Reseting the Basic Stamp's memory

Dell_Conagher

Hey guys, i'm a student working with the "Robotics with the Boe-Bot" kit and I'm having some trouble with the on stamp memory. I'm using the Board of Education stamp just for info on what i'm working with. When i type in a pulseout command onto the Stamp program and hit play, the servo-wheels do what i tell them. Yet when i type in a newer program and hit play, the old program still runs; Completely negating what I've just entered I've skimmed through both the Robotics with the Boe-Bot and the Whats a Micro Controller manuels searching for an answer, but to no avail. There is a reset button on the board, but inseat of wiping the memory, it only halts the saved command for the duration of me pusing the reset button O.o
If anyone has any advice for this, it would be greatly appreciated since it's hindering my classwork quite a bit. Thanks again guys

sylvie369

I'm not sure what you mean by "hit play", but when you load a new program to the Stamp, it should overwrite whatever had been there before.

You are correct that hitting the reset button won't do it. That just restarts the processor, which loads and then runs whatever program is currently in the EEPROM.

I suspect that either

(A) your "newer program" IS running, and just isn't doing what you're expecting it to do. Try loading a new program that doesn't do anything other than displaying "New Program Running" to the screen.

(B) you're somehow not actually loading the newer program into the Stamp's EEPROM. Again, a new program that doesn't do anything other than displaying a new string to the screen will tell you. When you load the new program you should see that little window come up that looks for, and locates the Stamp, like the one on page 22 of the manual.

(C) you're up against power supply issues that are causing your servos to do essentially random things. Try loading a program that does nothing with the servos (perhaps display "Prog 1 running"), and physically disconnect the servos. Then load a different program that also does nothing with the servos (perhaps display "Prog 2 running"). You should be able to see the second program replace the first.

If none of that does what it should, I'm stymied.

Dell_Conagher

Thanks a bunch, I tried running the blank program and it helped me work out what was working and what wasn't. The problem ended up being just that i didn't understand what was going on inside the stamp: leave it to me to ask something silly before thinking it through thanks for your time, and btw i'm really impressed at the speed that you responded, it really speaks well for the community here

sam_sam_sam

Dell_Conagher


leave it to me to ask something silly before thinking it through

Please do not feel this way because you will not ask a question that need to be asked
Now saying this ,this not to say that if you have a question about how do your classwork project that you get anyone to do it for you

Moskog

Dell, are you sure your connections are well between your computer and the Stamp when pressing the play (run) button?
Do you see the window with the bar graph popping up when you expect the new program being loaded?
If there are connection problems then you should get error messages, Stamp not found or similar things.
As Sylvie369 mention you should try a very simple program and be sure that being loaded and run properly.
You can also post both your old and new program here for us to try if our suggestions still doesnt solve your problems.

sylvie369

If you've got an embedded misconception, no amount of "thinking it through" will help, and asking the question is the best way to move on. Hey, that's what the forum is for.

I wouldn't know the first thing about Stamps if it weren't for the fact that a lot of people asked a lot of questions...and Mike Green answered all of them. :smilewinkgrin: