Vtech Precomputer Power Pad Plus User Manual

Precomputer Power PadTM PlusUser’s manual

6CHAPTER 3: THE KEYBOARDThe computer keyboard on PRECOMPUTER POWER PAD™ PLUS combines the operationof a standard computer keyboard with several other

7Caps Lock Key:Press this key to make all letters appear in upper case. Press this key again to returnto normal typing mode. When the Caps Lock func

8Hint Key:Press the Shift key and this key simultaneously when inputting text in Trivia activities whenyou need a hint. You will be given three multi

9Backspace Key:Press this key when you want to delete the character before the cursor position.3, #, and £:Press this key to type the number “3”.Press

10Player Key:Press this key to change from 1-player mode to 2-player mode and vice versa for activitieswith 2-player mode. If you want to change the

11CHAPTER 4: ACTIVITIES AND FUNCTIONSHOW TO PLAYSELECTING/CHOOSING/HIGHLIGHTINGDuring the course of entering the activities and during game play, you

12There are 5 large icons on top of the Main Menu. You can choose from the following:Word Games , Mathematics , Computer Skills , Games , and Tri

13NOTE: The following activities do not feature the two-player mode:•Word Puzzles•Spy Trap• Rocket Fuel• Keyboard Skills•Typing Challenge•Word Process

14TENSESTwo tenses of a verb will appear on the screen. Type in the missing tense (present, pastor past participle) of that verb and press the Enter

15WORD MAKERThe unit will display a prefix or a suffix of a word at the bottom of the screen. Severalsuffixes/prefixes scroll across the screen above

87Dear Parent:At VTech® we know that children have the ability to do greatthings. That’s why all of our electronic learning productsare uniquely desi

16FRACTIONSA fraction will display on the screen. 3 multiple choice options will be given. Decide whichoption is the correct answer and press its co

17to type each letter. Each correct letter equals 1 point. After typing 100 letters (50 forthe left hand, 50 for the right hand), the score and the

18To create and print a Folded Card :Select Folded Card.Choose a picture to be used in the folded card.Type in your text message. You are allowed up

19the rules of the game:1. Press the number key or use your mouse to select the numbers. You may select anynumber. If all nine of the squares fill u

20TRIVIAThis challenging trivia game has 1000 questions in 4 different topics: Science, English,Geography and General. All topics are available with

21J=L means the current line is justified left.NB means the current word is not bolded. B means the current word is bolded.CH means which character

22DeleteWhen you no longer need a file, erasing it from the optional RAM cartridge is agood idea because it will free up more space for other files.

23Paste BlockAfter you have used the Block Cut or Block Copy option, move the cursor to theposition where you want the block of text to be pasted. Se

24TOOLS OPTIONSThe TOOLS menu provides two functions: Check Spelling and Symbols.Check SpellingSpell checker checks a word to see if it is in the un

25Printer SetupPrinter Setup allows you to select a printer. This can also be done through SystemSetup. Please see Chapter 6 for details.PrintIn ord

88CONTENTSCHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ... 1CHAPTER 2 GETTING STARTED ... 2MAIN BATTERY INSTALLATION ...

26CHAPTER 6: SYSTEM SETUPTo enter System Setup, click on the System Setup icon located at the bottom right-handcorner of the screen. The System Setu

27SCREEN SAVERThe unit features a screen saver option. The screen saver will appear after two minuteswith no input. You can turn this feature ON or

28 Customize ScreenThe Customized Screen is the screen shown after the opening animation. You maypersonalize the screen by entering your name

29List FilesWhen this function is selected, the files stored in the RAM cartridge are listed onthe screen.Save FileWhen this function is selected, yo

30CHAPTER 7: BASICINTRODUCTIONWHAT IS BASIC?BASIC is a computer language. The name BASIC stands for Beginner’s All-purposeSymbolic Instruction Code.

31THE KEYBOARD1. The numeric (top row) keys are used for entering numbers. The letter keys areused for entering letters.2. The cursor is the blinking

32THE LCD SCREENThe PRECOMPUTER POWER PAD™ PLUS learning unit uses a Liquid CrystalDisplay (LCD) screen. Each line will display 20 characters at a

33RUNThis command instructs PRECOMPUTER POWER PAD™ PLUS to begin executing eachBASIC statement with a line number that was typed into memory. The

34BASIC COMPUTER TUTORIALEXAMPLE OF A BASIC PROGRAMYou and Teresa went to the local video store to rent some movies. Teresa brought back12 but 4 were

35LET’S DO SOME ARITHMETICIn the previous section you learned to program the sum of three numbers using the BASICprogram. Numbers like 1, 3, 27, 14.3

89RAM CART MANAGER... 28POWER LINK ... 29CHAPTER 7 BASIC..

