LED matrix/timer crash
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#29 LED matrix/timer crash
I've been attempting to find the source of this error for a while now, but unfortunately due to the nature of the crash and the size of the circuits every time it happens I lose my ability to look at everything I have just done, as well as lose all my unsaved data.
I'm running Windows Vista. I am attempting to make a circuit to play Pong. A register, a cock, two flip-flops, and some adders/subtractors computer two 5-bit values for the X and Y coordinates in a 24x18 field, then several splitters and decoders are used to convert to 24 18-bit wires with a single bit enabled on a single wire according to position. These wires are then run through multiplexers to the LED. The multiplexers are used to switch between the "currently playing pong" screen and the "game over" screen. I notice that every time I wire the 24 18-bit pong ball wires to the multiplexers the crash occurs.
The computer continues to function just fine, although Logisim freezes and stops responding to any keyboard or mouse input. The clock stops ticking and my CPU usage jumps to 92~94%. The only way to exit Logisim is to open the task manager and kill the process, losing all my work. This has happened 3 times now. Usually the lack of response to input happens gradually. You can scroll around for a little bit but if you click anywhere in the workspace or press any menu buttons the program stops working.
I'm not sure if Logisim just isn't made to handle a circuit of this size or if it's a glitch related to hooking a timer or multiplexers to an LED. I've attached an image of part of my circuit. I was unable to scroll up to the LED display after the crash.
Thanks. I'm very interested in what's causing the problem, but I'm not sure I can do much with it without having the circuit that you're building. You said you were attaching an image, but it doesn't seem to have been attached. A Logisim save file would be much more helpful, if you have it. You can e-mail it to me (cburch@cburch.com) if you can't figure out how to attach it on SourceForge, or if you don't want other people to see it.
One thing I will say is that the problem is unlikely to be that the circuit is simply too large. There aren't many hard limits built into Logisim, and people have succeeded in building truly huge circuits with it.
A pong circuit does sound like a nice project to do within Logisim. Thanks for the report and any additional information you can provide.