no BASIC stamps found was just working
electromanj
Posts: 270
Hello. I never had this problem before but it just happened to me. I dug out an old project of mine now that the winter has given me more time to work on it. I downloaded the program to the stamp (BASIC stamp 2 OEM) and everthing was working well. I reloaded the program several times with no problem·and then to my dismay I recieved the error code no bs found. I have checked the power supply and it is fine. I unpluged and repluged the serial cable and to no avail. I then got out my super carrier board with a bs2 on it and tryed it (with a different power supply). Same result.
·Any suggestions? Thanks in advance for the help.
·Any suggestions? Thanks in advance for the help.
Comments
Try rebooting your computer. That is what I do when that happens and it works for me, unless I have REALLY done something stupid, which happened exactly once.
But, Windows is stupider than me.
--Bill
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You are what you write.
Well, that is what works for me . . . I power the PC down and bring'er back up. I just hope that is your problem. It is kind of a dumb fix, but then Windows has never been accused of being intelligent, just big. Very big.
--Bill
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You are what you write.
I am going to try that now.
Be sure to power your Stamp stuff down, as well. I do not know if it is necessary, it is just what I do.
--Bill
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You are what you write.
"Serial port and serial cable properly connected. BASIC Stamp properly inserted into socket. If no BASIC Stamp is detected, it is probably because the BASIC Stamp is not connected to power.· Other causes could be: 1) low battery, 2) Reset pin of BASIC Stamp is connected to Vdd (it should be left disconnected), 3) the BASIC Stamp is damaged or 4) there is some other type of communication error (software or hardware)."
I had the same problem with one of my chips.· It turned out that I had inserted it·one pin out of sequence!
Number 4 is popular in my world.
--Bill
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You are what you write.
I started to type this and decided to give it another try and it worked! I tryed the other stamp and could not find.
Then it couldn't either stamp. WIIEEERRRDDDDD! Possible loose connection from the computer serial port?
I think you better give up on my idea and investigate Sandgropers. I was into the quick fix which has always worked for me and I am sorry it did not work for you.
You know, now and then I have a stupid night.
Good luck and Merry Christmas!
--Bill
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You are what you write.
Gee. You have SOMETHING ELSE up in Windows besides the Stamp IDE? I didn't know Windows could handle two things at the same time! Especially, if an Office application is one of them and a Microsoft-foriegn application is the other.
Maybe I am spoiled, but I dedicate an ENTIRE machine to Stamps. When I am running the IDE, no other application is loaded other than things Windows may load that I do not know about. This makes my environment DIRT SIMPLE.
I bet it won't fix your current problem, but try rebooting again and not loading other Windows applications.
--Bill
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You are what you write.
Now I get a connection to the stamp about every third or fourth try.
Will any serial cable work or does it have to be a special one?
I do not want to comment about the serial cable, because I cannot remember which the Stamp wants to see, but I THINK it is the regular serial cable with pins 2 and 3 crossed. (Gee. I thought I was not going to comment about it?)
In any case, the TYPE of cable needed is unimportant since you have achieved success with the one you have, thereby making it correct. I would strongly suspect a bad connection somewhere as Sandgroper suggests.
--Bill
ps I eliminate the serial issue by using USB2Ser on my Stamps, including my OEM BS2s.
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You are what you write.
It always helps to have other minds thinking for you, even if they are wrong. If they are wrong they may still give you ideas you did not have previously.
It seems you have eliminated a lot of variables by using different Stamps and different boards. (The power supply MIGHT still be in question.) However, the thing that has stayed the same, from the perspective or reading your posts, is the serial cable. How confident are you that it has no bad connections?
When I get up in the morning, the first thing I am going to do is turn this computer on and see how long you stayed up working on this problem! You will fix it, I know.
--Bill
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You are what you write.
I had problems with intermittent connection on one of my stamps.· It turned out that it was just a dirty connector... and the plug was loose in the socket... and the Stamp that had wiggled free from its socket as well.· This was the end result of having too much flex in the PCB coupled with too many collisions.· I found the cause by testing the circuit from the cable to the PC board, and fixed it by cleaning the connections and crimping the end of the·socket just a tad.
Bill, I put all these causes·into the number 4 category, and I agree with your philosophy - the simplest solution is often the right one!
Problem found. Or I should say problems found. I walked away from this problem till this afternoon, and it really helped to get away from it for a while and gain a fresh perspective.
To recap- I was running my stamp (bs2 oem) and everthing was fine. I tried to rerun the program and editor was not able to find the stamp. I tried to download to another stamp - (bs2 on the super carrier board, same serial cable, different power supply. that failed. Tried to download to bs2 homework board. Power supply from the oem same ser cable. failed. Seemed to me that the common problem was in the computer or the serial cable. Not true.
Today I tried a different power supply on the bs2 carrier board. Worked. To a better look at the homework board and realized I had the polarity wrong (I was using a 9 volt battery connecter to go to the power supply and when you use these you need to make red negetive and black positive.) I reversed the polarity and connected to the good power supply and bang-o. It worked.
Now back to the OEM. I happily reconnected it, sure that it would work. No luck, but at least then I had it narrowed down to the oem. I pulled the oem off of my board and blew out the db-9 connector with the·air compressor and Bang-o happy days are here again!
Thanks to Bill Chennault and Sandgroper for all their input. It's sure nice to have all this help when you have a problem. This is a great forum!
You are welcome! It is gratifying to hear of your success . . . I could sense your frustration through cyber-space!
--Bill
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You are what you write.
Thanks!
P.S. I just got done watching the Transformers movie. Do you think that is too ambitious for a first robotics project?
Re: The Transformers as a first project.
Nah! Tackle it and then move on to the hard stuff. [noparse]:)[/noparse]
--Bill
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You are what you write.