So what does it take for us to flash our own boards?

[lamby]

The data cable is easy to make, but the crimper for the 1.25mm terminals is bucu bucks ($180) You can get a free programmer for the AVRs that runs in windows (GCC) that runs on the serial (9pin) com ports. The AVRs can be programmed in circuit, but require power to be induced as the the programmer will not supply it. I am currently tring to get a 3rd burst jumper to sacrifice to the solder gods so I can make a AVR dongle that has the correct 5pin 1.25mm plug for the marker.

This is all good, but without the hex code or source code this is useless as you can not extract data from the AVR (I was told that there is a way to unlock the code by running a "hack" program on the AVR, but I have not tried that yet. I was told this by a old Satellite hacker so I think it might be possible) if you can extract the locked data, then it is all fair in love and war what you can do to the code (as long as it is not protected by copyrights). I think AGD needs to allow this source code to be released on thier website and allow us to modify the code and republish it. LONG LIVE THE GNU MOVEMENT!!!!!!!!

[slushee]

Originally posted by lamby
LONG LIVE THE GNU MOVEMENT!!!!!!!!

yeah .. look what it did with linux

sorry, had to poke fun there .. couldn't resist ...

[Tunaman]

There is NO proprietory cable. The cable must be hand made. Letting people mess with the source code will NEVER happen. If you mess up you will have a blank chip and will be crying to AGD to fix it anyway. Writing or messing with the source code is no easy task. Countless hours have been spent on perfecting this software. There is just about no more room for improvements on this particular chip. It is just too small. Please let an AGD certified Specialized Tech do this for you. It is the only way to make sure it is done right.

[Rope a Dope]

Uh, sorry there Tuna, sport... but my experience at IBM working in level 1 clean rooms replacing cylinders in hard drives after some high up executive dumps coffee into his ThinkPad and fry's the drive, micro soldering and WHQL lab testing new products at Intel and doing failure analysis engineer work at Apple computer (along with network support) makes me WAY more qualified to work on anything electronic than you will ever be. I've been through the rise and fall of silicon valley, you haven't.

I never said I want to "hax0r the source code", I want a freaking $5 cable and a CD rom with a program that flashes my E-Mag boards firmware which AGD could sell for $50 a pop and I can download the latest firmware from airgun.com as they release it. That is all. And when people do screw with the code which they were warned not to do and they end up with a dead board then AGD can smile and sell them a new one for $200 http://store.airgun.com/acb/showdetl...ID=180&CATID=6 .

[Joni]

If it is possible to flash just using a cable and a pc, it should not be a problem. Relase the source code encrypted, and let the flashing software download the key with ssl at the time of flashing, never showing the code to the user.

That way no one is going the be able to mess with the code (as if anyone would put the effort in to read hex code), and people wont have to ship their precious mags.

[TheTramp]

At the very least get some sort of AGD presence in New England. God forbid I could take my E-Mag somewhere to be flashed.

[lamby]

its a paintball gun for christ's sake. this code is not that important. There is no international protection that is required. It is simple code that is only 2k in size that runs one of the simplest microprocessors in the world. And smoking the code will not kill the board, maybe a fet or the AT90S, but that is about it.

why is it that other suppliers allow code to uploaded into markers and AGD wont?

Is AGD worried that it will give them a bad name if there are "cheater boards"? Too late AGD already has a bad name in the eyes of most tourney players that I know.

Is AGD afraid that people will smoke thier guns? if the software hex file is out in the public domain and someone writes code to the atmel that is bad (wont run) just reflash it to the "approved software" (the reason I have yet to play with the code on my emag. I will have to get a prototyping board or another emag board.)

Is AGD affraid that someone will write better code then them and have people sell it? DING DING DING I think we have a winner!!!! I can not see any other reason than this.

release the betas, take no responsibility for it, people will use it and report bugs to you, you fix them and re-release another beta.. It works for the PC crowd.

I think that I need to find someone with a molex crimper and start making AGD programmers and write some code. And I mean ALL kinds of code. FULL auto 22bps sounds good to me. Tourney legal code at max bps and buffering sounds good to me. Ramping dwell code (shootup) sounds good to me. These little codes are easy to write in basic (not as fast as c or assy, but I can't program those) compile to a hex file and then program with gcc. If/When I do this (find a crimper) I will let you as a community know.

I want to take nothing away from MISCUE, his software sounds great. It sounds like he did a great job with as little as he had to work with (a measly AT90S2313, that does not even have an alpha numeric subset)

Miscue, I give you mad props!!! I think AGD is again dropping the ball with the damn fuse bytes! set the byte data to 1 1 and end this talk. Let the people who can do, those that dont wont be able to extract the code so it is not an issue (untill I make the programmers) then watch out. flash your code for whatever you want your marker to do, that is my objective now.