Dangerous Prototypes Open Source Hardware

Re: Alternative Java client

Reply #60 – September 10, 2010, 02:38:20 pm

I have been using many of the pre-releases of this version. I really like this client. I believe this client is a great step forward. The SPI analyser is working much better for me than the original client because the CS signal is honored better.

Love the color scheme. When can we have it! My experience with Jawi is that he is able to produce new releases of his client in an incredible pace. That has helped me a lot lately.

Re: Alternative Java client

Reply #61 – September 10, 2010, 05:22:59 pm

The varied signal colours are a definite improvement; I also think it'd be nicer if the signals were a few pixels shorter, whilst retaining the same spacing - that way it's less likely to confuse a permanent low/high signal with the signal adjacent to it.

Re: Alternative Java client

Reply #62 – September 10, 2010, 08:56:00 pm

[quote author="ian"]
Hi Toley - There's some tutorials and quick-start videos for the general SUMP client in the manual:
http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Ope ... troduction
[/quote]

Thank you ian for the quick answer. I'm presently at work and it work very well here under windows xp. But at home it did not work under windows 7 64 bits. I will try again as soon as I'll be back. Thank you.

Re: Alternative Java client

Reply #63 – September 10, 2010, 09:20:53 pm

Thanks Toley, let us know how it turns out.

Re: Alternative Java client

Reply #64 – September 10, 2010, 11:52:49 pm

Hello ian, under windows 7 64bits when I start the run.bat file, a dos window quickly open and close but I had time to take a screen shot. The first screen shot show the content of the DOS window telling me that Java is not installed on my computer but second show the website telling me that java is installed. Maybe I have to install something else but I don't see it on your website. Thank you for your help.

Re: Alternative Java client

Reply #65 – September 11, 2010, 10:52:00 am

I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with Win7 64bits and Java, but maybe someone else has it working and has some recommendations.

Re: Alternative Java client

Reply #66 – September 11, 2010, 02:01:50 pm

OK the problem is now solved. I always surf the web using Firefox so my version of Java is 32 bits by default. What I did is get on Java website using IE 64bits and then it let me install a 64 bits version of Java.

Thanks ian for your support and your great products, also thanks to jawi for this very nice interface.

Re: Alternative Java client

Reply #67 – September 11, 2010, 04:14:54 pm

Now that I am able to run the client, I will go with my little suggestions.

It would be nice if in the I2C graphical decoded view, we have the possibility to display the slave address in 7 or 8 bits (including or not the R/W bit). Also the choice to display this in hex or dec would be usefull. I also think there is too much text inside the blocks forcing us to zoom before seeing the information.

My next suggestion is concerning the great work made by jawi on this project. There is no doubt that the weakness of the Open Logic Sniffer was the original software provided with it. Now with jawi's client, the OLS looks and feel like a more costly commercial product. So my suggestion is to give a little something to jawi to help him keep his motivation. I know OLS is an open project but maybe the price of each device could be raised a little... But this is not of my business it's only a suggestion.

What I will be happy to do personnally is to make a little donation. So if you give me a Paypal address jawi, I will give you a little something for your great work.

Finally I just want to tell why I think jawi deserved to be paid. Be sure that I don't know him personnally and don't even know where he come from. I was very close to buy a commercial Logic analyser but I decided to go for the OLS cause I already own a Bus Pirate and really love it. But I must admit that I was disappointed by the software and think I should have pay more to get something that fits my needs. Now with jawi's client, it's very different and I think finally I've made a very good deal with the OLS.

Re: Alternative Java client

Reply #68 – September 12, 2010, 07:51:49 am

FYI it'll work with 32 bit java, the problem is that it's not being added to the PATH variable.

Re: Alternative Java client

Reply #69 – September 12, 2010, 09:12:51 am

howdy,

i just downloaded 0.8.4, and i only get abort messages for everything.

i run linux, have java version:
java version "1.6.0_21"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_21-b06)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 17.0-b16, mixed mode)

i modified run.sh to add /dev/ttyACM1 as my serial port.
java -Dnl.lxtreme.ols.bundle.dir="$PLUGINDIR" -Dgnu.io.rxtx.SerialPorts="/dev/ttyACM1" -cp "$CLASSPATH" nl.lxtreme.ols.runner.Runner

running strace when starting run.sh shows no attempt to open /dev/ttyACM1 at all.

aborts are similar to:
[9/12/10 2:56:43 AM - INFO  -    ols.client.ClientController]: Running tool: "State analyser ..." ...
java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 0
[9/12/10 2:56:48 AM - WARN  - ols.tool.base.BaseAsyncToolDialog]: Execution exception! Message: 0
        at nl.lxtreme.ols.tool.state.StateAnalysisWorker.doInBackground(StateAnalysisWorker.java:95)
        at nl.lxtreme.ols.tool.state.StateAnalysisWorker.doInBackground(StateAnalysisWorker.java:34)
        at javax.swing.SwingWorker$1.call(SwingWorker.java:277)
        at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303)
        at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
        at javax.swing.SwingWorker.run(SwingWorker.java:316)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)

every tool generates something like this.

suggestions?

