Open Panzer TCB (Tank Control Board) - Firmware Version History

• Add some sanity checks to prevent conflicts between certain settings - if user selects Smoker Type = "Separate Heat & Fan" then two options related to the Aux Output must be disabled, because the Aux Output will be reserved for the smoker fan. These two are "Auto Flash the Aux Output with Canon" and "Flicker Lights during Engine Start." If we are not using the Aux output for the smoker fan (Smoker Type = "Combined Heat & Fan") then we permit those settings, but only one can be active. If both are active, we disable "Flicker Lights during Engine Start" and keep "Auto Flash the Aux Output with Canon." In reality, these conflicts are already prevented from occuring by OP Config, but it is good practice to have the board firmware catch them as well.

• Fixed a bug that allowed the tank to fire the cannon even while destroyed.
• As a good-practice measure, have set all unused pins on the processor to INPUT_PULLUP.

• The "flicker lights on engine start" effect has been modified. Because the Headlight output (Light 1) can not be adequately manipulated, we have replaced it with the Aux Light output. If you intend to use this effect you will want to use the Aux Output for your headlights instead of the Light 1 output. This will require assigning the Aux Output on and off functions to a trigger. As a reminder, the flicker light effect is intended to create the impression that the headlights/brakelights on your model are experiencing intermittent voltage during the time that the engine is being started. This is something that might have been seen on WWII-era tanks. For the effect to be active, you must:
  • Select the "Flicker lights during engine start" option on the "Lights & IO" tab of OP Config.
  • Specify a "Transmission Engage Delay" time on the "Driving" tab of OP Config. You should set this delay equal to the length of time of your engine startup sound. When the engine is started, this delay begins, your engine start sound is played, the transmission will not be engaged (the model can not be moved), and the LEDs connected to the Aux output and Brake light outputs will flicker.
  • Of course, the lights will only flicker if they were turned on before the engine start began.
  • When the "Transmission Engage Delay" has expired, your engine start sound should have also completed. At this time the transmission will automatically be engaged (allowing you to beging driving), and the Aux Output and Brake Lights will return to full brightness.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• Added an optional effect that will blink the headlights and brake/running lights on engine startup. Certain conditions must first be met: The user needs to select "Blink Headlights during Engine Start" on the "Lights & IO" tab of OP Config. They also need to specify a "Transmission Engage Delay" time on the "Driving" tab of OP Config. The flickering effect will last for that length of time, which should be set to match the length of your engine start sound. Finally, it will of course only be visible if, prior to starting the engine, the headlights were already on, or in the case of brake/running lights one of those were already on (the only way for the brake lights to be on prior to engine start is if the user has checked the "Brake Lights On when Stopped" option in OP Config).
• The flickering effect will not be identical for the headlights as for the brakelights, although they will follow each other in intensity. But the headlight output on the TCB can not be dimmed and therefore it is only able to be turned on or off. The brake lights can be dimmed so their effect will be a little less abrupt.
• An effect has also been added to the smoker that will attempt to create several "puffs" of smoke on engine startup. This effect is always active and can not be modified through OP Config. However for most smoker designs nothing is likely to be visible since the effect will be over before the heating element has time to generate smoke. An exception would be for those using "Separate Heat & Fan" outputs and who have specified a "Preheat time" on the "Driving" tab of OP Config.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• Remove squeak startup delay.

• Change descriptions of external outputs A & B functions from "Turn On" and "Turn Off" to "High" and "Low."

• Add user-defined pulse time for General Purpose IO ports A & B.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• Increase repetitions of the Tamiya IR signal from 10 to 50. Tamiya repeats the signal 50 times which takes 1 second. This is overkill and makes possible the infamous "fan shot." We initially set the TCB to only repeat a more reasonable 10 times, which takes 1/5 second. However, the new Heng Long 6+ boards only seem to accept hits when the signal is sent for the full length of time, and whatever its faults, it may be best to remain consistent with the Tamiya method, so we are now repeating for the full 1 second (50 times)

• No functional changes, but add awareness of the existence of other boards

• Fix bug that affected smoker startup state in some configurations
• Simplify track recoil to a simple on/off signal of user defined magnitude and length. Eliminate the overly-complicated speed tapering.

• Adjust track recoil parameters.
• Add ability to communicate to OP Config what hardware platform we are operating on.
• Minor bug fixes.

