Activities in Chapter 3 and it all worked superb.

Tho i settled on your first advice: Changing my locale setting in my OS to English(US).

Mainly because the dev .exe you shared, gave some strange issues when the plot shifted the plotted line hit the max value (10) up until roughly the time when the shift happened and then continues correctly. This happend using the macro sic_pc_data_monitoring.spm

I don't want to seem ungratefull, but i thought the above might be of use to you.
Anyway, my issues are resolved, thanks again for the help.

Martin Hebel

Thanks, sorry it took so long to respond. I'll try to duplicate in coming weeks.

-Martin

SNAKExBITE

Can someone help me! Im also doing the process control and for the life of me i cant get my pc to open the .spm files or macros for stamp plot. im running windows 7.

Martin Hebel

What version of StampPlot are you running? Can you explain more what you are doing and what isn't working?

Thanks,
Martin

SNAKExBITE

I cant get stamp plot to receive data from my micro. the stamp program pulls up and runs fine and in the bottom corner it shows that its connected and receiving but it does absolutely nothing. no data is being transferred. im using stamp plot version 3.8!

Martin Hebel

Ok, you mentioned you were having macro problems. Were these resolved?

Also, if you are using a USB adapter, is it a parallax one?

Thanks,
Martin

SNAKExBITE

yes, my macro problems are gone. as far as the usb adapters go, Ive been using the rev c board with the db9 connector to a generic usb converter. i also have the rev d board with the parallax usb conectctor. i'll try using the rev d board to see if that works!

SNAKExBITE

The switch to the rev d board seems to have done the trick! Thanx for all your help!!!!!

Martin Hebel

Good to hear, that generic USB adapter probably has a Prolific chip, which is not compatible with Vista/Win 7 64-bit and the MSCOMM32.ocx for serial communications used in StampPlot.

-Martin