36Type this:10 PRINT 3+11/7 press ENTERRUNIs it really evaluated from left to right? Yes, but was it the answer you were expecting?If the answer came

37The computer creates a box in memory and calls it “A”. It puts the number 8 in this box.Now type:20 LET B=10 press ENTERThe computer creates a box

38You will see the following on the screen:FIRST NUMBER 8 press ENTERSECOND NUMBER 15 press ENTERTHE SUM IS 23Let’s take a look at the print statement

39VARIABLE NAMES CONTENTSA 675B 2.3434C$ CURTISA$ ALPHABET SOUPHere’s an example of storing a string variable:10 LET A$=“ALPHABET SOUP NO 123”You can

4050 PRINT “THE ANSWER IS”; N press ENTERRUNThe statement at line 10 stores the numeric constant zero into N, a numeric variable. Instatement 20 the

41You can use as many input statements as you need to get all the values into your program.Try this:NEW10 INPUT “GIVE ME A NUMBER”; N1 press ENTER20 I

42The A > 90 is a condition. The print “YOU ARE SMART” is the command given for thetrue condition. In the above example, let’s give A the value 8

4350 PRINT “ARITHMETIC OPERATION YOU WANT”60 PRINT “ME TO DO FOR YOU”70 INPUT R$100 IF R$=“A” THEN C=A+B : GOTO 200110 IF R$=“S” THEN C=A-B : GOTO 200

44LOOPINGA loop is a set of one or more instructions. These instructions can be repeated as manytimes as you want. You can create a loop with a GOTO

45We could always rewrite the program like this:10 N=120 PRINT “N IS”;N30 N=N+140 IF N > 10 THEN END50 GOTO 20We can also count by 2’s. Let’s br

1LCD SCREENCHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTIONThank you for buying the PRECOMPUTER POWER PAD™ PLUS learning toy by VTECH®.We at VTECH® are committed to provid

46MORE ABOUT GROUPS - GOSUB ... RETURNHow much is 10 degrees Celsius in Fahrenheit? What is 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Celsius?Here’s a program that

47REFERENCE SECTIONThe REFERENCE SECTION contains a brief explanation of all the commands andstatements you will use in this chapter. Refer to this

48EDITUse the EDIT command when you want to change a statement that has been typed intomemory without re-typing the entire line. Just type EDIT and

49PSETThis command is used for drawing a specified point on the screen.PSET X, Y(X, Y) is a coordinate of the specified point to be shown.X represents

50SOUNDThis is a command to generate a sound note.SOUND consists of two functions: frequency and durationfrequency The frequency of the sound in hert

51Type PRINT SQR (9). (press ENTER)The answer is 3.Example:Y=9 : X=SQR(Y) : PRINT X press ENTERThe answer is 3.In these two examples, 9 is the arg

52ARITHMETIC FUNCTIONSABS (X)This gives the absolute (positive) value of the argument. So ABS (-7)=7.Example:PRINT ABS (7-2*4) press ENTER1SGN (X)Thi

53Example:PRINT RND (19) press ENTERYou will get a number between 1 and 19. RND (0) will give you a number between 0and 1.Note:X cannot be negativ

54VALVAL works like STR$ but in reverse. It changes a string argument into a number. Lookat the following short program.Example:10 A$=“33”20 B$=“20”

55Example:10 A$=“ABCDE”20 B$=LEFT$ (A$+“FGH”,6)30 PRINT B$RUNABCDEFRIGHT$ (A$,N)This will return a substring but starting from the Nth character from

2CHAPTER 2: GETTING STARTEDThe PRECOMPUTER POWER PAD™ PLUS learning unit operates on 4 “AA” (UM-3/LR6)size batteries for the main compartment or a

56ASC(A$)The ASC statement will return the ASCII code, a code for representing alphanumericinformation, for the FIRST character of the specified stri

57Example:30 GOSUB 120..other program lines..120 PRINT “WELCOME TO THE”130 PRINT “PRECOMPUTER POWER PAD PLUS”140 RETURNGOTOLine # GOTO line numberTh

58Relations or comparisons used in the IF...THEN statement are the following:= Equal to< = Less than or equal to< > Not equal to> = Great

59Example:40 IF P=6 THEN PRINT “TRUE” ELSE PRINT “FALSE”In this example, if P=6 the computer will print TRUE. Any other value will print FALSE.In e

60TRUTH TABLESThe following tables are called TRUTH TABLES. They illustrate the results of the previouslogical operations with both A and B given fo

61Note that T = TRUE and F = FALSE.Example:10 INPUT A,B,C20 IF A=B AND B=C THEN PRINT “A=B=C”30 IF (NOT A=B) OR (NOT B=C) THEN 5040 END50 PRINT “A=B=C

