Firmware Tips & Techniques
Overview
Light controllers are essentially small computers that have a dedicated purpose. They don't have features for a keyboard or mouse, they don't have an electronic subsystem for hi-res video displays, hard disk drives or networking, but they have the ability to turn things "on" and "off," sometimes very quickly -- hundreds and thousands of times per second. To do this, the "chip" or "chips" that are inside a light controller use "firmware." Firmware for one of these chips is the equivalent of "software" for your PC. Except while you can generally control what software does on your computer because you're sitting in front of it, firmware on a chip generally runs unattended and only reacts to whatever data is sent to it.
From the factory, these chips are blank and do not contain the firmware control to make lights blink or fade up/down. It is up to the user to put the necessary firmware ONTO the chip. The process for putting firmware on a chip is called "flashing the chip." Once the chip has been flashed with firmware, it retains that firmware whether the chip is powered on or not. If you remove the chip from the controller, the firmware remains stored on the chip, and it remains there unless you either erase it or replace it with different firmware. Most chips can be reflashed with different firmware many tens or hundreds of thousands of times, so you don't have to worry about wearing it out. But it's important to know that the firmware for one type of chip may not work on a different kind of chip. This is because of the internal electrical design of the chips themselves -- it's not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing. Some chips have only 8 pins or "legs" while others may have 14, 16, 18, 24, or 40 pins, and each chip's internal structure is different, so you must use the firmware designed for the chip you're using in your controller or the firmware likely won't work. For example, if you drive a Corvette, you use gasoline. You can't put diesel fuel in the Corvette and expect it to run.