"Details" is still available from the "PopUp" option.. good enuf?

-ml

Yeah, with "Track Info" on beta7, the screen is NEVER 100% idle, due to that blinking "track position" dot. I'll adjust things in Hijack v85 (uploading now) such that the 100% means "100% minus one pixel". That will fix it.

On a related note.. now that Hijack can read the "notify=1" information, it can be aware of "paused/playing" mode, the current FID, and lots of other neat information. Of all of this, the "paused/playing" data might be useful for some things like the screensaver.

But using this info REQUIRES EXTRA WORK: the user must enable "edit config.ini" in Emplode, and the use Emplode to set: [output] notify=1

So I'm not sure that we actually want to take advantage of this extra info anyplace. Discussion?

-ml

Graphics routines don't need to be in assembly (but nice if they are), they just have to be written to run fast rather than look "CS Class Pretty", or possibly both simultaneously.

Are you sure your slowdown is not due to the ioctl() interface for userland screen updates? To test the theory, use the regular empeg MMAP function from empeg_display() to run your app while the player is shut down.. see if it's any faster that way (direct memory access, almost..).

If faster, then we can add a second mmap() page for the hijack buffer.

Cheers

-ml

such that the 100% means "100% minus one pixel". That will fix it

Thanks..that's helpful.

So I'm not sure that we actually want to take advantage of this extra info anyplace. Discussion?

I think for the purposes of the screen saver, it would be grand if it could "know" if it's playing or not, and behave accordingly. Are you saying the extra work consists of adding one line to the config file? That's hardly a great deal of work.

Doing a great job here, by the way.

Okay, v85 is out at http://rtr.ca/empeg/

This version has:
-- working implementation of /proc/empeg_notify, with the small exception that I forgot to fix the name, so it still shows up as /proc/empeg_no instead. That will be fixed in v86 in an hour or two. To use this feature, you have to add the [output] notify=1 lines to config.ini

-- If you want to supress actual output of notify=1 to the serial port, then also specify [hijack] block_notify=1 in config.ini. Note that this will also block the silly "dhcp" messages that stream out when no ethernet is connected on ac/home mode, but should not block anything else (or anything at all from a userland app).

-- There are some new #ifdef'd (disabled) menu entries in the source code for poking around at /proc/empeg_notify from the front panel.

-- the screen blanker now treats "100% sensitivity" as "100% minus one pixel", so that it will work with the "Info: Track" screen in beta7 (with the blinking dot).

Enjoy, and let me know if anything is still broken.

-ml

In reply to:

---

the Radio Data Service (RDS) patch is now integrated into Hijack, courtesy of René Vogt

---

Mark,

What is this patch exactly doing? I did not found any information about that here....

Thanks for a quick update.
bye

The RDS hack just causes all of the RDS data that is normally scooped by player software from /dev/rds0 to be echoed to a fifo called "/dev/rds1", a cheap way of making it available to a second userland application.

-ml

"Details" is still available from the "PopUp" option.. good enuf?

Umm, well, ummm... no?

It is just that I got really used to having it available at the push of a button. If you don't want to make it available as a standard redefinition I can program one of my steering wheel remote buttons to do it, but I am kind of low on remote buttons. Whatever.

-Mike

Are you sure your slowdown is not due to the ioctl() interface for userland screen updates? To test the theory, use the regular empeg MMAP function from empeg_display() to run your app while the player is shut down.. see if it's any faster that way (direct memory access, almost..).

That's good thinking. I will give that a shot to see what's up. The thing is, then I can't test it while the player is running, which is when I see more slowdown. There's still some level of slowdown when I run "sans player" but it's not as noticable. I'll see if I can figure out who the culprit is. Thanks for the testing strategy.

I can program one of my steering wheel remote buttons to do it

Well do you have a steering wheel button assigned to "Info"? Hold it down... Or if that doesn't work add a "Long press" modifier so that holding it down gets you the details screen. I'm guessing the Details was removed to make room for another option? (I don't have my Empeg near me right now so I can't check.)

>>"Details" is still available from the "PopUp" option.. good enuf?
>Umm, well, ummm... no?

