Specs for Mac/Linux program to update firmware?

[khorton]

Currently, the official Dynon program to update firmware only runs on Windows.  Given that most people run Windows, and it costs money to develop software, this is not surprising.  But, there are a number of current and future customers who don't own a computer that has Windows on it.

I request that Dynon release the specs that describe the communciations that occur between the firmware uploader program and the Dynon EFIS and EMS.  Then, users could create an open source program that would backup settings, backup current firmware, load new firmware, etc.  It shouldn't be rocket science to create a perl or python program that did the communication, and then once it was working on the command line create a GUI for it using Tk, GTK, or wxWidgets, etc.  This should work on OS X and Linux laptops, in principle.

The cost to Dynon would be low (the cost to clean up the documentation of the communication specs).  The technical risk should be low (assuming the EFIS and EMS run some sort of CRC on the firmware to check for corruption). The usefulness to users would be high.  Dynon gets more sales to Mac and Linux users  Everybody wins.

 

[dynonsupport]

Re: Specs for Mac/Linux program to update firmware

While in principal we'd love to accommodate this request, in practice, the support program is a fairly complex piece of software. The communication specs can change from version to version. The overhead of documenting our communications protocols and methods to the extent needed so that you could create a Linux or Mac support program approaches the effort that would be required to actually create those versions of the program. Also, note that such documentation would need to be maintained as the support program changes with every release, so it wouldn't be a "one time" thing.

Getting the serial communication between our units and the support program exactly right is absolutely critical as well. If a firmware upload is interrupted, the unit needs to be roundtripped to Woodinville, WA for repair. Though Windows has its well-publicized warts, the last few releases have had pretty excellent hardware driver support, and provide reliable exposure to the serial ports.

In summary, because of the critical and complex nature of the support program's operations, we will not be able to accommodate this request.

 

[khorton]

Re: Specs for Mac/Linux program to update firmware

Is there any chance of ever moving the support program to something cross platform like Java?

I used to be able to use my work Windows laptop to run the support program. But, the IT folks now have it so locked down that I can't install any software on it, so I can no longer use it for this task. I'll need to somehow find someone to borrow a Windows laptop from, or spend many hundred dollars to purchase a computer that won't be used for any other task.

 

[lgingell]

Re: Specs for Mac/Linux program to update firmware

I guess the other angle would be that if, in future, a module like the HS34 would be available with a couple of knobs, IO ports and an SD card slot (minus anything else).... It could be used for datalogging and firmware updates. Of course, triggering the firmware update to the right device over DSAB could be the challenge!

If such a thing could happen, I nice INI/TXT/XML file with all of your units parameters that was read from the SD card would be nice. That way you could see your config and change it at the comfort of your desk or whatever.

Of course, maintaining the support program and a card reader method doubles the effort somewhat.

Thanks for not just 'dumping' the hardware in the units and making them obsolete so you could move on to new stuff though. There are some companies that do that. I prefer the Dynon approach of 'keep the hardware' and 'add features in software' where you can.

..lance

 

[svanarts]

Re: Specs for Mac/Linux program to update firmware

Is this an Intel mac? If so you could run Parallels or (ICK) Virtual PC if you have a PowerPC laptop.

Not sure about either products USB serial cable support though.

 

[khorton]

Re: Specs for Mac/Linux program to update firmware

Is this an Intel mac?  If so you could run Parallels or (ICK) Virtual PC if you have a PowerPC laptop.

Not sure about either products USB serial cable support though.

I'm running a 12" PowerBook G4.  I've considered buying MacBook, but it is about 2" wider than my PowerBook, and I really, really like the small size of the PowerBook.

I eventually remembered that I had an ancient copy of Virtual PC, with Windows 98, stored away in the basement.  I was amazed that it ran, and it was able to upgrade the EFIS firmware.  It was able to use the USB serial cable - the OS X driver presented it to Virtual PC as an available serial port.  More details here.

 

[svanarts]

Re: Specs for Mac/Linux program to update firmware

Glad that worked out. I missed that other post. I have to echo what the other poster said, my 13" MacBook is nice and compact, very light too. I'll have to compare to some of the G4's we're taking back in at work. I don't think it is much bigger. Much faster though.

 

[Snowflake]

Reviving an old thread, I know, but maybe this will help others who have eschewed Microsoft products now that they have found greener pastures...

I run Linux at home and on a Netbook, and occasionally when I absolutely need to get a Windows program running, I try an interpreter called WINE. That stands for WINE Is Not an Emulator. It basically takes windows system calls and turns them into OS system calls. It runs on most flavours of Linux, so may be available for MacOS as well (But I haven't looked).

I finally happened to be thinking about updating and thinking about my netbook at the same time, and thought what the heck, let's try Wine to load the Dynon software. It loaded perfectly, and seems to run just fine. I have not tried a firmware update yet, i'll do that this weekend. My recollection is that the USB to serial port cable will show up as a serial port to the Wine interface, so it might work just fine.

I'll try to remember to come back here and post an update once i've tried it.

 

[Snowflake]

UPDATE!

To my delight and (small) surprise, the Dynon Update Utility works just fine under Wine. I just updated my EFIS-D10A and my EDC-D10A to the latest (5.5.0) firmware using it, on a netbook that only runs Ubuntu.

I needed to configure the USB to Serial adapter so Wine would find it, but once that was done it worked perfectly.

My system is running Ubuntu 13.10, and i'm using a cheap Chinese USB-Serial adapter (company name is "Prolific"), but Ubuntu recognized the adapter without incident. I'm happy to be running the latest firmware again.

One thing that didn't work like the last time I did an upgrade... I edited my built-in checklists using Notepad, and then copied/pasted the block of text into each page in the checklist editor. Under Ubuntu, you can copy the text *out* of the Dynon editor and paste it into gEdit, but for some reason when you copy it from gEdit, it won't paste text back *in* to the Dynon editor again. So I may need to edit my checklists at the office where I have a Windows computer, and then just bring the file over to my netbook for install.

I hope this helps others who might be in the same situation... I'd be happy to answer any questions if anyone has any.