BASIC Stamp FAQ

STAMP FAQS TABLE OF CONTENTS
Last Revised On: 7/21/00 Page: iii
PROGRAMMING INFORMATION 12
HOW DO I PROGRAM THE BASIC STAMP? 12
HOW DO I CONNECT THE BASIC STAMP TO MY COMPUTER FOR PROGRAMMING? 12
HOW DOES MY PROGRAM GET STORED IN THE BASIC STAMP? 12
HOW DO I ERASE THE BASIC STAMP’S PROGRAM SPACE? 12
HOW DO I REPROGRAM THE BASIC STAMP? 13
HOW BIG OF A PROGRAM CAN I STORE IN THE BASIC STAMP? 13
CAN I EXPAND THE PROGRAM MEMORY? 13
CAN I EXPAND THE DATA MEMORY? 13
HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO PROGRAM THE BASIC STAMP? 13
CAN I PROGRAM THE BASIC STAMP IN VISUAL BASIC OR QBASIC? 13
WHAT IS PBASIC? 13
CAN I IMBED ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE ROUTINES IN MY PBASIC CODE? 13
HOW MUCH SPACE DOES EACH PBASIC COMMAND TAKE? 14
HOW DO I KNOW HOW MUCH SPACE MY PBASIC PROGRAM CONSUMES ? 14
WHY DOESN’T THE MEMORY MAP FEATURE SHOW ME DATA I HAVE ALREADY STORED IN THE BASIC STAMP II, IIE
OR IISX’S EEPROM? 14
HOW DO I DEBUG MY PBASIC PROGRAMS ? 14
HOW DO I PRINT OUT MY PBASIC PROGRAMS ? 15
CAN I READ-OUT, OR UPLOAD, THE PBASIC PROGRAM WHICH IS ALREADY STORED IN THE BASIC STAMP? 15
SINCE THE BASIC STAMP II, IIE AND IISX USE THE SERIAL PORT FOR PROGRAMMING, CAN I USE A SIMPLE
TERMINAL PROGRAM TO DOWNLOAD MY PBASIC CODE? 15
WILL A PROGRAM AND CIRCUITRY DESIGNED FOR THE BASIC STAMP I WORK WITH THE BASIC STAMP II, IIE OR
IISX? 15
CAN I PROGRAM THE BASIC STAMP II, IIE OR IISX WITH THE BASIC STAMP I EDITOR (STAMP.EXE)? 15
HOW DO I MAKE MY PBASIC PROGRAM START OVER OR CONTINUE RUNNING FOREVER? 15
HOW DO I SET AN I/O PIN TO INPUT OR OUTPUT MODE? 16
HOW DO I MAKE AN I/O PIN OUTPUT A HIGH OR A LOW? 17
HOW DO I INPUT OR OUTPUT DATA IN PARALLEL ON THE I/O PINS? 18
WHY DO THE BASIC STAMP’S OUTPUT PINS TOGGLE BRIEFLY WHEN I USE THE SLEEP, NAP OR END COMMANDS
OR ALLOW MY PROGRAM TO END NATURALLY? 18
THE LET COMMAND IS NOT AVAILABLE ON THE BASIC STAMP II, IIE AND IISX. DOES THIS MEAN THE BASIC
STAMP II, IIE AND IISX CANNOT PERFORM MATHEMATICAL OPERATIONS? 19
CAN THE BASIC STAMP STORE DATA, SUCH AS TEMPERATURE READINGS , FOR REVIEW OR USE AT A LATER TIME? 19
HOW CAN I STORE A WORD VALUE INTO THE INTERNAL EEPROM? 19
HOW DOES THE FPIN (FLOW CONTROL PIN) WORK IN THE SERIN AND SEROUT COMMANDS ON THE BASIC
STAMP II, IIE AND IISX? 20
HOW ARE ARITHMETIC EXPRES SIONS EVALUATED WITHIN THE BASIC STAMP? 20
DOES THE BASIC STAMP HANDLE SIGNED NUMBERS AND ARITHMETIC? 20
HOW CAN I DEFINE AN ALIAS TO AN I/O PIN OR ANOTHER VARIABLE? 21
HOW DO I REFERENCE A SPECIFIC BIT WITHIN A BYTE OR WORD VARIABLE? 21
HOW DO I DEFINE A STRING VARIABLE? 21
HOW DO I DEFINE ALIAS ES TO SPECIFIC BYTES WITHIN A WORD ARRAY ON THE BASIC STAMP II, IIE AND IISX? 22