Amforth on Arduino UNO

Question

I'm having trouble with flashing amforth on my Arduino UNO. I'm using an Arduino as ISP to write amforth.

Here's what I do:

1. Upload the code on the Arduino programmer and set Baudrate to 19200
2. Wire the Arduinos this way -> Wiring
3. Run avrdude -P /dev/ttyUSB* -c avrisp -b 19200 -p m328p -e -U flash:w:uno.hex:i -U eeprom:w:uno.eep.hex:i -U efuse:w:0x05:m -U hfuse:w:0xD9:m -U lfuse:w:0xFF:m

Sometimes it fails to set efuse, but if I give the command just for it, even if it says "efuse changed, it was 5, not is 0xfd, do you want to change it back?" and I say no, I get the message with the correct fuses.

I log onto the amforth Arduino with the python shell, but my stack is constantly ??? -13 and different numbers. I found out -13 is error code for not found, but... not found what?

What does it mean? What am I missing?
I have to say that I'm new at this things, I recently studied Forth and discovered that I can use it on my Arduino, and I wanted to try.
By the way, the Arduino is not original.
The chip is ATmega 328p

EDIT: I downloaded amforth from here Initially I followed [first guide] (different wiring but I've read around it's the same) and then "clarified my doubts" with another one from sparkfun. (no link used because maximum for me is 2 links per post at the moment, I'll write it in the comments)

I tried with versions 6.1 and 6.0, then I decided to try with 5.9 (the one from the first guide) and now I'm running that (at least it allows me to pop elements from the stack).

• magicleon94: update: everything seems to work fine, I just get error -13 when I print the stack content
• Nick Gammon: The 0xfd part is easily explained. The extended fuse on that chip only uses the first 3 bits, and the rest read back as 1 for future compatibility. That is, not matter what you set them to, you get back 1s for 5 of the bits. ie. 11111xxx. So, 5 is 00000101 and reads back as 11111101 (0xFD).
• Nick Gammon: Please edit your question to state where amforth comes from. That saves a search, and even if we search for it, we may find a different one to the one you are trying.
• magicleon94: first guide second guide

Answer 1

I programmed by Uno using your first guide and it seems to work OK.

amforth 6.1 ATmega
8P Forthduino

For example, using the serial monitor, I entered:

6 7 * .

It printed:

42 ok
> 

Then entered the ASCII table example:

\ print a ascii table
: .ascii
base @
7ドルf 20ドル do
 i emit
 decimal ." , dec: " i .
 hex ." , hex: " i .
 8 base ! ." , oct: " i .
 2 base ! ." , bin: " i .
 cr
loop
base !
;

Then when I invoked it with ".ascii" it printed the table:

