Companion9x Instructions

Suncoaster · Post by **Suncoaster** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 3:00 am

Being completely new to all this open source technology, I recently built a sky9x system and have used sam-ba to update the firmware. I then discovered this tool and am a bit lost with all the functions available. Is there a guide available which has a brief description of each of the options available for noobs like me, as I do not want to break anything in my ignorance.

David

Post by **Rob Thomson** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 7:06 am

Best source of help currently.... Ask as you have on these forums!

Of course... We would love someone to write and maintain a wiki guide on it? (hint hint)

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dvogonen · Post by **dvogonen** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 8:54 am

I agree that it is a bit confusing to get to grips with the functionality of Companion9x. The same goes for eepe, from which Companion9x was originally spawned.
In order to understand how Companion9x can be used the user must first know what the program can do. A bit of a chicken and egg situation. If you do not know what the aims of the program are, you will find it hard to decode the usefulness of the buttons and menus.

In short this is the core functionality:

You can use the program to build and retrieve a customized version of the firmware that is to be loaded into the transmitter (Open9x) directly from the build server.

You may alternatively load a firmware file to the program (Open9x, Er9x or whatever) from a file that you have manually downloaded or saved previously.

The program can now be used to write the firmware to your transmitter. This is often referred to as flashing or burning.
It is also possible to read the current firmware in the transmitter and save it as a file on the computer.

Your models are stored separately from the firmware in the transmitter. You can retrieve your models and store these in a file.

Here comes the fun part; it is now possible to use a firmware file and a modell setting file and simulate how the transmitter works in a simulator within the Companion9x program. All modell settings can be changed and new models can be added, etc, etc. This is much more convenient than changing the setup in the transmitter.

And the last functionality is that the models can be written back to the transmitter.

Eepe does pretty much the same things as Companion9x, but it only handles Er9x firmware and settings. Companion9x can be used for either Er9x or Open9x and will actually automatically convert your model settings in the process (Open9x and Er9x model setting files are NOT compatible).

I hope that this rather longish comment is of use

dvogonen · Post by **dvogonen** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 9:04 am

A word of caution: Loading firmware to your transmitter will always have the side effect of overwriting the model data in your transmitter!
You can avoid this by using so called fuses, a mechanism that prevents writing of parts of the transmitter memory, but I do not recommend this practice, since the data format sometimes changes between firmware versions. If the format has changed, your old data is useless and treated as corrupt by the firmware.

A better practice is to always save a copy of your model settings on your computer before you write anything to the transmitter.

Post by **jhsa** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 9:31 am

dvogonen wrote: You can avoid this by using so called fuses, a mechanism that prevents writing of parts of the transmitter memory, but I do not recommend this practice, since the data format sometimes changes between firmware versions. If the format has changed, your old data is useless and treated as corrupt by the firmware.

I don't completely agree with it. Protecting the eeprom saved many people some headaches..
And also is very rare the eeprom format to change.. How many times did the eeprom format change since the beginning of these projects? 2? maximum 3?

A better practice is to always save a copy of your model settings on your computer before you write anything to the transmitter.

Yes, I do it always even if I got the eeprom protected..

Post by **Romolo** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 10:22 am

The advantage of companion is that during burning it has a backup/restore eeprom option so you can transparently change firmware family and do not care about eeprom version.
It also allow, during eeprom write process, to verify firmware on radio allowing programming of not up to date radio or radio with different firmware.

Suncoaster · Post by **Suncoaster** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 1:51 pm

Let me see if I understand this correctly, model information is held in the eeprom and there are functions to read and write this. Then the firmware update functions are the read and write flash memory options. I am slowly working out the simulation functions using the old suck it and see methodology.

Rob, during the process of working my way through the program I will document what I discover and submit this to you (or whoever) for editing and possible inclusion in the wiki.

David

Post by **Rob Thomson** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:37 pm

How about I give you wiki permissions and you add as you go along?

Post by **Romolo** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:53 pm

Suncoaster wrote:Let me see if I understand this correctly, model information is held in the eeprom and there are functions to read and write this. Then the firmware update functions are the read and write flash memory options. I am slowly working out the simulation functions using the old suck it and see methodology.

Rob, during the process of working my way through the program I will document what I discover and submit this to you (or whoever) for editing and possible inclusion in the wiki.

David

Yes, firmware and eeprom write operations are two different things but they are somehow related.
Eeprom version is dependent on firmware version and family, that's why you have a backup&restore existing eeprom while writing firmware and check firmware compatibility while writing eeprom

Backup and restore first read the eeprom from radio, write the firmware and automagically restore the eeprom in a format compatible with the firmware written.
Check firmware compatibility reads the firmware and write the eeprom in a format consistent with the firmware on the radio.
While the first is important when upgrading radio, the second is important when using the latest version of companion with an ol version of the firmware.

Suncoaster · Post by **Suncoaster** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 3:51 pm

Rob Thomson wrote:How about I give you wiki permissions and you add as you go along?

I would prefer to submit a first draft for perusal and if you think I am going about it the right way, then I will put it on the wiki and continue from there.

David

Post by **Rob Thomson** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 4:15 pm

Fair enough

Post by **Kilrah** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 7:31 pm

jhsa wrote:And also is very rare the eeprom format to change.. How many times did the eeprom format change since the beginning of these projects? 2? maximum 3?

About 8 for open9x as far as I know.

Exactly because of that automatic conversion feature, it's much less of a problem to make eeprom changes, so they can be more frequent to accomodate the new features. On er9x changing eeprom is a very very last resort solution that Mike really avoids, which limits the improvements that can be done (just see the thread about the voice mod). The conversion feature would really make things easier.

With C9x I don't think protecting the eeprom is very wise/useful. If you want to be safe just backup your eeprom before flashing. I also save it first every time I indend to read/edit on PC/write in case something went wrong.

Suncoaster · Post by **Suncoaster** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 11:11 am

Rob, I am still working on some basic instructions, but I am on the road for the next three weeks and will not be able to do very much until I get back home. Just thought I should let you know I haven't forgotten about them.

David

Post by **ShowMaster** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 3:18 pm

I could use some wi7 Pro 64 bit sam-ba driver help.
My XP install went well on my net book so I never bothered with win7. So imagine my surprise when someone as smart as I thought I "was" couldn't get sam-ba and CP9x to talk to my ersky9x board.
So I'm going to try it again and see what I'm missing. The driver finds the board and I think I have the correct Sam-ba path in the CP9x config path but still no luck.
Any tips of what I can try? I'll make sure Sam-ba is working on it's own and as I remember it was so it must be a sam-ba path error.
SM

Post by **Rob Thomson** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 5:04 pm

No idea! Works perfectly for me!

Have you set the com port in companion to the one windows assigns?

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Post by **ShowMaster** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 5:27 pm

I'm sure I've missed something Rob so I'll tuck my tail until I figure it out. I need more wine, or maybe less, no more,and I'll be good to again.
SM

ShowMaster
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Crashj007 · Post by **Crashj007** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 7:18 pm

Wine, one glass is not enough, three is too many . . .

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