Okay, since I know you actually use this, and I don't know that anyone else uses any of the other choices, I'll nuke the "Hush" function and put back "Details" onto the Quick Knob Press.

I am also modifying the PopUp choices to allow short/long presses of the selected buttons based on how long the knob is held in when selecting the PopUp item.. this will allow things like "Info/Details" on a single selection, or "Visuals/Favorites" for example.

This will (hopefully) be in v87 tomorrow.

Cheers

Just remember. You're a canuck. Don't forget to make release 99 extra-special. I figure you'll be there soon and I just wanted to make sure to mention it before I go away for few days.

Bruno

Don't forget to make release 99 extra-special

Actually since #99 is retired throughout the league, I think he should skip from 98 directly to 100...

Hey Mark... In v87 I noticed details is now in the knob press menu but it's not in the "popup" knob press menu.. Any way it could be put there as well? I like the popup so I can get easy access to Visual+, Info+, etc. but having details available there would be nice as well.

This guy is amasing i just wondering if a serial port an wear out though

In reply to:

---

That's good thinking. I will give that a shot to see what's up. The thing is, then I can't test it while the player is running, which is when I see more slowdown. There's still some level of slowdown when I run "sans player" but it's not as noticable. I'll see if I can figure out who the culprit is. Thanks for the testing strategy.

---

If you run other applications same time with the player, be aware that the player uses real time scheduling and if you want your process to get time more equally with the player, you also must use real time scheduling. The normal background tasks gets very little time while the player is running.

This topic has been briefly discussed, here.

Kim

if you want your process to get time more equally with the player, you also must use real time scheduling.

Aaaah yes I do remember that thread now that you mention it. I will also give that a shot. Though I'm wondering what the implications might be in terms of stealing too much CPU away from the player. It looks like I might find some time to test this stuff out this weekend.

Thanks for the tip.

>In v87 I noticed details is now in the knob press menu
>but it's not in the "popup" knob press menu

It's not on my Rio remote either, but if I press and hold "INFO" for a second or so then I get "Details" with it. The PopUp knob presses now work the same way.

So.. press and hold "Info+" for "Details",
and press and hold "Visuals+" for "Favorites",
and press and hold "Tuner" for "Presets", etc..

That's what the "+" signs are there for, as reminders..
I seem to have forgotten to add a "+" on the end of "Tuner" -- next release.

Cheers

-ml

Ahhhhhhh... My bad for not reading the destruction manual before I tried it out.

"restore visuals" now works with beta7

I'm using 2.0b7 (Consumer), with hijack 87, and I can't seem to get this to work. Every time my player boots up in the car, it starts off in "Now & Next" mode.

I do have some other wierdness that might be related... "Volume ramps up gradually" only works on my player the first time after I physically pull it out of the sleeve, and then put it back in. In other words, when I start my car with the player already in there, it comes on with the volume wherever I left it at, with no ramp. But, if I've just put the player in the sleeve, then the ramp works fine.

As far as I can tell, the player does think it's in car mode, because the dimmer menu item is there, and it functions as expected when I turn on my headlights.

One other thing I noticed though, is that I always have an option to "Force DC/Car Mode". Shouldn't this change to "Force AC/Home Mode" if I'm in the car? It doesn't...

So, I'm guessing that somewhere the notion of "Car Mode" is being lost.

Any ideas?

Let me know if you need more info, or have any tests you want me to run.

>I'm using 2.0b7 (Consumer), with hijack 87, and I can't seem
>to get this to work. Every time my player boots up in the car,
>it starts off in "Now & Next" mode.

Mmm.. Okay, we should be able to fix that.

What Info mode is active when you power down?
And what info mode is active when it powers up again?
And just before powerdown, could you run the "Show flash savearea"
(or whatever I named it), and tell me what you see in byte 40,
and in bytes 4C and 4D.

Thanks

40, 4C, and 4D correlate to 40, 48, & 50, right? I hope so, 'cause 4C and 4D aren't in there...

Anyway, here's the info:

On bootup, it allways starts off in "Now & Next" info mode.
40 0202 0001 D014 0000
48 79F1 5009 1505 0001
50 0000 0000 0000 0000

If I change the info mode to "Transient" I get this set:
40 0202 0001 D014 0000
48 79F1 5009 1105 0001
50 0000 0000 0000 0000

Hope this helps!

