B’s procesor with Paterson 3 reel and the Premium trigger.
It’s been a few years in the making! Ideas were there but the time and skills were missing….
Still two kids to care for but I’m now working part time, and my coding skills have progressed to where I’m now “comfortable” with it ;) So now that I have some time to do so I’ve been working on B’s processor’s firmware extensively, to the point where it’s becoming cool. At least I think it is…
I wanted to address multiple things:
Better compatibility with the larger tanks like the giant Jobo 3xxx series (I’ve worked on the physical aspect of this too, see the extension and the new premium trigger…
More stable synchronization for all tank sizes
New moves, the pulsed rotation has been good doing its job but since its inception I wanted to have more. It was still the same move during the whole development and my idea was to have different moves one after another in a cycle to combat bad flows even better
I also wanted to finally share my code in a simple way so people can finally update their machines.
I’m happy to say I mostly made it!
With the firmware upgrade I will be sharing a how-to video, doing so is not hard but unfortunately it is not easy. I’ve looked for the past few years for a simple software that would be an easy upload to the board, but the couple options out there are not compatible with the genuine Arduino board used in B’s processor :( If you are a programmer that knows how to make this work get in touch with me…)
A small part of B’s processor code.
The code itself will be found on here. There will be three versions: The original legacy one, a New one that consolidates the current processor behavior and the third one, that will have the new moves on top!
That third one will be the experimental option as I have tested it but not enough yet… Remember start-up cheat codes on Gameboy in the 90s? B’s processor will have that witht he Experimental firmware.
Depending on your mode switch position when your machine boots will make it start with a whole different set of programs. (a very satisfying programming breakthrough for me as you can imagine!)
Quick video showing and explains the behavior diference between the firmwares.
As a small extra note: Some machines are getting quite old in the wild developing away literally hundreds of rolls per year!! That’s what they are meant to do, and it warms my heart they do. That said I designed it in a way that it is very easy to fix, I’m the kind to fix things, throwing away something is a last solution in our household. Because of its design anybody with some tinkering ability will always be able to fix its inside! that said I will now offer repair and services for the older machines. It will cost a flat $35 plus shipping, with an extra $5 if it needs a mainboard or motor change. Like that no need to spend on a new machine or throw away the old one…
If you have read down to here, thanks for being awesome!
B’s processors continue to become even more versatile, happy development to you!
Benoît.