Fred's firmware development diary

[Fred]

I've been busy! Yesterday I majorly updated the http://docs.freeems.org site to actually have some content and links! Tonight, from 4am to 5am I just finally fixed up the makefile for full crossplatform OOTB goodness. It needs wintdows testing, but I might be able to do that tomorrow. If I can verify it's all good on windows, then I can do the release. I need to do some online tidy up too. It's close though, I assure you! :-)

Then, on with the things listed in the 901 thread.

Fred.

[Fred]

WoooHooo, all works on all platforms! Hooray!

Fred.

[Fred]

All documentation in the Makefile is up to date as of yesterday, and as of tonight, the release procedure list is updated too. You can see my TODO list here :

http://github.com/fredcooke/freeems-van ... cedure.txt

When I've got through those, you'll see it on the forum! :-)

Fred.

[Fred]

0.1.1 XGATED is out! :-) Many thanks to all involved, especially Sean Keys!

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?s ... 8064514021
http://docs.freeems.org/releases/0.1.1- ... ygen-html/
http://download.freeems.org/releases/freeems-0.1.1/

To see what is coming next, check out the new release sprint thread here :

http://www.diyefi.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=906

Fred.

[Fred]

I've been working on the websites and server for the last few days since the release. Things are starting to look fairly good. It still needs more thought and arrangement and the forum still needs distilling out into docs and writeups on actual sites, but its better than it was by far. I've just got gitolite installed on the server too, and my apache2 config pulled back to my box for the first time in ages.... this is a big step as I'll be using git to pull backups off the server in an efficient, repeatable and traceable way. For example, I now have a private remote backup of ALL of my private branches through this system. When I push I push to github, gitorious, and my VPS. This gives the public two options in case one of the free services is down, and me a second copy of absolutely all of my work. I can even give others access to various repositories such as some of the small sites and let them just go for it mod wise with no fear.

Work has also been continuing on the tool chain setup. Dave has been doing good work on Windows and Ubuntu and SeanK on the S12X instruction set stuff and Debian stuff. I'm excited to see that all squared away and rock solid before the next release!

The next release will be a solid base for the one after it, due to what has been chosen to be included. The one after it will be the foundations with which various engines could actually be run with relative ease for the first time. That is even more exciting. I need to focus on getting work as of right now, but that's OK because it will take Sean a while to sort out the tools and the loader anyway. I'm dead serious about seeing the project come to fruition fully in the next 12 months. MegaSquirt sellers, beware, this is going to explode and there is going to be a fall out for those not willing to change and adapt to a new market situation.

Fred.

[Fred]

http://github.com/fredcooke/freeems-tun ... 3919e9e64b

Tuner has dump and load to/from file support for the one table that it currently supports. This is obviously a temporary fix, but it does pave the way for eventually loading the volvo tune back into a later firmware easily.

Also, in the news :

http://github.com/djandruczyk/MegaTunix ... s/FreeEMS/

Exciting stuff! :-)

It doesn't do anything, yet, but it can't be too long now before it does! :-)

Fred.

[Fred]

I've done a little work today. The firmware releases directory has been renamed to avoid confusion. The docs dir has been tidied up with file name changes and some extra directories. And I disabled the experimental PIT ignition code to stop it misbehaving for those testing using the nippondenso firmware. I also helped a new tester get up to speed :-)

I need to create a JimStim connection diagram, and a simple pin out document showing the common stuff in a simple way, much like the power/ground connectivity diagram that I did a while back.
Also need to bring the comms docs up to scratch so that dave can use them. They may already be, but I just don't know now. It's been a while...

Fred.

[Fred]

Updates!

Tuner load from / save to file functionality is only 3/4 good. You can get a tune out of the ECU, into a file, out of a file, but not backi into the ECU, not without going through each cell one by one. I may have a crack at that, or I may flag it and focus on the next issue...

I tried tuning the device using the tuner again and I had issues. It worked sweet to adjust ram values, but I could not get it to burn them to flash. Now, there are two possibilities, one, the tuner isn't sending the packet, two, the firmware isn't acting on the packet. Neither seem likely, both seem unlikely. Neither pice of code has gone through any change since they were known to be working sweet. Esp not the tuner.

Another thing I noticed, which was in contrast to what Rob and I observed in Florida was that every packet seems to make it to the device. I had previously thought that some were getting lost, however when hitting either reset button, the device reset every single time. which pretty much proves that the device gets all packets in duplex just as designed and coded for. And leaves the question of why it sometimes doesn't update the internal cell value, and never burns.

That behaviour needs more observation/testing.

Fixing/diagnosing the unable to burn issue would be a LOT easier with an "always resond" architecture. Because I'll waste time figuring that out if I do it without compulsory response, I'll code the response behaviour first, and update Dave's docs.

Other than that, I've been working on the server quite a lot, and this week I'm building a custom MS2 unit for a hot little turbo hatch viewtopic.php?f=3&t=932 in exchange for food/wine/inet/bed. Along with more server stuff and CV stuff, and life tidying, etc.

Fred.

[Fred]

OK, the lack of burn turned out to be my memory failing ;-) I forgot that we used the mem utils tab to burn data in Florida. So when I tried that, of course, it worked. I wired up the button that I was trying to use such that it works now. See the latest tuner code from either my repo or Aaron's, he gave me permission to push to it. I also added a send to ram button but just as a stub. With that button fuel tuning would be more or less complete for a single table. Then it would just be a matter of pulling in config to handle different tables with the same code, swapping labels, units, scales, etc.

I also got my bench rig setup again, yay. Now would be a good time to spec out the dev board in Quan's thread. I verified that a pin comes on when you run the code, as reported by `CHR1S. It's caused by some debug. I just have to look into why exactly I have debug on those pins...

I'm still going to rework the serial stuff and update the docs. Then we can start towards getting support into mtx, which would be super cool.

Still working on the MS2 unit. I need to document what I've done so far and write it up in that thread. Still need to mod the ms2 card and route the output signals and buffer them and buffer the LEDs too. You wouldn't believe how much stuff I've left off the board. More than half. If that doesn't say how flawed and just plain wrong they got it, I don't know what does.

I'm unimpressed with diyautotune's loom, too. Not user serviceable/moddable = fail in my books. MS is constantly being customised and you cant change the pin out on that loom or even add other wires, the plug is a crimp style one with the inserts already done, and no spare pins included. Fail. It's still worthwhile for the wires, but they'll be completely different when I've hacked this one up and made it useful. It's a shame to see Jerry's products go the same way of MS itself :-/

Also, does anyone reading this know what D-extra is for? LOL. A random part included in the kit, but not mentioned anywhere as far as I can tell. In the kit came a piece of paper stating to start threads on some other forums and email diyautotune. I'll be continuing the thread here and suggesting that they sign up and post on the issues I've had.

Fred.

[Fred]

Just a quick FYI, MegaTunix will soon support the JimStim with its later 2.0.3 firmware, very cool :-)

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=935&p=11361#p11361

Fred.