> .ascii
 , dec: 32 , hex: 20 , oct: 40 , bin: 100000 
!, dec: 33 , hex: 21 , oct: 41 , bin: 100001 
", dec: 34 , hex: 22 , oct: 42 , bin: 100010 
#, dec: 35 , hex: 23 , oct: 43 , bin: 100011 
,ドル dec: 36 , hex: 24 , oct: 44 , bin: 100100 
%, dec: 37 , hex: 25 , oct: 45 , bin: 100101 
&, dec: 38 , hex: 26 , oct: 46 , bin: 100110 
', dec: 39 , hex: 27 , oct: 47 , bin: 100111 
(, dec: 40 , hex: 28 , oct: 50 , bin: 101000 
), dec: 41 , hex: 29 , oct: 51 , bin: 101001 
*, dec: 42 , hex: 2A , oct: 52 , bin: 101010 
+, dec: 43 , hex: 2B , oct: 53 , bin: 101011 
,, dec: 44 , hex: 2C , oct: 54 , bin: 101100 
-, dec: 45 , hex: 2D , oct: 55 , bin: 101101 
., dec: 46 , hex: 2E , oct: 56 , bin: 101110 
/, dec: 47 , hex: 2F , oct: 57 , bin: 101111 
0, dec: 48 , hex: 30 , oct: 60 , bin: 110000 
1, dec: 49 , hex: 31 , oct: 61 , bin: 110001 
2, dec: 50 , hex: 32 , oct: 62 , bin: 110010 
3, dec: 51 , hex: 33 , oct: 63 , bin: 110011 
4, dec: 52 , hex: 34 , oct: 64 , bin: 110100 
5, dec: 53 , hex: 35 , oct: 65 , bin: 110101 
6, dec: 54 , hex: 36 , oct: 66 , bin: 110110 
7, dec: 55 , hex: 37 , oct: 67 , bin: 110111 
8, dec: 56 , hex: 38 , oct: 70 , bin: 111000 
9, dec: 57 , hex: 39 , oct: 71 , bin: 111001 
:, dec: 58 , hex: 3A , oct: 72 , bin: 111010 
;, dec: 59 , hex: 3B , oct: 73 , bin: 111011 
<, dec: 60 , hex: 3C , oct: 74 , bin: 111100 
=, dec: 61 , hex: 3D , oct: 75 , bin: 111101 
>, dec: 62 , hex: 3E , oct: 76 , bin: 111110 
?, dec: 63 , hex: 3F , oct: 77 , bin: 111111 
@, dec: 64 , hex: 40 , oct: 100 , bin: 1000000 
A, dec: 65 , hex: 41 , oct: 101 , bin: 1000001 
B, dec: 66 , hex: 42 , oct: 102 , bin: 1000010 
C, dec: 67 , hex: 43 , oct: 103 , bin: 1000011 
D, dec: 68 , hex: 44 , oct: 104 , bin: 1000100 
E, dec: 69 , hex: 45 , oct: 105 , bin: 1000101 
F, dec: 70 , hex: 46 , oct: 106 , bin: 1000110 
G, dec: 71 , hex: 47 , oct: 107 , bin: 1000111 
H, dec: 72 , hex: 48 , oct: 110 , bin: 1001000 
I, dec: 73 , hex: 49 , oct: 111 , bin: 1001001 
J, dec: 74 , hex: 4A , oct: 112 , bin: 1001010 
K, dec: 75 , hex: 4B , oct: 113 , bin: 1001011 
L, dec: 76 , hex: 4C , oct: 114 , bin: 1001100 
M, dec: 77 , hex: 4D , oct: 115 , bin: 1001101 
N, dec: 78 , hex: 4E , oct: 116 , bin: 1001110 
O, dec: 79 , hex: 4F , oct: 117 , bin: 1001111 
P, dec: 80 , hex: 50 , oct: 120 , bin: 1010000 
Q, dec: 81 , hex: 51 , oct: 121 , bin: 1010001 
R, dec: 82 , hex: 52 , oct: 122 , bin: 1010010 
S, dec: 83 , hex: 53 , oct: 123 , bin: 1010011 
T, dec: 84 , hex: 54 , oct: 124 , bin: 1010100 
U, dec: 85 , hex: 55 , oct: 125 , bin: 1010101 
V, dec: 86 , hex: 56 , oct: 126 , bin: 1010110 
W, dec: 87 , hex: 57 , oct: 127 , bin: 1010111 
X, dec: 88 , hex: 58 , oct: 130 , bin: 1011000 
Y, dec: 89 , hex: 59 , oct: 131 , bin: 1011001 
Z, dec: 90 , hex: 5A , oct: 132 , bin: 1011010 
[, dec: 91 , hex: 5B , oct: 133 , bin: 1011011 
,円 dec: 92 , hex: 5C , oct: 134 , bin: 1011100 
], dec: 93 , hex: 5D , oct: 135 , bin: 1011101 
^, dec: 94 , hex: 5E , oct: 136 , bin: 1011110 
_, dec: 95 , hex: 5F , oct: 137 , bin: 1011111 
`, dec: 96 , hex: 60 , oct: 140 , bin: 1100000 
a, dec: 97 , hex: 61 , oct: 141 , bin: 1100001 
b, dec: 98 , hex: 62 , oct: 142 , bin: 1100010 
c, dec: 99 , hex: 63 , oct: 143 , bin: 1100011 
d, dec: 100 , hex: 64 , oct: 144 , bin: 1100100 
e, dec: 101 , hex: 65 , oct: 145 , bin: 1100101 
f, dec: 102 , hex: 66 , oct: 146 , bin: 1100110 
g, dec: 103 , hex: 67 , oct: 147 , bin: 1100111 
h, dec: 104 , hex: 68 , oct: 150 , bin: 1101000 
i, dec: 105 , hex: 69 , oct: 151 , bin: 1101001 
j, dec: 106 , hex: 6A , oct: 152 , bin: 1101010 
k, dec: 107 , hex: 6B , oct: 153 , bin: 1101011 
l, dec: 108 , hex: 6C , oct: 154 , bin: 1101100 
m, dec: 109 , hex: 6D , oct: 155 , bin: 1101101 
n, dec: 110 , hex: 6E , oct: 156 , bin: 1101110 
o, dec: 111 , hex: 6F , oct: 157 , bin: 1101111 
p, dec: 112 , hex: 70 , oct: 160 , bin: 1110000 
q, dec: 113 , hex: 71 , oct: 161 , bin: 1110001 
r, dec: 114 , hex: 72 , oct: 162 , bin: 1110010 
s, dec: 115 , hex: 73 , oct: 163 , bin: 1110011 
t, dec: 116 , hex: 74 , oct: 164 , bin: 1110100 
u, dec: 117 , hex: 75 , oct: 165 , bin: 1110101 
v, dec: 118 , hex: 76 , oct: 166 , bin: 1110110 
w, dec: 119 , hex: 77 , oct: 167 , bin: 1110111 
x, dec: 120 , hex: 78 , oct: 170 , bin: 1111000 
y, dec: 121 , hex: 79 , oct: 171 , bin: 1111001 
z, dec: 122 , hex: 7A , oct: 172 , bin: 1111010 
{, dec: 123 , hex: 7B , oct: 173 , bin: 1111011 
|, dec: 124 , hex: 7C , oct: 174 , bin: 1111100 
}, dec: 125 , hex: 7D , oct: 175 , bin: 1111101 
~, dec: 126 , hex: 7E , oct: 176 , bin: 1111110 
 ok
> 

