You edit the post to add an [image] link to the url of the attachment.

In reply to:

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You edit the post to add an [image] link to the url of the attachment.

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Aaah, okay! Like a recursive.. attachment.

Thanks!
Mike.

..are in, thanks to Mr. Paul.. I am currently getting the "confirm order" page up and ready.. I'll have it up monday evening, (US/EST time). The prices I posted before will be it. Displays add $100 to the price.

I will go thru the list and send e-mails out to everyone who pre-registered @ www.pandahead.com/Xcrawl/vfd_signup.php -- They will be able to order (using their original e-mail address) before others. If you want to pre, you cat at the same url. Then, once I hear from everyone who pre'd, everyone else will be allowed to order...

I get the boards in Monday, and the parts from Digikey shortly after. I'll get the (simple) instructions up as well, p[ossibly make a permanent webpage so it dosn't look like some thrown-together project , and get them out in time for the 'olidays.

Me.

Last thing you said that I see is something about verifying VFD prices. Do you have the kits otherwise? I think I already have a K610A VFD in the next room...

Allright guys, Got the PCBs in, and am awaiting one last shipment from DigiKey.. I'm going to, tomorrow morning, start e-mailing the folks that pre-registered, and start getting them together.

Attached to the message here is a pre-run of the instructions. I have to finish the intro and test #2, but most of the meat is there. Glance over it, and let me know if it needs more work, etc. Its ~240k. (Have to re-find my Adobe Maker. The fonts are off and it's rather large. Apologies.

[Edit: Nevermind. Don't click the link. See next reply..]

Glance over it, and let me know if it needs more work, etc. Its ~240k.

And the BBS has a file size limit of 200k for attachments...

And the BBS has a file size limit of 200k for attachments...

Doh! I saw the little 'attachment' link there, never occured for me to actually try it. Okay, gimme until later tonight.

Me.

Okay. Try these. You'll notice that the meat and potatoes of it look much like PCA's tuner docs. Imitation is the best flattery, no? The format works, in either case.

Me.

Any luck with the software end of things? Last I remember, you were still looking for developers that could write and application to drive the external display. That might be a great wishlist for a 3.0 enhancement...

I personally haven't gotten anywhere. (Of course, like I said earlier, I'm NOT a programmer. I got as far as getting the basic information (Song, Time, Artist, Source, etc.) and displaying it. However, halfway thru my 'development' something changed in Hijack that now whenever I 'open' /proc/empeg, the supression of the notify strings from the player stops. So the player's output messes up anything I was trying to send the diaplay. I'm sure it's something dumbn that I'm (not) doing, but I don't know all the little ins & outs of C..)



Me.

V99 was going to help get something going. I think he's been busy lately, but hopefully he'll get sometime to help out.

Yeah I've been busy.. I've got some time now but I'm out of town and didn't bring my 7000 with me. I'll see what I can get done cleaning things up from my 3900 code and implementing the protocol without having to test on hardware.

Yeah I've been busy.. I've got some time now but I'm out of town and didn't bring my 7000 with me. I'll see what I can get done cleaning things up from my 3900 code and implementing the protocol without having to test on hardware.

If you want a small one to test on, let me know. I can send you my assembled beta to test with..

Me.

Thanks V99, this is going to be really cool

Turns out the 7000 is just about exactly the same protocol as the 3900, just a couple minor differences and the 3900 does some extra stuff.. So I have a theoretical implementation for the 7000. The k610a's protocol is very limited and simple so that's easy.

I also spent some time working on the drawing algorithm since it's particularly important to me (high res + slow serial on the 3900), think I came up with something decent. We'll see when I get back tomorrow.

If you want a small one to test on, let me know. I can send you my assembled beta to test with..

Sounds like a better idea than going back and forth with you seeing what works.. See PM.

I also spent some time working on the drawing algorithm since it's particularly important to me (high res + slow serial on the 3900), think I came up with something decent. We'll see when I get back tomorrow.

Just curious V99, does this mean the refresh rate will be increased for menus and graphics? The 3900 is a perfect size for my vehicle but I thought it might be a little slow compared to the 7000 which easly fit.