• The last release attempted to increase the number of switch positions for digital RC channels to 12, this turns out to be unworkable at present and the number has been reduced to 9 (still up from 6 previously).
• Added functions to enable/disable/toggle the smoker preheat delay on the fly.

• Add the ability to read up to 12-position RC switches (previous maximum was 6 positions)
• Added functionality to skip the smoker pre-heat engine start delay with a hot-start setting. If the engine is being re-started within the specified hot-start time since the last engine shutdown, the pre-heat will be skipped. The idea here is that the heating element would have retained enough heat within this short time that no pre-heat is necessary. HOWEVER, the user setting is not presently enabled in OP Config as in testing we find that heating elements cool off very quickly and therefore this feature is not likely to be useful. The functionality now exists but it is not enabled.
• Further enhancements to the experimental smoker object.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• Fixed a bug introduced in 0.93.60 that prevents the onboard turret motor drivers from working properly.

• Fixed a bug that prevented the smoker pre-heat functionality from working correctly when the engine is started with throttle rather than by function trigger.

• Added expanded smoker functionality including the option to control the fan and heating element separately with individual levels for each and the option to pre-heat the heating element automatically prior to engine start and even a pre-heat sound option. See the Motors tab of OP Config and the Smoker installation pages in the Wiki for more information.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• Add fixed 8.3 second delay from the time the engine is started to when the first command to start the idle sound is sent to the Taigen sound card. This matches the Taigen behavior but was something we missed in our first deciphering of the signal.

• Fix bug that caused the Benedini engine sound to start on boot without a user command.
• Increase the radio watchdog timeout from 300mS to 500mS (1/2 second). In certain circumstances with iBus receivers the watchdog was timing out even though the receiver had not lost signal (probably due to processor timing of an unusual combination of events).

• Minor bug fixes.

• Ignore certain actions on movement when movement is only track recoil.

• Add a function to manually toggle the smoker output (in addition to on and off which were already present).
• Add a function to stop all currently-playing User Sounds (only with Benedini Mini and Open Panzer sound cards).

• Fix a bug that prevented correct timing of track recoil after firing the airsoft while driving.

• Add IR Enable/Disable/Toggle functions. Also turned on the internal pullup resistor on the IR receive pin to hopefully reduce likelihood of TCB falsely detecting a hit through interference on the line when the mushroom is not plugged in.

• Add "DIY" version of TCB firmware, for those wishing to build homemade versions of the TCB using off-the-shelf Arduino Mega boards. Relocates the machine gun LED to Arduino pin 20 and the Recoil/Airsoft switch to Arduino pin 21.

• Add six new function triggers based on vehicle movement - start moving forward, start moving reverse, vehicle arrived at stop, start right turn, start left turn, and turn ceased. Only active when engine running.
• Add blink functions for general purpose outputs A and B. User can define blink frequency in OP Config.
• Add three speed reduction functions (Reduce to 75%, 50% or 25%) and one "Restore Speed" function.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• Fixed bug that caused incorrect behavior when Vehicle Type was set to "Car" or "Halftrack" (steering and drive would not function correctly).

• Fixed bug that caused function triggers to fail to initialize if the user has LVC enabled.

• Fixed a bug in the Taigen IR code that would cause the TCB to destroy the Taigen with one shot. In fact, it should take 5 shots for the Taigen to be destroyed.

• Add ability to control the sound-bank functions of the Open Panzer Sound Card - two banks of 20 sounds that can be manipulated like a standard playlist; eg play next, play previous, play random.
• Add ad-hoc triggers for engine start and engine stop. Superfluous because the user could instead just assign the same trigger used to start/stop the engine, but this can be more intuitive.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• Permit a user-defined current limit setting to be sent to the Scout ESC. The Scout already has the ability to read such a setting and the user may wish to use one other than the default of 12 amps.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• Added IR protocols for the newer Taigen V2/V3 motherboards.

• Added TCB special menu to adjust steering servo end-points when used with halftracks or cars. Enter menu by setting Dipswitch 3 to ON and 4 to OFF, then press the INPUT button for 2 seconds. End point adjustment is done in the same manner as for the turret elevation servo, see this page for a video tutorial.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• Fix bug that prevented track recoil from synchronizing with airsoft under certain conditions. Also increase airsoft running time slightly after pellet has been fired in order to make sure we have fully passed the switch.

