Urgent Brownout help
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Posts: 46,084
Hi Stampers,
I will have to face twenty angry customers tomorrow because the
Volleyball-Promo-Game I built for them seems to drop out randomly and I just
can't find out why. Here is my problem:
It is a very simle game, people try to hit three targets with a volleyball
and the stamp counts the hits, displays them on a big LCD-Display (serial)
and controls three sounds on a quadravox-chip, one for each hit, one for end
of game and one for new highscore.
From time to time the stamp seems to fall into some strange kind of 'sleep',
it is no brownout (because the program does not restart), it just seems to
stop i the middle of the program and do nothing. Sometimes you just pull
the plug and start again and it works, sometimes it takes two hours before
it works again.
Sometimes it happens every two hours (when I am not there) and sometimes not
even after eight hours (like today when I spent all day waiting for the
bug).
Only thing I found out: I can sometimes force the stamp into that strange
sleep-state by putting my finger on the silverish-cubic thing that I think
is the stamp's crystal-oszillator.
Who can make any sense out of this? I already changed the stamp and the
quadravox-chip, same result. I am planning to rebuild the whole board
tomorrow but something tells me that won't help either...
Thanks for any Idea,
Uli
[noparse][[/noparse]Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
I will have to face twenty angry customers tomorrow because the
Volleyball-Promo-Game I built for them seems to drop out randomly and I just
can't find out why. Here is my problem:
It is a very simle game, people try to hit three targets with a volleyball
and the stamp counts the hits, displays them on a big LCD-Display (serial)
and controls three sounds on a quadravox-chip, one for each hit, one for end
of game and one for new highscore.
From time to time the stamp seems to fall into some strange kind of 'sleep',
it is no brownout (because the program does not restart), it just seems to
stop i the middle of the program and do nothing. Sometimes you just pull
the plug and start again and it works, sometimes it takes two hours before
it works again.
Sometimes it happens every two hours (when I am not there) and sometimes not
even after eight hours (like today when I spent all day waiting for the
bug).
Only thing I found out: I can sometimes force the stamp into that strange
sleep-state by putting my finger on the silverish-cubic thing that I think
is the stamp's crystal-oszillator.
Who can make any sense out of this? I already changed the stamp and the
quadravox-chip, same result. I am planning to rebuild the whole board
tomorrow but something tells me that won't help either...
Thanks for any Idea,
Uli
[noparse][[/noparse]Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Comments
After programming, try tying the reset and ATN lines to the correct
states instead of letting them float. I've seen long wires on ATN pick
up noise that will reset the Stamp.
Something to try anyway...
Al Williams
AWC
* Easy RS-232 Prototyping
http://www.al-williams.com/awce/rs1.htm
>
Original Message
> From: ulibasic [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=hyr78KwjipfYiWlCgzKPzJbJjKoEcldXlX1GSInJXfVHtjjFgNF7GrRb_JL40uN1PAgl2bqiKruuGaOBnK42er5fHRDMaWp0RUo]ulibasic@r...[/url
> Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2002 3:10 PM
> To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Urgent Brownout help
>
>
> Hi Stampers,
>
> I will have to face twenty angry customers tomorrow because
> the Volleyball-Promo-Game I built for them seems to drop out
> randomly and I just can't find out why. Here is my problem:
>
> It is a very simle game, people try to hit three targets with
> a volleyball and the stamp counts the hits, displays them on
> a big LCD-Display (serial) and controls three sounds on a
> quadravox-chip, one for each hit, one for end of game and one
> for new highscore.
>
> >From time to time the stamp seems to fall into some strange kind of
> >'sleep',
> it is no brownout (because the program does not restart), it
> just seems to stop i the middle of the program and do
> nothing. Sometimes you just pull the plug and start again and
> it works, sometimes it takes two hours before it works again.
>
> Sometimes it happens every two hours (when I am not there)
> and sometimes not even after eight hours (like today when I
> spent all day waiting for the bug).
>
> Only thing I found out: I can sometimes force the stamp into
> that strange sleep-state by putting my finger on the
> silverish-cubic thing that I think is the stamp's crystal-oszillator.
>
>
> Who can make any sense out of this? I already changed the
> stamp and the quadravox-chip, same result. I am planning to
> rebuild the whole board tomorrow but something tells me that
> won't help either...
