All new 2019 VESC-Tool release

If Benjamin (or this case Trampa since they’re handle things when Ben is busy) doesn’t give a heads up to these updates then it’s also on him. The VESC is an esc with multiple applications. These multiple applications will of course have multiple third party applications supporting them, Benjamin knows this too, it’s evident when he wrote an entire blogs on Writing Custom Applications for the VESC and How to communicate the the VESC over UART

Not caring about backwards compatibility and failing to give a heads up notice that he would be breaking is very irresponsible (Enertion is guilty of this too but they get a slight pass since the FW is for the Raptor 2 first , and DIY second , but even then a notice to application developers should have be sent ahead of time allowing them to make the proper changes needed). I too became a victim of this when I updated my focboxes and used the METR app to change some settings.

@rpasichnyk I think for the future the METR home page and purchase should have a noticeable indicator that indicates what FW the module is compatibility with and not with.

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From the vesc_tool page(in bold): " If you plan to use secondary devices, not yet compatible with the all new Firmware, please make sure not to use them in combination with VESC-Tool until the device and its software has been approved to work flawless with the latest VESC firmware!

Why would you upgrade to a newer firmware if it’s not yet compatible with 3rd party apps/devices?

I currently also use VESCs on 2 ground robots(controlled using UART) and always make sure not to be irresponsible and just upload the latest firmware and see how it all works out.

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One example is when someone buys new focboxes or Vesc and now needs to use the VESC Tool to update it. Which is most if not all of the time if you’re not going to use Ackmanaic or have a Raptor 2. I don’t have the VESC-Tool readily with me , but if it doesn’t allow for a specific FW to be updated to or does it update to the latest one? If the latter :

image

Edit: and I’m looking st the BLDC GitHub now and there doesn’t seem to be any releases for former firmware nor notes detailing their changes. When you create and pilot an Open Source application , there are certain responsibilities that you must adhere to or risk having your application forked which he wants to prevent.

It’s already been forked.

Someone rewriting the @Ackmaniac changes into an official pull request to Vedder would help things like this a lot, but Nico said he didn’t want to.

That, combined with lack of regard for backwards-compatibility by the other author, could cause this to be much worse than it needs to be.

If you plan to use secondary devices, not yet compatible with the all new Firmware, please make sure not to use them in combination with VESC-Tool until the device and its software has been approved to work flawless with the latest VESC firmware!

That’s an incredibly shitty cop out considering that changes Vedder made to past firmwares was directly responsible for bricking VESCs as evidenced by this thread.

I’m familiar with software and hardware dependency. I have a reasonable expectation that people who develop the upstream versions not break backwards compatibility for shits and giggles.

This behavior is more like an over the top Apple parody than any open source project I have encountered.

You have to use iTool on your iVesc in order to not brick it. Oh, you bought a whole bunch of expensive accessories for your iUart port? That’s unfortunate, because we removed the iUart port from this years model and switched to iNrf. It took a lot of courage, but we think it’s for the best. Oh, you think the iUart port met all your needs and then some? Fuck you for ever doubting us.

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VESC and Apple are the furthest apart they can possibly be.

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Not when you use vedde’s firmware with the vesc_tool. The tool aready knows whether the firmware is compatible with tool or not. That hasn’t bricked any VESCs. Please understand the issue. The issue is 3rd party incompatibility breaking VESCs. It’s on them, not Vedder.

While writing software it is actually refreshing to have a clean code once you have figured out all the issues. You realize the what the ideal way to structure and solve the problem. And this often means not supporting old stuff.

All the older hardware versions are all supported. His code works with his hardware. That’s the end of it.

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That would be like Microsoft changing their OS in a way that would break every application across the Windows 10 platform ( that means PC’s , surfaces, AND Xbox), not giving any developers a heads up or even a general announcement that “hey I’m changing communication protocol” and making it all of the Developers fault. Lol no , there’s a lot of blame to go around for this , and Ben shares some slice of it.

But in the case of the bricked Focbox , there was absolutely a way to maintain backwards compatibility and maybe avoid the issue, but because Ben didn’t care about it, many VESC based esc were potentially bricked. In an Open Source Project there has to be some responsibility to account for third party applications. Especially when that open source project has many limitations that these third party applications cover. One can argue that if METR didn’t cover the IPhone configuration market, many more than already has would’ve moved over to Acks Firmware and supported that over Bens.

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If you want to use nice open source software projects, you shouldn’t be buying apple products. In the same exact way that if you want functional pants, you wear jeans, and if you want to look good on the runway, you wear slacks.

Well, when initially windows 10 came out many new softwares didn’t support it and they would say on their page that they only work on XP, 7 etc, right? Also windows is not opensource.

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None of that changes the fact the Ben/Trampa released software that bricked ESC’s, that previously were supported, without a warning to the customer beforehand. That is not cool in any arena using any analogy.

Let also not forget about all the modules & accessories that will no longer operate.

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Are you saying they released firmware that bricked VESC or are you saying that the 3rd party software cared not to check(in software) their compatibility with latest firmware resulting in bricked ESC? 2 very different things.

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Shouldn’t we add this little detail with the list of unsupported VESCs to the main topic?

@trampa i have the old vesc tool for android. The play store has the new pictures, but there is no update and when i open the tool it is just the old one. What am il doing wrong?

But windows as a reputable company would give applications time to play around with windows 10. If they’re about to do something that they know will affect their application system they will let developers know. It’s then up to the developers to get their applications done in time to support these new changes. This is not what Ben and Trampa did. As such they partake in the blame for any bricked focboxes that resulted in not letting any third party developers the change in communication protocol. Especially if the VESC-Tool updates tot he latest software which is something that everyone buying any non-vesc6 based esc is going to do.

@trampa is there anywhere where one can see change logs for new FW ?

I’m ganna have to be honest with you here mate. You’re hate boner for Apple, is really fucking annoying. And it only irks me now because on the one Open Source software that Apple does have Swift, at least gives nearly a year before updating to a whole new X.0. That’s an entire year heads up for developers to adjust to the new changes and features in swift , see how their app can be changed to support the new upcoming IOS. For all this talk of Apple being bad for the tech community at least it has the ability to give developers for its platforms the proper heads up and time needed to accommodate their applications to the new changes.

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@moderators @treenutter

This is no longer about the new VESC tool, can we have the topic split into something like “VESC and Third Party Applications”?

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Right there in the firmware section of vesc_tool.

Uninstall the old one. Either reinstall from play store or download a fresh android version from vesc_tool website.

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Swift is an open-source joke, because it requires closed-source software to operate. The apple way. VESC requires no closed-source code to operate or change or modify. You can hand-build the entire machine and all the software yourself, if you want to.

So yes,

That worked. Thanks!