I reckon a phone app could work well. Better than using a computer monitor.
A modern smart ’phone has a light / proximity sensor, and a selfie camera, either of which could be used to establish bi-directional comms. with a robust protocol.
Also to have phone ability to back-up several user-configurations for quick re-use according to circumstance. A bit like choosing ringtones.
Or use the rear camera and it’s LED flash as the comms. port.
It might even be possible to re-use a standard half-duplex comms. protocol, and software stack.
A modern smartphone can display HD video at 30p or 60p, maybe even faster, and has a dedicated graphics processor to keep it flowing smoothly. It might even be possible to use an LCD display at much higher data rates by strobing the LCD backlight rather than modulating the LCD itself.
I don’t see much point in using this to change complete firmwares, which would also need a bootloader to be integrated with the protocol, and permanently resident (taking up space), but as a way of making configuration changes it would be nice. The app. also being an interactive manual to the UI, rather than the crib sheets that are increasingly necessary as complexity grows.
Just using a few tick-boxes to begin with.
A complete re-configuration, even a re-write of the ramping table to fine-tune it for different emitter options, or change thermal management control loop parameters to suit ongoing development or user preference, could surely be done in a reasonable time, seconds, or a few minutes. And perhaps monetized with micro-payments.
It could be a real money-spinner for whoever develops it, defines the protocols, controls the encryption keys, or rolling code, and sells the app.
As well as an interesting new skill to develop with other marketplaces that I haven’t even thought of yet. Internet of things sort of stuff, but without the security worries. Just wave your ’phone, or a “smart torch” over a (very inexpensive) terminal containing not much more than an LED and a small MCU, no NFC, no WiFi, no Bluetooth parts to pay for or to configure, or software stacks to license. Shield the light (or IR) from interception, even just by holding a hand over. Phone to ’phone, or torch to phone, or terminal, like a 1D or 2D barcode or QR reader but so much cheaper to implement.
A full 2D barcode conveys only 4kbytes of information. I reckon, even if that was all needed, even that could be transferred reasonably swiftly. The 1D ones are trivial.
Door locks, hotel room entry, ID badges with swipe or RFID stuff, keyless car entry and mobilisation, supermarket sales, chip and PIN, boarding passes, all potentially replaceable with either a dirt-cheap key-ring sized device, or just an app. The USP being the low cost of the terminal, compared with what we have now.
For firmware updates, let’s first see whether the various disparate pogo pin connectors gain any traction in the field. Even amongst those who regularly re-flash, whom I suspect are actually a very small minority here. Most using pre-compiled binaries and fuse maps. A very few trying out their own ideas.
Some study material:
I worked on a free space optical network around the science site of my university as a student. Back then we didn’t have affordable LEDs or laser diodes or PIN photodiodes. We were modulating filament bulbs, using ex-army phototubes as detectors, and cheap Russian binoculars (one eyepiece for transmit, one for receive, full duplex), and got it working over a km at 300 Baud ISTR. Fun, and we learned a lot about many aspects of Applied Physics.
It would be so much easier these days. A scrap DVD or BluRay burner for the laser and photodiode and lenses, Arduino or RasPi, some minimal extra hardware, cheap binoculars or just magnifying glasses, ingenuity and basic knowledge of optics, physics, electronic hardware design and software. I.e a great little student project, that might still have some relevance and useful application.
Also handy for stimulating the optic nerve, and reading back the results, if a smartphone app. isn’t good enough.
Consider that Ronja can run 10 Mbit/s Ethernet over much more than a km just using a pair of cheap magnifying glasses as optics, and it is entirely open-source. And quite old, over ten years, and LEDs now are far better.
Imagine the possibilities with our sophisticated bits and pieces nowadays.
Surely there is something there that can be re-used ?
http://ronja.twibright.com/about.php
Or instead start with proven robust simplex 1D barcode protocols. At the end of the day they are just read by scanning, i.e looking out for some blinking light reflected back into the scanner, which as we all know is very robust, mature technology, and tolerant of all sorts of difficulties that do not stop them working admirably.
It’s all available, open-sourced, e.g Zint Barcode Generator download | SourceForge.net
As are the 1D, 2D and QR code scanners, using phone cameras with static images rather than hardware scanning.
Just blink them into the torch, from the ’phone, having first “scanned” and interpreted them in the phone app, using it’s camera. Even send them to the ’phone as an MMS