Difference between revisions of "SimuCUBE firmware releases"

New features:

• USB effect duration is being parsed correctly for the currently implemented effects that are generally meant to be changing automatically over time, so timed effects also end at the correct time.
• Please report if any games use timed spring, constant force, constant sine offset or any other timed effects.
  • symptom is a feeling of "neverending effect stuck on".
• Desktop Centering spring has been implemented. It is off by default.
  • Interaction of the centering spring force and the bumbstop effect force has not been optimized and might give funny results.
  • When running the Motor Configuration Wizard, the centering spring is re-set to off. User must manually re-enable it.

Improvements:

• Configuration Tool is built with Qt 5.10 with improved high-DPI / custom scaling factor support.

Bug fixes:

• Firmware and Configuration Tool can manage to configure the system also to an empty SimuCUBE or when upgrading from MMOS
• Torque peaking and notch filter will grey out the Attenuation and Center Q Factor values properly again

Known issues:

• Estimated torque calculation is wrong

UPGRADING FROM MMOS:

Please use version 0.8.12 for any new firmware installs when coming from MMOS or a fresh SimuCUBE board. A bug has been found in the initial setup wizard on 0.9.0, which will be fixed very soon.

Important note about upgrading:

• Please activate a profile with 100% strength by using the previous Configuration Tool version before updating. This is to have the correct maximum MMC at the drive when new firmware boots up. This is only required for this version, and is fixed for future releases.
• If you forget to do this, power-cycling the SimuCUBE will also reset the setting to the correct one on IONI drive.

New features:

• SimuCUBE logs firmware state changes and other data into a log, which can be downloaded via "Download Event Log" button on the advanced tab in the Configuration tool.
• In the same tab, user can set logging to include state changes and other basic stuff OR ffb effect creation/start/stop events OR ffb effect calculation results. The latter two types are not yet logging anything, they are reserved as future debugging helpers.
• Following DirectInput effects have been implemented: Sine wave, Square Wave, Triangle Wave, SawtoothUp, SawtoothDown, Spring
  • Sliders to set strength of each of these is available in the UI. Values for the new sliders are random for existing profiles - please adjust them.
  • Each of the sliders has any effect only when a game is setting such an effect to use via DirectInput.
    • You can check which effects games are using by looking at the advanced tab while driving.
• Profiles can be re-ordered via new dialog

Improvements:

• Bumbstop effect damping has been reworked and improved.

• Motor fault codes are read in initialization phase, instead of just checking for success/failure of initialization.
• It is not possible anymore to end up in Operational mode via complex state changes when initial motor settings are not configured at least once via the wizard.
• Added reading of HV Bus Voltage and FOV values if waited for initialization for more than 30s. FOV must be larger than HV Bus Voltage + 2% for the IONI to init. There is an error message explaining this now.
• Improved resiliency against misconfigured IONI drives, such as bus address offset being other than 0.
• Some handling of USB Suspend and RESET commands. It is unlikely that this would solve Computer Hangs Boot -issue.

Bug Fixes:

• Improved timeliness for USB FFB effect command parsing. This bug caused some FFB effects to not always get initialized for some game titles.
• 100% IONI MMC is set to the drive right before going to Firmware Upgrade Mode, so that after the update the correct 100% MMC can be read from the drive.

Known issues:

• Estimated torque calculation is wrong
• Rarely, re-enabling SimpleMotion communications from the USB Configuration Mode fails, and firmware will go into reconnect loop. Re-enabling IONI USB communications and switching back can be used to connect drive.

Bootloader:

• Bootloader has been updated to v1.2.1.
  • Initialize the TXEN pin on the SimpleMotion bus as input, so user can connect to IONI drive via Granity after putting SimuCUBE firmware into bootloader mode.
  • USB control reply sending fix that was also done for SimuCUBE Firmware release 0.8.3. It is unlikely that this bug could affect bootloader, but the fix is copied to bootloader anyway.
  • There is a slight delay before booting out of bootloader mode by command from PC. This is to allow enough time for the Configuration Tool on PC to properly disconnect from bootloader.
  • Bootloader remains 100% compatible otherwise.
  • Users do not need to flash this new bootloader version.

• Device Gain is again calculated correctly. It had been removed by mistake.
• Torque command update rate has been increased to 2500 Hz. Beginning from early version 0.5.0, it was reduced to 1250 Hz, to overcome unrelated issue, which was then forgotten until now.