• Fixed a bug that prevented the engine sound from stopping on the Taigen sound card. Bug was introduced as part of changes made in version 0.93.01 on 4/7/2018.

• Fixed a bug that prevented squeak sounds from playing on the Benedini Mini sound card.

• Increased number of positions possible for "digital" aux channels, from 3 to 6.
• Increased number of user sounds from 6 to 12 (presently can only use the full amount with the Open Panzer Sound Card)
• Various other updates that will work with the Open Panzer Sound Card such as a Light 2 sound option and an optional idle sound to be played only when the vehicle is damaged in IR battle, in the manner of Tamiya.
• Attempt a work-around for the Benedini Mini's apparent inability to play the engine shutdown and vehicle destroyed sounds at the same time.
• User now has the option to enable/disable the Apple cannon-reloaded notification blink (on the Lights & IO tab of OP Config)
• Add digital functions for control of the Motor A & B outputs. When not used for turret/motor control this allows the user to repurpose them as high current (2 amp) switches, like built-in relays that provide switched VBatt.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• Add a "no damage" option. Useful for those battling against stock Heng-Long/Taigen tanks that register hits but do not apply speed reductions.
• Added a "cannon reloaded" trigger.

• Add Toggle Dim Level function - when assigned to a digital trigger, will toggle the Aux output state between the preset dim level and off.
• Add steering, turret rotation, and barrel elevation channels as variable triggers. In addition to the throttle command trigger already added in 0.92.18, this allows us to remap or copy any of the stick channels to other (variable) outputs.
• We now permit halftracks with independent tread control to use RC outputs for the independent drive, but in such cases the steering servo will need to be moved from its usual location till now at RC Output 2, to RC Output 4. In this case the ability to use an RC output for barrel elevation will be overridden. When halftracks are used without RC control (such as serial motor controllers) then the steering servo is kept at RC Output 2 and the barrel elevation output is unaffected.

• Increase PWM frequency of Aux output from 2kHz to ~16kHz, in order to decrease the noise (whine) when the Aux output is used to drive small motors.
• Fix a bug that caused the engine to automatically start on boot when used with the Benedini TBS Mini sound card (as opposed to waiting for the explicit command to start from the user). This bug was found to have been introduced on 8/12/2017 with v0.92.10 firmware.

• Added visual notification of cannon reload - LEDs on Apple will blink twice when cannon reload is complete
• Added three new variable triggers which can be applied to analog functions: throttle command, engine speed, and vehicle speed.

• Corrected the synchronization of track recoil when used with airsoft devices.

• Fixed bug that prevented Vehicle Destroyed function trigger from being activated.

• Fixed smoker max speed bug (when smoker set to Auto the max speed setting didn't work unless it was set to 100%)

• Added support for Tamiya DMD units (T-01, T-03, T-08). These units integrate dual brushed speed controllers and an electronic mixer, they are operated by standard RC signals. When this type is selected the TCB will off-load all mixing to the DMD (this means the TCB's turn modes will not work).
• IMPORTANT NOTE: When attaching your DMD to the TCB, be sure to remove the positive (center) wire from your servo leads! Otherwise the BEC on the DMD will fight with the BEC on the TCB. Instructions for this are in the Wiki and are also shown in OP Config when DMD is selected.

• Added minimal support for the Benedini Micro and clones (DasMikro/Orlandoo/etc). See Wiki for details.
• Added manual transmission functionality for those without self-centering throttle sticks. Assign a 3 position switch to the three Manual Transmission functions (Forward, Reverse, Neutral) and select the gear manually, the throttle stick now controls speed only (not direction). Beware, there is no brake when using a manual transmission! You can force a brake to occur by changing gear. Also, the engine will refuse to start unless you are in neutral gear. For those with self-centering sticks, simply ignore the manual transmission functions and the TCB will default to auto.

• Added event for cannon reload complete, used to play a notification sound when paired with the Open Panzer Sound Card.

• Added track recoil functionality.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• Add track overlay enable/disable functions (Open Panzer sound card only)
• Add transmission engage/disengage sounds (Open Panzer sound card only)
• Add individual volume adjustments for engine/effects/overlay (Open Panzer sound card only)
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• Added "vehicle" speed to the sound class, in addition to "engine" speed which was already there. When used with the Open Panzer sound card, vehicle speed will allow us to play track overlay sounds that vary with actual vehicle speed, on top of the engine sounds which are played relative to engine speed.
• Fixed minor bug with the 2nd machine gun.

