Mark, with great great pleasure, I am honored to help!
So, here's the data you're asking:

I am using 2.00b7 Developer

In DC/Car Mode I am in Info-Off. Enter Hijack v.87, select Show Flash Savearea and read the following:
40 0001 0101 6005 0000
48 0A3F 0000 0003 0000
50 0000 0000 0000 0000

In DC/Car Mode I am in Info-Line. Enter Hijack v.87, select Show Flash Savearea and read the following:
40 0101 0101 0000 0000
48 0000 0000 0003 0000
50 0000 0000 0000 0000

In DC/Car Mode I am in Info-Transient. Enter Hijack v.87, select Show Flash Savearea and read the following:
40 0201 0101 0000 0000
48 0000 0000 0003 0000
50 0000 0000 0000 0000

In DC/Car Mode I am in Info-Track. Enter Hijack v.87, select Show Flash Savearea and read the following:
40 0201 0101 0000 0000
48 0000 0000 0403 0000
50 0000 0000 0000 0000

In DC/Car Mode I am in Info-Seek Tool. Enter Hijack v.87, select Show Flash Savearea and read the following:
40 0201 0101 0000 0000
48 0000 0000 0404 0000
50 0000 0000 0000 0000

In DC/Car Mode I am in Info-Now & Next. Enter Hijack v.87, select Show Flash Savearea and read the following:
40 0201 0101 0000 0000
48 0000 0000 0405 0000
50 0000 0000 0000 0000

In DC/Car Mode I am in Info-Track Detail. Enter Hijack v.87, select Show Flash Savearea and read the following:
40 0001 0101 0000 0000
48 0000 0000 0403 0000
50 0000 0000 0000 0000

Awesome Mark, 88 works just fine!

Now if I could only get that "Volume Ramps Up" thing to work... Hmmm...

Version 88 Now.
I am using 2.00b7 Developer

In DC/Car Mode I am in Info-Off. Enter Hijack v.88, select Show Flash Savearea and read the following:
40 0001 0101 0000 0000
48 0000 0000 0003 0000
50 0000 0000 0000 0000

In DC/Car Mode I am in Info-Line. Enter Hijack v.88, select Show Flash Savearea and read the following:
40 0101 0101 0000 0000
48 0000 0000 0003 0000
50 0000 0000 0000 0000

In DC/Car Mode I am in Info-Transient. Enter Hijack v.88, select Show Flash Savearea and read the following:
40 0201 0101 0000 0000
48 0000 0000 0003 0000
50 0000 0000 0000 0000

In DC/Car Mode I am in Info-Track. Enter Hijack v.88, select Show Flash Savearea and read the following:
40 0201 0101 0000 0000
48 0000 0000 0403 0000
50 0000 0000 0000 0000

In DC/Car Mode I am in Info-Seek Tool. Enter Hijack v.88, select Show Flash Savearea and read the following:
40 0201 0101 0000 0000
48 0000 0000 0404 0000
50 0000 0000 0000 0000

In DC/Car Mode I am in Info-Now & Next. Enter Hijack v.88, select Show Flash Savearea and read the following:
40 0201 0101 0000 0000
48 0000 0000 0405 0000
50 0000 0000 0000 0000

In DC/Car Mode I am in Info-Track Detail. Enter Hijack v.88, select Show Flash Savearea and read the following:
40 0201 0101 0000 0000
48 0000 0000 0403 0000
50 0000 0000 0000 0000

Thanks! Note that v88 is likely "broken" for you, but using your data I've fixed it for the next release (tomorrow sometime).

We need more contributions.. anyone else?

I confirm, It works! Bravo!

Broken? Meaning? I was in transient info mode, DC/Car mode forced. Unplugged, plugged, back in transient mode! Seems to be working! :)

Taym,

In your case, v88 is broken if you set Info==OFF and then reboot.

I'll fix it in v89 in 30-40minutes from now -- say 10:45EST (currenly 10:12EST).

-ml

Oh! Ok, I'll test all the modes and report as soon as I finish this upload session. Unfortunately I have to wait 15 minutes at least before I can test, it's a big upload. Sorry, I thought you would release 89 tomorrow, I hope my post will be early enough to be actually useful. Anyway... THANK YOU!

