Astrobe Forum

Posted: **Tue Mar 30, 2021 7:39 pm**

If you have many embedded systems in the field, keeping track of the installed software is a real problem. It would be much easier to store the software version inside the embedded code and output this when needed. In our case, our embedded systems send status reports to their hosts and they add the software revision code to each report. We use a resource addition to the Main or some other module which holds the version info. To get this done, the approach is as follows:

Make a small program to create a unique revision Nr. This can be a counter, but we simply use a simple "Binarized" Timestamp. This does not only give a small and unique number, it also allows to backtrack the version date and time. This small command line program was written in Delphi and the important bits look like:

Code: Select all

program SetRev;
{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}
{$R *.res}
uses
  System.SysUtils, System.Classes;
var
  FileName:String;
  ResFile:tFileStream;
  Data:array[0..1] of integer;
  Bin:ARRAY[0..7] of byte;
begin
  try
    if ParamCount=1 then
      begin
        FileName:=ChangeFileExt(ParamStr(1), '.res');
        ResFile:=tFileStream.Create(FileName, fmCreate or fmOpenWrite or fmShareExclusive);
        Data[0]:=DateToInt(Now); //This procedure translates the current date into an integer. We use the same format as the LPC1769 uses.
        Data[1]:=TimeToInt(Now); //This procedure translates the current time into an integer. Again, the same format as the LPC1769 uses.
        //any other unique number generator (e.g. like Delphi built-in UUID's) would be fine too. Just keep an eye on the length of the ID
        System.Move(Data, Bin, 8);
        ResFile.WriteData(Bin, Length(Bin));
        ResFile.Free;
        Writeln('New Revision Data Written to '+FileName);
      end
     else Halt(1);
  except
    on E: Exception do
      Writeln(E.ClassName, ': ', E.Message);
  end;
end.

Install this program in the Astrobe Folder.

Now select a module to add the RES to and add the following lines to the "Tools.ini" File (assuming that "MYAPP.mod" is your file to hold the version):

Code: Select all

[Command5]
MenuItem=Set APP &Revision
Path=C:\Program Files (x86)\AstrobeM3 Professional Edition\SetRev.exe
Parameters="MYAPP.mod"
WorkingFolder=%FileDir%
ConsoleApp=TRUE
Prompt=FALSE

To read the firmware revision code as bytes, add into MYAPP.mod

Code: Select all

PROCEDURE GetFirmware*(VAR FW:ARRAY OF BYTE);
VAR Res:ResData.Resource;
    I:INTEGER;
BEGIN
  ResData.Open(Res, "MYAPP");
  IF ResData.Size(Res) = 8 THEN FOR I:=0 TO 7 DO ResData.GetByte(Res, I, FW[I]) END
                           ELSE FOR I:=0 TO 7 DO FW[I]:=0 END
                           END;
END GetFirmware;

This proc can be easily modified to get back the original two integers of even the timestamp

Once the app is ready to get distributed, click "Set APP Revision" from the tools Menu in the IDE. Then build the APP. Your APP will now output the stored revision code whenever needed. Since it is inside the Firmware as resource, it only gets changed when the firmware is updated.

Hope this is useful....................
(PS. Drop a line if you would need the SetRev.exe)

Astrobe Forum

Versioning the embedded software

Versioning the embedded software