Fred's firmware development diary

[Fred]

Here I am again at 340am hackity hacking on code in bed. More progress made, still not much to say/show/tell. By the end of next weekend I hope to have it usable. Should be a glorious moment indeed :-) Right now I'm working on structure and unique features to go with that. Once the structure and general usability of the framework is solid, I'll fill in the sandwich with some meat and veges and it should all just work. Don't cross your fingers, not required. :-p

[Fred]

Can you guess the time? That's right, 3am. Lots of good progress today, though :-) Finished hacking an hour ago, new feature working correctly and achieved. Just made a slight tweak to it to preserve menu ordering, and it's 100%. I did some performance tests today, and got some pretty encouraging results well above the frame rate of both my monitor and my eyes. Next up is a new structural feature, then I can finally start adding real guts, HOORAY! :-) I mean, I wrote a lot of the guts first, before the framework, so there is less to do than one might imagine, however, it'll be great fun to start integrating it all in earnest :-)

EDIT: Make that 5:30am :-p More behavioural functionality added! :-)

Sleep...

[Fred]

Congratulations Senor Cebolla! Appreciate your help and support very much! Thanks man! :-) viewtopic.php?f=41&t=1960&p=33442#p33442

[Fred]

3am, again, preparing for roll out of the new product, again, good progress, again. Still need to add the last structural feature, though. Added a bit of guts to it just for fun. And some release engineering/packaging stuff, too. So far, so good! :-)

[Fred]

Only 1am, but I succeeded and finished the structural work! Meat and potatoes now :-)

Good progress on hw today, too.

And I'm going to visit #19 :-)

Fred.

[Fred]

I learned a lot and got a lot done today. Got some further structural clean ups and improvements done. Started integrating pre-written library content into my new app. Hope to have it fully usable in a basic way by the end of the week. I've got other things to focus on after, and perhaps before, that, though. More news as it comes to hand :-)

[Fred]

Today I drew up a TODO list and a calendar for the trip to see #19 and began work.

This involved actually working on the firmware, for a change, and for the first time in a while. SURPRISE. I hope to have something usable and testable by the end of tomorrow.

I'll be bench testing it first, then I'll need volunteers to test the ones that I can't! I can test even tooth, and missing tooth, and the two Mazda decoders. I don't think I can test any of the others, however they all need changes, so all will need testing before this gets pushed to master as a final change. That means:

• Sean for GM LT1 CAS decoder.
• Peter for Honda J Series V6
• Presto's Mrs Double edge distributor, though maybe I can bench test this one too.

Guys, your testing will be "blind" so it'll pay to inspect my changes to your files before proceeding to attempt to run with the new code. Others who I'll need to test the ones that I bench test should be able to have some faith that it works, as I'll attempt to prove it before distributing the changes in the first place.

This code will make running with FreeEMS much safer and happier :-)

It'll also mean that if you get a sync loss while driving it'll be more extreme and more violent, which means you'll know about them to fix your wiring, rather than wondering what that "blip" was.

Fred.

[Fred]

No further firmware hacking today, however good progress made on the new app. It's almost behaving like "the real thing" now :-) And structurally, it's really quite good, unlike the real thing...

I'll focus on the firmware tomorrow, and get back to the new app on Saturday. Lots to do, no time to lose! :-)

Also, a couple of wayward ice-hockey champions have matching tickets to mine. Who'd've thought!

And a slight addendum for the above post, Sean pointed out that he has a lathe and spare CAS! Even better. Only Peter has to be brave, now :-)

Fred.

[Fred]

Forgot to hack on the firmware today, got carried away with the new app instead, and made very good progress indeed :-) Tomorrow is a day of chores, so I'll likely use the remainder of the time to complete some more tasks on the new app, especially the one that I abandoned before bed. Can I bring it up to a genuinely usable standard by the end of Sunday? Stay tuned to find out.

[Fred]

Same again, massive progress, though. Really closing in on a usable solution now. Tomorrow I have some "chores" to take care of, same following morning, then back to code face. Hoping to get 256 tidied up in the next few days. I'm on a roll with this other thing, so didn't want to stop...