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UPDATE: DMCP-3.10 / DM42-3.10

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 2:20 pm
by grsbanks
Image

This latest update to both the DMCP and DM42/Free42 parts of the DM42's firmware brings the following improvements:
  • Intel® Decimal Floating-Point Math Library Version 2.0 Update 2
  • "Print to file" feature
  • Calculator help file updated
  • Fixed the issue with multi line messages and menus
  • Off-images with flipped row order are accepted now
  • New toolchain and speed boost
Intel® Decimal Floating-Point Math Library

An update was released a few months ago (see https://software.intel.com/en-us/articl ... th-library) and has now made its way into the DM42's firmware after the required testing.

"Print to file"

This feature allows you to "print" data to a virtual printer and to recover the results in a text file deposited in the FAT drive.

Graphics output uses pseudo-graphic "block" characters that will really only make sense if the text is viewed with a fixed width font.

The new feature is fully described in the updated manual.

Help file updated

The built-in help file has been updated to reflect the new features of the DM42. You can grab a copy of it from here

Multi-line messages and menu

A bug prevented menus from updating their contents properly when multi-line messages were displayed. This has been fixed.

Reference: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1960&p=8758#p8758

Off-images with flipped row order

Some bitmap formats invert the order of the rows in them, ie. the bottom row appears first in the file. The DM42 would choke on these.

This is now fixed and both variants of .bmp file can be used.

New toolchain and speed boost

We've updated to the 2018q2 release of GNU Tools for ARM Embedded Processors.

The problems with some of the build optimisations that caused instability in the DM42 using an earlier version of this toolchain have been resolved, which has allowed us to switch those optimisations back on. Having performed extensive testing of the resulting code we found no instability whatsoever but we did notice a speed gain of around 5% in calculations. This could, of course, also be partially down to the newer version of the Intel library.

Bottom line, this build of the DM42 firmware is faster than V3.9 and also smaller in size, which means that there's more room for future enhancements :)

The method for updating your DM42 is covered in the manual.

The latest firmware binaries are available here.

SHA1 checksums:
  • f5a0faa32ccfeacd641c7ce0d4d5e34433aad4d2 DM42-3.10.pgm
  • 10691156542d090257a950867930742b0a042c37 DMCP_flash_3.10.bin
  • 7ec2f2449f7f47dc5b8685acac6b8261827b578a DMCP_flash_3.10_DM42-3.10.bin

Re: UPDATE: DMCP-3.10 / DM42-3.10

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 2:55 pm
by revwillie
the update went flawlessly. I just tried NORM printing to text with no IR and verified the output in the PRINTS folder. I will be doing more virtual printing later when I have more time.

:D :D :D :D :D nice work!

Re: UPDATE: DMCP-3.10 / DM42-3.10

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 4:43 pm
by Leechpool
Hi,
I must be stupid :D ... I always seem to have difficulties with DM42 firmware.

I'm currently running DMCP v3.7 and DM42PGM 3.7.1

I obtained the following files and put them on the root of the DM42 shared drive:
DMCP_flash_3.10.bin
MD42-3.10.pgm

I ejected the drive and saw "Load Flash From Fat", but when I press enter, Nothing further happens and the calculator appears to have frozen.
Only way I can progress is to push the reset button on the rear.
Am I doing something wrong?

thanks
:D

Re: UPDATE: DMCP-3.10 / DM42-3.10

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 5:35 pm
by revwillie
did you unplug the USB cable before you pressed enter?

Re: UPDATE: DMCP-3.10 / DM42-3.10

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 5:43 pm
by Leechpool
Revwillie,
I tried it both ways.
1. just hitting eject on the PC and pressing enter to flash with the usb still connected
2. hitting eject on the PC, unplugging usb....DM42 then tells you to connect usb else risk draining battery during flashing...

Both makes the DM42 freeze (I've checked and it's not frozen until I hit enter with the flash ROM message i.e. it's not frozen immediately after ejecting the USB).

thanks anyway,
:D

Re: UPDATE: DMCP-3.10 / DM42-3.10

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 6:04 pm
by Thomas_ER
revwillie wrote:
Tue Oct 02, 2018 2:55 pm
the update went flawlessly. I just tried NORM printing to text with no IR and verified the output in the PRINTS folder. I will be doing more virtual printing later when I have more time.

:D :D :D :D :D nice work!
same for me, great enhancements!
many thanks to the team!

Re: UPDATE: DMCP-3.10 / DM42-3.10

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 6:56 pm
by DA74254
Thank you very much.
Updated via the "all-inclusive" .bin file and then copied over the two .prg files so that I can switch between :)

Re: UPDATE: DMCP-3.10 / DM42-3.10

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 7:25 pm
by Leechpool
All,
To anyone interested, I couldn't get firmware via FAT to work. However, I tried using udf-utils on one of my Ubuntu linux machines and it worked. I'm now running 3.10 ... phew!
:D

Re: UPDATE: DMCP-3.10 / DM42-3.10

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 8:03 pm
by toml_12953
I used the combined .bin on both my beta and production units. Flawless upgrade on both. Thanks, D&M!

Re: UPDATE: DMCP-3.10 / DM42-3.10

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 8:32 pm
by rprosperi
Updated flawlessly using the aill-in-one image.

My thanks to the SM team for continued refinement, expanded features and great support!!