Yeah, if you draw things in a more efficient manner then there's room for more frames down the serial.. It worked fairly well, many of the visuals are fairly usable now, but the 3900/7000 doesn't have a latching command to update the display all at once so you can sort of see it drawing, and the algorithm I had looks bad like that.. I think there's offscreen memory I could draw to and then move the viewport though to do the same thing.

I can record a video of the 3900 (and the others once I get the 610 from foxtrot and test my 7000) if you want to see how fast they are.. Like I said before I find it perfectly usable.. The main slowdown with menus is that it tries to draw 2 or 3 intermediate frames between each slide of the menu, and each one takes a while.. maybe I can detect when menus are up and turn down the sampling rate.

I'm not done improving it though.. I need to check which commands obey they XOR drawing mode, because that could speed things up considerably, especially for some of the visuals (you can just draw 1s on all the pixels that changed, without worrying about whether they changed to 1 or 0). Checkerboard patterns in visuals or the clock are murder to the current algorithm (which draws long vertical lines, then the rest with horizontal lines). Last time I looked it seemed to be useless but I think I was drawing bitmaps at the time.

I also need to look into using startup macros to show a boot logo/animation and hide the junk the empeg sends @ 115.2 before the player app starts (only the 3900 supports that.. the 7000 is 115.2 so you'll just see the boot log, for the 610 I guess you're screwed unless you do something with a timer chip to disable the serial line for the first few seconds after power's applied). And increasing the priority of the joystick input app so it doesn't get starved by the player. And getting access to Hijack from joystick. And...

maybe I can detect when menus are up and turn down the sampling rate.

Or ask the Cambridge guys nicely for a config.ini option in 3.x to remove the menu animations to help support your external display?

Dumb question: how did you take pre-registration? I know I expressed interest here but if you did something more formal, I missed it.

Ah, I mentioned it somewhere. It's over at this page:

http://www.pandahead.com/Xcrawl/vfd_signup.php
Forget the 'Xcrawl' stuff. Just using their server for temporary holding space.

Even though I'm going to actually start taking orders Monday, I'll be going through all the ones who signed up first. So go ahead and preorder, I'll get to ya'll first.

Me.

Woo.

So I assume you haven't decided if you'll be doing "with VFD" yet? I don't see a way to "modify", but if you do I was going to switch to 1 with VFD and 2 without.
If not, eh, no big deal.

Thanks a ton for doing this. It was on my list of "eh, I should do that" projects that never quite ever get to the top of the pile.

Right now, I'm going to hold it at one. No matter how many PCBs you get.
I got a limited supply from pgrzelak, which he got from Noritake. (About.. 20 units.) Once first run of orders are gone, I'll let people order extra units seperately. (Maybe he'll sell 'em directly.)
So, for now, I'm limiting it to 1 VFD per person. As many PCB's as you want..

Thanks!
Me.

Ok. So can I switch my order from 3 boards, to 2 boards and 1 board+VFD (all kits) somehow, or will you be mailing when you get that far?

Mike, will you still be notifying by email those who signed up?

Mike, will you still be notifying by email those who signed up?

Yes, everyone who preordered will be getting an e-mail, starting Friday (have to finish my little web-script), in order of folks who signed up..

The e-mail will contain what you originally signed up for, and the link to verify your order. (You can change it, too.)
Had a tiny setback, as digikey sent me 25 pieces of a connector that .. well.. I can;t do a thing with. So I'm waiting for the CORRECT ones to come in.

Me.

Ok. So can I switch my order from 3 boards, to 2 boards and 1 board+VFD (all kits) somehow, or will you be mailing when you get that far?

Yeah, I'll drop you a line when you're up. You're free to change it.

Floodgates are open!
I'll be sending out e-mails to people who have signed up before hand, and then, in a few weeks, everyone else can order.

Thanks!
Mike.

Woohoo!

Awesome, this sounds exciting. But I haven't been following it closely so I don't know all the details. Is there a site or some other place where this project and product are summarized? Oh, and the Xclaw\something.php link didn't work for me. Thanks.