Soarer desparately needed!

[andrewjoy]

I think enough time has passed that if you have a dissembler go nuts.

[ocodo]

Any movement on this since last year?

[andrewjoy]

No, i would say its now officially abandonware and whoever has the time should not feel limited by any sort of licence .

[fohat]

No, i would say its now officially abandonware and whoever has the time should not feel limited by any sort of licence .

Yes, probably so. I sure wish we knew what had happened to Soarer! He seemed like such a nice guy.

[Arakula]

Nice guy, and competent as well. Unfortunately, there's still no sign of him <sigh> ...

If Soarer doesn't reappear until the end of August, it will have been 2 years since he totally vanished from DT and GH. That should be enough time. If there's still no sign of him by then, I'll consider it abandonware, too, and will create GitHub repositories for my versions around mid-September.

BTW, in the meantime, I reverse-engineered the "Soarer Controller" version, too, but that one's completely untested yet. Is there anybody interested in having a go at it? Since I have no hardware to test it with, I could use alpha-testers who would be willing to flash my version onto a keyboard currently running Soarer's v1.20 beta.

Here it is:

Soarer_Controller_v1.20_beta4_reverse.zip

(100.14 KiB) Downloaded 522 times

Contains the following files:

• Soarer_Controller_v1.20_beta4_adafruit.hex
  Version for the Adafruit breakout board
• Soarer_Controller_v1.20_beta4_promicro.hex
  Version for the Pro Micro 5V/16MHz
• Soarer_Controller_v1.20_beta4_promicro8.hex
  Version for the Pro Micro 3.3V/8MHz
• Soarer_Controller_v1.20_beta4_teensy20.hex
  Version for the Teensy 2.0; should also work on other ATmega32U4-based devices.
• Soarer_Controller_v1.20_beta4_teensypp1.hex
  Version for the Teensy++ 1.0; should also work on other AT90USB646-based devices.
• Soarer_Controller_v1.20_beta4_teensypp2.hex
  Version for the Teensy++ 2.0; should also work on other AT90USB1286-based devices.

Attention: it is very likely that this version still contains bugs; it may not work at all. It is here for testing purposes only, and I'd be highly interested in bug reports. Please don't install it on production devices!

If you're interested in having a go at the source code, ironing out bugs and checking for oversights, send me a PM. Fair warning: AVR8 assembler and avr-gcc/WinAVR knowledge is a must have for this task. And a lot of time at hand which may be spent on staring at the disassembly of the original code to find out where the f*** I introduced the errors

[ohaimark]

I think enough time has passed that if you have a dissembler go nuts.

I'm great at dissembling!

His disappearance reminds me of NwAvGuy's. If you don't know NwAvguy, he's a legend in the budget hi-fi audio community.

[Harima]

Would it be possible to add features to it?

I'm probably the only one but I'd like to see

• Ability to cancel macros

Currently if you have a long delay, there is no way to stop the macro (at least I don't think there is?)

• Ability to press other keys simulaneously with macros

Currently if you have a long delay, pressing other keys will queue in order after the macro has been executed.

Example of a macro with long delay to try out:

Spoiler:

Code: Select all

macro F6 LSHIFT
	PUSH_META CLEAR_META all
	Press A
	Press A
	Press A
	SET_META LSHIFT
	Delay 250
	Delay 250
	Delay 250
	Delay 250
	Delay 250
	Delay 250
	Delay 250
	Delay 250
	Delay 250
	Delay 250
	Press A
	Press A
	Press A
	POP_ALL_META
endmacro

• 6KRO mode for compatibility

[anjorno]

Is there interest in being able to patch in alternate scancodes at the initial translation level?

With the massive assistance of being provided with the reverse engineered source code, just the portion for the input scancode sets translation, I'd be happy to volunteer for the small task of documenting how to patch in alternate set 2 extended or set 3 scancodes into the Soarer's Converter 1.12 binaries.

In my case, I have a BTC 5339R, and it would mean something to me to be able to use its "Macro" key, E0 6F. Not my best keyboard, but it's my early nineties keyboard, and I like having it set up at a standing desk in my den. I could use Hasu's TMK Converter, but I also have an XT clone keyboard to occasionally swap in at that station, so it might be more efficient for me to stick with Soarer's, in addition to already using SC at my regular desk.

Did Soarer catch all the set 3 scancodes that people need for various set 3 keyboards? How about non-standard set 2 extended media keys scancodes?

[stroma]

If Soarer doesn't reappear until the end of August, it will have been 2 years since he totally vanished from DT and GH. That should be enough time. If there's still no sign of him by then, I'll consider it abandonware, too, and will create GitHub repositories for my versions around mid-September.

I have checked your GitHub repositories - they are empty. After two more years without sign from Soarer, are you still have plans to make reverse engineered source code public?

[Blaise170]

I'd like to know that too. I've been wanting to edit the WYSE converters for quite some time now, but with his absence I haven't been able to. For anyone who has it decompiled: it's now been 4 years, so I'd say the risk you take is relatively low.

[Muirium]

Several of us (me, Arakula and Orihalcon) have tried to get in touch with him over the years. Nothing’s ever come back.

I knew Soarer a bit back when he was prolific here. He struck me as bluntly honest and sure of his opinions! He said he planned to open source his converter and controller when he could. I believe him. Sadly, he just never got around to it.

If he is still out there somewhere, and for whatever reason he objects, we’ll hear about it! He was always one to tell you when, and how, you were doing it wrong.

[stroma]

Disassembling the code is easy, but Arakula did a lot more (I admire his effort), figuring out the logic and translating the disassembled to structured C code with comments and all(at least he said so). I think if this code is available it will inspire a lot of people giving new push to Soarer work, porting it for new processor architectures and adding new features ...

[JBert]

Arakula spent some tremendous effort on disassembly / labeling what the code does and was kind enough to share his work on Soarer's controller with me when the firmware wouldn't work for the GH60 PCB.

Sadly compiling the generated C files would not yield a working controller, so in the end I still use the original controller firmware with a GH60 patch in the location which Arakula's notes indicated. Maybe I should pick it up again, I still have a keypad around which needs diodes and a new controller, likely the Teensy is easier to debug than the GH60 board.

I can only hope that Arakula would be willing to share his work in those git repositories so that all his effort doesn't go to waste. It seems a git repo exists for the converter and controller so I don't know what made him second-guess his decision stated in the post above from 2016. Maybe send him a PM, it looks like he visited slightly over a month ago.

[XMIT]

Greetings from 2019!

Is there any chance these firmwares will be posted this year?