How to write/read strings EEPROM/LCD

[g-hoot]

Joe,
I got "rid" of all of the LCD out commands with a sub and sure thought that would do the trick, but my program only went from 3934 to 3931. Here's what I did:


IF Refresh > 8 Then Refresh = 1
ref:
Select Case Refresh
GoSub lcdone ' Position cursor at home
T[0]="R":T[1]="e":T[2]="f":T[3]="r":T[4]="e":T[5]="s":T[6]="h":T[7]=" "
GoSub LCDout1
GoSub lcdsec
Case 1
T[0]="N":T[1]="o":T[2]="n":T[3]="e":T[4]=" ":T[5]=" ":T[6]=" ":T[7]=" "
GoSub LCDout1
RefTime = 0
Case 2
T[0]="3":T[1]="0":T[2]=" ":T[3]="S":T[4]="e":T[5]="c":T[6]=" ":T[7]=" "
GoSub LCDout1
RefTime = 30

etc........

LCDout1:
LCDOut STR T
Return


What did you mean by "Also see select case instructions in the manual."...am I missing something there?

Arch,
I fixed the "IF Refresh > 8 " problem. Thanks for that. I've looked at the LOOKUP command, but really don't don't understand it. I guess if I set up the alphabet as constants, that won't use any space, but once I use lookup to read them into an array, woukldn't that take up the same space as above?

mister_e,
This board design has been done for a while, so I can't use external on this one, but if I do it on another design, when I retrieve the strings to go into the LCDOUT command, won't that put me in the same boat? As you can see, I'm quite a rookie at this. :-) I don't think I can do the embedded strings either since this chip won't let me use program space. "Flash Program Write" is disabled when I select that chip in the EPIC Programmer.
Gary

[mister_e]

Ah crap! So the RTFM of the day goes to me

Using an external EEPROM solve the problem, the only thing you have to keep in your PIC is the EEPROM start address of your string. From there, you just call and display routine.

Anyways, i'm pretty sure there's something to do around this without changing your actual stuff... let me sleep on this. If you want, you can post your whole code here or, if you can't for some privacy and/or commercial reason, send it on my e-mail.

[Archangel]

Joe,



What did you mean by "Also see select case instructions in the manual."...am I missing something there?

Dohe!
Well it's like this, these coke bottle thick glasses . . . I didn't see you had used select case already, Just ignorant of me, sorry.
JS
EDIT: You might check with Darrel, I think he has something that measures the code size for each bit of code, but understand this, my memory isn't worth much.

[g-hoot]

"the only thing you have to keep in your PIC is the EEPROM start address of your string"

Ahh, I think it's starting to sink in to my thick melon. What I was trying to do was set up the alphabet in upper and lower case, and numbers and a few other characters in eeprom, and then call each one individually. I noticed in many places that people were looping through like this:
for i = 0 to 7
read i, LCDtext(i)
next i

but that wouldn't work with the alphabet deal since I had to jump around to different, non-sequential eeprom locations.
So, what you are saying is that I would save each actual string in eeprom and then just give the loop the starting location of the string. I'm only using about 16 locations of eeprom right now, and this chip has 256, so that leaves me enough room for about thirty 8 character strings, so that should help a bunch. I'll give that a shot tonight.
Thanks all,
Gary

[mister_e]

can you post your text string here?

maybe there's some word you can use from one and merge into another... but will this worth?

[g-hoot]

can you post your text string here?

maybe there's some word you can use from one and merge into another... but will this worth?

Hey Steve,
I think you have got me thinking enough that I can get enough space free to add what I need. The code is pretty long so I just emailed you the code also, just to take a quick look at it if you want. Please don't spend too much time on it. Thank you very much for taking the valuable time to look at it.
Gary

[mister_e]

You might check with Darrel, I think he has something that measures the code size for each bit of code, but understand this, my memory isn't worth much.

I think you talk about...

How much code would a code hog hog
http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2418

[Archangel]

I think you talk about...

How much code would a code hog hog
http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2418

Yes Sir, Mister_e !
That was what I saw!

[g-hoot]

Man, this thing is a pain in the booty. Using eeprom works great until i get more that about 30 characters saven in it. Then my LCD just displays black rectangles/blanks. If I delete all of the charcters from eeprom and just leave about 50, it works fine? I dunno, maybe the pic nees a pause somewhere at startup to read the eeprom? Here's the sub:

EEtext:
LCDtextNm = 0
For EEnum = EEnum TO EEnum+7
Read EEnum, LCDtext[LCDtextNm]
LCDtextNm=LCDtextNm+1
Next EEnum
LCDOut STR LCDtext
Return

[mister_e]

this one is dangerous and you trick the compiler

For EEnum = EEnum TO EEnum+7

doing that you'll jump in an endless loop. i don't know what's around your sub but i think this one make much sense

EEtext:
    For CharAddress = EEnum TO EEnum+7
         Read CharAddress, Char
         LCDOUT Char
         Next 
    
    Return

[g-hoot]

This is getting plain silly. If I have this:
EEPROM 30,["R","e","a","d","y"," "," "," "]
EEPROM 38,["D","e","l","a","y"," "," "," "]
EEPROM 46,["1","5"," ","S","e","c"," "," "]
EEPROM 54,["2","0"," ","S","e","c"," "," "]

The run through the sub:

EEtext:
LCDtextNm = 0
EnumC = EEnum
For EEnum = EnumC TO EnumC+7
Read EEnum, LCDtext[LCDtextNm]
LCDtextNm=LCDtextNm+1
Next
LCDOut STR LCDtext
Return

Ready will display, but the other 3 strings produce a blank screen. If I replace the "e" in ready with a space " " then it works fine, except for the fact that it now says "R ady". ;-) I have had lots of strange happenings with the LCD, like for instance, I can't display a number ending in "0". Also can't display the name "MCKELLOP". Who knows?....
Gary