PROGRAMMING THE ULTRALIGHT NEAR SPACE FLIGHT COMPUTER

摘要

The UltraLight takes advantage of the memory and I/O features found in the PICAXE-28X1. First, let's look at memory. There are actually three types of memory in many of the PICAXE microcontrollers. The type most Nuts & Volts readers are familiar with is the PICAXE-28X1's 4K of EEPROM memory. This is where the UltraLight's flight program is stored. Data can also be stored in this EEPROM along with the flight code, but with a 32 Kb memory bank onboard the UltraLight, there's no need to store data in the PICAXE. Now, a limit of 4,096 bytes for flight code may sound small. However, a program large enough to operate four analog sensors, a Geiger counter, two cameras, a servo, and GPS receiver requires less than 1/5th of that memory.