TTC: New Fare Gate Installation

[EastYorkTTCFan]

One thing that could be changed though the is the "wait" display. It seems most people would avoid gates with this display; the assumption that the gate is frozen and not working. I would say that providing a green background instead of the white background would be helpful or even changing the signage to a green upward point arrow.

The wait display is part of a software update that was applied by Metrolinx to the gates and was apparently a mistake it was mentioned at the lat TTC commission meeting and they are working on another software fix to put it back to just being green.

 

[Steve X]

The wait display is part of a software update that was applied by Metrolinx to the gates and was apparently a mistake it was mentioned at the lat TTC commission meeting and they are working on another software fix to put it back to just being green.

I had tried tapping my presto card to go through a "wait" gate one time and nope, it did not react or open.

The problem with many software developers these days are cause they aren't computer engineers. They simply don't understand embedded systems, memory management and the limited resources available to them. Sure the software works on their development environment target system but they seem to have lack testing them on a real environment. All these slow reactions with everything presto probable have something to do with a huge memory leak hogging up all the RAM and not releasing them correctly. All the transactions (taps) probable queued up a lot of data to be sent to the server but for whatever reason (maybe a transmission error or temporary network problem), the system resources fill up and it slows down. If they reboot the system and all in a sudden it's fast again, it's bad software that's causing the problem. Industrial grade software shouldn't do this in the first place, so someone really needs to be fired!

Either that or someone underestimated the resource usage (processing power, memory, transmission rate, etc). This would be a greater problem where everything needs to be replaced. Someone really needs to be fired if this is the case.

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

I had tried tapping my presto card to go through a "wait" gate one time and nope, it did not react or open.

Odd as it works for the metropass ones. I haven't tried it with my presto card though.

 

[nfitz]

The problem with many software developers these days are cause they aren't computer engineers. They simply don't understand embedded systems, memory management and the limited resources available to them.

Interesting thought ... I recall seeing comments about Outlook 2013 coming out - with all the bars and stuff taking up so much space on laptops, that there was precious little left for the actual email message. The comment that came back from the developers, is that it that didn't notice when they were developing, as they had huge wall screens. That makes you ponder - how is that even possible.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Should work on the second or third "take".

 

[steveintoronto]

It's bad software that's causing the problem. Industrial grade software shouldn't do this in the first place, so someone really needs to be fired!

The problem with many software developers these days are cause they aren't computer engineers. They simply don't understand embedded systems, memory management and the limited resources available to them.

You might be right. The actual gate solenoid actuators might be dependent on I2C to operate. The interface of CPU instructions to I2C is often the cause of many malfunctions in cases like these. I'm not a computer tech, but I am an electronic and machine tech and have had to work with systems designers doing robotic systems, and their ability (or not) to bridge a command from computer to machine code, and the context of doing it was often where failures happened.
Embedded System I2C Tutorial - Embedded Systems Learning Academy

 

[Steve X]

Odd as it works for the metropass ones. I haven't tried it with my presto card though.

The Metropass one almost always work cause it's so simple. If the magnetic strip containing only ~100 bytes matches, the gate opens. There's no data transmission to a server and hardly any processing. They'll probably keep track of how many people swiped and their time stamp for rider analysis.

You might be right. The actual gate solenoid actuators might be dependent on I2C to operate. The interface of CPU instructions to I2C is often the cause of many malfunctions in cases like these. I'm not a computer tech, but I am an electronic and machine tech and have had to work with systems designers doing robotic systems, and their ability (or not) to bridge a command from computer to machine code, and the context of doing it was often where failures happened.
Embedded System I2C Tutorial - Embedded Systems Learning Academy

Yes, it's most likely something external like this. Hopefully they didn't install Windows CE on the presto gates and went for a more lower level approach.

 

[IRT_BMT_IND]

The gates run Windows 10 actually.

 

[steveintoronto]

The gates run Windows 10 actually.

The *system* or the gates themselves? Are the gates themselves fed universal-bus or machine code?

 

[MetroMan]

The gates run Windows 10 actually.

PRESTO runs on WinCE.

Explains a lot.

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

PRESTO runs on WinCE.

Explains a lot.

Why does it matter what operating system it uses it could be anyone and have the same problem.

 

[nfitz]

Why does it matter what operating system it uses it could be anyone and have the same problem.

Does seem a bit odd though, that all these brand-new devices are using an OS that came out in 2006, ended mainstream support 4 years ago, and ends extended support in 11 months.

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

Does seem a bit odd though, that all these brand-new devices are using an OS that came out in 2006, ended mainstream support 4 years ago, and ends extended support in 11 months.

A lot of business use outdated versions of Windows. I think I saw something somewhere about the Walt Disney world monorails having their operating system updated to windows 95 or something like that and it was only about five years ago they did it. There's probably some logic to it but who knows what it is.

 

[steveintoronto]

A lot of business use outdated versions of Windows. I think I saw something somewhere about the Walt Disney world monorails having their operating system updated to windows 95 or something like that and it was only about five years ago they did it. There's probably some logic to it but who knows what it is.

For simple machine code, even DOS works, albeit lacks flexibility in reconfiguring on the fly.

 

[amnesiajune]

Does seem a bit odd though, that all these brand-new devices are using an OS that came out in 2006, ended mainstream support 4 years ago, and ends extended support in 11 months.

A lot of business use outdated versions of Windows. I think I saw something somewhere about the Walt Disney world monorails having their operating system updated to windows 95 or something like that and it was only about five years ago they did it. There's probably some logic to it but who knows what it is.

Microsoft provides extended support to any large customer for a very, very long time. The extended support that anyone can buy might be gone, but it's pretty common for embedded systems to use old software. The global financial system still relies on 1960s-era computers whose extended support "ended" decades ago.