All right. I'm game to try it. Is it a stand-alone program, or does it require yet another change to the kernel? Where on the Empeg does it store the taxi'd files?

I can issue a command to the serial port with a batch file fairly simply, so it could be pretty simple to work it I think.

___________
Tony Fabris

Interesting. I gotta look up some more info on this new OS.

Also, is it just me, or is that UI looking a lot like Mac OS X? Is history repeating itself at Microsoft?

___________
Tony Fabris

I wouldn't say it looks like MacOSX too much, but i see what you are sayin', they are just taking the standard interface they've got going and rounding and smoothing a bit. Simplifying it a tad to.


|| loren.cox || 080000446 ||

...and I seem to remember macos8 having multiple IP configurations you could pick, too...

Hugo

Nothing to install on the empeg yet, as long as you are running the developer version.
It only goes from empeg -> PC at the moment, as emplode does a nice job of loading the files over usb. Later on I'll provide an uploader which will put the Taxi files in a seperate directory.
Here is the file... http://nrg.nu/files/empegTaxi.zip
It's only really a test program at the moment, put I have plans... =)

Jazz
(List 112, Mk2 12 gig #40. Mk1 4 gig #30. Mk3 1.6 16v)

Greetings!

Another random thought - could you use the picker application on the empeg to select a boot environment? Have one go for DHCP (office) and one for home (fixed). If I remember correctly, the network information is stored in an ini file, so you might be able to select which ini file (or rename the correct one) based on your selection.

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (40GB Green)

- Additional...

Granted, this would only do anything useful on the empeg, but it would allow you to swap it between home and work nets in a potentially easy manner. Would this kind of solution be sufficient?

Edited by pgrzelak on 15/02/01 12:49 AM.

Another random thought - could you use the picker application on the empeg to select a boot environment? Have one go for DHCP (office) and one for home (fixed).

There are those who would argue that such functionality (choosing DHCP or entering a fixed IP address) should be built into the Empeg player UI, and that neither Emplode nor a third-party picker app should be required to set it.

Reasoning: Some users don't have Windoze and depend upon things like Java Emplode to get the job done. If the Empeg can't have its IP address set from the front panel, you run into problems like the one user (can't remember- was it Crewe) who couldn't load songs when they first got it.

___________
Tony Fabris

WOW.

I haven't run the software yet, but just from looking at the Readme, I now understand how it works. Amazing.

You know, with just a little bit of COM port programming, you could make it into a totally menu-driven file manager application for the Empeg. Never even have to look at the command prompt. Insane. Great work.

___________
Tony Fabris

Valid point. I would like the TCP/IP configurable from the panel directly as well. That would make it much easier to set up initially.

Another thing that might be nice would be alternate configuration on the empeg itself. If DHCP is set, attempt. But if you don't get a reply, fall back to a fixed IP. W2K does that too... (192.168.0.x, if I remember correctly...)

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (40GB Green)

And by the way, I get an "Could not connect to Empeg" error when I run EmpegTaxi.exe on my system. Probably a Win2000 thing.

Still, very VERY promising concept, and I could really see it working once you can communicate on the COM port yourself and parse the screens.

___________
Tony Fabris

Another thing that might be nice would be alternate configuration on the empeg itself. If DHCP is set, attempt. But if you don't get a reply, fall back to a fixed IP.

This, of course, would work great for me.

I would need it to go to the extra step of allowing me to configure which fixed IP it falls back to. Either that or renumbering my home network to be 192.168.0.x

___________
Tony Fabris

I'm halfway through doing that, although as it's nearly 1am, I'm going to stop for the night...
Ideally I'll get my C together and write a program for the empeg to run (launched from a picker menu or whatever) which will replace the user shell stuff (I've got a proper packet protocol as well)

Jazz
(List 112, Mk2 12 gig #40. Mk1 4 gig #30. Mk3 1.6 16v)

Ideally I'll get my C together and write a program for the empeg to run (launched from a picker menu or whatever) which will replace the user shell stuff

No, don't do that!

Your current design is better, since it doesn't need any third-party software installed on the Empeg. Just put the developer image on it and then your program works.

All your program needs to do is send the proper keystrokes to the serial port and parse the screens it gets back.

Okay, so it needs two cables (USB/Serial) connected instead of one. So what?

___________
Tony Fabris

Drat...
I'll have to get Win2k setup at some point so I can test these things. It's working fine here under WinME.
(You did have the empeg connected to the USB port didn't you... ;)

Jazz
(List 112, Mk2 12 gig #40. Mk1 4 gig #30. Mk3 1.6 16v)

Fair comment... =)
I should have something like that working tomorrow... Watch this space... =)

Jazz
(List 112, Mk2 12 gig #40. Mk1 4 gig #30. Mk3 1.6 16v)

98 and 2k fallback into the uPnP space of 169.254.x.x when they don't see a DHCP server. (universal Plug n Play, the supposed new standard that will allow all your consumer devices to talk to each other.)

