Innovate Motorsports OT-2 SDK - Manual (Page 7)

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MTS when they see it. So, if you are only connecting through an OT-1b/2, you should
never have to worry about the older format.
Although a substantial number of 3
rd party developers have made good use of the public
information above, several limitations have gradually emerged. First, just understanding
the basic data packet structure does not give developers direct access to our newer
‘transport layers’ (IMS USB and IMS NET). Applications that use our high level SDK
(MTS SDK) have continued to pick up new transports and devices for ‘free’. For
example, the ‘sample app’ included with that SDK has not been recompiled since it was
first released, but the app ‘understands’ an LM-2 via USB, and can connect wirelessly to
an OT-2, even though both those products (and transports) came much later.
However, developers who are not working in Windows, cannot utilize ActiveX, or
simply need a more seamless connection to our hardware, have been left a bit behind.
The devices still ‘speak’ MTS, but the developers do not now how to properly ‘listen’, or
access the data stream.
Second, up to now, device configuration has (mostly) been closed (accessed by LM
Programmer only, even LogWorks, our own data acquisition application, does not
directly configure hardware). We have given out bits and pieces of information on how to
configure individual devices, but have, in general, been reluctant to release this
information. To be frank, part of the reluctance has been pragmatic. It is possible to put
some of the devices into strange, non-working configurations. And, if the product stops
working, the manufacturer, not the 3
rd party vendor, gets the support call. But part of the
reason has been complexity. The MTS protocol does have a mechanism for getting and
setting configuration information for specific devices in a chain, but it was not properly
implemented in the first MTS devices deployed. And those devices, in particular the LC-
1, were deployed in substantial quantities, for more than a year, before the problem was
ever discovered.
These original mistakes, combined with the need to provide proper legacy support, have
made configuration management inside our own software products pretty complicated.
There has been some resistance to exposing that sort of complexity to outside developers,
but, clearly, some applications really warrant configuration control. So enter our new
diagram: