Thank you every one in the community. This has been a long time coming, and the time is now. I have been working hard to find a solution to our needs to see what our vescs are doing via bluetooth, and creating the vehichle to sell these chips, Rocket Boards.
After around a month of testing, I’m proud to introduce you to our first product, The VESC Bluetooth Module. What this chip does is port forward everything generated by your vesc straight to your iphone via Bluetooth 4 Low Energy.
The app for use with this chip is in the app store. I did not write the app (credits to @gpxiBen and @makevoid), but plan on modifying it in the near future, and I have plans to write my own app also. When these updates are ready, you will simply install them via the apple app store, and you can use the same bluetooth module.
What this app does?
The VESC Vision is an open source logger designed to give electric skateboard builders the ability to see what is going on with their vesc while they are riding. The app can give real time information about:
- Mosfet Temperatures
- Motor Current
- Input Current
- RPM
- Input Voltage
- Amp Hours
- Watt Hours
and more…
Graphs are generated and can be displayed one at a time (info about the other graphs are recorded in the background). Data is also saved and can be pulled up on a computer, and overlayed over videos.
Where can I download this app This app is available in the Apple App store. Simply search for vesc vision and download it.
Is there an andriod version No, not at this time, although, it’s possible there will be in the future.
Where can I buy this chip You can buy this chip from one of two places.
Firstly, you can buy it from the manufacturer, Adafruit. This does not come with a plug or wired for this application.
The second option is through my company, Rocket Boards. I wire, attach a plug, and test all chips by hand multiple times before shipping. All chips are confirmed to be 100% working before shipping with JST 6 plugs, which are compatible with all VESCs 4.6 through 4.12.
Buying from me also helps to fund keeping the app in the app store. I pay $117 USD per year, just to keep this app in the app store. All profits from this first batch will go straight towards paying this fee.
What’s the catch There’s always catch with just about every product. It’s just most companies will keep any “negative” information away from you if possible, while only highlighting the positives. My business philosophy is about being open to my customers, giving them more info, rather than less, even if this info could steer away business.
Right now, there is a minor bug in the app with the graphs. Over time, the graphs appear in delayed time. i.e, you see what happened 2 seconds ago instead of the current values. If you give it a few seconds, you will see the data. Since the graph is a running graph, you don’t ever miss or lose any data. It’s just if you are viewing in real time, it become out of sync with what’s happening.
An example of the app and this bug can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr6juBAWX-w
All of the data you need to make decision about your board is there, as you can see. I believe this bug could be caused by too high of a refresh rate of the graph. I will look into this more, and hopefully fix this bug soon.
It is possible to change vesc values through this chip, so it’s really the limit of what can be programmed in the iphone app, rather than any hardware restrictions. i.e, this chip is future proof for other apps I plan to write.
Thank you everyone, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
This is currently a small test batch to make sure everyone has the same results as I have. There are 13 units for sale, with more on the way if all goes well in about 1-2 weeks.
