Over the past 5 years, the Puck has built a reputation for being the most reliable signal connection in any esk8 remote, offering precise and robust control over our lightning powered murder boards. When we first designed the Puck all those years ago, ESC tech was nowhere near where it is today, so we designed a built-in throttle curve to smooth out the response of the Puck and make esk8 a more controllable and approachable hobby.
Since then, a couple of things have changed.
VESC tech has improved leaps and bounds. We now have access to significantly more power, but with much better smoothness and control. This makes a built in curve less needed. Not to mention that tuning a custom throttle curve in VESCtool has become much easier for the average user, so those who want a curve can make their own.
It has come to our attention that the throttle curve we programmed in was not applied uniformly to left and right handed mode as we originally intended. This gives people a different experience with our remote depending on which hand they hold it in, which is not desirable. Everyone should get the best possible experience, regardless of how they hold their remote.
The power of esk8 and the skill of esk8 riders has dramatically increased, across the board. The top riders are looking to get more and more out of their boards, and controlling these machines at ever increasing power levels requires precision and predictability in your remote control.
For all these reasons and more, we have developed a new firmware for the Puck which removes the baked-in throttle curve, and makes the throttle response completely linear.
We have been using this firmware in a closed beta test for over a month now, with no issues. All of our team riders (over a dozen skilled riders on high performance hardware) have been thrilled with the more linear control over their board. We feel this is ready to move into an open beta test, for anyone here who wants to try it out.
A few disclosures first:
If you like the way your Puck works right now, then there is no need to change! This new firmware is a completely optional change, for those who are interested. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the previous firmware.
Currently, there is no way to revert to the previous firmware once you flash the new one. That means this is a one-way process. If that worries you, then please do not install the new firmware.
This process is done at your own risk! Hoyt is not responsible for damage to your Puck, your esk8, or yourself. Always start slow and wear full gear when testing any new components on an esk8. Choosing to flash this new firmware will void your Puckâs warranty.
We are opening this beta to get testing miles and feedback, so please provide them! Please respond in this thread when you install the firmware, and with your findings/opinions/thoughts, as well as any issues you encounter with setup or usage. If discussing any issues outside of this thread, we ask that you provide the context that you were testing a beta firmware.
Now, if after all that you decide you want to test this new beta firmware, please click below.
I have read and understand all of the disclosures and warnings above, I understand the potential risks to myself and my esk8 equipment, I understand that I will void my Puck's warranty, I understand I can not reverse this process, and I wish to proceed with installing the new beta firmware.
For those who dont like videos, hereâs the step-by-step:
Download the .exe firmware file onto a Windows computer (only windows for now, no mac or linux).
Open the .exe file. (Youâll probably get a warning from your OS about opening the file. We have not bothered to sign the program because we are not software engineers, sorry about that. Just skip the warning, I promise itâs not malware.)
With your Puck powered off, press and hold (in this order): down trim, reverse, power, until all three are concurrently pressed. The lights will flash white to indicate the remote is ready to be flashed.
Using a data-ready microUSB cable (the one that came with your Puck will work), plug your Puck into your computer.
In the .exe program, hit the update button and wait for the process to finish.
Unplug your remote, and it should be good to go!
We recommend that you redo the Input Setup Wizard in VESCtool after installing. We have tested this process without doing Input Setup and it has not caused issues, but itâs better to be safe than sorry.
First off, awesome. Thanks for making this available.
What is the advantage of having the deadzone built into the throttle curve? Isnât this a parameter that we can adjust in VESC, that would be better left out of firmware altogether?
Why not do a straight linear response throttle, as shown below? I assume this is what all other ppm (PWM) control remotes do - or is that not right?
No advantage, but itâs an unavoidable quirk of the hardware/software in our experience. Itâs ~2 degrees to either side of neutral, itâs not anything noticeable outside of very granular testing like this.
The forward throttle input (right side of the graph) is linear from that unavoidable small deadband up to max. The braking/reverse input (left side of the graph) has that slight curve because we feel itâs important for safety. Not everyone knows how/will bother to program a braking curve in VESC, so we feel itâs important to have that baked in so that no one gets launched off their board the first time they try to brake.
Additionally, since the baked-in braking curve is the same in both left and right handed mode, itâs fully possible for users to tune it out with VESC curves if they feel the need.
I would be very interested to see this kind of granular testing on other remotes, graphing the relationship of throttle angle and signal output. I suspect that you would find most remotes are not a straight line like you drew. My guess is that most remotes would have a slight hardware-related deadband, and some kind of curve on throttle, brake, or both. Without doing the testing, itâs hard to say.
Sorry to disagree, but the braking curve on the Puck being curved the way it is makes it difficult to apply a light braking force, which makes it more likely to fly off your board
I wish that part was made linear as well with this firmware.
Oh hey, right you are. Thatâs embarrassing, I must have read the graph wrong
In that case, I guess my response is âitâs a slight enough curve to not make much difference.â And itâs easy to tune out in VESC tool for those who care.
Iâve been right handed reverse pucking for about a month since I was made aware of this and goddamn did it make my board twice as fun to use. Explains why my left handed very casual skater gf when using the remote would complain that itâs still too quick for her at half the amps, etc in mode 2.
Then good news! You can now either have her use the remote in right handed mode (held backwards in her left hand) to get the softer throttle curve from the old firmware, or you can update the remote to the new firmware and use VESC to program in whatever throttle curve you/she wants
This is exactly the kind of confusion/inconsistent user experience we were looking to eliminate with this firmware
Okie dokie, just successfully updated. Out of curiosity, what is the mode that the puck goes into when you hold down âdown trimâ then âmodeâ then âpowerâ?
It flashes green, but much slower than the pairing flashâŚ
Huh, no idea. Probably not good to randomly activate stuff like that though
You definitely are not the only one. Thereâs lots of reasons why the Puck is the most beloved esk8 remote, and if everyone hated the throttle curve it definitely wouldnât be as beloved! As mentioned in the original post, if you like your current Puck firmware thereâs absolutely no need to update
