Virtual Dash configuration....store where?
Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2014 8:00 pm
I'm in the process of coding up a UI for my custom ECU & I've been playing with gauges.
Here's a thread that has a few more pics & a description on how I created them. viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2410
Anyhow, the gauges are skinnable and will have quite a few configuration values, colors, locations, fonts, ect. Currently I'm storing this information just locally to the host computer's hard drive, but it I wondered if it would be warranted to store the gauge configuration down into the ECU as well. That way on any laptop you connect up to, your gauge definitions would look correct. Does anyone have any opinion on this or knows if this is common? I've never messed with any tuner software so I don't have any frame of reference.
I have plenty of flash on board & I of course wouldn't store a bitmap file if the user went that far with the skin, but I would at least store the path to the bitmap(s) so if they had the bitmap still in the same location on the host pc it would be correct.
The only downside I see as it might take an extra 1/2sec longer on upload/download time when you connect up. I wouldn't of course drop the load/save to the pc. It would still be present. Truthfully, I struggle with a clean easy way to keep the user informed with exactly the status of their tuning session and what they have changed & where it's at. The tune can be stored in 4 places while you're messing with it.
1. The Harddrive copy
2. The values in the GUI as you're making changes
3. The runtime variables in RAM of the ECU
4. The sticky flash copy of the ECU.
I'll have some icons to show what fresh/stale & such, but I've not came up with a solution I'm happy with yet.
I've considered just making every download to the ECU sticky so 3&4 get combined as just the 'ECU'. I suppose you could combine 1,3,& 4. Then when you hit SAVE it just saves it everywhere. Simpler, but you lose some flexibility. And you still have to allow loading from PC or ECU.
Any suggestions or opinions on how you think the tune storage would make the best user experience would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Len
Here's a thread that has a few more pics & a description on how I created them. viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2410
Anyhow, the gauges are skinnable and will have quite a few configuration values, colors, locations, fonts, ect. Currently I'm storing this information just locally to the host computer's hard drive, but it I wondered if it would be warranted to store the gauge configuration down into the ECU as well. That way on any laptop you connect up to, your gauge definitions would look correct. Does anyone have any opinion on this or knows if this is common? I've never messed with any tuner software so I don't have any frame of reference.
I have plenty of flash on board & I of course wouldn't store a bitmap file if the user went that far with the skin, but I would at least store the path to the bitmap(s) so if they had the bitmap still in the same location on the host pc it would be correct.
The only downside I see as it might take an extra 1/2sec longer on upload/download time when you connect up. I wouldn't of course drop the load/save to the pc. It would still be present. Truthfully, I struggle with a clean easy way to keep the user informed with exactly the status of their tuning session and what they have changed & where it's at. The tune can be stored in 4 places while you're messing with it.
1. The Harddrive copy
2. The values in the GUI as you're making changes
3. The runtime variables in RAM of the ECU
4. The sticky flash copy of the ECU.
I'll have some icons to show what fresh/stale & such, but I've not came up with a solution I'm happy with yet.
I've considered just making every download to the ECU sticky so 3&4 get combined as just the 'ECU'. I suppose you could combine 1,3,& 4. Then when you hit SAVE it just saves it everywhere. Simpler, but you lose some flexibility. And you still have to allow loading from PC or ECU.
Any suggestions or opinions on how you think the tune storage would make the best user experience would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Len