problems with servopod after flashing

[omnivore]

I am experiencing a problem with my ServoPod that prevents it from starting correctly.

I flashed a segment of the program I am working on (I can send this if helpful) which appeared to work properly. This program had been extensively tested and was working fine. No changes were made to it. My intention was to upload what had been tested and was working before starting in on a second segment of the project.

However, upon powering down and then up, it has become unresponsive. When first powered up, it displays the expected "IsoMax V0.6", but will not respond after that. If, for example, I type in "WORDS", on hitting return it adds a space and does not appear to respond otherwise. Hitting the reset button causes "IsoMax V0.6" to reappear but no other response happens. The settings on ZTerm have not changed (9600 baud, no parity 8 data bits, one stop bit).

If I type in "REDLED OFF" for example on startup, the machine does not startup.

The only anomaly I can identify is that one word that I defined was not followed by EEWORD, since I deemed the word redundant. I assume that there is no problem with selectively using EEWORD in this way - no other word referenced this word.

What has happened and what am I doing wrong?

[RMDumse]

When you power down, you loose all the dictionary linkage. When you power back up, you restore the RAM values, including the dictionary linkage. But!!! One of the words in the dictionary linkage is missing (wasn't EEWORD'd) so the dictionary is no longer complete and searchable.

Be sure all words are EEWORD'd or removed from the dictionary before you power down. Else, one that is EEWORD'd behind it will try to direct the dictionary searches to the now defunct word's RAM location, and the link that would normally complete the dictionary pointing the the yet previous word, is lost.

[omnivore]

Thanks for the reply. I still have a non-functional Servopod, however. What is the method by which it can be restored to a functional state?

While the reply does make sense, and the documentation does state that "each Forth word should be followed by EEWORD", which agrees with your summary, I would suggest that this is somewhat misleading. Since EEWORDing an application file is often going to be a manual and therefore error-prone procedure, it seems to me that the problems that may follow from failing to include one EEWORD command - or as in my case, deliberately omitting a word - are not proportional to the implicit and somewhat obscure warning in the docs.

If the process of EEWORDing an application file does not permit of omitting words within the file, why not deal with it through a built-in parser of some kind, where a program file would begin with a term like STARTEEWORDS and end with a term like ENDEEWORDS? A suggestion, perhaps?

[nmitech]

omnivore ,

Sorry, The Forum attachment did not work. Please email me, techsupport@newmicros.com i will put a link to it for download

" What is the method by which it can be restored to a functional state? "

Short out PE4 (SCK) to GROUND on J3 pin 2 & 4 . Reset the system and enter SCRUB

[omnivore]

the pod is back, and I'm retrying the upload

thanks