Ackmaniac firmware put the final touch of refinement on my vesc. I experience heat throttling a lot less. When I am throttle it is not that severe. The watt mode is nice and linear, I can feel when the phase advance kicks in like VTEC. This is the firmware to use for sure.
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With all due respect for Vedder, I strongly dislike the VESC forum because it sucks. This Rails/Discourse-based forum is so much nicer to use. Even on the old builder’s forum I felt the same way.
I love what Vedder has done and strongly support open-source, but the php engine powering that forum leaves a whole lot to be desired.
Furthermore, if you think we should interact with Benjamin Vedder himself, nobody is stopping him from coming here and interacting with the community.
Vedder =/= Trampa
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Thanks @mmaner! This is solid! I have yet to run Ackmaniacs and I’m really excited I don’t have to find info “here and there”! Rest assured, I donated to the site and your contribution does not go unnoticed!
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Great article. Should be stickied if we had stickies. Wish I had this clear of a tutorial when I started using VESCs. It really is pretty easy to use this tool once you’ve done it a few times. Noobs need not fear anymore.
Do you have any suggested settings to make the brakes stronger on hub/direct drives? I haven’t messed with the settings yet, but I think I recall reading about enabling reverse at some point to create stronger braking force. I usually only ride in forward only & brake mode, so I wonder if this works by just enabling reverse mode like you’ve explained or if there are better settings for these drive systems?
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Frank I will spar with you.
The Ack firmware has long been regarded as the best firmware that lived by many. Stable, no bugs and great features.
If you want the latest firmwares to take that crown you/Vedder have to do some work. 1, listen to feedback objectively. 2, fix the bugs. 3, look into implementing the features that make Ack firmware so good.
It really is that simple
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Holy crap, I wasn’t even aware that it works with HW60. OOOOOOOOOOOOOH. FUNCTIONAL BLUETOOTH? YUSSSSS. 
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Please ask yourself what you can I for the project! How can I help?
An appropriate way to get features implemented is sending in a Pull Request and find some nice words along with it. If you don’t know how to do that, find someone who has the knowledge and work together with him/her. There are people here who do know the code base or who do know how to send a pull request. Submit that request to Benjamin’s Git hub once it is finished. He will look at it and will merge things.
In the past months, the requests sent via Git Hub were pretty much all merged, since Vedder is motivated to implement useful features.
However, please also not that this is a Open Source Project and it’s coded by enthusiasts that use spare time to make things happen for the community.
Vedder is a busy man and beside working full time he recently finished his PHD, organized his wedding and coded for you guys in the evening or on weekends.
Requesting something is 100% perfect, but you can all help by gathering information,
organizing a pull request or putting feedback together in a condensed and structured way.
Yes. 10chars.
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tell us more about it
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He found a very nice lady to spend the rest of his life with. Despite that he coded like a ninja for the community.
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@trampa it was a sarcasm. Seriously, people don’t care how he organized his wedding. In fact I think it is not appropriate to share such information with public, this is just weird!
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Come on, that is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s life at it’s best.
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Awesome write up. Well done. I didn’t know this version had a wizard.
I’m still sticking with 3.38 though. It just works for me and also has reverse which I like.
Is reverse really removed from the latest VESC tool? That’s weird. I’m glad I no longer update my fw for exactly these kind of reasons.
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Reverse is implemented via NRF remotes, with possibility to limit power and speed for reverse.
PPM reverse is not yet part of VESC-Tool. However, PPM reverse is probably happening sooner than later.
Now that user profiles exist, a safe reverse mode with speed and power limits can be coded pretty fast.
I’ve been looking around for info on cruise control and how to set it up but I haven’t found much if anything about it with any specificity, would anyone be able to make a write-up like this? I’d really appreciate it
As it turns out your are right. I didn’t spend enough time trying to understand that process.
Hybrid mode = Sensors at Low Speeds, No Sensors at High Speed
I mixed up sensored and FOC in my head. Than you for pointing that out.
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There you go, lashing out because someone hurt your feelings…again. Have you tried therapy?
For all your raving, you didn’t actually defend your proposition. The facts are…
- There ARE issues with the new VESC Tool including the lack of a stable reverse (for PPM) and unusable values defined at detection in the wizard.
- I didn’t publish a ‘How To’ to damage Ben, just to help people get the features they want.
Multiple people have made requests of Ben for Max ERPM on Direction switch for 2 years, the requests have been made formally and in PM. Every time those requests have been ignored.
Correct, which is why I published this ‘How To’ article, to help resolve that issue for people.
95% of the people that ride/build esk8’s don’t have NRF capable remotes. I personally have 2 grand worth of remotes, none of which are NRF. NRF is NOT going to replace PPM anytime soon. By removing support for PPM you are causing issues for most of your customer base. It was a bad decision, fix it and there won’t be a problem. Try to force people (like you normally do) and this will keep happening.
This is FAKE NEWS, to use your term. The features we have asked for have been in use for years with zero issues. Your logical fallacies don’t change that. You’re making up problems to sell remotes, plain and simple.
I’ve tried to be logical and concise, not bait you when we have these discussions. You have NOT. You have insulted me and been across the board rude. So let me be clear…I am informed, all of the statements contained in this article are correct and you sir, are a liar.
Are you saying that I haven’t been in contact with Ackmaniac? How would you know that, it’s not true, but your knowing is impossible. I realize you’re talking about Ben, but I am not. I am talking about Ackmaniac. Once again, your shit ain’t the only shit that matters Frank.
!. Maybe he is, but he continually ignores feature requests.
2. Maybe he does, but he continually ignores feature requests.
I would be using one of the other dozen or so speed controllers that exist, so would everyone else.
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God knows he couldn’t do any worse than Frank 
I have had that same issue on my Carvon V4 TD’s and Hummie hubbs. I experimented for days with battery & motor settings and current & control types. I finally settled on the Battery Current Max Regen setting of -40’ish and dialed it in on both. I’ve been happy with that.
Thanks for saying that. So many people have NOT said that for fear of Frank’s reprisals.
PREACH!
It’s been done, multiple times, for years. It hasn’t worked. Next.
BS, he coded for you. The only changes that have been made the VESCT-Tool were to help you sell and make it harder for other companies to sell. Fact!
For PPM, yes.
Ackmaniac’s firmware supports cruise control via a secondary PPM channel. If you have a remote with multiple channels, you are 90% there. I’m not a fan of cruise control, but I can see how a lot of people are. The new FlipSky VX1 has it built in, maybe that helps.
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