Suggestion to RAM and VAR Change
- Thread starter CAI_Support
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CAI_Support
Senior Member
Do you think display in hex will make it easier for you?
Efried
Active Member
I think the best solution would be easing the making of an user defined status display (index.htm). This way I even could show single bits writing my own index.htm. On the other hand easing use of single bytes and bits could also help overcoming the scarcity of VARs without rendering code unreadable .CAI_Support said:
CAI_Support
Senior Member
Efried, web gui on WebControl is not like regular web server. Anything displayed on screen must have a function running on a special server inside the firmware. This html server is portion of firmware code handles HTTP traffic. We do have an index.htm but without anything from HTML service handle logic, that is not useful.
With that said, if you think you could make a more interesting home page, you are welcome to login into your WebControl gui, then right mouse click, save the source, then modify it to the way you think actually better, then submit us for consideration.
Please note VAR is only variable can be displayed, and can only obtain its value from firmware logic as 32bit. To display a bit value, you will need to ask us adding a function to display that bit. For adding a function, it will take two bytes RAM for the function and two bytes for a parameter to pass in. There is no RAM for adding such display function, unless you propose to remove some other firmware features. At this point, we are reluctant to remove any existing feature from the firmware, because some feature maybe not useful for one person, but useful by another.
We think the best way to improve is by not adding any requirement for firmware to support additional type, but improve its visualized expression. For example, if you want to make a special two stage HVAC controller gui, or alarm system GUI, Green house gui, or weather station gui. I am not sure too many end users of your PLC code actually wants to see bits.
With that said, if you think you could make a more interesting home page, you are welcome to login into your WebControl gui, then right mouse click, save the source, then modify it to the way you think actually better, then submit us for consideration.
Please note VAR is only variable can be displayed, and can only obtain its value from firmware logic as 32bit. To display a bit value, you will need to ask us adding a function to display that bit. For adding a function, it will take two bytes RAM for the function and two bytes for a parameter to pass in. There is no RAM for adding such display function, unless you propose to remove some other firmware features. At this point, we are reluctant to remove any existing feature from the firmware, because some feature maybe not useful for one person, but useful by another.
We think the best way to improve is by not adding any requirement for firmware to support additional type, but improve its visualized expression. For example, if you want to make a special two stage HVAC controller gui, or alarm system GUI, Green house gui, or weather station gui. I am not sure too many end users of your PLC code actually wants to see bits.
CAI_Support said:
Would it be possible or feasible to have a "user writable directory" in the EEPROM where we could upload our own html?
It would leave your libraries untouched but let us roll our own interfaces?
As for displaying bitfields or breaking 32-bit words into 8 or 16 bit values, it could be done client-side with javascript, which wouldn't then require any additional RAM or re-engineering of the WebControl
CAI_Support
Senior Member
Ross, Not easy to do that, because all the GUI files and libraries are compiled together as a file system by using a special utility. There is no easy way to extend that file system into another location.
We committed to support customers developing useful products based on WebControl. So that any good suggestion for making a product, like your weather station idea is supported. We can take your index.htm code and make a special GUI unloadable file for you. Anyone having good product idea is welcome to talk to us by sending us email. We will discuss with you the best way to support you. We have done that for many customers, met their needs even they requested to remove our company name and copyright wording from GUI. We do not release our source code in this process.
We committed to support customers developing useful products based on WebControl. So that any good suggestion for making a product, like your weather station idea is supported. We can take your index.htm code and make a special GUI unloadable file for you. Anyone having good product idea is welcome to talk to us by sending us email. We will discuss with you the best way to support you. We have done that for many customers, met their needs even they requested to remove our company name and copyright wording from GUI. We do not release our source code in this process.
CAI_Support
Senior Member
az1324,
No doubt you are an expert on modifying Microchip library code.
May we tap into your expertise on some of of those little coding, so that everyone is happy?
You can send us direct emails for suggested changes. Thanks for giving your opinion.
No doubt you are an expert on modifying Microchip library code.
May we tap into your expertise on some of of those little coding, so that everyone is happy?
You can send us direct emails for suggested changes. Thanks for giving your opinion.
Efried
Active Member
az1324 said:
once upon a time there was a manual titled "How to Write GUI Code for WebControl 2.x.x Firmware".
