Having problems powering BS2

charla

Hi,· I have a 9v battery that I've been connecting to the VIN(red or +) and VSS(black or -).· When I run the BS2 editor it can see the stamp but it cannot recognize it.· I mean it 'Echo' and 'Loopback' = Yes but the Version is not indicated, and the battery starts to get very warm.

Obviously, I'm new at this.· What am I doing wrong?

Bruce Bates

Charla -

Take a look in the PBASIC Stamp Manual to be sure you have the orientation of the Stamp correctly mounted in its socket. Also make sure you've not shifted the Stamp in the socket such that some of the pins are socketed and others are not.

Regards,

Bruce Bates

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Chris Savage

Is this a laptop or desktop?· How are you connecting it to the computer, serial or USB?

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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com

charla

This is a laptop, and I'm using a USB to serial cable (RadioShack)

aalegado

The battery getting warm implies that something is drawing a lot of current thus causing the battery to heat up. You may have a short somewhere. Are you sure that your battery connector is good? I am assuming you are using a 9V battery clip since you did not specify that you were using a BOE or the like that has PCB-mounted 9V battery terminals. Do you have test leads that you can use to attach the battery instead of the battery clip? This will allow you to rule out the clip as the source of the short and allow you to test your communication capability under conditions where you know for sure that the battery is connected properly.

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I wouldn't connect that if I were you...

charla

Thanks for you help. I do not have a test lead, but I do have 4 9v battery clips. I used 2 different ones with the same result. If I have shorted something, how would I determine which component is shorted?

Chris Savage

What board are you plugging the BS2 into?· On laptops the USB to serial adapter will need its FIFO buffers disabled in the Advanced Port Properties in the Device Manager.

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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com

PJAllen

charla said...
If I have shorted something, how would I determine which component is shorted?

That would most likely be the component which is too hot to handle (if you can't hold your finger on it then·it's too hot, a.k.a. "the one.")

Bruce Bates

PJ and Charla -

Just to be "fair" it could well be "that one" (the one getting hot) or a component downstream of the one getting hot. "Shorts" can certainly run upstream in attempt to blow the blue smoke out of the weakest or lowest rated component, somewhat regardless of which one feels hot.

I've seen a short in a 3 phase 25 KVA transformer 480V x 208/120V transformer blow the line tranformer off the outdoor power pole, without trupping any of the three breakers in between! Needless to say the power company was somewhat embarrrased.

Regards,

Bruce Bates

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aalegado

I think the problem is in the serial port settings of the laptop but we can't verify that until we're sure we've got good power going to the board (we need to know what kind of board we're powering, by the way).

Do you have a VOM/DVM/DMM that you can use to measure the voltage present on the wires coming from the battery clip? If so, do you read close to 9V or something much less (6 to 7V)? If you read 8V or more, does that voltage decrease when you connect the battery clip to the load (the BS2 board)? It should drop a little under load but not down to 6V or 7V unless, a) the battery is weak, or b) you've got a short somewhere.

How about this? Does your BS2 board have a breadboard on it and are you connecting Vdd to Vss (Ground) with a resistor of say, 47Ohms, or less? A small value resistor connected across the power supply rails will draw current, pull your supply voltage down, and create heat.

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I wouldn't connect that if I were you...