FW 5.3 is out! Vesc Tool 3.01

I used the beta app, just like with all the other ESCs…actually got it working on some MakerX Mini-FOC (normal and plus) too.

What I do remember is that none of the MakerX ESCs came with a bootloader, and if you don’t flash it the FW won’t stick. Both get detected as normal VESC6, so even if the app doesn’t suggest a version, I believe it is safe to flash the regular version (60, I believe it is called in the app).

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When I connect my DV6 and try to upload FW I don’t get any options at all, even showing non-default. Is there a file you have that I can use to manually update?

You have to find the 5.2 FW file on the vesc github and download it first.

On the vesc tool FW upload screen:

Swipe down to the second page and you can choose a file to upload. Pick the 5.2 file you hopefully found and it will revert back. Don’t be surprised if vesc tool yells at you about old firmware after.

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That will only work with HW that has adjustable filtering. Non of your HW supports it.

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It would be awesome to have this cleared up once and for all, because I distinctly remember you mentioning that it works best on HW with adjustable filtering, but it can still be used in any other VESC based ESC.

HFI can work on any VESC based ESC and some people report great success. If VSS is an evolution of that (with an initial bleep and then some extra magic), is it absolutely required to have SW adjustable filters or can it be used regardless? Is it tunable by the user in any way or form? What’s the word on temp sensors, again are they required or recommended?

Please clarify this for us, lots of people have been asking for months. FW 5.03 is a great update and from my point of view and it is worth it even if you can’t use VSS (for the detection improvements and UI alone!), but for all that is holy, it would be a lot easier to get people hyped and excited about it if this information was easily and widely available.

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welp. nobody really advertises this as a feature. Maybe someone can add this info to the ESC compendium thread?

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I confirm I have version 60 installed in the DV6:

So you can safely manually flash this file which is actually final release version by Vedder.

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Needs adjustable filters to work as intentioned, temperature needs to be measured and compensated, usually no need to tune it, but there are some parameters to play around with.

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Ok, this is progress.

  • It can work without phase filters, but it is not gonna be whole lot better than sensorless, definitely worse than HFI (?)
  • Temperature is crucial for it to work, so sensors are required unless the motor doesn’t change its temp (highly unlikely)
  • Which parameters can be tweaked? Do we have a GUI (shared with HFI maybe) or do we have to get into the CLI?

Thanks

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So ESCs without filters and no hall sensors on the motors should just use HFI and not bother with VSS?

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Yes, HFI would be best in that case.

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Followup question: How far is HFI performance from VSS generally?

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VSS can determine the rotor position at at 0RPM. From there it can generate high torque and keep track of the slow spinning rotor. And there is no noise.
HFI is also very good, but not as good as VSS + you have the noise.

However, the new Tool has so much cool stuff and detects motors so much more reliable. VSS is just on of many things that are improved. Jeffrey worked a lot on the UI for example, then we have motor/ system efficiency plotting, scripting, better wizards and all the stuff you can find in the change log.

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I’m posting here because 3.01 is the only difference I can think of to cause this.

So last night I was poking around the new VT and looking at some RT data and graphs from my board. Had my DV6+ on 5.2 connected through TCP using a metr.unity to the full APK on a Chromebook in limited mode.

The only things I changed were the VESC numbers (86 to 0 and 65 to 1).

Rushing out the door to work this morning and I discover I lost all ability to brake, I only feel a slight braking stutter at maximum brake. Throttle behaves perfectly normally.

Tried calibrating PPM and that didn’t change anything.

No HW changes and no other SW changes so I can only assume this is something to do with using 5.2 in 3.01

EDIT: so I was at work, stuck with a board that had no brakes and nothing to use VESCtool on as the board is sealed with metr inside and all I had was my phone. I managed to just poke around in the expert part of metr enough to get my brakes working again by setting up the motors with manual values and re-detecting HALL sensors.

thank you community for being the reason I even knew how to do all that.

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@rpasichnyk any plans to compile it for OSX?

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Thanks for the explanation, I’ve looked for about 20 mins and can’t find it looks like I’ll live with the new version.

Did they fix the issue where it’s impossible to find the custom file on your phone? I remember downloading custom files and put in them in my download folder and then when I go to the download folder from the vesc tool app it won’t appear.

If you want a simple way, go download the VESC 3.00 tool from the precompiled VESC tool archive. It will load 5.2 for you.

If you want to use android and manually load 5.2, then go back in history on the github and you can see it. Open the folder with the same name as your current firmware’s hardware name. Here is the 5.2 github link

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It is generally not recommended to change settings using a vesc tool version not meant for that firmware. It might be fine, but it might not be. I suggest you go back to vesc tool 3.00 and re-setup your board. You can then save a backup of the settings as an xml file you can later apply if you are messing around.

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