DIM Electronic Advance Ignition

Del,

Thank you for the comments. I have been working with electronics for about 50 years and programming for almost 40 years. I am not an expert, but have much varied experience. Computers are very honest to work with, and consistent. I have programmed in many languages, they are similar in their basic structure.

Going from wired RS232 to bluetooth prompted me to consider adding more protocol for the data interchanges. The protocol will take care of missed or faulty communications, if that happens.

To speed development, I am writing software on the PC using VB to simulate the IMS. It it has visual debug screen, so I know everything about the communications and data that gets changed. It removes me from the IMS hardware, so all is on a single PC and tablet. The tablet is programmed from the PC, and only takes a few seconds to load the new program. A bluetooth USB dongle provides the wireless interface.

The android is programmed with B4A (Basic for Android) it is much like Visual Basic. Screen components are added in a drag and drop way for buttons, text and other visual components. Then code is written for the required activities. There are libraries that do most of the fancy work, data just needs to be passed to fill the necessary parameters. It is like filling in the blanks in a form. The plot at the bottom, progress bars and buttons are examples.

I hope that someday we can test my unit on your distributor machine. I think it might be spring before I am ready.