Tutorial

About Smart Move

Smart Move is the control program designed for use with Smart Box. With Smart Move you can create your own programs to control models and other devices connected to Smart Box. Smart Move includes special commands to control the motors and other outputs. It also includes commands to detect the signals received from any sensors you have connected to Smart Box. The sensors are the inputs to the system. The motors, lamps or other similar devices are the outputs. The outputs can be switched on and off depending on the state of the inputs. For example, a lamp can be switched on when a light sensor detects a fall in light level, or a buzzer can be switched on when a temperature sensor detects a predetermined temperature.

Data capture

Smart Move also includes commands which allow you to save readings from the sensors to disk. These sensor readings can then be analysed using other programs such as a spreadsheet. The readings can also be stored when certain conditions are met. For example the temperature during the hours of darkness could be taken by recording the values from the temperature sensor only when the light sensor reading is below a certain level. This feature allows sophisticated data capture experiments to be designed.

Procedures

Each Smart Move program you create will consist of at least one procedure. A procedure is a sequence of instructions which are grouped together and given a name. You then simply refer to the procedure name to make your program execute the complete sequence of instructions. A typical Smart Move program will be broken into a number of small procedures, each procedure performing a precise part of the overall program. Breaking the program down into procedures allows each one to be tested independently. Each procedure can be used any number of times within any other procedure. You will usually have one main procedure which uses a number of sub procedures.

Presumed Knowledge

This guide presumes no prior knowledge of Smart Box, Smart Move or control technology. However, the guide does assume that you know how to perform certain basic tasks with your computer. You should know how to:

• Use the keyboard
• Copy disks, programs and documents
• Perform simple editing tasks, including deleting text

If you need to learn more about these basic tasks, consult the handbooks and disks that came with your computer.

Contents

The following sections of this guide take you through creating your first program, and provide a number of example procedures. The language commands are detailed in full in the reference section.

Make sure that Smart Box and your computer are correctly connected and switched on (see Smart Box setting up procedure), then load the Smart Move software.

fig. 1

Once loaded you will see the main Smart Move screen as shown in fig. 1. The top of the screen is the monitor window. This area of the screen displays the current state of the various inputs and outputs. The bottom section of the screen is the text window. You use this window to type in commands. Any values you ask Smart Move to print will also be displayed here.

• Switching outputs on and off
• Procedures
• Repeating actions
• Variables
• Procedures within procedures
• Saving procedures
• Loading procedures
• Using sensors
• Making decisions
• Data capture
• Average
• Controlling a motor
• Varying power and pulsing outputs
• Printing procedures

Disconnecting Smart Box from the host computer

If you close the Smart Move application using "Disconnect" instead of "Quit" then the procedures in the Smart Box will continue running. The disconnect command differs according to the host computer platform:

• PC: Press Shift+F10
• Apple Macintosh: Select File→Disconnect from the Smart Move application menu.
• Acorn Archimedes: Select Disconnect from the menu displayed when the menu button is clicked over the program icon on the Icon bar.
• BBC Micro / Master: Press Shift+f₀

Disconnecting closes the Smart Move program while allowing the procedures in the Smart Box to continue running. The host computer can then be disconnected from the Smart Box. When the connection is remade and the Smart Move program is run, any procedures in Smart Box will be reloaded into Smart Move. If power is disconnected from the Smart Box, its memory is cleared, so save procedures before disconnecting.

This section has introduced the basic principles involved in creating a Smart Move program. The reference section gives full details of each command. Whenever you write a Smart Move program try to create a number of procedures, each doing a specific task, rather than one large program doing everything. In this way you will be able to test the individual parts of your program and identify the errors more easily.