>On bootup, it allways starts off in "Now & Next" info mode.

>    "Now & Next"

>    40 0202 0001 D014 0000 

>    48 79F1 5009 1505 0001 

>

>    "Transient" 

>    40 0202 0001 D014 0000 

>    48 79F1 5009 1105 0001 

Are you sure those were from a DC-Powered Empeg? Or at least from one that was using "Force DC/Car Mode" at the time?

Taking into account your numbers and mine, we thus far have (combining locations 40,4C,4D into a single 6-digit number:

Visuals visible:

0x000004: // off (beta3, beta6)

0x000005: // off (beta7)

0x010004: // line (beta3, beta6)

0x010005: // line (beta7)

0x020004: // transient (beta3, beta6)

0x020005: // transient (beta7)

0x021515: // transient (beta7)



Visuals NOT visible:

0x020403: // track (beta3, beta6, beta7)

0x020404: // now&next (beta3, beta6)

0x020405: // now&next (beta7)

0x021505: // now&next (beta7)

0x020404: // infoseek (beta7)

Would anyone else like to join the fray and help us sort this out?

We are trying to figure out which flash values indicate "Visuals visible" versus "Visuals NOT visible", so that the "DC/Car Restore Visuals" feature can be made to work in all cases. The flash data of interest appears to be locations 0x40, 0x4c, and 0x4d (viewable from the Hijack menus). Of course, we ONLY care about values from "Car mode", not "Home mode"!!

Thanks

-ml

Oops.. I got that wrong in the previous post.
Here are the corrected current observations:

   Visuals visible:

   0x000004: // off (beta3, beta6)

   0x000005: // off (beta7)

   0x010004: // line (beta3, beta6)

   0x010005: // line (beta7)

   0x020004: // transient (beta3, beta6)

   0x020005: // transient (beta7)

   0x021105: // transient (beta7)   <--- corrected value



   Visuals NOT visible:

   0x020403: // track (beta3, beta6, beta7)

   0x020404: // now&next (beta3, beta6)

   0x020405: // now&next (beta7)

   0x021505: // now&next (beta7)

   0x020404: // infoseek (beta7)

>One other thing I noticed though, is that
>I always have an option to "Force DC/Car Mode".
>Shouldn't this change to "Force AC/Home Mode"
>if I'm in the car?

No, it should not. The original impetus for this menu item was a chap who's Empeg often thought itself to be on AC power, even when in the Car, due to a flakey sensor on the AC power plug socket at the back of the unit.

This menu item allows him to force the unit to work correctly in the car, whether the flakey sensor was working or not on any particular day.

And as it turns out, I (and others) now use the menu item all the time for feature testing "in the lab" (at home).. gotta make sure the car settings still work (Hey! It's getting colder outside now -- in Canada).

Cheers

-ml

As noted in another subthread, could you try setting "Info-none", "Info-line", "Info-transient", "Info-Track", "Info-now+next", "Info-Seek", and (whew!) "Info-Details", while in DC/Car mode, and then use the "Show Flash Savearea" menu item to dump out locations 0x40, 0x4c, and 0x4d for each of those. Please report back with your observations.

Thanks

-ml

Are you sure those were from a DC-Powered Empeg? Or at least from one that was using "Force DC/Car Mode" at the time?

OK, so I just re-checked everything, in AC, DC, and AC with "Force DC/Car Mode", and the readings are the same every time. The only thing that changes is that "1505" is there in "Now & Next" mode, and it turns into a "1105" if I switch to "Transient".

So, I guess my player isn't really switching into Car mode...?

No, your player is very likely working correctly, and switching into DC/Car mode on command.. it's just that we have not yet fully figured out how all the bits in the flash savearea are used. Your data helps a lot, and hijack v88 will incorporate it in an improved "restore visuals" algorithm. Hopefully others will also contribute data to help us perfect the algorithm.

Cheers

-ml

Cool cool.

Let me know if you want me to test anything else.

Well, you could retest with Hijack v88 in 30min or so (still compiling right now..)

-ml