The curse
There's an old legend that tells the woeful tale
of an electronics hobbyist who was experimenting with a new type of microcontroller.
Once he understood the basics of the new device and its instruction set,
he proceeded to write a terrific program that allowed the microcontroller
to monitor the temperature of his personal computer processor...
After considering debugging, the program was ready to be entered into
the microcontroller for a test run. The hobbyist burned the software into
the device, plugged it into the hardware, and placed the temperature sensor
in the proper place inside his computer. He then fired up the PC and sat
back, admiring his new project. Everything was ready for a trial. With
the flip of a switch, power was applied to the temperature sensor and,
voilà, the microcontroller, with the dedicated temperature-sensing
code, worked flawlessly! The LCD display came alive with the proper information,
and each time the temperature changed, the display accurately indicated
that change. Yes, it was a brillant effort!
The only problem seemed to be that at the instant the hobbyist activated
the power switch, a dark and very dense cloud of smoke rose around the
chair he was seated in. When the smoke finally cleared, he was nowhere
to be found. All that was left was a few wisps from the original thick
haze, rising from the chair. He had vanished - never to be seen again,
alive or otherwise!
After an exhaustive, but inconclusive, investigation it was determined
that the hobbyist had commited the unforgivable sin of not making his
first project, regarding the new microcontroller, a light-emitting diode
(LED) flasher. This unacceptable error resulted in his banishment to a
as-yet-not-totally-understood place (probably floating in limbo for eternity).
There was simply no other rational explanation. Other theories were proposed,
but considering the legend of "the curse" associated with not
flashing an LED first, these were rejected, and the case of this hobbyist's
disappearance was closed forever.
Excerpt from "Guide to PICMICRO Microcontrollers",
by Carl Bergquist
Schema of the circuit
Code
'{$STAMP BS2}
infiniteLoop: 'label
'if button is pressed, goto
subroutine Flash
IF IN1 = 1 THEN Flash
GOTO infiniteLoop 'loop
Flash: 'subroutine labeled
Flash
HIGH 0 'turn on LED
PAUSE 1000 'wait 1 second
LOW 0 'turn off LED
PAUSE 1000 'wait 1 second
RETURN 'go back to the rest
of the program
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