• Added dedicated second machine gun functions. The effect could be created previously with the Aux output, but the dedicated functions simplify the process and leave the Aux output free for other uses. If implemented, the second machine gun light should be connected to the L2 (Light 2) port. The second machine gun has its own blink interval setting available in OP Config, independent of the primary machine gun blink interval. The second machine gun will automaically trigger a sound effect if the sound card supports it. For the Benedini this will be whatever sound is placed in slot 11 of the 1st coder column in TBS Flash (otherwise called User Sound 3). For the Open Panzer Sound Card just add the sound files with the appropriate names to the micro SD card.
• CRC checking has been added to the code that communicates with Pololu serial motor controllers. This prevents the Pololu from mistakenly reacting to messages intended for other devices (for example the Open Panzer Sound Card). You must also enable CRC mode on your Pololu controller by using the jumper as shown in the Pololu instructions.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• Added ability to select Pan Servo for turret rotation. Most users will not want this but it can be useful for turret-less tanks (eg Jagdpanther) with a limited traverse barrel.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• Added two ad-hoc triggers, "Cannon Hit" and "Vehicle Destroyed" that can be used to trigger any digital function.
• Functionality for I/O Ports A&B has been expanded. When set to Output they now have the option to be "Default High" or "Default Low." Each also has a new function called "Pulse." If the Pulse function is triggered the external output pin A or B will briefly be held in the opposite direction of its default state. This can be used to emulate a button press to some external device.
• New function "Inverse Flash" added for Aux Output. Works the same way as the regular Flash function except this one holds the output high (+5 volts) normally, and during the flash brings the output momentarily to ground. Again, this can be used to emulate a button press for some external device.

• Added ability to trigger a brake sound automatically when vehicle brakes, presently only compatible with the Open Panzer Sound Card. The same effect can be implemented with the Benedini TBS Mini, but you must load your brake sound as one of the user sounds, then trigger the user sound using the "Brakes Applied" trigger.

• Update firmware for compatibility with Benedini Flash v3.x. This increases the number of sounds available when using the TBS Mini among other improvements.

• Add a new option to enable a special feature of the Scout ESC that can "drag" the inner (slower) track during turns to assist in turning and steering for heavy models using free-wheeling gearboxes such as the Taigen V2 that tend to keep spinning rather than slowing down when power is reduced. The option can be enabled or disabled on the Driving tab of OP Config. If you don't have problems leave it disabled, but if you are using one of these free-wheeling gearboxes and find it difficult to turn, give it a try and see if it helps. The option is only available on the Scout and only if the vehicle type is set to Tank or Halftrack in OP Config. The Scout must also be running the latest firmware (90.03 or later).
• Condense functions for playing user sounds and squeaks. Add additional user sound functions for a total of 6 available on some cards. For now we are still posting code for Benedini Flash v1 but it too will permit up to 6 user sounds when v3 is released.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• Added additional trigger sources - speed-based (vehicle goes above or falls below some user defined speed percentage) and ad-hoc triggers (presently the only one is "brakes applied" but we can add up to 16 in the future). These triggers departs from the traditional "input" and represent instead "events" from which the user may want other events to be triggered.

• Fixed bug caused by enabling Timer 1 Output Compare C interrupt but not having an ISR defined. These interrupts were enabled in both OP_SBusDecode.cpp and OP_iBusDecode.cpp, but in fact neither were needed.
• Moved all libraries to src subfolder of sketch folder. This will make it much more easier for developers to fork the project.
• Reverted to the original TBS functionality compatible with TBS Flash v1 since Benedini has yet to officially release v3.x and we are getting nervous.
• Added two special functions for manual on/off control of the smoker output, can be used as a high-current switch of battery voltage (manual analog control function was already present).

• Updated TBS library for compatibility with the new version of Benedini's TBS Flash (probably v3.x). This adds 4 more sounds, we use one for barrel elevation, one for a user sound (for a total of 3), and two as dedicated volume increase/decrease functions.

