[Robotgroup] BASIC STAMP II EMERGENCY!! (was Robot Head: BS2Stamp)

[Andre Lamothe]

Definitely try new batteries (or an external 9V DC adapter, if it supports 
it), but software can rarely damage hardware if the system is digital, but 
if you are using the same power supply for the servo and the stamp then the 
huge current drain by the servo might pull the power low enough to cause the 
"brown out" detector on the SX/PIC to pop and reset the processor. So make 
sure you have the proper 5V on the processor and the power is good. Also, 
pull the servo lines out and simplify the system and get back to neutral a 
bit and make sure the stamp is really good or bad.

Andre'

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "LHudson" <lhudson73 at yahoo.com>
To: "The Robot Group Mailing List" <robotgroup at puremagic.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 9:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Robotgroup] BASIC STAMP II EMERGENCY!! (was Robot Head: 
BS2Stamp)


<i>
Okay the SEND button got sent again for some reason. For those of you who 
haven't enough to read already, here's the rest of it:
</i>

Well there wasn't any magic smoke this time. It just stopped working...

I was doing the Pan and Tilt code that was discussed originally on the 
thread, and it was working for the most part. However, there were 
limitations to the extent of the panning and tilting: i.e. -- if "650" is 
the center, the panning servo had a range of 300 - 1100, and the tilting 
servo had an even smaller range of 600 - 700. The tilt was noticeable enough 
for a demo and the degree of rotation was perceptible on the webcam, however 
I was trying to push it to 590 - 575, as this angle was sufficient enough to 
see watch Bonnie sitting at the table from my office workstation.

What would happen if I went outside of the established boundaries was the 
same weirdness that I was experiencing earlier: the stamp would appear to 
"reboot" and the initialization sequence would repeat in a loop. Now, if 
this was the panning servo, it would "bounce" the head a few degrees toward 
the center while the initialization LEDs were blinking, and once it 
established the 650 "center" point, the DO...LOOP would execute and the 
SERIN statement could receive for commands from the dotNET application. But, 
if this was the tilt servo, I'd actually have to get up, go to the next 
room, turn off the BOE power switch, re-position the head, and then re-start 
the BOE.

This went on for a few hours, and then all of a sudden it stopped working. 
The green LED on the BOE was still on. However the reset button didn't turn 
on the initialization sequence (which causes the LEDs to blink). Most 
importantly, when I go the Stamp Editor Debug Terminal, I get the message 
"No Basic Stamps found". My first assumption was that the servos were 
overloaded and drawing too much current, which did something to the stamp.

Now it just occurred to me that it could still be the batteries. I tested 
them yesterday, and they were all "Green" on the battery tester. However the 
thing has been running nearly non-stop for about a week now, and the battery 
tester is still showing them all as "Green", but I am going to try it with a 
brand new pack of batteries and see if that makes a difference.

Thanks,

Scott

--- On Wed, 8/6/08, Def Egge <robodigest at innervate.com> wrote:

From: Def Egge <robodigest at innervate.com>
Subject: Re: [Robotgroup] BASIC STAMP II EMERGENCY!! (was Robot Head: BS2 
Stamp)
To: "The Robot Group Mailing List" <robotgroup at puremagic.com>
Date: Wednesday, August 6, 2008, 9:19 PM

At 19:55  2008-08-06, you wrote:
-=-=-=-=-= begin quoted message =-=-=-=-=-


[trimmed]


The question is how did you blow yours? So you don't do it again..


[trimmed]


Andre'


[trimmed]


----- Original Message ----- From: "LHudson"
<lhudson73 at yahoo.com>
To: "The Robot Group Mailing List" <robotgroup at puremagic.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 7:40 PM
Subject: [Robotgroup] BASIC STAMP II EMERGENCY!! (was Robot Head: BS2
Stamp)


I just blew mine. Does anyone have an extra or unused one that needs
some robot code to process? If not, can I borrow someone's tomorrow
so I can do a demo? Otherwise my comptroller / spouse says I have to
wait until payday, which is Monday, and that would just be sad.


[trimmed]


-=-=-=-=-= end quoted message =-=-=-=-=-

The was one helluva lead-in, Scott.  ;-)

Andre' beat me to the punch.  Figure out what you did to release the
magic smoke before you have to replace two of them.


-- 

All the best....

Mike

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