So I spent time at lunch today updating the interest list. huey18 spent some time and effort automating this, but not all folks wanting a lantern are following his instructions for request, and also there is a problem with the listbot updating last I saw. Anyway, I added another 25 lights to the interest list since I took a short break, the total is up to 1004. I know there is an error of at least one, but hopefully everyone that wants one or more will get the code or whatever once this goes live. Donāt hold your breath for that, but things are moving these days.
This is something we can quantify, though. At a glanceā¦
The firmware repository has a total of 723 revisions, or 622,556 lines of patches (including everyoneās code, not just mine), committed over a period of about 4 years.
According to sloccount, the FSM project has 9,171 lines of code, which it estimates would take one average programmer 2.05 years to write, or would take a team 8.4 months, for an estimated cost of $115,336 (or $276,808 including corporate overhead). I think it has a tendency to estimate high though.
Some other projects according to sloccount (without overhead costs):
BLF-A6: 18 days, $2,846.
Bistro: 2 months, $9,268.
Crescendo: 2.8 months, $13,048.
Just a ballpark idea of the amount of effort involved in these things.
OK, something to bear in mind if Iām only running the light with one cell - not all cells are rated for that.
Two or more cells should be fine, though. I havenāt seen any 18650s that wouldnāt accept a 1A charging current.
Believe me, I appreciate those efforts. The majority of the lights I use nowadays run firmware ToyKeeper wrote. Iāve also benefitted from things like the BLF A17DD driver designed by Wight, and it looks like Iām going to benefit from Lexelās driver for this lantern.
Those are only estimates, the amount that a standardized tool thinks it would cost to develop the same thing at a traditional software company. But thatās not how the code was created.
Would be nice if I was actually paid what sloccount estimated though.
If i had the spare cash i would pay Lexel to build a prototype to sent to you for testing your firmware, but right now with my financial crisis i am in a red-zone for extra money to pay for anything.
Iām sure enough of us would pitch in to get it done if thatās what you guys wanted to do. I donāt have a lot of extra money to spend right now, but I would pitch in a little. If you want to get Lexel to make a driver board for TK to test with, just make it known and set up some way for us to contribute.
If Lexel can make the board, then ship it to Toykeeper to test the firmware, (then maybe i can test that in the V2 prototype,) then it would help refine and get it right before it goes into production.
Right now Barry had an issue being able to read the .gbr files from the software that Lexel uses to design the driver with, but the Engineers Barry mentioned they need the driver files in a .pcb format, ( a different driver design software) so that part is at a hiccup at the moment getting the driver design information from Lexel to Barry for his engineers to read and build a prototype driver.
If you remember, I pushed for a āpermanentā Toykeeper donation thread but you politely refusedā¦ā¦ I donated then but you definitely deserve more ābeerā for what you do.
Well, we kinda need AT LEAST Lexel and ToyKeeper to agree, since they would be committing to doing the stuff, and somebody to set a price, so we know when we hit the goal.
if we could even raise enough funds to have Lexel build the driver prototype to send to Toykeeper to do the Firmware test on would probably give is some idea & starting point to establish what is planned for the BLF LT1 lantern project. I would pay for it myself but in a situation where my financial stability is in the red zone.
BlueSwordM sent me a small donation out of his appreciation for what myself and the lantern team are doing, & i will donate that to Lexel to build the driver when he gets back to me on the cost of it.