62Examples:35 INPUT AMOUNT140 INPUT “WHAT IS YOUR NAME”;NAME$LETLine # LET variable = variable expressionThe variable expression is calculated and t

63NEWNEW erases all program lines from the active program area.PRINTLine # PRINT expression and/or character stringThe PRINT statement is used to p

64RESTOREIf you want to use the same data later on in the program, you can do so by using theRESTORE statement.Example:10 DATA 1,3,8,920 READ A,B,D30

65REMLine # REM textREM is used to add comments in your program which are ignored when the program isRUN.Example:10 REM**GUESSING GAME**20 REM TEST

33. Insert 2 “AA” (UM-3/LR6) size batteries as illustrated.DO NOT USE RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES in thisunit. (The use of Rayovac Renewable/Rechargeable

66ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS10 PRINT “Rock, Paper, Scissors”20 PRINT “Type in P, R, S”30 INPUT “and see if you win. ->”; ANSWER$40 PRINT “You :” ; ANSW

67LIFE10 PRINT “If an average life”20 PRINT “span is 70 years”30 PRINT “Then how many”40 PRINT “generations would have”50 PRINT “lived in 2000 years?”

68THE FORTUNE TELLER10 DIM N$(5)20 PRINT “The Fortune Teller”30 INPUT “Are you a boy or a girl” ;S$40 INPUT “Pick a number between 2-5”; NUMBER50 FOR

69LEARN SCHEDULE10 DIM WEEK$(6)20 DIM EVENT$(6)30 DATA “SUNDAY”,“PLAY TIME”40 DATA “MONDAY”,“LEARN ECOLOGY”50 DATA “TUESDAY”,“LEARN ENGLISH”60 DATA “W

70MAD LIB’S10 REM * MAD LIB’S *20 PRINT “Mad Lib’s”30 INPUT “Adjective”; A1$40 INPUT “Verb”; V$50 INPUT “Adverb”; A2$60 PRINT “Once upon a time”70 PRI

7180 GOTO 40100 PRINT "No! The secret number is smaller."110 GOTO 40200 PRINT "Yes! The number is "; NO;"."210 ENDRUNPAT

72TWINLKE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR10 REM Twinkle Twinkle Little Star20 DATA 62,62,19,19,10,10,19,30,30,36,3630 DATA 50,50,62,19,19,30,30,36,36,5040 DATA 19

73THE ASCII CODE TABLEDecimal Printable Decimal Printable Decimal PrintableValue Character Value Character Value Character32 (Space) 64 @ 96 ‘ (Accent

74THE ERROR MESSAGESCANNOT CONTINUEAn attempt is made to continue a program that:1. Has halted due to an error.2. Has been modified during a break in

75OUT OF STRING SPACEString variables have caused BASIC to exceed the amount of free memory remaining.OVERFLOWThe result of a calculation is too larg

4PRINTER CONNECTIONThe PRECOMPUTER POWER PAD™ PLUS learning unit can support 12 different kindsof printers. For details, please refer to Chapter 6.

76CHAPTER 8: CALCULATOR The Calculator function turns the PRECOMPUTER POWER PAD™ PLUS unit into acalculator with a 14-digit memory. The number keys

77Input Display34 - 78 M=14634-78=-44M=10234-78_=M=102_23 - 6 + 9 M=10223-6+9=26M=7623-6+9_=ADVANCED FUNCTIONSThe Calculator has special function ke

78TRIGONOMETRY FUNCTIONSAll the trigonometric functions can take two forms of input-radians and degrees. If youjust type in a number, the Calculator

79CHAPTER 9: TIME LIMITSCategories Activities Timing CodeWord Games All Word Games (except Word Puzzles) 1Word Puzzles 2Mathematics All Math Games 1Tr

80SCORING CODE POINTS1. One Player Mode5 Questions per roundCorrect answer on 1st try 20Correct answer on 2nd try 15Correct answer on 3rd try 10Two P

81CHAPTER 11: POWER LINKIf you have purchased our VTECH POWER LINK™, you can connect the PRECOMPUTERPOWER PAD™ PLUS unit to an IBM 386 or higher com

82Save FileAfter selecting this option, you can choose to save a Word Processor file or save a BASICprogram. The unit will ask you to save a TXT file

83CHAPTER 12:HOW TO USE AN EXPANSION CARTRIDGEThere is an entire library of optional expansion cartridges available for the PRECOMPUTERPOWER PAD™ PLUS

84CHAPTER 13: CARE AND MAINTENANCE1. Keep the unit clean by wiping it with a slightly damp cloth.2. Keep the unit out of direct sunlight and away fro

5Automatic Shut OffIf there is no input into the PRECOMPUTER POWER PAD™ PLUS unit for about 20 minutes,the unit will automatically shut off to save po