recuperating a program from PICAXE

[Satchid]

Dear Sir's,

I have a broken picaxe in a light controlling board. I also have a working replacement picaxe. Now this is 2 years old and I lost the program because of a computer crash about an hour after I uploaded the program in the picaxe.
Is there a way to recuperate the program from the picaxe?

Thank you,

Willy

 

[Rickharris]

Dear Sir's,

I have a broken picaxe in a light controlling board. I also have a working replacement picaxe. Now this is 2 years old and I lost the program because of a computer crash about an hour after I uploaded the program in the picaxe.
Is there a way to recuperate the program from the picaxe?

Thank you,

Willy

Short answer NO - your best bet is to rewrite from understanding what the original Picaxe did. & keep separate backups.

 

[moxhamj]

Please don't shoot the messengers. The answer is no, you can't.

Print out the program on a piece of paper and put it in the box with the chip.

For this project, as RickHarris says, try to remember how the program worked and rewrite it. We have all been there and done that. Sometimes the program ends up shorter the second time round.

 

[212]

Sorry about your program, but this was another reminder that might help others. I finally took the advice myself. My whole picaxe folder is now on a memory stick. Just about everybody probably has some older small memory cards for their digital camera they no longer use. Thanks for the reminder guys.

Does this bring back anything???

http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=847

 

[marcos.placona]

We talk about solutions in here:

http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=73806

 

[Jeremy Leach]

On a positive note it's very likely that your rewritten code will be better than your original anyway It's an ongoing learning experience and I think we all learn new techniques etc as time passes. Glass not half full yet? Oh well ... ! (Actually I'm just trying to cheer you up ...if I lost some of my 28X1 code I've been working for ages on I'd been extremely annoyed)

I suppose another question is : How do you know it is broken?

 

[Cosmic Software]

I wonder how many times Microsoft lost their code when creating Windows Vista?

I woud expect that the answer is probably 0.

The basic advice has already been said here, but just remember that you are as likely to loose you Picaxe code as you are anything else. As external hard drive disks (HDDs) are becoming cheaper, I would recomend that everyone has at least one to store backups on.

A lot of software is available that makes backing up an entire hard drive onto a different one a quick and easy job. If ever you do loose everything, you can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that really, all you have lost are the most recent 24 hours since your last backup.

I know what I am talking about because I once lost all the contents of my hard drive putting the finishing touches to a major coursework task for my GCSEs a few years ago. I would never let the same thing happen again.

Whilst on this topic, I would also strongly recomend that especially when programming for Picaxe, you make each save as a different version. That way, if one adaptation of the previous code fails to work, you can revert back to the previous with no hastle.

 

[Rickharris]

I don't know Cosmic - My time with software development in the 80's suggests that most people no matter how clever they are are very sloppy at simple house keeping. "Awww - it takes so much time...."

Our written policy for work that was live and on going, (written by me as senior systems engineer), was a twice a day back up lunch and evening so we never lost more than 4 hours work. A penalty we could live with if necessary.

 

[Dippy]

Well, I am glad you can't retrieve code from PICAXE (and magically restore it back to Basic). Just think how it could be abused...

Yes, I agree, housekeeping is poor and should be drummed into the student at birth. It's a real pain when something is lost, but it is in YOUR hands.
I backup onto a couple of memory sticks after every significant stage in code writing and then onto a pair of CDs/DVDs every couple of days. Then, if its just code, chuck it up to the Internet server so that some overpaid ninny can save it for me.

The only time when I have lost code was when I stupidly forgot to rename and over-wrote something.

One thing I don't do is send data to a UK Government contractor to 'lose' (or should I say 'loose' on this Forum?)