Matrix user forums

If the string grows longer, more memory is automatically assigned (assuming there is any memory free!) As programmers often like to say "your milage may vary!". As kersing helpfully reminded me (thanks!), when working with microcontrollers that have limited amounts of memory, this kind of automatic...

Hi, Yes. You can do all those things. In reality, a String is just an Array of Bytes with a few special properties. Just like an Array, you can read and write individual characters using the [brackets], and FC is not fussy whether you use text or bytes to set the values. For example... my_string = "...

Bingo! My hunch was right - looks like some code was copy/pasted without updating the variable names. (You'd never catch me doing a thing like that, honest! :wink: :lol: ) Here's an updated version of the filter component definition... DSPFilter.fcpx Just copy the file to the "C:\Program Files (x86)...

Hi again, Ouch - that looks nasty! Leave it with me - I've had a quick look at the code behind the component, and something looks a little off to me (some coefficents not used!). I'll check over it with Ben and get back to you - if my hunch is right, we should be able to get this fixed pretty quickly.

Hi there, Jarro, If you open the DSP filter component properties, and set "Type" to "IIR", and "order" to 2, you will have a biquad! The other properties will change to show you a list of the filter coefficients. You can find a handy biquad coefficent calculator HERE - that will take your desired fr...

Hi All, Apologies for this having taken so long, but I think we have got to the bottom of this problem now. Seems that the motor was only able to start when the pin changed , but not if the pin was already turned on at the start of simulation. Fixed versions of the motors will be provided in the nex...

Hi Tom, It may also be worth checking your anti-virus software - some are rather over-zealous, treating certain FS files as viruses and moving them into "quarantine". We have made good progress getting the anti-virus makers to 'white list' all of the Flowcode files, but it does still happen from tim...

Hi all, Nesting "if ... else if ... else if ... else ..." is quite simple using just the decision icons. The thing to remember is that the 'No' branch from the decision icons is equivalent to 'else' - anything you put in that branch is executed only when the condition is false. The structure ends up...

Hi there, Here at Matrix, I do all of the e-block layouts for our curriculums etc. using CorelDraw (version 12, which is ancient!!) - which is really just a simple 2D vector drawing package. Pretty much any vector drawing package could achieve similar results - the most commonly used seems to be Ado...

Hi there,
Thanks for the bug report, we'll take a look at that and get a fixed versions out as soon as we can.
Best regards,
Steve.

I assume a float variable wouldnt be able to hold this value either?? That shouldn't be a problem when the maths is done using floats - once the registers are converted to float, you'll need to make sure that all of your 'intermediate' variables are also floats. You might be familiar with the "E" n...

Hi Cobra, That might depend on which microcontroller you are using, and how much precision you really need. What I'm thinking is that you could read all of the coefficients from the register values, then convert them to float variables using the "int2float()" function. Then use the same formulas as ...

I'll put that one to our marketing/website guys too, it's a timely request as they're canvasing for ideas at the moment. Frankly, we've realised ourselves that our web presence really needs a good spring clean, and that includes trying to get to grips with our version control. Hopefully that'll mean...

Thanks Martin,
Indeed, all of the photos are of a version 3 board, yet the technical data and schematic are for the new version 4 board - I'll pass the info on to our marketing department so that we can bring everything up to date.

Cheers,
Steve.

Looks like the compiler is trying to be "helpful" - i.e. it sees that the loop is empty, so "optimises" for greater speed and less memory usage by ignoring the code. Adding the assembly effectively tells the compiler that the loop is empty on purpose, and prevents the optimisation. If you were writi...

Hi Robert, It can be done, but you have to work out which bits "fall off the end", and store them somewhere, by writing a flowchart to do it. Within the chip itself, bits which are right-shifted off the end ("underflows"), and bits which are left-shifted off the top ("overflows"), just disappear for...

Hi Robert, This is a known bug that has been passed to our programmers to look at. For some reason the compiler is always using just a single byte for the loop index, even if you specify a value that doesn't fit into a byte - so the counter just keeps wrapping around to zero and never reaches the ta...

Hi Brian, There's no way to do that directly, because the values are stored within the chip as fixed length binary numbers. e.g. if you store your number as a ULONG (4 bytes), it will always be 32bits long inside the chip. When you convert the String to an Integer, any leading zero's in the string w...

Thumbs up all round ('hope I didn't miss anyone'). These are exactly the kind of suggestions that we're looking for at the moment - the next release is all about finally nailing the last of the "show-stopper" bugs, and we're hoping then to have time to start really sorting out the user interface, an...

You're welcome. :D A quick warning - I've just had a PM to say that the download misbehaves when trying to generate a report, so I'll take a look into that just in case it indicates a problem for compiling the code. I'll get back to you about that ASAP, and re-upload the file if any fixes are needed...

Hi Rob, We're aware that there are a few problems with the recovery of window layouts when loading files. Not sure if those can be fixed in time for the update that's due shortly, as we are naturally prioritising bugs that cause crashes and errors when compiling flowcharts and components. However, i...

Hi there, A byte is the smallest 'unit' that you can make an array of - although the Boolean data type looks smaller (it's only on or off!), the data would still be stored as a whole byte, because of the way that access to the chip's memory works. So, although your 90 element array has room for 90 *...

Hi, For an array of fixed size, you can simulate a multi-dimensional array by using a bit of maths to calculate an index to use with a normal 'flat' array. So our 'multi-dimensional' array (or matrix!)... [a1, a2, a3] [b1, b2, b3] [c1, c2, c3] ...etc... Becomes the 'flat' array [a1, a2, a3, b1, b2, ...

Hi Rudi, Interesting point - as you say, an error message from any software must always be useful to the customer... - Should describe the problem in the customer's language - no cryptic codes! - Make clear if the customer did anything unexpected, and tell them what they can do to make things right....

Hi Phil, We'll need to see the troublesome file to be able to give you a clear answer. You could either attach it to a post here, or if you would prefer to keep your project confidential, attach it to a private message to one of the Matrix staff (SteveM, Benj or LeighM). To attach a file, use the 'U...