This is a short summary post of the last three years or progress! :-)
Ages ago, I ran the first ever FreeEMS engine in the USA. I'm in the process of telling that story, you can/will be able to find it here:
viewtopic.php?f=41&t=1571
The reasons for no updates are many and varied, however I've been through quite a few life changing experiences in this time, that's probably the biggest one. The other is that we've all been VERY busy making history in every respect.
For those who don't know, I went through a nine month period of effectively being homeless. I started with about 1000usd of reserves and had to conserve cash. I made sure I ate a decent breakfast and light lunch every day, however most of the time I didn't eat dinner. During that time I lost 10kg/22lb of weight and got to know who were really my friends and who were not. Before I weighed in at 83kg/183lb and I'm 185cm/6'1" tall. I initially intended to get work and set myself up in a normal way, however the challenges of existing in that somewhat humiliating way meant that wasn't possible before the summer/xmas holidays a year ago. I did make it to one interview, though, after getting changed into a suit in a shopping mall disabled toilet and leaving the mighty hotel parked elsewhere so as not to be embarrassed by it. Nothing phases me.
It didn't stop me working on FreeEMS, though. Instead I spent a lot of nights parked outside the library using their wifi and idling the engine to keep the laptop alive by inverter power after letting it drain for a few hours (eees are good like that). It didn't stop me from maintaining most of my dignity and a good standard of hygiene, either. I exchanged work on cars for showers and food and when not hanging out with someone favour for favour bathed in the local lake to keep clean. I had quite a few chats with the police who are always suspicious about people parked in strange places late at night. One such chat lasted half an hour an consisted mostly of me offering him server advice and showing him what I was working on; at the end he checked my record for me, still clean, hooray.
About the time the 1000usd ran out I was explaining my situation to an internet-famous friend in the US after which he put up a sticky thread and managed to raise 300usd from about 20 small donations from other car guys. That increased my net worth by 200%. My costs were about 100nzd per week which consisted of 50nzd of 91RON fuel used sparingly mostly for power and warmth, 30nzd of cell phone credit used almost exclusively for talking to my then girlfriend in Spain, and 20nzd on food, mostly milk, cereal, peanut butter and bread. I should mention that the reason that I had only 1000usd in the first place is that i spent everything on tickets to do two things 1) Visit my girl in Spain 2) Attend a friend's wedding in Canada (BC). Love is blind, or so they say. Not more than a few days after the 300usd rolled in, I got an email from paypal and started crying. Another friend with significantly more means than those car guys had dropped me a decent amount of cash, enough to keep coding and bouncing around the city experiencing a seriously alternative life style.
The next phase of the 9 months was when I cut a deal with a friend to, gasp, install a MS2 on his car in exchange for floor, shower, inet and washing machine. He fed me pizza and Isaac's apple and pear cider from time to time too. For various reasons, mostly not my fault, that turned into a fairly extended stay as he scraped together cash to buy the parts for the car that were needed. We ended up taking my truck, which at the time had a dead engine, to his place to fix while working on his car. I put out a call to the Mazda community for a free bottom end to replace mine and a nice guy out in West Auckland came through with a 1.8 variant. Low compression, perfect for boost, or so I thought. About the time that we got the truck running again Marcos came through with the initial build of a few Pumas and I got mine into a usable state. Clearly the truck needed a new EMS. The old one had to go ;-) I got FreeEMS installed on it and running OK, things were looking up. Then I took the ex out for a blat in it to show her what it was capable of and put a rod through the side of the block. It turns out the 1.8 version has pencil rods and un-reinforced pistons, unlike the 2.0 that I was used to abusing. I was depressed for about 24 hours and then had an idea. Perhaps my mighty hotel had a hall sensor instead of points? It did! And so engine 3 was born a few days later :-)
Around this time I received an email from a certain friend asking if a fancy temperature controlled wine cellar would be enough to get me to visit. I asked if he wanted me to visit. He asked if "Gulliver was traveling". I said "if the offer is right!". And so the plan to get work changed into a plan to prepare to leave and go through the US on the way to Spain to be with my girl. Preston helped me a HUGE amount while preparing to leave, I owe him a few favours for that! My leaving party consisted of a car meet with a bunch of car guys in a carpark and Preston with engine 4 on the back of his truck blowing flames and noise into the night air. My sister and a few friends showed up too. It was a good night. The next day I got on a plane and took off not to see my beloved country again for quite some time. I got to the US and started working with Sean on getting his car up and running. Sure enough, two weeks of beating him around the head and we had engine 5. In just three months we had run four more engines! FreeEMS was on the up :-)
I mentioned my girlfriend earlier, she's now my wife. We married in Gibraltar with just a pair of strangers for witnesses, without the approval of her parents, and with everyone I know telling me that I was a fool. It's been a rocky road, with a slew of language issues and cultural differences, however we're both doing well and now living alone together in a little flat, still very much in love. Let's hope that it stays that way! :-)
Since I've been in Spain another 5 engines have run in various places, and unlike the first 5 I wasn't around to help make sure they went well. The system is starting to mature. Sadly for me and the wife, but happily for all of you reading this, the Spanish bureaucracy are glacial at best. I'm still living from donations and her fairly average wage and working 24/7 on making FreeEMS just the best it can be. Things are tight, so if you can spare a few dollars,
donations are very much appreciated. I promise to spend them on wine, pizza, transistors, tools, skype calls to other developers and other essential things, like milk and bread and water! :-)
Keeping FreeEMS on the straight and narrow has been a huge challenge for me. I'm a damn good developer, however the bigger challenge, and something I'm only really learning to do, is people management. Guiding and mentoring various people with their aspects of the project takes at least half of my time. I'll say it right now, I'm hugely grateful to everyone that has helped in any way. Whether it be documentation, installing it on a vehicle, coding on a related app, testing software, designing hardware, peer review, moral support and loyalty, a few showers and hot meals, cash or physical assistance, it's been very valuable. Thanks to you all for that!
So, where does the future of FreeEMS lay? If you ask me, right now, the future is EXTREMELY bright! There is some amazing work going into the hardware designs that are coming up to say hello, the firmware is maturing into something reliable and useful, the external tools are usable and growing steadily, and the community is starting to gain strength, breadth and depth. I'm proud of you all! :-)
In terms of the firmware, the current goal is to release 0.2.0 "Enthalpy" the sister release to the earlier "Entropy" release. After that is released the focus is on (0.3.0) a solid tuning interface, and I mean that in the broadest sense, IE, making it easy for people to develop tools to interact with the firmware. After that we're going to roll out Sean's XGATE bit bang work as 0.4.0 with the name of his choice. Following that the focus will be firmly on GPIO code to allow general use of any suitable pin for any purpose. In parallel with all of that the hardware fine tuning and related tool development and stabilisation continues. I expect all of this before next year. Right now there are ELEVEN
more engines that could run in the next few weeks or so!!! This year is going to be HUGE for FreeEMS, mark my words.
I hope that brings you all up to date in suitable detail!
Thanks again for your support!
Your utterly fearless leader, Fred.
Comments thread:
viewtopic.php?f=41&t=554