Gauges Pre-demo
01-31-2004, 09:48 PM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: IL
Posts: 2,930
I have a very basic pre-release demo of the gauges I have been working on, this has been slapped together into a bootable floppy over the last few days in my spare time. I do not even have a e6k at home right now to test this on as my car is in storage at work, so I've been transporting a floppy back and forth to and from work so I can work on it at home then test it at night here at work.
The image is available here: (right click - save as)
http://pengaru.com/~swivel/gdemo.img
This is a image of the floppy disk, if you want to try it you need a program that can write directly to a floppy disk. These programs are used often in making linux installation disks from windows/dos.
This is one of them:
http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/rawwrite.htm
and this one is just a simple dos version:
http://ftp.debian.org/tools/rawrite2.zip
Once you have rawrite use it to write the gdemo.img file to a floppy disk.
Then to try the pre-release out, boot your laptop with your e6k connected to it already, and your car on (doesnt have to be running, just make sure the e6k is on/booted) with the floppy disk you created in the drive. Make sure the laptop is configured to boot from the floppy drive, if you do this right you should hear the disk go then be greeted on screen by:
LILO:
just hit enter at this.
then some stuff scrolls by and it will ask you something like:
VFS: please insert root filesystem disk into /dev/fd0 and hit ENTER
just hit enter here.
then you'll be asked what serial port your E6K is connected to, choose 1-4 (if you never had to choose it in the DOS E6K software, it's probably 1, and you can just hit enter)
now hopefully gauges will appear on your screen.
This early buggy unpolished version only works in 640x480 mode, so if you have a very nice high resolution LCD screen 640x480 will be emulated on it resulting in not the best display, this will be selectable in the final version. There are other things incorrect, the coolant and intake temperature gauges are approximated, as I am still implementing the tables for correcting the non-linear output of the thermistors. You will be able to select what kind of sensors you are using (GM/haltech, or mazda's stock sensors for example will be included tables) for now it's just a bit off with simple scaling being used. The MAP input is a bit off since I'm not utilizing the map sensor type currently, it is supported just not in there yet. There are some bugs in the font rendering which are easy to fix I've just been busy with figuring out the E6K communications.
I hope to get some feedback on wether or not it worked at all, packing this into a single floppy disk is a difficult task especially trying to support PC graphics hardware to the point that you can do more than low resolution low color graphics (VGA is 640x480x16 colors max, I'm using VESA for 640x480x256 right now) For better support of the video hardware it will be difficult to fit it on a single floppy disk, but I will do it in the full version which won't be on a floppy.
Another thing you will likely notice is the gauges are lagged, this is because I have debugging features enabled right now, so latency is high. In a production build the low latency features and optimizations are enabled and the gauges respond in realtime to the engine, no noticable lag.
email me @ swivel@pengaru.com with any success or failure stories.
Please note, this software does not try to detect the E6K being disconnected, shut off, or power cycled while running. The code will be made more robust to deal with these things after the basics have been finished and are known to be done right.
Thanks, and no this won't touch anything on your hard drive, you can even set the read-only notch on the floppy disk after you write the image, it won't write to anything except your serial port. It also will not attempt to save any data to your ecu. It only makes requests to get data. This is primarily just a test to gauge the success of the video code, if you get a coherent display on your laptop once the gauges come up, it's considered successful. If you don't, I want to know what happened. The way the gauges perform after that point is not important at this time, especially with this version.
BTW, as this is using GPL'd software, if you want the source of any of the GPL'd components I have used and redistributed here, just contact me and I will give you the source code. The gauge code is not available at this time in source form, and is not released as GPL'd code, yet. (obligatory)
The image is available here: (right click - save as)
http://pengaru.com/~swivel/gdemo.img
This is a image of the floppy disk, if you want to try it you need a program that can write directly to a floppy disk. These programs are used often in making linux installation disks from windows/dos.
This is one of them:
http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/rawwrite.htm
and this one is just a simple dos version:
http://ftp.debian.org/tools/rawrite2.zip
Once you have rawrite use it to write the gdemo.img file to a floppy disk.
Then to try the pre-release out, boot your laptop with your e6k connected to it already, and your car on (doesnt have to be running, just make sure the e6k is on/booted) with the floppy disk you created in the drive. Make sure the laptop is configured to boot from the floppy drive, if you do this right you should hear the disk go then be greeted on screen by:
LILO:
just hit enter at this.
then some stuff scrolls by and it will ask you something like:
VFS: please insert root filesystem disk into /dev/fd0 and hit ENTER
just hit enter here.
then you'll be asked what serial port your E6K is connected to, choose 1-4 (if you never had to choose it in the DOS E6K software, it's probably 1, and you can just hit enter)
now hopefully gauges will appear on your screen.
This early buggy unpolished version only works in 640x480 mode, so if you have a very nice high resolution LCD screen 640x480 will be emulated on it resulting in not the best display, this will be selectable in the final version. There are other things incorrect, the coolant and intake temperature gauges are approximated, as I am still implementing the tables for correcting the non-linear output of the thermistors. You will be able to select what kind of sensors you are using (GM/haltech, or mazda's stock sensors for example will be included tables) for now it's just a bit off with simple scaling being used. The MAP input is a bit off since I'm not utilizing the map sensor type currently, it is supported just not in there yet. There are some bugs in the font rendering which are easy to fix I've just been busy with figuring out the E6K communications.
