Even More Memory!

Yesterday I decided to upgrade the flash memory from 16k to 64k, so I ordered 5 pieces from China; the extra space will give more space for logs and even more programmes!

Kiln Controller Box

This weekend I thought I'd take a look at finishing up the project box, it's nothing special just a standard off-the-shelf one; the buttons are standard push buttons, it's all rather a clunky looking solution but it should do for this version; once it's all wired up to the board and powered up I'll post some more pictures.

Programmes in Memory

I've been re-working the chip code so it uses the external eeprom memory for storing the firing programmes. This involves changing the way they are stored and also changes to the programme selection. In order to add the programmes to the eeprom memory I have to compile the data into its new format. To do this easily I decided to use xml to store the programmes. At the moment it's looking like I can potentially store 64 firing programmes with 3 segments per programme, alternatively you could have 51 programmes with 6 segments.

So hopefully this week I can read the compiled firing programmes in the chip code.

Kiln Controller to PC Serial Link

Over the weekend I managed to get the connunication side of things up and running. The basic framework is in place and now all I need to do is add more commands to the code. Originally the idea was to send full commands to the controller as Ascii text; But because of the added overhead of parsing the commands I decided to change the format and instead send the commands as raw byte sequences. The plan is; over the next couple of weeks to add all the rest of the commands.