In this project log I wrote several times about cheap Chinese DC/DC converters with a STM8S based voltmeter that can be converted into something much more interesting: a programmable power supply.

Yesterday I started a "HaD Downstream Project" to track the progress with this board. The new project isn't fully independent, as it will contribute requirements to this project (downstream is a bit misleading - in a development process it's actually one integration level up).

The first requirements are:

• all aspects of LED_MUX should be handled by the board support code
• assigning RAM to board support code should not not require changing forth.asm

The second requirement is trivial to solve.

I solved the second requirement with a "RAM pool" and a set of macros, and now I wonder why it took so long to do such an obvious thing. The disadvantage of automatic RAM allocation is of course that addresses now depend on the configuration (for the application there is no problem since a Forth word can export the address). For debugging a look into the list file is necessary. I guess I sub-conciously re-applied 80s embedded control practice: the RAM address sheet. Meh.