Would this program or a variant be usable as the oft-requested empeg backup utility?

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

I don't see why not... =)
I've been pulling mp3's off to test the connection so _technically_ you could pull all the mp3's and playlists off the empeg.
Putting them back on the empeg could be more tricky however...

Jazz
(List 112, Mk2 12 gig #40. Mk1 4 gig #30. Mk3 1.6 16v)

Same thing here, the problem is in the resetdevice and resetpipe ioctrls

Frank van Gestel

This could still be the case : connect the empeg with serial and usb. Stop the player app over serial and transfer a binary over serial to the empeg. start the executable and let usb take over...

Frank van Gestel

Just install a DHCP server. That will solve your problems, and it will clear up a load of other issues if you have more than one machine at home too.

My DHCP server is only using 52 Kb of RAM so it's not like it's gonna bog your machine down.

Have you tried setting the main address to DHCP, then add an additional fixed address under the advanced tab.

Just tried that here on a friends w2k box and it worked fine. Haven't seen what havoc will occur after a reboot though.

Also, is it just me, or is that UI looking a lot like Mac OS X? Is history repeating itself at Microsoft?

Nah, it looks more like a theme for GNOME (a unix desktop) than Mac OS X. The GUI Architecture in OS X is way more advanced that what MS have in XP (or what GNOME and KDE have).

Have you tried setting the main address to DHCP, then add an additional fixed address under the advanced tab.

That was the very first thing I tried. It's the exact thing I wanted to do, and was thwarted.

When the main address is DHCP-enabled, the "Add" button on the Advanced tab is grayed out.

Just tried that here on a friends w2k box and it worked fine.

I'd sure like to know how you got it to happen.

___________
Tony Fabris

I'll have to get Win2k setup at some point so I can test these things.

Yes, it's frightening how many little incompatibilities there are between various versions of the Win32 OS's. Testing is important.

I just got done writing a piece of installer software which adds a web site to Internet Information Server. The API's to get this job done are very poorly documented, but I managed it through a lot of trial-and-error. Finally, I had something working on NT4, and it refuses to run on Windows 2000. There is one innocent little function call, and I'm getting a strange error code returned from this function, one that's not documented. The funny thing is, the way the API's are designed, it's not possible to get the job done unless this function works on Win2k. So why should it work on NT4 and fail on Win2K?


You did have the empeg connected to the USB port didn't you...

Although I have been known to be a complete moron at certain times in my life, this is not one of them. I checked to make sure I was able to synch via USB after I got that error. Frank duplicated the problem, so it's definitely a Win2K incompatibility.

___________
Tony Fabris

here's a version which works on win2k. It doesn't use the resetdevice/resetpipe calls.


Frank van Gestel

That worked. Although there's some confusion with the behavior compared to the readme.txt I got from the previous version of the program. It didn't automatically pop up the dialog when I echoed the file size to the pipe. So I clicked on the "file" checkbox, gave it a file name, then echoed again. The transfer worked, but the echo appeared at the beginning of the file, and the end of the file was cut short (presumably by the number of characters in the echo).

But hey, it worked.

I'd definitely like to see a version which did the serial commands for you, and worked bidirectionally.

Note: If you guys are doing a version that does the serial commands for you, may I make a suggestion "in advance"?

I'm running a modified startup shell script which loops through a selecter program (allowing me to choose whether or not to run RJLov's volume adjustment kernel). This means when you quit the player app with a serial "Q", it allows you to re-select. In order to drop to the bash prompt, you need to do a second "Q". I think I'm not the only one who does this, so whatever commands you use to quit the player app, make them configurable.



___________
Tony Fabris

That's an earlier version of the test program, empegTaxi is the one that supports the command system mentioned in the readme... =)
That version requires a click on the to file box, you then cat the file to /dev/usb and when it completes click the checkbox off again...

I'm playing with the serial stuff at the moment, so I'll keep the suggestions in mind... =)

Jazz
(List 112, Mk2 12 gig #40. Mk1 4 gig #30. Mk3 1.6 16v)

There is a (hopefully) windows 2000 compatible version at http://nrg.nu/files/empegTaxi.zip
Still playing with the serial stuff though... =)

Jazz
(List 112, Mk2 12 gig #40. Mk1 4 gig #30. Mk3 1.6 16v)

That one doesn't work for me. I still get "cannot connect to empeg". The one Frank sent me works, although like you said, it uses the old-style user interface. If you want to mess around and send me more stuff directly to test, we can drop this discussion off the BBS and go to e-mail or ICQ.

___________
Tony Fabris