Feeler: Open Source OBC Firmware

[vollosso]

So how is the testing going guys?

I have only had a moment to open it and make sure shipping didnt ruin it. At the end of last month I got a out of the blue promotion. I have been spending like 60hrs a week on work and have not had the energy to lift a finger to this project. I have been waiting to post this to see if I get anyextra time or energy, but it seems there is no light at the end of my tunnel ha. If anyone else would be interested in developing with my board please send me a pm with your basic skillset so I can choose someone.

[H2oiamwater]

If i kept coding after high school id so be pitching in.

I hope you can figure something out with it.

Biggest feature I'd love to see on it is my radar detector integration or even my laser jammer.

Good luck guys.

[daandaman]

I have only had a moment to open it and make sure shipping didnt ruin it. At the end of last month I got a out of the blue promotion. I have been spending like 60hrs a week on work and have not had the energy to lift a finger to this project. I have been waiting to post this to see if I get anyextra time or energy, but it seems there is no light at the end of my tunnel ha. If anyone else would be interested in developing with my board please send me a pm with your basic skillset so I can choose someone.

Did someone already contact you about this?

And what is happening with the other two developers?

[stefanom3]

I am interested in development but I still haven't done the OBC conversion...
got into some mechanical stuff now. any idea how much time it usually takes to upgrade the 11 button POS?

[mpr3ssiv]

Subscribed!

[Nomade30]

I bought the board from vollosso, hopefully I can get a lot done during Christmas break.

[daandaman]

Oh, well that means I don't need to :P Can you give us some info on what you can do?

[benemorius]

Sorry for the lack of updates from me. I'm pretty bad about keeping up with forum stuff once I fall behind. I've been busy with life as usual, but I have been working on openobc code off and on. To be brief, basically all that's missing at this point for openobc firmware that's a drop-in replacement for the factory obc is the user interface and some simple averaging and logging code to compute all the information that the factory obc could display.

I think I've gotten all the low level code for the vehicle functions working and all wrapped up in to classes. Aside from the obligatory testing and bugfixes, it's just about ready to replace the factory obc. I've implemented the diagnostic communications and some skeleton classes for the vehicle modules. All that's needed to finish them is some quality time in the garage with an openobc listening in on some inpa communication with all the modules to sort out the commands and figure out how to read the data in the replies.

I'm still working outside of the mbed environment but aside from some low level implementation details regarding interrupt routines and the odd peripheral, it would still be quite possible to port the code to mbed. Where possible, I've tried to emulate the mbed api to ease such a transition. I still like the idea of using the mbed ide to make it as easy as possible for anyone to modify their openobc firmware, but I find the ide impossible to work with for any length of time.

[daandaman]

Thanks for the update! Any idea about a timeframe for the second production run that we can start using? With beta functionality?

[Joylove]

Sorry for the lack of updates from me. I'm pretty bad about keeping up with forum stuff once I fall behind. I've been busy with life as usual, but I have been working on openobc code off and on. To be brief, basically all that's missing at this point for openobc firmware that's a drop-in replacement for the factory obc is the user interface and some simple averaging and logging code to compute all the information that the factory obc could display.

I think I've gotten all the low level code for the vehicle functions working and all wrapped up in to classes. Aside from the obligatory testing and bugfixes, it's just about ready to replace the factory obc. I've implemented the diagnostic communications and some skeleton classes for the vehicle modules. All that's needed to finish them is some quality time in the garage with an openobc listening in on some inpa communication with all the modules to sort out the commands and figure out how to read the data in the replies.

I'm still working outside of the mbed environment but aside from some low level implementation details regarding interrupt routines and the odd peripheral, it would still be quite possible to port the code to mbed. Where possible, I've tried to emulate the mbed api to ease such a transition. I still like the idea of using the mbed ide to make it as easy as possible for anyone to modify their openobc firmware, but I find the ide impossible to work with for any length of time.

[benemorius]

I bought the board from vollosso, hopefully I can get a lot done during Christmas break.

That's great! Let me know if you need any help getting started. I've just pushed a number of updates to my github repo but you may wish to first test the board in your obc so you can start with a known working setup before reflashing the firmware on it. I tested the board in my obc just before boxing it up so it should work out of the box.

At this point (commit 9435a9f) the obc will wake and sleep when the car is turned on and off, and will display human readable data for most (all?) of the original obc functions depending on which button you push. (fuel consumption, speed, fuel tank level, etc.) As yet there is no logging or averaging so the data shown on the display is a real time sample of whatever data is relevant to that function. Also some of the unused buttons activate tests for various things like relay outputs and diagnostic communications.