>
> Thanks for any Idea,
>
> Uli
>
>
> [noparse][[/noparse]Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
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>
program that does nothing more than blink an LED. Next time the stamp
stops, if the LED is not flashing, then you know what going on.
Might also be helpful to look at your code.
I think you are right about it not being a hardware problem.
Leroy
ulibasic wrote:
>
> Hi Stampers,
>
> I will have to face twenty angry customers tomorrow because the
> Volleyball-Promo-Game I built for them seems to drop out randomly and I just
> can't find out why. Here is my problem:
>
> It is a very simle game, people try to hit three targets with a volleyball
> and the stamp counts the hits, displays them on a big LCD-Display (serial)
> and controls three sounds on a quadravox-chip, one for each hit, one for end
> of game and one for new highscore.
>
> >From time to time the stamp seems to fall into some strange kind of 'sleep',
> it is no brownout (because the program does not restart), it just seems to
> stop i the middle of the program and do nothing. Sometimes you just pull
> the plug and start again and it works, sometimes it takes two hours before
> it works again.
>
> Sometimes it happens every two hours (when I am not there) and sometimes not
> even after eight hours (like today when I spent all day waiting for the
> bug).
>
> Only thing I found out: I can sometimes force the stamp into that strange
> sleep-state by putting my finger on the silverish-cubic thing that I think
> is the stamp's crystal-oszillator.
>
> Who can make any sense out of this? I already changed the stamp and the
> quadravox-chip, same result. I am planning to rebuild the whole board
> tomorrow but something tells me that won't help either...
>
> Thanks for any Idea,
>
> Uli
>
> [noparse][[/noparse]Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
> basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and Body
of the message will be ignored.
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Check your power supply or it might be a
distortion on the power line from some other machine
Use a coil in the 5V line to filter this out
Or the long ???? wires from the targets pickup
funny signals. might need capacitors on the inputs.
Rene
Oorspronkelijk bericht
Van: ulibasic [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=zAi7Z5tYAk4pvhpPnMLnDTe-Yd3_eQ5See2JteLbZv6dZUDnN7Q3-PQd7ET6RcMp4ea05a8uudhZLYRNXrlI9N7I62Mz0zbbCD7M4PI]ulibasic@r...[/url
Verzonden: donderdag 13 juni 2002 22:10
Aan: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
Onderwerp: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Urgent Brownout help
Hi Stampers,
I will have to face twenty angry customers tomorrow because the
Volleyball-Promo-Game I built for them seems to drop out randomly and I just
can't find out why. Here is my problem:
It is a very simle game, people try to hit three targets with a volleyball
and the stamp counts the hits, displays them on a big LCD-Display (serial)
and controls three sounds on a quadravox-chip, one for each hit, one for end
of game and one for new highscore.
From time to time the stamp seems to fall into some strange kind of 'sleep',
it is no brownout (because the program does not restart), it just seems to
stop i the middle of the program and do nothing. Sometimes you just pull
the plug and start again and it works, sometimes it takes two hours before
it works again.
Sometimes it happens every two hours (when I am not there) and sometimes not
even after eight hours (like today when I spent all day waiting for the
bug).
Only thing I found out: I can sometimes force the stamp into that strange
sleep-state by putting my finger on the silverish-cubic thing that I think
is the stamp's crystal-oszillator.
Who can make any sense out of this? I already changed the stamp and the
quadravox-chip, same result. I am planning to rebuild the whole board
tomorrow but something tells me that won't help either...
Thanks for any Idea,
Uli
[noparse][[/noparse]Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and
Body of the message will be ignored.
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>I will have to face twenty angry customers tomorrow because the
>Volleyball-Promo-Game I built for them seems to drop out randomly and I just
>can't find out why. Here is my problem:
I think you need to post a link to a schematic of your project and the
source code to your program, otherwise we're all just guessing - shooting
in the dark. I understand that this could be something you might not want
to do, but there are too many unanswered questions otherwise.
Could you be overloading the regulator on the Stamp by making it supply
current to the Quadravox?
Jim H
> and controls three sounds on a quadravox-chip, one for each hit,
one for end
Uli,
What is the exact part#/model quadravox you're using?
Chris
requirements down on my projects, and it can be frustrating!
Don
Original Message
From: "Jim Higgins" <HigginsJ@s...>
To: <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2002 3:16 PM
Subject: Re: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Urgent Brownout help
>
> Could you be overloading the regulator on the Stamp by making it supply
> current to the Quadravox?
>
> Jim H