Bug Advisory

["Thomas Droege" <tdroege2@earthlink.net>]

It looks like there is a bug in the stamp code, m4b19.bs2.  Sometimes the
motors run, sometimes they don't.  The way I do things I can't imagine a
race since it is so slow.  But something is funny and sometimes only one
phase of the motor gets driven. Looking with a scope, the data that is
supposed to be strobed into the register that drives the motor phases is
changing, but it is always zero when the strobe comes along.  

I found this out when TOM2 motors would not run.

It appears to be a version control problem.  I had a stamp marked "m4b19"
that worked.  I then reprogrammed it with every version of m4b19 that I
could find.  It no longer works.  I found 2 that were different in length. 
A good indication that something is goofy. I think some of you have
complained of this.  Probably just a typo character in there somewhere that
got saved.

Mike G.  I went back to the version that was sent with your system and it
also did not work.  So this is no doubt the source of your complaint that
the focus motors were not powerful enough.  The real question is why any of
them work.  Does anyone know how to download the code out of a stamp?  The
best thing would be to print out what was in one of the working stamps and
compare it to the version that I have saved that does not work.

Sigh!  I guess it is time to read the stamp code again and fix it right. 
The last version was a kludge anyway done before the Dec drive fix.  So
there is junk in the code where I was trying to keep the Dec motor powered
on while I turned on the clamp.  This is no longer necessary and possibly I
can go back to an earlier version.  

Tom Droege


Tom  Droege Jennifer Malpass
tdroege2@earthlink.net