Please help me fix this code

Comments

• kicknitinkc Posts: 28

  2010-03-02 06:46 edited 2010-03-02 06:46

  Just to add to my post, I think the problem has something to do with calling out the custom character animations. I used the same format as the Serial_LCD_Demo.bs2 file I found on the parallax website. When I use my custom characters in place of the "chomper" for the demo file it works just fine. I dunno, I just can't figure out where the data is overlapping the program, especially since it worked flawlessly for awhile until I cleaned up the code. If you couldn't already tell, I had to teach myself how to use the serial LCD because we haven't gone over it in class yet, lol, so sorry if the code looks like junk. I'll mess with it some more tomorrow......
  
  PS: On a side note, with this part of the code:
  
  IF button1 = 1 THEN
  FOR idx3 = 0 TO 2 STEP 1
  NEXT
  SEROUT TX, LcdBaud, [noparse][[/noparse]LCDCLS, (lcdline1),2,1,0,1,2,"SEE YA",2,1,0,1,2 ]
  ENDIF
  IF button1 = 1 AND idx3 = 3 THEN
  
  anyone know why idx3 somehow goes to 3 and why "IF button1 = 1 AND idx3 = 3 THEN" is the only way I can get the button to turn off the lightmeter? Seems like I'm missing something here.
• Tony B. Posts: 356

  2010-03-02 14:24 edited 2010-03-02 14:24

  You are recieving the error because you are using up all the available memory of the stamp. Each SEROUT command takes alot of space, and your code use many of them. I commented out two of the SEROUT commands and was then able to get the program to compile and show the memory map. With two SEROUT commands commented out the memory map show 96% of the memory full. Note that when you are looking at the memory map your DATA is shown at the top and fills downward and your program code starts at the bottom and fills upwards. In other words you are running out of memory space because of the many SEROUT commands.
  
  Since many of the SEROUTs do practically the same thing look for ways to store similar things in DATA and CONs then you could have maybe one or two SEROUT that you call and pass in the data.
  
  Tony
  
  Post Edited (Tony B.) : 3/2/2010 2:42:18 PM GMT
• bill190 Posts: 769

  2010-03-02 14:39 edited 2010-03-02 14:39

  Do this and you can run memory map and see...
  
  'msg2··········· DATA· "· Mechatronics· "
  'msg3··········· DATA· "· is AWESOME!!· "
  
  msg2··········· DATA· "· M"
  msg3··········· DATA· "· i"
  
  Above uses less EEPROM space. Try adding a bit more to a message and see what happens...
• kicknitinkc Posts: 28

  2010-03-02 17:46 edited 2010-03-02 17:46

  Thanks for your help guys. I thought the bs2 had much more space than that. I'll try messing with using less SEROUT commands but not quite sure how I would do that yet. I'll also try getting rid of idx3 and 4 and decreasing the amount of space set for variables where applicable. In the future I will be using the serial LCD for my big project and may need more space. How would I go about adding more space to the bs2? I have a boatload of questions concerning this final project and will post another thread for it. Thanks.
• Mike Green Posts: 23,101

  2010-03-02 18:36 edited 2010-03-02 18:36

  You can't add more space to the BS2. You have to trim down your program. In your case, you will have to make your program more "table-driven" with the table information stored in EEPROM along with your program using DATA statements and READ statements to access it. For example,

  ELSEIF time < 2500 AND time >= 1250 THEN
      FOR idx2 = 0 TO 4
        LOOKUP idx2, [noparse][[/noparse]0, 1, 2, 1, 0], s
        SEROUT TX, LcdBaud, [noparse][[/noparse](lcdline1),s,s,s,s,s,s,s,s,s,s,s,s,s,s,s,(lcdline2),"B =94%"," t =", DEC time]
        PAUSE 75
        FREQOUT 14, 30, 3951
      NEXT
  

  
  
  This is repeated many times with only small changes. In particular, the lower and upper time range, percent shown, and FREQOUT value are the only things changed. These could be stored in a table using only 5 bytes per entry since you need only one time bound (lower or upper) if you search the table from the beginning each time. Similarly, you could store the power-on song and the "outro" song as a sequence of two byte FREQOUT values using a zero or -1 as a "stop" entry and have a little loop to play them like this:

  playIt:
     READ  position, word temp
     position = position + 2
     IF temp = 0 THEN RETURN
     FREQOUT 14, 25, temp
     GOTO playIt
  

  
  
  To play the power on song, you'd do:

  powerOn DATA
     DATA word 2093, word 2637   ' and so on
     DATA word 0   ' marks end of table
  

  
  
  Then you'd do:

     position = powerOn
     GOSUB playIt
  
• kicknitinkc Posts: 28

  2010-03-02 20:48 edited 2010-03-02 20:48

  Hmm, I see I see. So I will have to give it another shot and use tables when i get off work. Are you saying that I need to assign a word to each frequency value? I'm also confused about what your temp variable is. Thanks Mike!
• Mike Green Posts: 23,101

  2010-03-02 21:02 edited 2010-03-02 21:02

  Yes, you need a word to hold each frequency value since the values are all greater than 8 bits. You could probably compress them to 8 bits by using a base value (like 2000) and a scale factor (like 2 or 3) so the actual frequency value = theByte * scale + base.
  
  temp is just a word variable as is position. They can be used for other temporary purposes elsewhere in the program.
  