I hope to get some feedback on wether or not it worked at all, packing this into a single floppy disk is a difficult task especially trying to support PC graphics hardware to the point that you can do more than low resolution low color graphics (VGA is 640x480x16 colors max, I'm using VESA for 640x480x256 right now) For better support of the video hardware it will be difficult to fit it on a single floppy disk, but I will do it in the full version which won't be on a floppy.
Another thing you will likely notice is the gauges are lagged, this is because I have debugging features enabled right now, so latency is high. In a production build the low latency features and optimizations are enabled and the gauges respond in realtime to the engine, no noticable lag.
email me @ swivel@pengaru.com with any success or failure stories.
Please note, this software does not try to detect the E6K being disconnected, shut off, or power cycled while running. The code will be made more robust to deal with these things after the basics have been finished and are known to be done right.
Thanks, and no this won't touch anything on your hard drive, you can even set the read-only notch on the floppy disk after you write the image, it won't write to anything except your serial port. It also will not attempt to save any data to your ecu. It only makes requests to get data. This is primarily just a test to gauge the success of the video code, if you get a coherent display on your laptop once the gauges come up, it's considered successful. If you don't, I want to know what happened. The way the gauges perform after that point is not important at this time, especially with this version.
BTW, as this is using GPL'd software, if you want the source of any of the GPL'd components I have used and redistributed here, just contact me and I will give you the source code. The gauge code is not available at this time in source form, and is not released as GPL'd code, yet. (obligatory)
02-01-2004, 02:47 AM
#2
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: LA, USA
Posts: 1,622
This is awesome. IT worked. I know this is just the first version, the only thing that worked as the coolant but it was working like the tps would. The vules would start at 242 and when i step on it it would go down to 80 but this was on the coolant guage which seem to be acting like the throttle one. The RPM one was just stuck on 8k as you see. I did start the car for 2 sec and that's it. I odn't want to wake up the neighbors. I will try it again tommorow.
IT is awesome i can't wait for the final version, you should think about datalogging and maybe be able to run this along with haltech running.
C
02-01-2004, 10:26 PM
#3
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: IL
Posts: 2,930
Thanks turborotor, that is great news (coherent display on a untested laptop)
Do you know what kind of video chipset your laptop is? Or just the model specs would be sufficient, I would like to make a list of what has been tested / known to work.
I just today added code to support non-linear framebuffers in this video mode for old *** laptops (like the one I'm currently using) so I just got to test the code with the e6k for the first time in a while, it looks like some code cleanups broke the e6k communications, as I am experiencing the same craziness you are.
I should have a new image up really soon with the communications fixed (all gauges will function) and I've already fixed some rendering bugs that you might have noticed in the version you tested.
Thanks again, the demo should be usable and publicly available in final form soon.
Planned additions include datalogging, I also want to add programming capabilities eventually. But for now I am keeping things simple with just the gauges, I'll be adding scope style gauges (probably just hit a key to change the layout of the 'cluster' to a few pre-defined layouts) where you can see rpm, map, tps, iat, and inj ms all plotted over time in simulated scopes so some history is visible too. Should be useful for tuning. I would also like to add support for additional inputs, like an 11 channel ADC on the parallel port, so you can hook up a fuel level sensor, EGT sensors, and whatever else you want and have gauges for them.
I will keep everyone posted through this forum. If you have a E6K you will definitely like this when it's ready to go.
Do you know what kind of video chipset your laptop is? Or just the model specs would be sufficient, I would like to make a list of what has been tested / known to work.
I just today added code to support non-linear framebuffers in this video mode for old *** laptops (like the one I'm currently using) so I just got to test the code with the e6k for the first time in a while, it looks like some code cleanups broke the e6k communications, as I am experiencing the same craziness you are.
I should have a new image up really soon with the communications fixed (all gauges will function) and I've already fixed some rendering bugs that you might have noticed in the version you tested.
Thanks again, the demo should be usable and publicly available in final form soon.
Planned additions include datalogging, I also want to add programming capabilities eventually. But for now I am keeping things simple with just the gauges, I'll be adding scope style gauges (probably just hit a key to change the layout of the 'cluster' to a few pre-defined layouts) where you can see rpm, map, tps, iat, and inj ms all plotted over time in simulated scopes so some history is visible too. Should be useful for tuning. I would also like to add support for additional inputs, like an 11 channel ADC on the parallel port, so you can hook up a fuel level sensor, EGT sensors, and whatever else you want and have gauges for them.
I will keep everyone posted through this forum. If you have a E6K you will definitely like this when it's ready to go.
02-01-2004, 11:05 PM
#6
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: IL
Posts: 2,930
Originally Posted by thafox' date='Feb 2 2004, 04:42 AM
what's tha name of tha program? and where can i get tha full program...im having problems with tha links u've posted
you have to save the file at the URL above then use rawrite to copy the file to a floppy disk.
you also need to have a haltech E6K to make use of the software at this time.
02-02-2004, 02:44 AM
#9
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 2,315
Originally Posted by thafox' date='Feb 1 2004, 11:08 PM
o....i thought this was a program to make custom gauges an print them out...i didnt know it was for tha engine mngmt systems
anyway, peng, great job dude! looks like the project is making great progress, can't wait to get a copy from ya! btw are you gonna make a hawt boy version with like neon colors, jap characters, and strobe lights?
