Picaxe under Linux

This provides some basic information on how to build and download programs for the picaxe microcontrollers under the Linux operating system.
Picaxe provide simple command line compilers/downloaders one for each chip type.
The Picaxe Basic programs can be edited with any text editor or IDE of which there are a lot of options under Linux. Picaxe provides a syntax description file for the Kate editor which helps when editing the programs.

Usage

Edit the program with the text editor and then in a terminal window enter a suitable command to compile and download the program to the Picaxe. An example for the Picaxe 28x2 is:

picaxe28x2 file.bas

This will compile the program and download over the /dev/ttyUSB0 serial port.
The command line tools take various options. Using the "-h" flag with the command will list those options.

Serial debug terminal

Using the "-t" flag will tell the compiler/downloader to keep the serial port open and print out any debug lines. This will only work with those parts that use a 4800 baud sertxd command.