Vesc Tool macOS/OSX build?

hi there,

I’m having a tough time getting my bioboard plutonium going again after a motor change, I tried to set it up with the android phone of a friend, but I got a “can’t read motor settings” or something similar. at home I have no android, and the stormcores in this thing only have usb-c, I have only a mac with usb-c - bummer, so what I am left with? the metr.at app - turns out after managing to detect all motors with metr, then detect hall sensors, I should be able to calibrate the remote (which has stopped working during all this) but the “calibrate ppm” field is greyed out - not to mention that I don’t even know if my hoyt puck uses ppm. anyways, I am stuck - the guides from the vendor are only complete using the vesc app on android. so I think I am stuck now, and the best bet would be to get a macOS build of vesc tool, but I can’t find it, even though some instructions on their website are clearly based on macOS, weird.

Here you go.
I’ve not used 5.3 yet. But there are older versions here too.

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you gotta get the new proprietary Trampa VEPC… sorray

well this works, except when I try to the motor detection, I get the same error messages as with the android versions first I get “could not read motor configuration” and if I try again I get “could not write motor configuration”. weird.

meh, the more I try the less works, now I can run motor detection with metr.at app ONLY for the two rear motors…

Yes, Hoyt remote uses PPM.

Calibration is greyed out probably because you need to:

  1. Figure out which VESC PPM is connected to
  2. Set “App to use” to PPM+UART on that VESC

Pause DAVEGA during all this (press middle button on the DAVEGA) so it does not ask for realtime data which prevents motor detection.

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… if you have one. I appreciate establishing “every board should have a DAVEGA” as a given though. :slight_smile:

Not sure what you mean by this. Don’t the Stormcores come with an USB-A to USB-C cable that you can use with pretty much any computer?

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It’s Bioboards Plutonium, doesn’t each of them have DAVEGA?

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Ah, you’re right. I totally missed that part. My bad.

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probably, but I got no such cables from bioboards. not a big deal, as @BigBen provided me with a link to the osx version, which seems to work nice, as in it gives me the same error message as my buddy’s android phone version, namely “could not read motor configuration”. I’ll disconnect the davega now, board is stripped naked in front of me anyways.

edit, oh lol support finally got in tough with me, for the “could not read motor configuration” error I need to switch stormcore…noobody told me, I would never have thought about this. :man_shrugging: will try this now and let you know how it all works out. thanks for the support team in here :+1:

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Forwards over canbus button on the right of VESC tool. No need to move the cable. Surly bio boards link the canbus

a guy came over and recommended this, he builds drones, but this did not work, what worked was actually plugging the cable into the right stormcore - motor detection worked and they all spin the right direction now - unfortunately this osx version gave me a “firmware too old, need to update” message before getting started with ppm calibration - so I can’t do that with the osx version it seems, bb recommended not to upgrade firmware, as they use a specially modified safer one. usually these messages can be ignored but with input setup (ppm calibration?) this can’t be skipped. maybe this osx version is too old? it says v3.01

edit: ok maybe I should try not to use the newest which is a beta… trying 3.0 now - edit2: same problem with 3.0, meh - wow, days spend on a “simple” motor change, you know for all the hate evolve gets, replacing the motor there is nothing more than plug&play.

Some of us have up to date fw and software and use metro pro module few clicks on a phone done

sure but you know, bb botique skateboard uses a specialized firmware, and say I should not upgrade, which then causes vesc tool to act up, so I am now waiting again for them to tell me which exact version I need to use in hopes of it not acting up anymore. all this could have been avoided with proper documentation, to be fair no esk8 brand I have come across by now has delivered proper comprehensive service docs.

Some do

In particular hear is there instructions for what your doing

BioBoards can also ask you to open a bridge and thay could do this remotly. I thing the BMS settings been done remotly is a work in progress still

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I managed to get the motor detection working with vesc tool via osx, and did the rest in metr connecting to the right stormcore, so ppm calibration. it took some fiddling, and it’s not really straight forward process, but it seems like everything worked out, now for the test-ride. actually I’m still not sure why this time the ppm calibration was not greyed out, maybe because I physically connected the right stormcore to the computer for the motor detection prior? when back at metr, the first two vesc had selectable ppm calibration, the other two were still greyed out. one of the two non-greyed out then worked, I set up both, which I guess does not make any sense but doesn’t hurt either (fingers crossed). bottom line for this particular board, I got the recommendation to just get an old android to have less headaches in the future. I mean after all the metr module is connected to the secondary stormcore, like uh the one that gives me the error even with motor calibration when connected to either wired or wirelessly.

so to sum it up, weird process, had to strip down the whole board for a motor change. took me 2 days to figure everything out with support delays and whatnot, I think I need to become a builder now :wink:

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Depends if the signal is split PPM or if it’s controlled over can

The fact you could calibrate both I’d presume it’s split ppm signel

can it hurt though? like somehow giving me twice the acceleration or something weird? have not tested the board, it’s charged full rn and I need to bounce so I will find out very soon.

well I have a weird behaviour now, when I turn on the board first, then the remote, as soon as it connects to the board, I get a quick (likely) 100% spik in acceleration for one millisecond, not enough to send the board flying, but it is really irritating, especially when carrying the thing and turning it on, suddenly the wheels spin up fast for a fraction of a second. what could this be? any way to turn this off?

Always turn remote on first. Standard practice for all radio controlled toys.

Id guess it be some thing in the reciver outputting a signel when it connects to the remote.

yeah, weird, I just discovered that my metr app should actually only allow me to calibrate ppm on one of my 4 vescs - but it does so on two, and I did that. furthermore when I change the other one of the two “calibratable” vesc’s “app to use” parameter to uart and it will set it back to “ppm and uart” upon restart. - but I will try to change my habit now, before I messed with the motor change and the osx vesc tool, this did not matter though, and it would not matter which device I turn on first.

on a different note: could my hoyt puck be starting to fail? I started to notice some coil-whine on mine as of late. maybe it sends out full throttle for a split second when turning it on bc of a malfunction? bad capacitor or something.

edit: so I just discovered the little spike also happens when I turn on the remote first, board second.