I put my project on hold mainly because of the lack of debugging and integrated wifi support. I could programm a PHP page for showing all I want to trace, but then I have to implement a web server on all my devices (including a tablet) because the WC shall not be addressable from outside the firewall because of the absence of mail account data protection. Of course I could jump over this fence using the server outside the firewal, leaving aside the practicability of low latency tracing in the Intranet, but I hope that it can be done easing our work which you also think...
CAI_Support
Senior Member
Efried,
WC firmware 2.x.x is BRE firmware, that is still valid for writing your own GUI based on that documentation. If you like to use BRE firmware, you are very welcome. PLC has totally different structure, so that it does not support user to write their own GUI, unless az1324 is willing to help modifying the library code for us.
Microchip library stack does not support multiple NIC. Since it is already has built-in Ethernet interface, there is no way to add another wifi support using Microchip TCP stack. In addition, the cost of adding wifi module and FCC certification will price WebControl out of most users. We have to balance between what users wants and what is feasible with limitation on the chip. We have no plan to abandon WC8 product line, in addition for people wants more powerful CPU with more features, WC32 for that purpose. We do not plan to use chips other than Microchip CPU, that is like asking IBM PC made with Apple processor.
Currently, there are only few bytes RAM left for adding features and functions on WC8 CPU. We are working on pack more features into the firmware. One of the feature is to have SPI bus support. The purpose of that is to allow user to write PLC code using 2.4GHZ RF modules to communicate between each other. Once that is done, board with bootloader will be able to update firmware themselves to get that feature on their boards. We think with I2C and SPI support, users can extend usefulness and function through their own PLC code easily. Very soon, adding other feature will require remove some features already exist. At that point, we will let user to decide which firmware they will load on to their boards.
We are sorry that we do not want to pretend to fit everything in this product, although we do want to help customers with our flexible and solid features as well as functions to achieve their goals.
WC firmware 2.x.x is BRE firmware, that is still valid for writing your own GUI based on that documentation. If you like to use BRE firmware, you are very welcome. PLC has totally different structure, so that it does not support user to write their own GUI, unless az1324 is willing to help modifying the library code for us.
Microchip library stack does not support multiple NIC. Since it is already has built-in Ethernet interface, there is no way to add another wifi support using Microchip TCP stack. In addition, the cost of adding wifi module and FCC certification will price WebControl out of most users. We have to balance between what users wants and what is feasible with limitation on the chip. We have no plan to abandon WC8 product line, in addition for people wants more powerful CPU with more features, WC32 for that purpose. We do not plan to use chips other than Microchip CPU, that is like asking IBM PC made with Apple processor.
Currently, there are only few bytes RAM left for adding features and functions on WC8 CPU. We are working on pack more features into the firmware. One of the feature is to have SPI bus support. The purpose of that is to allow user to write PLC code using 2.4GHZ RF modules to communicate between each other. Once that is done, board with bootloader will be able to update firmware themselves to get that feature on their boards. We think with I2C and SPI support, users can extend usefulness and function through their own PLC code easily. Very soon, adding other feature will require remove some features already exist. At that point, we will let user to decide which firmware they will load on to their boards.
We are sorry that we do not want to pretend to fit everything in this product, although we do want to help customers with our flexible and solid features as well as functions to achieve their goals.
CAI_Support
Senior Member
Efried,
Can you please be precise on what was tricky? Without details we or other people on this forum can not help you.
Also, please start new discussion topic when you having different subject, that way it will help all users to find solution easier.
Can you please be precise on what was tricky? Without details we or other people on this forum can not help you.
Also, please start new discussion topic when you having different subject, that way it will help all users to find solution easier.
Efried
Active Member
Ok - you possibly know about the change of the TTL outputs with old WC BRE. Using Webset this was done like this for example GET URI=/setoutps.cgi?0000W10=TTL1+OFF adding a variable with no meaning. For every command this consumes one line of the NOTIFY statements...CAI_Support said:
CAI_Support
Senior Member
WebSet can set PLC board TTL state or VAR, however, BRE is previous version firmware and not designed to work with PLC firmware. We wish we had a time machine to go back and change BRE firmware. We have no plan to release any future version BRE firmware at this point. In addition, even if we had new BRE firmware, it would make better sense to update board with PLC firmware, if customer sent board back for firmware updates.
All current shipping PLC firmware based boards have bootloader, so that user can pick and choose the version of PLC firmware fitting his need.
All current shipping PLC firmware based boards have bootloader, so that user can pick and choose the version of PLC firmware fitting his need.
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