Overthinking what must be simple

[BobK]

Hi Chris,

So you have 8 dip switches with one switch on each pin of a port. You want the switch being set to ON to be a high or 5vdc. You would have 8- 4.7K or 10K resistors, again one resistor on each pin with the other side of each resistor going to Gnd. These are called "pull down" resistors.

Now to read the value set by the switches simply read the "PortValue".
An example would be:
PortValue VAR BYTE
PortC = PortValue
If PortValue = 127 Then

You can also use "Select Case" instead of the multiple IF .. Then 's
You control when the switches get read with your program. I used this setup once a couple of years ago reading the value of a PC card in a card cage from a dip switch setting.

HTH,

BobK

[ChrisHelvey]

Ah yes, I have my residence in NoobieVille and am traversing the road to dangerous and wild lands more frequently than I am comfortable with. He He..

I knew it had to be simple. So, basically, the whole port is just assigned to a variable.

....of course....

Overthinking the obvious I was!

If I wanted 16 bits, and thus a word variable, would I simply add them together?
PortValue VAR WORD
PortValue = PortB + PortC ???

Thank you for your reply. Now I can try things I REALLY don't understand. "Heading deep into the mountain canyon."

Chris

[ChrisHelvey]

No, wait a minute. Adding won't do it, will it? 01111111 + 01111111 = 11111110

Hmm....

[Archangel]

No, wait a minute. Adding won't do it, will it? 01111111 + 01111111 = 11111110

Hmm....

Not sure how you would do it but 2 ports probably make a word something like
MyVar VAR WORD
PortB myvar.lowbyte:
PortC myvar.HiByte . . .

[ChrisHelvey]

Yeah, that makes sense. I forgot about the lowbyte, HiByte reference.
No, I don't need that many settings. I was just curious.

Thanks a lot. I think I can get it done now.


Chris

[mackrackit]

No, wait a minute. Adding won't do it, will it? 01111111 + 01111111 = 11111110

Hmm....

Yep,
127 + 127 = 254
As long as you only use seven bits on each port and add those you will stay below the 255 limit.

How many combos can you come up with using two 7 bit numbers like that. One heck of a comination lock.

[rwskinner]

And, if you wanted to do this with 3 pins instead of 8 add a 165 PISO shift register.

[Archangel]

Check out the lookup table in the program I listed, maybe you dont need so many settings . . .