  Encoding your data in tables in EEPROM is often a great way to save space in a program with a lot of repetitive stuff.
• Steph Lindsay Posts: 767

  2010-03-02 23:59 edited 2010-03-02 23:59

  Excellent suggestions, Mike!
  
  kicknitinkc, looks like you are doing some great work and really getting the hang of things.
  
  For examples of tables, and to compact your FREQOUT songs, see Chapter 8 of What's a Microcontroller.· For examples of reusing a Temp variable, and for squeezing a lot of sensor data into a small space, take a look at·Advanced Robotics with the SumoBot.
  
  -Steph
• kicknitinkc Posts: 28

  2010-03-03 04:36 edited 2010-03-03 04:36

  I have been trying to make tables for the freqout commands and I was wondering if there is there a way to get this method to work? I'm thinking I might have to make separate loops for the "READ frequencies + (intro), Word freq" and "READ durations + (durationsequence), Word duration" lines to make it work. I was trying to avoid using lookup and lookdown commands because this makes better sense to me ( I used MATLAB alot last semester and grew accustomed to the coding). Anyways, here's what I came up with for the intro code so far:
  
  

  
                            '0           1         2          3         4         5
  frequencies     DATA   Word 1993, Word 2093, Word 2193,  Word 2349, Word 2637, Word 2793,
                            '6           7         8          9         10        11
                         Word 3136, Word 3520, Word 3951, Word 4086 ,Word 4186, Word 4286
  
  IntroSequence   DATA    1,  4,  6,  3,  5,  7,  4,  6,  8,  5,
                          10,  9,  10,  11,  10,  9,  10,  11
  
  OutroSequence   DATA    1,  10,  5,  8,  6,  4,  7,  5,  3,  6,
                          4,  1,  0,  1,  1,  2,  1,  0,  1
  
  
  
                            '0  '1
  durations         DATA    25,  75
  
  DurationSequence  DATA  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,  1,
                          1,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0
  
  
  
  
  freq             VAR    Word
  duration         VAR    Word
  index            VAR    Byte
  INtro            VAR    Byte
  outro    VAR    Byte
  durationseq VAR    Byte
  '--------------power on song-----------
  
  
  
  PAUSE 250
  
  FOR index = 0 TO 18
  
    READ IntroSequence + (index * 2), intro
      READ frequencies + (intro), Word freq
    READ durationsequence + (index * 2), durationseq
      READ durations + (durationseq), Word duration
  
  'play last note with mixed frequency
  
    IF index = 18 THEN
    FREQOUT 14, 1000, 4186, 4191
    ELSEIF index => 0 AND index <= 17 THEN
    FREQOUT 14, duration, freq
    ENDIF
  
  NEXT
  
  

  
  
  
  Thanks for the references and encouragement Steph, I've read most of "What's a Microcontroller?" and I had a rough time with that chapter haha. I'm now checking out the "AppliedSumo" book for that temporary variable thing.
  
  Thanks for your help.
  
  Post Edited (kicknitinkc) : 3/3/2010 7:01:30 AM GMT
• kicknitinkc Posts: 28

  2010-03-03 06:57 edited 2010-03-03 06:57

  Ok, I gave up on using tables and just changed the intro message to a non-animated one because my lazy method was promising but had some kinks and I didn't want to go back and organize the songs again. It pays to save different filenames occasionally..... lesson learned. I think I can handle tables now, thanks for pointing me in that direction. I'm sure I'll have to use that later.
  
  
  I added my final code if anyone is curious
  The setup is:
  photoresistor w/ 0.1mF cap. pin 2
  pushbutton pin 3
  speaker pin 14
  serial lcd pin 15
  
  Post Edited (kicknitinkc) : 3/3/2010 7:12:48 AM GMT

  bs2

  bs2

  lcdlightmetersimpler.bs2

  8K

  lcdlightmetersimpler.bs2 7.9K
• kicknitinkc Posts: 28

  2010-03-03 16:53 edited 2010-03-03 16:53

  I was looking at ch. 8 on "What's a Microcontroller?" and I didn't like the way they used the lookup and lookdown commands because they use repeated frequencies and durations which takes up more space. Is there a way to just call out the frequencies and durations that are needed without repeating then in the table? This would be pretty much like my method I tried earlier but with lookup and lookdown commands, which I think would work out the kinks I had. Thanks for your feedback.
• Mike Green Posts: 23,101

  2010-03-03 17:51 edited 2010-03-03 17:51

  One option for special cases (like repeated entries) is to use "invalid" values to mean something special. For example, if your frequency information is always greater than 1000, you can use values less than 1000 for a repeat count and make table entries either two or three words so you'd have:
  
  DATA word 1993, word 100 ' freq 1993 for duration 100 (default repeat count = 1)
  DATA word 20, word 1993, word 100 ' freq 1993 for duration 100 repeated 20 times
• kicknitinkc Posts: 28

  2010-03-04 03:20 edited 2010-03-04 03:20

  Thanks for your suggestion Mike. Sorry to be an annoyance but I'm trying to understand what you mean but I don't quite get it. Here's where I got stumped:
  
  

  
  '{$STAMP BS2}
  ' {$PBASIC 2.5}
   index VAR Byte
   frequency     DATA Word 20, Word 1993, Word 100
   freq VAR byte
  FOR index 0 TO 20
   READ frequency, Word freq
   FREQOUT 14, ???, ???
  next
  
  
  

  
  
  
  I guess I'm confused about how I would call out that data using FREQOUT.