What we need the most right now is a cleanly implemented user interface to replace the switch(displayMode) block or the entire mainLoop() to handle the button events and manage what's shown on the display. After that, it's just a bit of code to average data for the functions that require averaging (consum, range, dist, etc.) plus whatever I've overlooked, and we'll have a drop-in replacement for the factory obc.

Thanks for the update! Any idea about a timeframe for the second production run that we can start using? With beta functionality?

While it's fairly easy to give a rough estimate of "a few weeks" as an eta for the next batch of hardware, that estimate is unfortunately measured in actual days/weeks spent working on the project for at least some amount of time each day. It's much harder to estimate how often I or anyone else will actually have time to do anything I'm afraid, so the actual total estimate is undetermined.

Optimistically I'd like to think it could happen in a month or two, but not too long ago I was optimistically hoping it would happen in time for christmas. I've just undertaken a fair amount of home remodeling so my time is a lot more limited than it was a couple of months ago. I don't yet know if I'm going to try juggling both projects or just get the remodeling out of the way first.

I'd really like it if we could get the firmware to a point where it can replicate all the original functionality of the factory obc before spinning the next board. That wasn't my original plan but it's so close now that it seems foolish to do otherwise.

Once the firmware gets there (possibly in a few weeks with help from Nomade30) it may be appropriate to get a formal count of the people who would want a board from the next batch. Perhaps we could simultaneously discuss and solidify any additional features that this hardware revision will have beyond the first revision, and then we can have a pretty good idea of when we might actually get the boards.

[Nomade30]

Like you mentioned earlier, I would appreciate a simple walk through of using the USB to flash it, don't want to brick it (don't trust my EE skills that much lol) and for the life of me I cannot find my JTAG stuff.

I'm currently waiting on my soldering friend to put the board in the OBC. Hopefully that can get done this week, or weekend. Then I'm free from finals and other projects so I can start working on what needs to be done, it might also be helpful if on the website we had a list of current To-Do's.

Once I get it tested, and successfully update the firmware to the newest version; I will be documenting all of my progress on a blog (not yet setup) as well as github (which I'm willing to upload to the existing one if you want).

[benemorius]

Like you mentioned earlier, I would appreciate a simple walk through of using the USB to flash it, don't want to brick it (don't trust my EE skills that much lol) and for the life of me I cannot find my JTAG stuff.

I'm currently waiting on my soldering friend to put the board in the OBC. Hopefully that can get done this week, or weekend. Then I'm free from finals and other projects so I can start working on what needs to be done, it might also be helpful if on the website we had a list of current To-Do's.

Once I get it tested, and successfully update the firmware to the newest version; I will be documenting all of my progress on a blog (not yet setup) as well as github (which I'm willing to upload to the existing one if you want).

Do you mean a walk through just for the flashing process or do you need to get a development environment set up to compile the source into a .bin file as well? Also what operating system are you working from?

Fortunately it won't be possible to brick it at all using usb or jtag to flash. At some point we'll add flashing from sd card/flash drive and over wifi/bluetooth and bricking may become a possibility then, but such bricking would always be recoverable by reflashing from usb or jtag.

I'd love to start documenting things and tracking what's done and what needs to be done but I haven't taken the time to do anything yet. I'm sure we could get a wiki going on the website again for that.

[vollosso]

Nomade, sounds like I chose well with you. I'm excited to see you guys proceed!

[Nomade30]

Do you mean a walk through just for the flashing process or do you need to get a development environment set up to compile the source into a .bin file as well? Also what operating system are you working from?

Just the flashing process, I'm pretty sure I can build the .bin fine. But as this gets more popular I'm sure it wouldn't hurt. I'm working with Windows 8 and I have other computers with Linux if it's needed.

The only thing that scares me is all the options with flash magic, I've only ever flashed embedded stuff with flash utilities for that specific system. But I'm a very determined person, once I get the board soldered on I'm sure I'll figure it out.

[benemorius]

Just the flashing process, I'm pretty sure I can build the .bin fine. But as this gets more popular I'm sure it wouldn't hurt. I'm working with Windows 8 and I have other computers with Linux if it's needed.

