Beginner with questions

czman75

A couple months ago my brother dropped an old project, circa 1997, in my lap asking me to reverse engineer it. I am beginning my journey with a discovery kit and learning some basic programming, but I do have a few questions I would like to ask for some quicker answers from folks who have been doing this for a while. The project is based on a BS2P-IC Rev E board. My initial questions all revolve around what can be done to preserve the code already stored on the controller. Can I use the software on a controller this old? If so can it I also pull the existing program off the controller to view it or is it a one way transfer? Any help would be appreciated.

Mike Green

It's mostly a one-way transfer and what's transferred is a compact compiled form of the original program ... not at all readable. The BS2p has several program memory "pages" and all but the first are readable by a program, but you'd have to load a small program into the first memory "page" to read the others and that would destroy part of whatever is in the rest of the first memory "page". Practically speaking, it's not possible to preserve the code already stored in the BS2p or any other Basic Stamp.

The current Stamp Editor works with all models of the Basic Stamp. Note that some statements have speed-dependent parameters (like Baud in the SERIN and SEROUT statements). Examples written for the BS2 for example have to have these changed for use with a BS2p. The Basic Stamp Syntax and Reference Manual has the various values for the different models. Some programs are written to check the Stamp model during compilation and automatically adjust these values. The Manual shows how this works.