Downloading IC to your Handy Board

First Step

Before you can run interactive c, you must download it into the handyboard. Instructions to do this are in your manual. I also suggest looking at the official FAQ's, becuase there are answers to many questions there. There are some parts of the instructions that are not completely clear. Here I have copied the Quick Start instructions, (from the manual by Fred G. Martin) and I have added some tips to help you figure it out. The instrctions from the manual are in regular print, and my additions are in italics.

  1. Connect the Handy Board to the Serial Port of the host computer, using the separate Serial Interface board. The Serial Interfact board connects to the host computer using a standard modem cable ( the short cord with a nine-hole connector on one side, and a 25 prong connector on the other). The serial port is in the back of the computer. Some computers have more than one port. If this is the case, you should choose port one.
  2. You do NOT have to plug either the handy board OR the serial interface into a power outlet to use it. You only use the power adapter when charging.
  3. Put the Handy Board into Bootstrap mode, by holding down the stop buton while turining the system power on. The pair of LED's by the two push-buttns should light up, and then turn off. When the power is on and both LED's are off, the handyboard is in download mode.
  4. To use interactive C, you must download it into the handy board. You can do this using the disk that came with the kit, or you can get the software over the web from Official Handy Board page if you look under the software menu.
  5. Once you have the software installed, or you have the disk in the 'A' drive, you can downlaod Interactive C. Even though there is a windows downloader, I (along with many other windows users) have found that windows 95 is too fast, and using the downloader under windows NT doesn't really work at all. If you want to run the downloader under windows, consult the "http://el.www.media.mit.edu/projects/handy-board/faq/index.html">official FAQ's. Otherwise, run the downloader through DOS.
  6. How to access DOS: run a program called MS-DOS PROMPT or COMMAND PROMPT. It will bring up a DOS window. To run the installer, you should be in full screen DOS mode, so press alt+enter, and your screen should flicker. When it comes back up, you will be in full screen DOS mode.
  7. If you are running the downloader off the disk, type a:. Otherwise, move to the folder where you have put the IC files. IC requires that the IC files be in C:\>IC so this better be where you are trying to go. You can change directories by typing cd where is the name of the directory that you want to move to. You must include all the steps necessary to get from your current position to where you are. For example, if you are in

    c:\>WINDOWS

    and you want to go to

    c:\>IC

    , you can't just type CD IC. You must go WINDOWS-->C:-->ic. You can do this in two steps:

    Or in one step: At any point, you may type DIR to see what files are in your current directory.
  8. Once you are in the IC directory,you must download the ic software into your board. If your board is prepared, then type dl pcode_hb.s19 (or whichever pcodeprogram is in your IC directory) and hit enter. Follow all instructions that the program gives. With luck, the program will download sucessfully. The progam will inform you when this is true. If the program does NOT download sucessfully, go back and check to see that everything is set up correctly.
  9. Once theprogram is downloaded correctly, Turn the Handy Board off and then on, and the Interactive C welcome message should appear on the Handy Board's LCD Screen.
  10. Run Interactive C