• Added ability to automatically flash the Aux Light output when cannon is fired. Flash will last for user specified time and will be triggered at the correct location in the cannon fire sequence, accounting for any delays the user may have specified under the mechanical recoil option. This option will hopefully be useful for people using an ordinary LED for muzzle flash instead of the high-intensity flash units. The Aux Light could already be flashed with cannon before but it required the user to assign their cannon trigger to the Aux Flash function, not a big deal but this eliminates that step.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• Added new drive type specifically for cluch-style gearboxes such as the DKLM RC PDSGB.
• Added functionality for OP Config to check what minimum version of OP Config the TCB expects, and what minimum version of TCB firmware OP Config expects. If either the TCB or OP Config is found to be older than the other is expecting, we will warn the user on TCB connection and remind them to update as appropriate.

• Corrected a bug introduced with 90.23. ResetBattle() is passed as a void function pointer in the SimpleTimer class, but adding a parameter to the function causes erratic behavior. This was difficult to troubleshoot because newer versions of the Arduino IDE failed to throw an error, however 1.6.8 did. We still removed the invulnerability period on first boot but we have corrected the error by simply using a second function instead of adding a parameter to the original.
• Support for Taigen sound cards has been added. A new class OP_TaigenSound was created. Some adjustments were made to GetThrottleSpeed() in OP_Driver as well to help smooth out the sound.
• A bug was found in GetThrottleSpeed() in OP_Driver that was corrected. It only came into play if acceleration ramping was used, which up to today it never had been.
• Support for a future Open Panzer sound card has been added. A new class OP_SoundCard was created. This library is a work in progress that won't be fully completed until developmenton the actual sound card is farther along, but basic features are operable.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• IMPORTANT NOTE: This release was found to be flawed. Firmware version 00.90.23 should not be used.
• Removed the invulnerability period when TCB first boots. This causes endless confusion when you attempt to test IR reception and for the first 10-15 seconds after applying power (depending on weight class) the tank is invulnerable. Invulnerability is really intended to apply only after the tank has been destroyed and is in the process of regenerating; we don't need it at boot.

• Fixed bug with radio detect routine when being run from within OP_PCComm (sketches timer was not being updated)
• Adjusted timing of radio detection to make it feasible to test for all three protocols within the 1 second alloted by OP Config
• Adjusted number of frames thrown out for iBus when streaming data to the PC in order not to overload OP Config, iBus is an even worse case than SBus due to the slightly higher baud rate. Now we keep only 1 out of every 3 frames when streaming to OP Config, but in normal operation we keep every other, same as SBus. Also made it easy to adjust these parameters for both SBus and iBus, there is a distinct setting now for the number of frames discarded during normal operation and the number discarded during streaming to the PC, see the .h files for both classes. PPM doesn't need this functionality.
• When being asked by OP Config to save the value to some variable which the TCB does not recognize, the TCB used to respond with a repeat command. Changed this to a response for next sentence (same as it would if it did recognize the variable), althought it does set a flag in the response so OP Config will know. The most common cause for this issue to occur, as I discovered, is running a version of OP Config more recent than the firmware version on the TCB. In that case the user should re-flash but it's also probably fine to just skip the unknown variable.
• A good deal of changes to the sound class. OP_TBS is now a sub-class of OP_Sound, as is the new OP_SoundCard subclass which will be used to communicate with a future Open Panzer sound card. Various other additional variables were created for the additional sounds that will be possible with the OP card, as well as new functions such as setting the volume with an analog trigger.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Changes in this release will cause all EEPROM settings to be reverted to default after the firmware is flashed. It is advised to save an OPZ file of your settings before updating the firmware.

• Fixed a small bug with the smoker that only presented itself when manually enabled/disabled using a function trigger.

• Add a Null_Motor drive type, which can be used when the user chooses to detach the turret stick controls from actually controlling the turret.

• A million things I didn't bother recording during development.

• Fixed debug LED behavior on braking. PCComm class can now try to initialize the radio after communication with PC has started, in the event the user forgets to turn their radio on until after, or communcation begins before the sketch has a chance to set it up. Fixed machine gun LED pin number, was incorrect for current board.

• Added FlySky iBus support, up to 14 channels. Required board change to Rev 0.19. Tested with FlySky i10 transmitter and FS-iA10 and FS-iA6B receivers.

• Local dev copy

• Added printed function names in Debug dump
• RC Output pass-throughs can now be of type regular or Pan Servo

• Posted to GitHub