msDroid - Android application for MegaSquirt

Over the last six months or so I've been working on an Android application for MS. I'm hoping to have something ready within a few weeks for people to beta test and play with. Ultimately I hope it to be a complete dashboard, configuration, datalogging and basic log-viewer tool for MS that sits handily on your Android phone, but in this early stage it will just provide a dashboard (i.e. graphical gauges) and logging.

So if you use MS (any hardware / firmware version) and have an Android device (HTC Desire, HTC Desire HTD, Archos 101 tablet, etc.) do you fancy beta testing it and giving feedback to help improve it?

You would need a Bluetooth to serial dongle to plug into the serial connector on your MS unit. I've tested a range of cheap Bluetooth module PCBs that cost about 5 off eBay from Hong Kong. They're all the same PCB but have different software on them depending on supplier. Some work fine and others have crap firmware on them, but I can reprogram crap ones with good firmware. You could either install one of those 5 modules directly inside the MegaSquirt enclosure (involving about four wires and a switch, and ensuring that it's mounted near an opening for the microwave antenna) or buy an RS232/TTL interface PCB (another 5ish), solder them together and you have a module for 10. In due course I'll write proper stuff about this. In the meantime if you'd like to beta test the app and need a Bluetooth module, PM me.

Cheers,

Trev

 

Shame I haven't got one of those phones. iPhone only here.

 

Sounds like a good plan Trevor.

 

can test it on Galaxy S

 

Megasquirt on Android is a fantastic idea!

I have a san fransisco on the japanese jellyfish thing. I also have an ABF running on MS in the garage, unfortunately it is off the road at the mo but it does start and run fine.

So if you want me to test it by just starting and idling then i'm more than willing

 

I'll hopefully getting my iphone fixed then selling it, and replacing with a htc soonish. I'm running MS.

 

i'd love to try this out.

I'm building an ABF with GSXR tb's on MS2 and have got a Google Nexus S phone

 

Thanks for the great interest guys. I'll get some Bluetooth dongles soldered together then!

It's going to be a few more weeks yet. This won't vanish into vapourware though I assure you -- the amount of time I've put into this so far has been too much to chuck away now.

 

i would be up for this trev defo i use ms2v3 on my gulf and have a htc desire hd


look forward to this

 

Trev,

As per my PM. I`m interested in trying this. At the moment, I log onto an old laptop when on track, this app would be much more convenient.

 

I have HTC desire ,and ms so Il try it

 

Excellent stuff guys. Many thanks for the PMs, including Nige. Apologies for not responding to all privately as yet.

Dead excited about getting a first version out for people to play with. Just wish I had 48 hours in the day and didn't have to sleep so I could get more code written...

 

I may have an Android phone in the house hold soon that I may be able to use to test this. Please keep us updated.

 

Still working on it.

Doing real-time / playback log viewer type graphical stuff at the moment.

Got a Jiffy bag full of Bluetooth modules from China.

Fingers ache from coding.

 

well i'm getting an android in November, and looking at setting up ms2ver3 within the next 6months so when i'm done ill be of assistance

 

This sounds like a great idea Trev! I've got a HTC Desire S and a MS powered car

 

Now I know that this screenshot looks like a complete bag of sh*te but I just felt like chucking up a screen grab of what's going on at the moment.

Graphically everything looks very primitive at the moment, because there's an overwhelming amount of more important work to do to make it all function underneath. However in time it should hopefully look really nice graphically, because I've created an SVG image parser to enable the dashboard gauges and other 'widgets' to be authored as an SVG file. In plain English, this means that a gauge can be designed in a vector imaging program such as Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator. Inkscape can be downloaded on Linux or Windows for free, so if anyone fancies designing some graphics for gauges - or graphics for any aspect of this thing - do give a shout.

Anyway so far what it can do is let you flip between several pages of your 'dashboard' and you can add, delete, and drag around the gauges that you want on each page. However for the time being I got bored of playing with the gauges and I started work on a graph thingy that lets you review what has been logged. This can be used to scroll through a log that has been taken after driving, and it can sit there automatically scrolling live data as well. Pinch to zoom in and out, etc. This now all works from the real MS unit via the Bluetooth dongle, and is configured to the specific version of MS software from the .ini files that you would usually use with MegaTune. It has a full expression evaluator so that it uses the math expressions in the .ini files to translate between the raw realtime data values from MS to the values you see on the screen and in the log.

 

Good news, I like the idea of being able to make the graphics for the gauges, look forward to when this is ready for testing.

 

Good show mate !!