Master, Forks, Pull request's & Commits

@m_elias made the comment here
Impulse’s per 100m!
about modified forks of @BrianTee_Admin Master code.
This got me thinking, are we over fragmenting the code base by forking but not pulling our changes back to the master?
We are going to end up with modified forks of modified forks and then it becomes impossible to keep everything updated.
If we the AOG community don’t pull request our, custom pgn’s & feature upgrades nobody else is going to necessarily get to use them.

Should the master code have a team to manage the pull requests so as to take some weight of Brian who like most of us has a farming business to run. Perhaps Brian getting the final commit say?
Should AOG master be in a team github?

Spot on. I have been involved in several different open source projects, but AgOpenGPS is one of the most fragmented I have found so far. I have come up with reasons for this (my personal opinion only):

There are a lot of different components in AgOpenGPS (GPS, Steering, Software, Arduino)
Different ways of doing the same thing:

  1. Electric motor vs Hydraulic valve steering
  2. Arduino Nano vs ESP32
  3. MMA vs Dual antenna
  4. Usb vs Ethernet

The only thing that has a standard is AgOpenGPS software, as it appears to me.

That’s not even talking about minor tweaks here and there in the Arduino code. I’m only involved in AgOpenGPS for 1-2 months, so I’m all ears.

I agree also, its getting very complicated at times knowing whats going on etc, for those of us who have been around a while its not as bad as they understand the different projects / people behind them, but from a new persons point of view now, its very complex…

Hard to do anything about it though for that exact reason, we have lots of different projects / ideas, that are being kept somewhat seperate to the main AOG…but I guess it would be simpler if things like the dual antenna project was included as part of the main AOG project,

Its a complicated project, the combinations are seemingly astronomical. It reminds me of churches that can’t get along and start a new one, or Iinux with so many distributions…

AOG would be infinitely simpler if it was like a commercial unit - use x imu, use only GGA,VTG at 10hz. Instead there is every combination from dual, to imu via udp or isb or on the autosteer board or off or… And that is just imu. So we start ending up with 400 check boxes of settings which make it complicated for certainly first timers.

Also the code progresses and what was written becomes awkward for what is written now so it needs to change. The other is new ideas conflict with established ones - or it is just a limitation windows and winforms that is like 25 years now compared to neato graphic GUI’s out there.

So I don’t know Darren if the antenna should be part of AOG? Does it make a complicated project even bigger when in reality only a few will use it?

The biggest “problem”, and that happens to all of these projects is documentation. If you knew where to look for stuff, how it works, and fair detail - that would eliminate much grief.

And its open source, some guys just want to do their own thing, but if everyone’s code is added for every special niche requirement - AOG will be unuseable as well from complexity.

I don’t know the best path forward.

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Its a super tricky one, I agree its the number of possibilities that makes it so complex, however on the flip side, thats also what makes it so useful / great imo. People can use whatever they want / most suits them…some people UDP makes sense, but for a basic / simple setup, USB is easier for the “most”.

I think like you said, documentation is key, with explanation to each aspect of a AOG setup, and then each known “path” in each aspect with info on each subject, links to nessercery info etc. All takes alot of time though, From watching the online videos I got the impression that this was already being handled by people, but if not, its maybe something I could help with, Id be more useful I think writing up the hardware options / configuration / settings in AOG rather than basic use of AOG in the field…

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Agreed. It only really needs to be basic though. What the software buttons and options do. Basic software setup. Basic hardware needs and the different options available and how they differ.

What will get very complex and tiring to produce is if the documentation tries to educate everyone on the basics. Eg Arduino programming, receiver setup, PCB soldering and so on. There is an absolute wealth of quality information out there on all of this if people can be simply pointed towards it.

The biggest issue is we are all busy people. Trying to juggle learning, testing and helping if we can, whilst also doing a time consuming job!

IMO this entire project needs to assume people attempting it, either know, or are prepared to learn about arduino’s, programming them, basic terminology, etc, it would be an epic task to bake all this into documentation, when it already exists all over the internet.

We just need a guide for the software itself (I would learn from this even at this point, I only use most basic features at the moment, and lots of the icons on the right I genuinely have no idea what there for, and simple screenshot with 2 words descriptions would be worth alot at this point IMO… And also a guide for hardware etc as i mentioned before…

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Exactly. That did seem how documentation was attempting to go a few months ago though. Links to good sources are way better than attempted explanations. I really only grasped F9P settings and u-centre after seeing an excellent yotube video on the subject.

I’m getting there with the software I think. Using it drilling is helping. It’s much easier to see issues in maize drill lines than tyre marks on maize stubble!

I tried front mounting my antenna yesterday and it was very very impressive. from way below 1Km/h up to over 20Km/h… I’ve now shifted it to the very front of the cab as JD do. Hoping that will work well as I really don’t want it on the bonnet.

Interesting, mine are currently mounted by the beacons, so at the front of the cab, but not quite as far forward as the old itc used to be, but my SF3000 sits up on top the roof, and my antennas are exactly in line with that now.

In my opinion, AGOPEN is going in the right direction. Not everything is easy and simple, I also had some problems and I still have, but it is to be overcome. Certainly it is not a system to be implemented by every farmer and it probably will never be. However, even the simplest configuration requires some knowledge and experience, some English skills, etc.
But nothing stands in the way of those who embrace the topic help others with assembly, I helped several friends install and implement AG and are satisfied with the operation although they would rather not be able to install it themselves.

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With a stable v4 i think the focus can be on many of the things that have been posted.

Excellent post and spot on.