PelleG,
Like i said before, we are not competition, our projects have different goals. We are very happy to see your system move forward and get more and more evolved packed with features. Hell yah, you've been the first to pave the road ahead, you deserve a cake and a 6 pack of beer!
And as you know, we've been able to chat several times, I am glad to share any know how as I know you'll do the same. We are an open community and that's the entire goal of this endeavor. I understand that you have a business and an investment to manage and that your approach needs to be different, but you'll always be welcome here and we'll always be willing to help with whatever you need. In the end, we all have to gain. I don't have any objections with any other endeavors and projects, I'll be quite happy to see the community interested and committed. Only this way we'll guarantee we'll have working consoles in 20 years!
Regarding the Ultimation, the big difference is the control bus. While control voltage is retro-compatible with VCA faders, all the rest its not. The control bus (CA Bus) allows to read/write an 8 bit word from/into the fader electronics. Here's a summary of what can you do with the bus: group thumbwheel (something you can't do with VCA faders), status switch, cut switch (it's a bit not a voltage), touch sense, servo/motor fail, TR selection, Trim, Abs, Alt LEDs, Solo Isolate, CUT from computer, Motors off, VCA select. All this is done through the CA BUS, interfaced by the CA card on the computer, which replaced the LEDS & Switches card.
One need the right electronics, the correct polling rate, to read and write into these pins. You can't do that with the same VCA card electronics.
Cheers,
Artur