How to "lock" settings on VESC, to prevent end users to mess things up?

How-Tos & Esk8 mechanics
#1

Mostly a question for the vendors of prebuilts using VESC-based controllers.
Let’s assume you’ve perfected your building craft, carefully tuned the VESC params, throttle curves, to match the specs of your hardware, and provide the best ride experience. Once you sell that to a customer (or to someone who’s not your mate), how would you preserve that magical state, and ensure that an intrepid user is not going to triple the batt max amps settings (yay! moar powa!), set his board on fire, and bring back a pile of ashes while asking for his money back?

Locking things is probably at the complete opposite of the VESC philosophy, and against the tinkering spirit of the DIY community, but since there are some DIYers who have graduated to vendor status, I’m wondering how they mitigate that risk?

Can you provide all the telemetric goodness without opening the devil’s gates of allowing changes in the setup with VESC Tool?

#2

Remove the SWD+USB connector.
Use series jumpers that you remove in SWD conductors.
Use custom firmware that has its own branch in the VESCproject

Theres a few other permanent solutions on silicon as well, but they’re expensive.

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#3

Id like to know this also.
I know you can just not use a bluetooth module, but some esc’s have that built in.
So one solution is to make sure your esc does not have BT then use cord to program things.

This limits a lot of things imo, but its a way to lock it.

#4

Spin an in house ESC like boosted and set read-out protection to level 2 in option bytes (or whatever the equivalent is for other MCU lines like PIC32MK or RA4M1).

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#5

How about casting it in JB Weld? More waterproof, less hackable

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#6

Part of the GPL v3, which I think applies to the firmware and the VESC-Tool, would prevent use of a restrictive (sort of read only) firmware or stripped version of VESC Tool.
Which leaves physical solutions to prevent the VESC based controller to communicate with the external world, but doing so would remove the ability to get telemetry.

Or legal options, like discharge of liability, warranty void, end user licence agreement. (I agree not to change the settings of the controller, … I swear, sure, trust me… ) ,…

Would be keen to hear from the professionals out there!

Some devices are designed to deny users access to install or run
modified versions of the software inside them, although the manufacturer
can do so. This is fundamentally incompatible with the aim of
protecting users’ freedom to change the software. The systematic
pattern of such abuse occurs in the area of products for individuals to
use, which is precisely where it is most unacceptable. Therefore, we
have designed this version of the GPL to prohibit the practice for those
products. If such problems arise substantially in other domains, we
stand ready to extend this provision to those domains in future versions
of the GPL, as needed to protect the freedom of users.

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