VESC-TOOL Mobile

ESK8 Electronics
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Good Morning E-SKATERS!

Benjamin has worked on a mobile friendly VESC-Tool since a while now. Whenever he found a minute he coded some bits and now we see some nice results. He started a thread about it on his VESC-Project.com website. If you are interested, you can find his post here: https://vesc-project.com/node/234

I will post some screenshots here for everyone to look at. Things are not yet 100% polished up and some more stuff is waiting to be implemented. Work in progress… The VESC-Tool mobile can configure pretty much anything you can configure with the desktop VESC-Tool versions.

  • motor detection
  • app configuration
  • radio setup and calibration / mapping
  • changing all parameters / tune your board on the go
  • display of real time data (master and slave)
  • wireless firmware updates
  • connection to master and slave via CAN, using only one wireless module
  • give your board a name to avoid confusion and wrong connections.

Current App solutions worked with standard wireless modules that didn’t provide a high data transfer rate. Benjamin has written a custom firmware for NRF51822 chipsets. He never goes down the simple and easy route, he wants things to work sweet and perfectly. So it’s is not simply a USB-UART bridge, the software decodes and encodes the packets to get the maximum possible data throughput and reliability. This makes a big difference!

Since regular wireless modules do not work with VESC-Tool mobile, you will need a module that has the new firmware flashed onto it. We provide a simple and easy to use dongle if you want to get started immediately. http://www.trampaboards.com/nrf-dongle-p-25516.html

Your mobile device should be running ANDROID and it should have Bluetooth 4 standard. Android 7 or later is recommended. iOS s not supported since Apple doesn’t allow Open Source Software in the Apple store.

Where can I find the VESC-Tool mobile? And how do I install it?

Simply create an account on vesc-project.com and add any VESC-Tool version to your basket. Finish the checkout and then click on “purchased files” in the top right section of the website. You will find an Android.ZIP folder there. Download the ZIP folder to your device and unzip it. The folder contains two files:

  • vesc-tool_full.apk
  • vesc_tool_mobile.apk

The vesc_tool_full.apk will install the full VESC-Tool, featuring the same user interface as you already know it. This is good for tablets. The vesc_tool_mobile version is for smartphones.

You may need to go to your device settings and allow the app installation from unknown source. Your ESC should be configured to use PPM and UART (APP-Settings >>General). So you may need to use a USB cable to change that setting. Hopefully this will be the last time you will use a cable to configure your board.

Here are some screenshots:

On the bottom of the App you will find WRITE and READ buttons and the magic three little dots.

VESC-Tool_Mobile_11
VESC-Tool_Mobile_111596×1459 130 KB

VESC-Tool_Mobile_22
VESC-Tool_Mobile_221596×1459 121 KB

If you would like to honour Benjamin’s work, please consider to purchase one of the VESC-Tool versions that has a donation included. He does all the heavy lifting for the community and we think it’s fair to invite him on a beer once in a while. We spend little sums on silly stuff every day. This new App is so useful, it’s worth to send Ben a little motivator to allow him to bang on stuff harder.

Frank

17 Likes
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Does it support Android 8? because that is what is all about.

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Actually iOS isn’t supported because the Qt Serial Port library the VESC Tool uses isn’t available for iOS. You could still have an iOS version and just not distribute it through the App Store (eg; release the source), it’s not real hard to open up an Xcode project and click the build button…

It’s only GPL’ed code that falls foul of the App Store, most other open source licenses are fine. You’d honestly struggle to find an app in the App Store that didn’t have open source code in it.

From a business perspective you want those iOS users, they’re the ones with all the cash :wink:

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Android 7 or later.

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I can vouch that its legit! Feels just like on a PC but in smaller format. Super handy

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Its more that Ben despises Apple. Not that it cant be done. :sweat_smile:

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It can’t be done respecting the GPL. So he doesn’t put to much effort into it. BTW, Github is now Microsoft…

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Dammit, VESC Tool on my novelty sized iPad would be so nice. It’s probably a fair call given the GPL issue, just not one I want to hear.

Wonder how an Apple related pull request would go. There’s a the Qt Serial Port library that the VESC Tool currently uses (doesn’t support iOS), but there’s also a Qt Bluetooth library that does support iOS. Solution would be to port it over, but that’s going to a change a chunk of the VESC Tool :confused:.

I’m just going to keep telling myself this is fine :joy:.

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There are alternatives…

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this would be very awesome

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e.g. GitLab

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Downloaded software anatomy tablet and when I try to open the .apk file I get the error message "There was a problem parsing the package. Downloaded a second time and got the same error message. Any ideas ? cheers

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Old Android version?

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It only works with the bt module that you sell? Does it work with hm-10 modules?

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yep, have 5.1.1. will update. cheers

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If you can flash it with Benjamin’s FW, and do some soldering, you can use any NRF 51822 module. Some people struggle, so we made a batch to get them started. Also the quality of the modules vary. Some are just crap, others work quite well. We designed it to work seamless.

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We probably have a month untill its ruined like everything they buy

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AFAIK they have done a pretty good job with Xamarin

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I’m pretty sure the serial port library also isn’t compatible with android. The android version of the vesc-tool only supports bluetooth access I believe. I do think some development effort is still required just to wrap and test an ios version though but not a ton. The x-code method isn’t too involved but you need an apple computer and a bit of experience. You’d severely limit your user base if this was the only way to access the app on iphone.

The GPL license is definitely incompatible with the apple app store based on what I’ve read. Apparently the owner of the license could release under dual license to allow an IOS version to be distributed in the app store specifically which is what some gpl licensed softwares have done. Is vedder the sole owner of the vesc-tool? How many people would have to be tracked down to enable distribution in the app store through dual license?

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The GPL states the public owns it, and nobody may steal it from them, including Apple.