• These DirectInput effects and features have been implemented that were not previously implemented: Friction, Damping, Device Gain
  • Sliders to set general strength multiplier for friction and damper have been added into the UI
  • Device gain is being set when a game starts, so no slider for it is required in the UI.
  • Previously exported simucubeprofiles.ini file with these settings missing will load. The DirectInput Friction and Damping gains will be set at 50% for those profiles.
  • Saved setting on SimuCUBE flash memory have 0% setting for these. User must change them manually to some sensible value for each profile.
  • Games tested: Assetto Corsa, Dirt Rally, Automobilista (Pure FFB no effects is supported; effects -settings might not work correctly)
• New Tabbed UI with much more refined looks
  • Tabs!
  • Effect types are shown in the UI, with bolded font for those effects that game is changing actively
  • Button has been added to clear effect memory and reset Device Gain. This is useful when game has crashed and left effects running.
  • Motor fault reason codes are being read and shown directly in the user interface. However, faults are cleared if they ever happen, so the indicator will disappear too soon. Usefulness of this feature is going to be improved in the next release.
  • Confirmation dialog for profile deletion has been added.
  • Lots of other small tidy-ups and fixes

Bug fixes:

• Importing analog axis settings from the .ini file didn't load invert axis -settings correctly.

Known issues:

• Estimated torque output calculation is stll likely wrong.
• When using high forces and having the reconstruction filter at high value, the wheel might go numb and give a feeling of saturated forces. This is being investigated.

• Strength setting of the default profile was not applied at startup.
• Read-only safe profile was applied inconsistently when running the Motor Configuration Wizard
• SimuCUBE Hardware Revision information is now shown in the configuration tool
• Removed unnecessary code and USB debug counter
• Clicking Toggle IONI USB Configuration -button does not reset all motor faults, only the Simplemotion faults.

Known issues:

• Estimated torque output calculation is stll likely wrong.
• When using high forces and having the reconstruction filter at high value, the wheel might go numb and give a feeling of saturated forces. This is being investigated.

• Serious USB issue is fixed. Replies to USB control requests weren't getting sent to PC if SimuCUBE was already in the process of sending a normal HID report. This caused crashes in games.

Known issues:

• Estimated torque output calculation is most likely wrong.
• When using high forces and having the reconstruction filter at high value, the wheel might go numb and give a feeling of saturated forces. This is being investigated.
• Some filter settings do not seem get applied with some user actions.

• Unfortunately, this version will clear all profile settings. Please take note of all your settings.
  • Note: Updates do not have effect on the parameters that are stored on IONI drive, so no new drc configuration files should be needed.
• Precautions have been made to minimize this being required in the future.

New features:

• Profiles can be saved into simucubeprofiles.ini file and imported from that file. Imported profiles are added, they will not overwrite user's profiles. Feature has an indicator for successful loading and saving.
• Force scaling (in percentage) is done by setting MMC on IONI drive instead of scaling the torque that goes to drive. This increases the fidelity. NOTE: To change maximum MMC, upload a new DRC file with new setting using the motor configuration wizard, or use Granity to set new MMC.
• Motor configuration wizard has a field for Motor Torque Constant. If it is set, configuration tool assumes 48 V power supply, reads motor resistance from current IONI configuration, and shows maximum torque value in the UI.

Changes and fixes:

• Analog button debounce time has been increased from 10 ms to 20 ms. Setting for this might be added in the future.
• Analog axis settings import/export now has an indicator for success/failure.
• Analog axis averaging has been changed from average of last 32 values to average of last 32 values but disregarding 4 highest and 4 lowest values to improve signal quality.
• Steering centering offset value was not saved correctly if the index point was sufficiently off-center (more than 65535 counts offset). This was evident on high-resolution encoders.
• Maximum number of profiles has been reduced to 500.
• Game-induced torque could easily overcome the bumbstop effect's torque, making the wheel spin uncontrollably. This has been fixed.
• Damping filter was being sent to IONI with setting of 0.0 % if game set a damping effect. This was unintended, and has been changed for this version. On-the-fly changing damping, inertia and friction effects are not being done currently.
• Improved resiliency against non-communicating IONI drives. This could happen if, for whatever reason, the SMO Bus Address Offset was other than 0, and the drive was still functional when using MMos firmware.
• Improved/fixed some subdialogs to work better with high-DPI displays or when display has a custom scaling factor.
• Enabling IONI USB communication mode does not cause a SimpleMotion error / Fault in the IONI drive anymore.

Known issues:

• USB-related game crash issues
• Estimated torque output calculation is most likely wrong.

• Some profile settings were being set to default when running the firmware update wizard
• Ioni filter parameters are no longer being read to the active profile, overwriting the profile values, when running the motor configuration wizard
• Changed TBW to 1000Hz as default for all new profiles and also for the default read-only profile.
• Minor text changes in firmware update wizard

• Profile can be copied

Bug fixes:

• Profile name did not get applied and saved if only profile name was edited
• Configuration tool crashed if user canceled or finished the Firmware Update wizard

• Working digital button inputs
• Profile management
• Analog settings .ini-file import/export

Bug fixes:

• Settings change by some amount at saving or load from IONI drive.