-david
p.s. not sure why this forum would suggest alt-s or alt-p to submit posts, they don't work - maybe it's a windows thing?

Re: Alternative Java client

Reply #70 – September 12, 2010, 03:17:05 pm

Bug report..

I2C decoder doesn't seem to work when SCL and SDA signals are physically swapped (SCL and SDA on bits 0 and 1 respectively on channel 0).
SUMP client from release 2.12 works properly with the same exact wiring.

I'm on Mac OS X 10.6.4 Snow Leopard.

Haven't tested SPI or UART yet.

Thanks.

Re: Alternative Java client

Reply #71 – September 12, 2010, 05:33:23 pm

Wow! After a weekend "deprived" of my broadband connection, it's good to see so many good responses on my latest release. Let me try to answer all questions/suggestions:

@jack.gasset: I'm honored to see my client included in the next release; that would be great!

@all responses regarding the proposed color scheme: I definitely want to provide ways to configure your own color scheme; but I also want a "good" default scheme which looks good. I'll create some screenshots with proposals and inform you all on the progress. The contrast definitely needs improvements, certainly on a dark background as this...

@Toley: good to hear it finally works on your platform. Regarding your questions on I2C decoding: there's some additional protocol information already being decoded in the annotations (such as read from address X, write to address Y), but that needs to be integrated in the CSV/HTML reports. As well as the other decoding tools. On my todo-list is already the idea to make the decoded information shown on screen/report configurable.

@FirefighterBlu3: just making a wild guess here, but did you do a data-capture first? The serial port is only used during the actual capturing process, so it isn't opened directly after starting the client. And the tools currently assume a data capture is available. Just make sure the correct device is selected, and hit the "capture" button (third button from left on the toolbar).

@9dof: thanks for the report; I'll give it a closer look as soon as possible and let you know the outcome.

edit: I've finally hacked up a small webpage for my OLS client; I'll update it in the upcoming days/weeks to provide more information and other content.

Re: Alternative Java client

Reply #72 – September 12, 2010, 06:41:13 pm

[quote author="Toley"]
My next suggestion is concerning the great work made by jawi on this project. There is no doubt that the weakness of the Open Logic Sniffer was the original software provided with it. Now with jawi's client, the OLS looks and feel like a more costly commercial product. So my suggestion is to give a little something to jawi to help him keep his motivation. I know OLS is an open project but maybe the price of each device could be raised a little... But this is not of my business it's only a suggestion.

What I will be happy to do personnally is to make a little donation. So if you give me a Paypal address jawi, I will give you a little something for your great work.

Finally I just want to tell why I think jawi deserved to be paid. Be sure that I don't know him personnally and don't even know where he come from. I was very close to buy a commercial Logic analyser but I decided to go for the OLS cause I already own a Bus Pirate and really love it. But I must admit that I was disappointed by the software and think I should have pay more to get something that fits my needs. Now with jawi's client, it's very different and I think finally I've made a very good deal with the OLS.
[/quote]

One of the main reasons for me to start on an alternative client for the Open Bench Logic Sniffer was because I really appreciate the work the guys of Dangerous Prototypes (and their contributors) are doing. Seeing the quality of hardware they make, together with the time they invest in its development and keeping it up-to-date is something really valuable for people working non-professionally with electronics (such as myself). However, good quality hardware without good quality software seriously impacts its usability and user acceptance.
In my daytime job I'm a software developer, so I see on a daily basis how much it matters for users to have good working software. This is another motivation to start working on my client software; the original software was so-so, and with some effort I got it to work better for most of you.
My motivation is greatly supported by hearing back from you people how great it now works, and how it made the difference with other logic analyzer software and so on. I'm not in favor of raising the price of the hardware for this, as the current low price is probably one of the main reasons people buy the OLS hardware (for me at least it was). Also, it should be up to the users to decide whether or not they want to donate (in any form) to my project.

To summarize: I really appreciate the feedback I get from users using my client software, and would like to see that feedback to keep coming in the future of my client software. If you really, really want to donate to my project you can find a flattr link on my client's homepage.

Re: Alternative Java client

Reply #73 – September 13, 2010, 08:26:32 am

Thanks for the hompage link, I added it to the OLS wiki and the alternative client wiki page.

Re: Alternative Java client

Reply #74 – September 13, 2010, 09:53:10 am

[quote author="9dof"]
I2C decoder doesn't seem to work when SCL and SDA signals are physically swapped (SCL and SDA on bits 0 and 1 respectively on channel 0).
SUMP client from release 2.12 works properly with the same exact wiring.
[/quote]

While I haven't tested the decoding with a real I2C signal, it looks like I'm not able to reproduce this behaviour with my test-device. Could you provide me a saved capture with the I2C data so I can reproduce it locally?