Benedikt,
I finally have my machine running and tuned the way I want and decided to install your 20170416 install-mod.
I extracted the ZIP to my USB, insert USB into controller and rebooted and nothing happened from normal.
When I extracted onto the USB all of the files were contained in a single folder. I copy/pasted all of those files to the root of the USB, insert into control and rebooted. This time I received the new graphic during boot. Once booted I can see the software version in the lower right corner is in fact yours.
For some reason I was expecting the UI to look different. Should it have? Did I do something out of sequence?
Also, I was not expecting for the upgrade to dump all of my parameters. Logically it should, but It was early and I had not had any coffee yet. Note to self and others....capture your parameters before any software upgrades.
Finally.
I was a bit intimidated with the software upgrade because the details/reasons are spread out over a large number of post here.
Is there a document I have not found that has step-by-step instructions for the install and what to expect that I am missing? I also would like to use the online parameter configurator....but cannot figure out how to get them in the machine.
I apologize for such trivial questions.
Rob
I am sorry that you lost your parameters. I have just fixed the installation script to keep your settings at any price.
If stuff doesn't work afterwards, the new, blank and working settings file is still copied to a different internal location.
The new upgrade can be downloaded from here:
https://www.bmuessig.eu/secure/data/CNC/DDCSV11/install-mod-20170416.zipThere is now also a Windows "installer" to help you:
https://www.bmuessig.eu/secure/data/CNC/DDCSV11/install-mod-20170416.exeTo make the installer work, download and run it. Select your USB stick as the target.
If it asks you to overwrite files, make it overwrite all (this will just overwrite system upgrade files, not your other ones).
The UI does not look any different (yet). Currently our efforts are primarily focused on getting the CNC functionality working. For this, we are reverse-engineering the original application.
For this I am primarily using IDA's decompiled output, which is unfortunately 97883 lines of pseudo C-code long. Some stuff is optimized out, made more complex or renamed to non-descriptive names.
This means we are having a hard time, but we are making progress.
Unfortunately at this point we are closer to running Doom on the controller than we are to running a new CNC application. But eventually we will have a completely new and modular UI and everything will work a lot more nicely.
For now, I am using my new knowledge to patch the original application at the assembly level to enable you all to do more with the original software until we can provide you with our completely new firmware.
It's fine to ask. I will eventually prepare a handy PDF with all the neccessairy details.
Most of this info is contained in the original documentation which can be found here:
http://robokits.download/datasheets/DS_DDCSV1_EN.pdfTo answer your questions, to install the software properly, you simply extract all the files inside the archive to the USB stick.
Let's say you are using Windows and your USB stick is E:
First, you unzip all files from the firmware upgrade.
Then you copy the files (there should be these elements: upgrade.do, splash.ppm, install, upgrade) to E: (not to a sub-folder of E: or it won't work).
Now, use Windows' option to safely remove the USB stick and remove it, when Windows asks you to.
Next, head over to the controller and cut power to it. After it beeped, plug in the USB stick and then re-apply power to it. The controller will now do everything it needs to do to complete the installation and will eventually return to the home screen that you are used to.
Now, you can unplug the USB if you want to. You can remove the upgrade.done, splash.done files and the install.done and upgrade folders from the USB stick, but this is optional.
Now to the online configurator. Head over to
http://bmuessig.eu/tools/pandora-configurator/ and dial in your desired configuration.
Click on the Submit button to generate the configuration file. When the submit worked, you should see a webpage where it shows your configuration file. You can click on 'download' (in the line of text written in red) and save the file directly to your USB drive (e.g. E:\) or on 'continue editing' if you would like to change some more values.
Now, while the controller is on, insert the stick into the controller and wait for 10 seconds.
Now, press the page button for 4 times, until you see the file manager for the second time (this is a bug in the original software which we can't yet fix) and go into /udisk-sda1 (if you are not in there already) and use the arrow keys to hover over the userVar.set file.
Now press Enter to confirm and wait for 5 seconds. Finally cut power to the controller and re-apply it.
The new settings should now all be present and work.
I hope this helps.
Best regards,
Benedikt