alphawave Posted July 22, 2003 Share Posted July 22, 2003 Recently I picked up a magellan sportrak map, but I was dissapointed with the firmware(yes I have updated to 4.06). There re so many features and little things that i think could be added. Anyone that knows a little C/C++, contact me. I know a little C++ but not enough to do much. Thanks Lee Pilgrim diddystar5_AT_aol_DOT_com Quote Link to comment
robertlipe Posted July 22, 2003 Share Posted July 22, 2003 In the current litigous world of DMCA and such, I'm not particularly interested in reverse engineering their hardware & firmware. I am, however, a systems-level programmer with embedded systems background and if Magellan were to open up enough of their firmware to allow customized versions, I'd be all over it. Quote Link to comment
+Prime Suspect Posted July 22, 2003 Share Posted July 22, 2003 Can you say "voided warrenty"? "Don't mess with a geocacher. We know all the best places to hide a body." Quote Link to comment
Merasheen Posted July 22, 2003 Share Posted July 22, 2003 I own a sport trak map and it says v 3.03 copyright 2002 . is this version 3.03 if so how do I update . CONFUSING Quote Link to comment
+geopug Posted July 23, 2003 Share Posted July 23, 2003 You can download the newest SportTrak Map update here: http://www.magellangps.com/en/support/products/upgrades/upgrade_sportrakmap.asp Quote Link to comment
alphawave Posted July 23, 2003 Author Share Posted July 23, 2003 I don't see how we could violate the DMCA if we make everything from scratch. It may be a bit hard to get docs for some of the chips (such as LCD controller...) and to write our own drivers. Quote: Can you say "voided warrenty"? I don't know how magellan would like this, but I don't see this as violating warrenty. I don't think by doing this we could mess up the unit, because even if the flash gets totaly garbled up, you can erase the flash and start over (even with magellan's firmware). Quote Link to comment
+parkrrrr Posted July 23, 2003 Share Posted July 23, 2003 So, ah, to be blunt, what exactly do you bring to the party, since it's not any programming skills? Do you even know what the target processor is? Do you really think there's documentation available for the hardware? Do you even know that firmware is hardly ever written in bloated languages like C++? Quote Link to comment
robertlipe Posted July 23, 2003 Share Posted July 23, 2003 Since it's so easy, let me know when you have yours getting a lock. (I used to design systems not entirely unlike that.) Oh, and if you have in-circuit flash programmers, or better yet, flash simulators, you can worry a lot less about slagging your receiver, so the repair costs shouldn't worry you much, either. Quote Link to comment
alphawave Posted July 24, 2003 Author Share Posted July 24, 2003 I was going to open my unit today and see what some of the chips are in it, but to get to the major stuff you have to desolder a little tin box, and I didn't feel like getting my soldering iron out. There are lots of firmware like stuff written in c, such as on one project I help with called rockbox http://rockbox.haxx.se/ As for the processor type, gcc suports alot of differn't proceessors, even if they don't support it, somewhere they may be a compiler that does. If I ever get time to try, I will do some research and make a proof-of-concept version. Quote Link to comment
+parkrrrr Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 Are you familiar with the term "ASIC"? Do you really think you're going to be able to open the thing up and just look at the numbers and find datasheets for them? Quote Link to comment
+-=(GEO)=- Posted July 29, 2003 Share Posted July 29, 2003 Warm Fuzzies... A bit earlier in this (funny) thread, you wrote: quote: Do you even know that firmware is hardly ever written in bloated languages like C++? I don't know how much development you've done in C++ but I can assure you that there are definite ways of avoiding the BLOAT in C++ code once you understand the finer aspects of the language. It's wrong to assume that because a language is of a higher level than say... assembler, it's going to cause bloat. I've heard in the past the same statements about coding in C vs. assembler. It's kinda funny to see this repeated now with C++. I don't want to start a 'religious' war here or anything. I'm just trying to point out a misconception. Regards, Fabien. Quote Link to comment
+Team Chevelle Posted July 29, 2003 Share Posted July 29, 2003 A couple things -- no offense intended, so please don't take it as such... 1. This sounds a lot like what I used to hear about video game emulation from people that had no idea. They would suddenly decide that they were going to write an emulator for their Sega Dreamcast, PS2, or other fancy hardware. They did this with absolutely no understanding of how difficult that would be. Of course, their first step would be recruiting people to actually do it for them. 2. Regardless of the feasibility of this project, I'm more interested in what the current software doesn't do that you wish it would. Can you tell us more about the "so many features and little things" that you want added? Just curious... - John... Quote Link to comment
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