šŸŒ“ Go-FOC DV6 / PRO <High Current Dual ESC >

Just about to hook-up a Metr and noticed that the pinouts are different.

Can anyone help me marry up the DV6 comm with the Metr UART? I canā€™t find obvious equivalents for SWC and SWD.

5v - ok
3.3v - ok
GND - ok
AD1 - ?
RX - TX/RX (5?)
TX - TX/RX (6?)
A2 - ?
A3 - ?

https://metr.at/faq#q32 What pins of the JST connector are necessary for Metr Pro to work?

Only four pins: 3.3V, GND, TX and RX need to be connected. The cable uses 7 wires to match ESCs 7 pin connector. We can not provide a cable with missing wires and we donā€™t really have time to remove them. You canā€™t power the module with 5V.

If you have something sharp you can carefully rearrange pins in JST connector one by one.

4 Likes

Sorted, bro! Thanks for the lightning-fast response! :fist_right: :fist_left:

2 Likes



Mine arrived today! <3 Looks awesome I must say. Iā€™ve managed to import this along with the BT module so cheap I call it a steal xD

Nevertheless, Iā€™m worried about this FW version. Can anyone confirm or contradict the presence of the bugs in the DV6 PRO 5.03 mod? Because @YUTW123 is not respondingā€¦ :frowning:

1 Like

Tried installing custom FW yesterday unsuccessfully. Had version 5.2, tried uploading custom DV6 PRO file one side at a time via USB and it would seem to work and show 5.3. When I disconnected then turned esc off and then back on, then reconnected to vesc tool it was back to 5.2.

I refreshed bootloader first too.

Ran out of time so gave up. Maybe need to upgrade to 5.3 first then try custom FW file :man_shrugging:.

2 Likes

Sounds like a bootloader issue

Use the custom file by @jaykup

The one on the MakerX website reports the wrong version. I had this exact same issue.

You also want to do each side separately and then power cycle after.

2 Likes

With the ~month long Chinese New Year going on I wouldnā€™t expect a response until mid-late Feb.

As far as we can tell, itā€™s only the hardware configuration part of the firmware that was changed. MakerX changed the shunts on this unit with lower resistance ones so they run cooler. The firmware just needs that resistance value to accurately measure the current. The other change is to raise the maximum allowable current limits compared the regular VESC 6 firmware.

I think when they posted the 5.3 binary, they accidently uploaded the 5.2 binary, or compiled it incorrectly.

Two people (that I know of) are running this custom 5.3 firmware and havenā€™t reported anything strange.

2 Likes

Nothing weird happened on my ā€œcustomā€ 5.3 yet, besides not being able to use metr Expert Mode on day 1 but itā€™s worked fine since.

I just picked up a dv4 for a friend. Im gonna set it up then itll pretty much stay as is. Should I update the FW or just leave it be?

Leave it on 5.2 and be happy. Not worth the risk.

1 Like

Youā€™re right, it is 5.2. I assumed it was something older for some reason. Could this be the reason Iā€™m having trouble connecting to vesctool on pc if I downloaded the new version for use with my stormcore?

So you mean 5.3 posted in noob questions thread (MakerX_DV6_PRO_5.3_UNOFFICIAL_jaykup.bin)?

Sorry for asking, but Iā€™m getting confused because after posting this bin by @jaykup you have written you have a problem with breaks - or that was on another FW?

What do you mean? 5.2 is stock FW that comes with the DV6PRO? As far as I understand 5.2 doesnā€™t have the required modification for the max amp and other things.

I have no idea why makerX has written on their page that their 5.03 mod is required, and I read it is not a 5.03 really but 5.2 indeed?

Ooooh, help me to get out of this maze. This is my first build and I want to be sure it will work :smiley:

2 Likes

Did this. Still failed

Well thatā€™s dumb :man_facepalming:

Did this. Seemed to work but when I turned off and back on it was back to 5.2

Where do I find the 5.03 custom FW file then do you know?

1 Like

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-OFkWbNUdvaoxpzLMdFi-aAycK7J7GMT/view?usp=drivesdk

The link is from the official website:

Can you contact me with that people please? Are they on this forum?

Tried that version already and it didnā€™t work.

Iā€™ve had success now with the file @jaykup put up. Will try link it hereā€¦

Click on link and scroll down to file labelled:
(MakerX_DV6_PRO_5.3_UNOFFICIAL_jaykup.bin)

It still did some weird stuff and I thought it didnā€™t work but went ahead and did the other side of the esc anyway. Got some strange freezes and thought it was stuffed. Then couldnā€™t seem to connect to vesc tool at all. I turned everything off and back on and it was updated. Ran motor detection and all working. Still yet to test ride.

3 Likes

I am that people

2 Likes

It is very confusing, it took me a long time to figure out the VESC firmware maze.

Versioning: 5.02/5.2 and 5.03/5.3 are the same thing. The official version is a 3 digit X.XX number. There is a bug in the VESC tool where it removes the zero. In the code, the firmware version is stored in two variables, major (5) and minor (03). When it prints those variables in the tool, it uses ā€œ%dā€ instead of ā€œ%02dā€, which results in the leading zero on the minor version being removed.

Stock vs custom firmware: All VESCs can run the latest firmware as long as there is a hardware configuration for it. The hardware config is code that gets compiled into the firmware and tells the firmware how to use that specific hardware. Things like if it has a DRV chip or not, low vs high side shunts, shunt resistance values, number of UART/PPM ports and how they are connected, max amp values, etc. The core of the firmware (how it actually drives the motor) doesnā€™t change.
*There are always exceptions for people who build really custom VESC hardware, but thatā€™s not relevant to the DV6 PRO

Most manufactures simply copied the official VESC 6 hardware design so it could use the regular ā€œHW_60ā€ firmware, which is just the core firmware configured for the VESC 6. That way manufacturers didnā€™t have to maintain and release new firmware versions, it could just work with the regular tool.

MakerXā€™s DV6 just runs the regular VESC 6 ā€œHW_60ā€ firmware. The DV6 PRO can handle more power than a regular VESC 6, and it measures current differently so it needed a new hardware configuration.

What MakerX should have done is written a hardware configuration for the DV6 PRO and submit that to Vedderā€™s github for the firmware & tool. That way when the 5.3 firmware was released, it would show up as an option in the tool. Instead they released it on their website, and appear to have released an old version or a non-working file by mistake. So I took what @BrushlessHipster figured the hardware config should be and compiled a 5.3 version for the DV6 PRO.

Hopefully that clears some of it up. If you just want to get your first build going, the easiest thing to do is stick with the default 5.2 firmware that the DV6 PRO ships with. If you already tried to use their new files and now it doesnā€™t work right, the 5.3 I posted would be a good option to fix it.

17 Likes

This explanation is super helpful, thanks! Should help the community submit PRs for these 3rd party vescs ourselves, or at the very least come up with binaries for later FW versions :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Gods, that clears all dear sir, thank you!

I believe there is a special place in hell for such a practicesā€¦ :wink: I mean, I appreciate his work, vesc project is remarkable, but cmon, that is not the way to version software!

Nope, sheā€™s a virgin. Iā€™m still missing the battery and enclosure, so way to go before I would be able to test it. Sadly.

2 Likes