2.00 Firmware - Proposed Update Procedures and Associated Costs

[jwight]

What Dan said.   

[mvaldes]

Have you decided what firmware you'll be offering when the programing units are finally available? More specifically, I was wondering about your earlier comments about there being enough storage so that you could offer a few pedal maps along with v1 of the cruise software. If you choose to do that will you pick some maps and package it as a bundle or could you let the user pick which maps they want? If the latter was an option, then one could program in one set  pedal maps for weekend playtime and then replace them with a different set for weekday commuting.

[admin]

First a quick update because I'm sure you're anxious:  still haven't received anything.  I was expecting an update on Monday.  I've sent him a message asking where we're at and I'll report when I know more.

To answer your question:  The plan is to first release 2.0 beta so at least for a little bit we can focus on making sure the programmers work as expected and that people aren't having any troubles.  Work out the kinks of that process.  Fairly rapidly though, I hope to post a spectrum of V1 + pedal map options.  So yeah, you could choose the pedal map you want and program a different one whenever it suits you.

With programmers available, it makes development of the firmware a lot more rapid because we don't have to package everything into a new release.  We can more easily have micro-releases that make more minor changes because we wouldn't have the logistics problem of having people send their units to us for programming.  It really should open doors.  Its just really too bad that we ran into this snag with getting the programmers built!  I'm sure we could have done it in-house by now three times over, but I figured there was no point reinventing the wheel if someone else already had the basic design down.  Oh well.

Art

[wizard of ahs]

Thanks for the update, Art 

Waiting for my programmer.........................

[admin]

The assembler is waiting on a back-ordered component before they can finish even the first few.  Its a pretty common part so I'm surprised its not readily available but I checked a few suppliers that we would use and sure enough, they're all out.  So the good news is, he has some almost ready!  The bad news is of course that now we have an indefinite delay again.

Art

[wizard of ahs]

Hey,

6 months ago it wasn't even a thought !!!

I think we can wait, after all, we waited patiently (? ? ?) for our 451's (cruise AND cars !!!)   

[admin]

I found another source for the programmers and thought I'd get some input before moving forward.

Option 1:  Keep waiting on the guy mentioned above to deliver... unknown time but then total price should be < $30 (possibly closer to $20 but it depends on several things).

Option 2:  Write it off and move on.  Buy from the new source but now the price of the programmers is going to be about $45.  Less if we can get the first guy to give us back some money, but I wouldn't hold our breath on that.

So I guess the question is... who wants a programmer and would you pay $45 or $30 or what?



When we get the programmers available (however we do it), the idea will be that all future cruise purchases will come with the same V1 firmware as always since it works.  Then we would release several modified firmware options, freely available for download, that add functions such as the various pedal maps and whatever else gets dreamed up in the future.  To take advantage of the new options, a programmer will be required.

Again, terribly sorry that this turned out to be such a series of delays.

Art

[mvaldes]

I'm in no hurry, but if you decided to bag the first guy, I'd find the $45 to buy one of the ones from the new source. I think you should do what works best for you as a business decision. It seems to me that you have a loyal following and most, if not all, would understand and support your decision.

[wizard of ahs]

I'm in no hurry, but if you decided to bag the first guy, I'd find the $45 to buy one of the ones from the new source. I think you should do what works best for you as a business decision. It seems to me that you have a loyal following and most, if not all, would understand and support your decision.

DITTO..................whatever works for you !

You have most definitely done right by us and we will stand by you 

[admin]

Thanks guys... I appreciate that.

I've ordered a single unit from company #2 and it should be here in "about 2 weeks".  Unfortunately, its coming from Hong Kong instead of Kentucky, but if it does what they say it does then I like it because it should be a lot smaller and won't need a USB cable (its build like a a USB thumb drive).  Plus its an existing product that they're modifying for our needs rather than building from the ground up so production should be a lot quicker.  Hopefully build quality is acceptable.  Once I get it and test it, we'll see if #1 will give us at least some of the money back and decide from there.

Art

[dancote]

Thanks for the update.

Count me in as well.

Regards,

Dam

[admin]

The single unit from Hong Kong finally arrived!

I was a bit annoyed because despite the fact that they claim to "test each unit" prior to shipping... it did not work.  However, it was the modification part (a different cable to work with our cruise) that didn't work and I was able to correct that so I could at least test it and then it worked perfectly!

So I've ordered up a batch of 100 and they'll be shipping directly to Steven.  How long?     OK well that's been an impossible question from Day 1 so I'm not even going to try.

In the meantime I'll get to work on the software so people can use it without advanced degrees.  The base software is provided free from Microchip ("Microchip" is like "Kleenex" in that it is a brand name that people tend to use to describe a type of product) for programming their family of chips, but it isn't exactly user friendly and we'll only be using about 1% of it.  I'll work on a dead simple interface for PC users.  Mac and Linux users will have to use the Microchip package as-is, but at least there is a version them!  Don't worry, it isn't that difficult.  Its just a little to utility for my taste.
 
Art

[mvaldes]

Oy, I'm a Mac user. Please translate "utility" into layman's english.  Does it mean there's no f'ing way I'll be able to use it? 
Or, is there a less dire translation?

[admin]

less dire... I think

I finished the "simple" version of the PC software in about 2 hours.  You plug the programmer into a USB slot and the other end into the "phone" jack on the cruise control (remove lid to access).  Run my software, find the firmware (that you would have downloaded on you PC previously), and wait less than a second and done.

For PC users that want to use the "full" software (as provided by Microchip), it would go something like this:

• As above, plug in the devices
• On the menu go File, Import Hex (and find the firmware)
• Click "Write" button

In other words... just as ridiculously simple.  The difference is that there's about 50 other buttons, menus and options that can get the curious in trouble.  My version doesn't have any of those nor do you need it.
 
For the Mac and Linux, I was sure it would be the same thing.  Real simple as long as you keep it simple.  However, I don't have anything but a PC here so I can't say for sure!  The PC version of the software from Microchip is V2.61 while for the mac it is V1.20.  Is there any way that you can download it, install it, start it up and get me a screenshot of what it looks like?  Here's the link
 
(for linux, you can get sourcecode to roll your own, or a kernel 2.4 binary or kernel 2.6 binary)
 
Hmm... now that I look more closely though, from the file name it appears to be a command line (non-graphical) version.  So no "buttons" to click, etc.  If that's the case, as long as you know how to run a program from a command line (I believe you Mac types call it "terminal") then it should be fine provided you give it the exact command its looking for.  I used the command line version for the PC and that's also 1.20 so I'd like to presume its the same command... but I've never used a Mac.

OK, I just finished reading some more... information is limited, but I think I gleaned that it will only work on Mac OS X.  Is that pretty much what everyone has in the Mac world?  If you have an older OS it won't work I don't think.  And if you DO have OS X, then can't you run Windows software anyway via an emulator?
 
Art

[admin]

V2 is now dead.