The only thing that scares me is all the options with flash magic, I've only ever flashed embedded stuff with flash utilities for that specific system. But I'm a very determined person, once I get the board soldered on I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Here is a screenshot showing the only settings that you might/should need to change from the defaults. Most of the settings don't matter or don't need to be changed. Just click the start button to begin programming. I don't think it's necessary to put a value for the oscillator frequency, but I did so just in case.

[Morgion]

Hell yeah I'm getting seriously excited here! Damn good job!

[Nomade30]

Here is a screenshot showing the only settings that you might/should need to change from the defaults. Most of the settings don't matter or don't need to be changed. Just click the start button to begin programming. You can probably get away with a faster baud rate. I don't think it's necessary to put a value for the oscillator frequency, but I did so just in case.

Alright thanks, as far as the physical part though. Do I just hook up the USB cable, or do I also need to provide power (12v) through the hooks? If I can use the round connector, what size and what ratings should I be looking for. Tried finding the answer in this thread, but I got to page 10 and figured it must not be listed.

[benemorius]

Alright thanks, as far as the physical part though. Do I just hook up the USB cable, or do I also need to provide power (12v) through the hooks? If I can use the round connector, what size and what ratings should I be looking for. Tried finding the answer in this thread, but I got to page 10 and figured it must not be listed.

Sorry - you're right I haven't covered everything.

You'll need to provide power either through the hooks or the dc barrel jack or the vehicle wiring harness. The recommended power adapter for the dc jack would be 12V 1A DC, center pin positive, but anything from about 7 to 20 volts should be fine. You'll need at least 600mA or so, so a 500mA power adapter might not quite do. It does have reverse voltage protection on the dc jack, hooks, and vehicle harness, so no need to worry about accidental damage from polarity.

Once the board is powered you can just hook up a usb cable, confirm that windows has sorted the drivers out and check which com port was assigned, then run flash magic. The board will appear as a usb-serial adapter so you'll need to configure flash magic for which ever com port it has been assigned.

In addition to programming, the usb port is also used as the main debug console. In order to use it as such, it is necessary to ensure that the terminal software you use doesn't assert DTR or RTS since this would cause the micro to reset and/or enter programming mode. Unfortunately not all such programs let you override the control lines so this may not work without some tinkering. Baud rate is 115200.

The 4 pin header between the jtag and usb ports gives direct access to the debug uart. If you can't get your terminal software to play nice with the control lines on the usb serial port, you'll want to connect something (ftdi cable or other uart-serial adapter; bluesmirf dongle, etc.) to this instead to get access to the debug console. The pinout is in the schematic.

The button on the board by the jtag header is a reset button. The switch next to it controls when the obc sleeps. The left position causes it to never sleep and is useful on the bench when not connected to a vehicle; the right position is the "normal" position and will cause the obc to sleep when the key is turned off.

[Nomade30]

Awesome, that pretty much covers all my concerns about flashing it. Can't wait to get it back from my friend.

[Nomade30]

Took forever to get, but it's finally done. Now I will start working on it after Christmas stuff tomorrow. Whoo!

[EV36]

took forever to get, but it's finally done. Now i will start working on it after christmas stuff tomorrow. Whoo!

that is amazing!

[daandaman]

It's alive...alive!

Progress

[Nomade30]

Okay now I have done it. Tried flashing the new release. Now the OBC does nothing, tried flashing again. Got Lubuntu all setup for development, can you give me some simple instructions for linux for flashing?

[benemorius]

Okay now I have done it. Tried flashing the new release. Now the OBC does nothing, tried flashing again. Got Lubuntu all setup for development, can you give me some simple instructions for linux for flashing?

It will come back to life once you get a good firmware flashed on it again. What did you use to build and flash that time?

There's a utility for flashing that unfortunately doesn't appear to be in the repository. It's called lpc21isp. You can fetch, build, and install it like so:

apt-get install subversion
cd
svn co https://lpc21isp.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/lpc21isp lpc21isp
cd lpc21isp
make
sudo cp lpc21isp /usr/local/bin/

When the obc is plugged in, it will become a serial port at /dev/ttUSBx where x is the first available number. If necessary, you can `tail -f /var/log/syslog` while plugging it in to see which one it is, or just `ls /dev/ttyUSB*` before and after plugging it in. Flash like this, substituting the correct input file and serial port:

lpc21isp -control openOBC-devboard.hex /dev/ttyUSB0 230400 12000

You may need to unplug the usb cable and possibly reset the obc after flashing to get the new code to start running. I don't recall for sure.