openecu.org

I am a software developer who specializes in (among other things) mobile app development. I have a virtually every Windows CE/PocketPC/Mobile device currently made in my office for testing. Many of these devices have USB ports built in and could theoretically use the Tactrix cable as long as there is driver support.

I was hoping to compile ECUflash using embedded visual tools or Visual Studio .NET, but I cannot find the source on this website. I thought this was an open source project? Or is this limited? I don't mean to sound pushy or rude...I think this project is amazing and will be tinkering with my Evo 9 soon

If it were possible to run the software on mobile devices, a laptop would no longer be necessary. A mobile device could be easily carried in the car or connected to a mounted in-dash LCD w/ touchscreen. And some of the new phones run Windows Mobile 5. Lots of possibilities here, folks!!

I will post new source soon once a few more parts of the program are finalized. There are a couple issues to be solved before moving things over to PocketPCs:

1) Last time I looked, most PPCs don't have a USB host controller in them, so they can't control USB devices.

2) EcuFlash is written using Qt which is only supported on Windows, Mac, and linux platforms.

Colby

Thanks for the quick reply. I will look into the USB issue.

Regarding Qt. Are you using this just for the UI, or is the kernel written in this also?

If it is being used as a UI tool, then that may not be too much of a hurdle because the UI would have to be redesigned anyway to accomodate small screens. For instance, the main window with various panes, child windows, etc. would not be suitable for a mobile device. Perhaps a tab for the left tree window in ECUflash and another tab for whatever item is currently selected in the tree, etc. would do...

Anyway, I am really fast at conversion

The kernels are definitely not in Qt - they are in C or ASM depending on the processor. The core reflash code uses some Qt, but not a lot. The model-view system of the UI depends heavily on Qt, and especially the runtime connectable signal/slot mechanism in Qt. Qt is open-source, so it would be possible to preserve this and some other constructs while moving to CE without keeping the UI.

After talking/searching, I have some more info on the USB host controller issue.

The following relates to Windows Mobile 5.0 or later (but may also apply to CE/PocketPC)

- Mobile device hardware must include a controller chip (many do).
- If so, drivers for the host controller are included in Windows
- Windows mobile drivers can be developed using various SDKs that enable cross-platform compatibility.

I will try and find a list of devices w/ host controllers.

Right now Toshiba 740's and 750's include host controllers. Linux PDA's have had them since the beginning. TransDimension's TD242LP USB host chip will be included in more mobile devices in the near future, incliding phones.

galvitron wrote:Right now Toshiba 740's and 750's include host controllers. Linux PDA's have had them since the beginning. TransDimension's TD242LP USB host chip will be included in more mobile devices in the near future, incliding phones.

I was looking at the 740's and 750's and didn't see a usb connection... is there a converter for the sync connector on the bottom to usb? and have you guys made any progress on the PPC version of openEcu? Really excited bc the gf might get me a pda for christmas and I want to be sure that I am able to log and flash...

Keep in touch, I've had some success with the FTDI Drivers adapted to recognize the Tactrix cable on pocketPC with host controllers..

I have a build of my code for Mitsulogger that I was intending to get working with the PDA once I pick up a personal unit in the next few weeks.

I have sucessfully gotten standard serial-usb devices to work and the tactrix cable shares the same FTDI chipset as many of them.

Obviously Mitsulogger and ECUFlash compliment eachother, so it only makes sense to have both work on CE.

MalibuJack wrote:Keep in touch, I've had some success with the FTDI Drivers adapted to recognize the Tactrix cable on pocketPC with host controllers..

I have a build of my code for Mitsulogger that I was intending to get working with the PDA once I pick up a personal unit in the next few weeks.

I have sucessfully gotten standard serial-usb devices to work and the tactrix cable shares the same FTDI chipset as many of them.

Obviously Mitsulogger and ECUFlash compliment eachother, so it only makes sense to have both work on CE.

Nice! now you mentioned CE... I know Windows CE .NET 4.2 is the basis for PPC 2003 and some smart phones... is the "personal unit" that you are getting going to be running the new windows mobile 5.0? I'm not a programmer, but was curious if there was any issues running on the old and new... what mits are you driving?

Yeah the earlier versions don't have the same driver support and of course the level of USB support is limited on earlier CE devices..

I'm actually targetting this device.. which is definitely windows mobile 5.0.. I may then try to support other older devices. I'm driving an 2003 Evolution (USDM)

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/ ... fault.mspx

But I'm in the process of verifying it has the correct USB Host support, once I can verify it, I'm going to get one off Ebay..

MalibuJack wrote:Yeah the earlier versions don't have the same driver support and of course the level of USB support is limited on earlier CE devices..

I'm actually targetting this device.. which is definitely windows mobile 5.0.. I may then try to support other older devices. I'm driving an 2003 Evolution (USDM)

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/ ... fault.mspx

But I'm in the process of verifying it has the correct USB Host support, once I can verify it, I'm going to get one off Ebay..

oh nice! that's a nice phone... ya touchscreen... i wanted to get the motorola q, but no touchscreen... do you think any of the verizon phones would work?

galvitron wrote:After talking/searching, I have some more info on the USB host controller issue.

The following relates to Windows Mobile 5.0 or later (but may also apply to CE/PocketPC)

- Mobile device hardware must include a controller chip (many do).
- If so, drivers for the host controller are included in Windows
- Windows mobile drivers can be developed using various SDKs that enable cross-platform compatibility.

I will try and find a list of devices w/ host controllers.

As far as I know, no Pocket PC devices have host controllers. However, they must have a UART. Several, like the iPaq's, definately can support the odd baud rates involved. With a kernel level driver, the required UART and aux lines wired to Colby's basic I/O circuit would almost certainly work. But it wouldn't be a very generic solution (kernel drivers are both HW and CPU specific).

-jjf

Colby told me once that the Tactrix cable requires a host controller. And some PPC/WinCE/Mobile5 devices actually do have one. In fact, my co-worker has a Sprint PPC5 phone that he controls a projector with for powerpoint via USB so I believe he has a host controller.

Also, the USB specification says that the color of the inside of the connector must reflect its type. For instance, a mini-usb that would appear on a mobile device must have a certain shape and be grey plastic on the inside. But who knows if manufacturers are following the spec exactly...

Wiki USB for more info on the spec.

The unfortunate thing is that most manufacturers don't give you a lot of technical details in their datasheets.

I am almost positive that the Sprint PCS vision Smart Device PPC-6700 has a USB host controller. This is very similar to the one Malibujack is working with.

We may need to get whitepapers on this phone (and others) because I just read the big manual and it does not specify what USB chip is in the damn thing...

Intermec CN3 definitely has a host controller but MSRP is $2000