---

I suspect your issue is you are not using it the way it is supposed to be used. Can you show the exact commands you type which cause the error?

---

(Edited to add)

After fairly extensive investigation of the source, I think that .s is not necessarily implemented for the Uno .hex file.

I found one suggested implementation here:

: .s ( -- )\ stack picture listing order
depth
begin dup while dup pick . 1- repeat
drop
;

Running that it seems to work OK:

> 1 2 3 4 .s
1 2 3 4 ok

The .s word is implemented in the file dot-s.asm where you can see exactly how they did it (it's not the same as the Forth version above).

• magicleon94: You mean Forth commands, right? I've tried pushing and popping things from stack. Using amforth 5.9 I pushed values to stack, and popping with . was fine. I tried printing some strings and defining simple words, no problems. The problem is when I use .s to print the stack. That gives me the error. I haven't tried with other commands. Now I'm not near my computer, I hope that I can retry flashing 6.1 and do some other tests...
• Nick Gammon: Yes, Forth commands/statements, whatever they are called.
• Nick Gammon: If you type "words" you get a list of words. ".s" is not amongst them. According to the documentation The default configuration includes most but not all words..
• magicleon94: Wow, I've really missed the link between -13 and not found. I assumed that .s was sort of "the basic word" but thinking about it yeah, it's not really necessary. I tried that implementation of .s and works like a charm. I have one more question: I noticed my previous words are saved permanently, is there a way to wipe the dictionary without rewriting the bootloader? The only thing that comes in my mind is the -e option for avrdude, but it erases the whole thing, am I right?
• Nick Gammon: I was wondering that myself. It was rather cool that new words stay added to the dictionary, but I don't know how to remove them. For example I accidentally added 3 x .ascii before I realized. (Only when I typed words did I find out).