Okay Hijack v89 is out. The "Restore DC/Car Visuals" function is now working for everyone who has reported back on it. If it works (or not) for you, I'd like to hear from ya.

Thanks all!

-ml

Test HiJack v.89 on 2.00b7
DC/Car Mode Forced

Unplug/Plug Performed

Info-Off - OK
Info-Line - OK
INfo-Transient - OK
Info-Track - OK
Info-Seek - OK
Inf0-Now Next - OK

Great!

Just tried v89 in my car and it still isn't handling when the player boots into tuner mode. This is probably a feature and not a bug, as I'm guessing you haven't coded tuner info mode switching just yet.

Everything else checks out fine.

89 works fine for me.

One comment... When the player boots in AC mode, it goes instantly to the assigned visual, but in DC mode, it flashes through a few screens really quickly before switching to the visual. This is expected behavior, due to the nature of your fix, right?

One comment... When the player boots in AC mode, it goes instantly to the assigned visual, but in DC mode, it flashes through a few screens really quickly before switching to the visual. This is expected behavior, due to the nature of your fix, right?

Actually it's much simpler than that. In AC mode the player doesn't bother to switch to Track info mode because it's assuming you're not in your car while you're on AC power. The whole reason the player switches to Track info mode is to make the user explicitly turn on the "distracting" visuals, thereby absolving them of legal responsbility when someone runs their car off the road whilst engrossed in a Hula Hoops-induced trance.

So we are only concerned with switching info modes if we're in DC mode. In AC mode, the info mode will already come up correctly.

Sadly, there seems to be no easier way to switch to the correct info mode besides faking some IR presses. At least none that we've found yet... Someone who is handy with GDB and a hex editor might be able to locate (and possibly skip past) the code where the player does the info mode switch, but that would be a hefty assignment... Borislav, are you listening? I would think doing this would be similar to the unsorted menus hack... And it would provide a lot of benefit... The hijack solution is, in my opinion, less than ideal (though effective.)

Of course if you don't want to hack the software to force-restore a visual in-car, you can feel free to run your car off the road while trying to read the info track display.

I had to slam my brakes tonight (didn't lock up or kick on ABS) to slow down and avoid smashing a raccoon, but it didn't have much to do with the empeg. Though I did think about it when it happened. "Mmmm, good thing I wasn't checking out the display just then..." :)

Bruno

. "Mmmm, good thing I wasn't checking out the display just then..." :)

This is why I'd like to see voice synthesis (text to speech) on the Empeg. I haven't had ANY time to work on it since my earlier investigation, but I really do want it. Putting the right hooks into it and convincing Empeg to hook into it from the player app would be another story entirely.

Right. "restore visuals" is currently only working correctly for the mp3/wav player function, not for AUX or TUNER. I'll try to remember those two when I get back home next week, where my Tuner is hiding.

Cheers

-ml

>When the player boots in AC mode, it goes instantly
>to the assigned visual, but in DC mode, it flashes
>through a few screens really quickly before switching to the visual.

Correct. Basically, Hijack forces "Info-Track" mode, and then waits for the horiztonal line to appear from "Info-Track", which lets it know that the player is now up and running. Note that "Info-Track" is the ONLY Info mode that can be easily "recognized" in such fashion. Then, Hijack injects the required number of "INFO" button press/releases to restore the original mode.

Concept stolen from a much older patch, forwarded to me by somebody else in this group. Good idea, and simple to implement.

Cheers

-ml

Oh yeah, this "restore visuals" feature is ONLY invoked when in "DC/Car" mode, since the player software itself handles the "AC/Home" situation -- that's why there's no "flicker" in "AC/Home".

-ml

Hey Mark, I gave this a shot and it looks like the mmap is indeed faster. I can't tell how much faster, and I couldn't do my whole app because I don't have the display writes contained in one function just yet, but it definitely looks like the graphics library speeds up when not using the ioctl() interface. So chalk me up as a vote for a memory-mapped buffer for the display.