VESC-TOOL Mobile

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.

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?

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

Vedder and Apple are no good friends and he coded his stuff alone. He owns the copyright for his code. Benjamin is very serious about what he is doing and he is very serious about the GPL-license. E-skaters better get an Android phone sooner than later.

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Apple and freedom are fundamentally incompatible at the very core. This is one manifestation of that. You can run the tool on an Apple laptop :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: (for now)

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True, you can’t go back on the GPL. But if Vedder was the sole copyright he could give an alternate license. He’s not though, as others have made contributions and there’s no mention that you hand over copyright when making a contribution.

@Deodand ha, the official docs make no mention of this support, I swear it previously stated partial support for Android :grimacing:. Here’s a thread with some indication it existed. Looks like that support may be getting dropped, may mean a port over to the Bluetooth module needs to happen regardless of iOS support.

Actually the GPL covers all of that

Serial port already doesn’t work on android. If you use a phone variant you use bluetooth anyways.

Its true though that QT partially supports serial on android but it doesn’t work on many many phones and the mobile version of the vesc-tool doesn’t have a serial connect button.

Can anyone give me some instructions on how to flash the Vedder’s firmware to a hm10 module?

Sorry but it’s not for HM-10 modules they are based on CC25** MCU :cry:

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I don’t know why, but just kind of assumed it used that serial port library for Bluetooth connections too. There’s a single line in the Qt Creator project file you need to comment out to not import this module, after that there’s a few methods that need to be removed that wouldn’t work on iOS anyway.

Then you get this…

I don’t have my iPad handy, just the simulator, but layout looks a lot more usable on the iPad. I’m guessing this is because I haven’t told it to use the mobile specific layout.

Will try to connect it later on tonight when I get home. There’s a stack of warnings being printed out, and I’d be very surprised if it worked first time. Still promising for the 5 minutes (excluding the hours it took to download Qt) effort I put in.

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Cool, I’ve been playing around with this code for awhile. Let me know if you get hung up on something.

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Just flashed a nrf module. Very easy everything is done just need to run the script.

Didn’t work first time on iOS, but I’d be worried if it did.

There’s a ‘kind of’ bug in the Bluetooth code on MacOS/OSX, I say kind of as its not really a bug more that BT support was never tested on MacOS. This same bug affects iOS. I’d really like to get this fix into the official repo as I’m currently running the VESC Tool in an Ubuntu VM with a USB dongle, whereas I could just use a native MacOS build and the inbuilt Bluetooth. I haven’t tested it, but am pretty sure the Mac issue is fixed.

I did test it on my iPad though :sunglasses:

Lots of little issues; UI rendering, have to click through license agreement each launch, where to save motor/app config files, etc. As I said before it’s in a pretty good state considering how little effort it took.

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I’m also a Mac user, and need to have a Ubuntu VM as well. Could you make a pull request of your changes ?

Yeah. Will tidy it up over the weekend and do a bit of testing just to make sure it doesn’t break other platforms, etc.

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You might be aware of this but commenting or un-commenting #CONFIG += build_mobile in the .pro file will build the mobile UI. In my opinion this UI needs a lot of love before it will feel good to use but it is at least workable on the phone screen.

That’s good to know. I’ve spent a bit of time looking through the VESC protocol stuff, but the UI and QT Creator is something new to me.

VESC Tool UI does look to be lagging a lot of the other options available, but it seems like the right spot to focus development. There’s probably 5-6 apps on this forum that all seem to do the same thing but not everything we want, it’d be nice if it was a little less fractured.

Of course the GPL issue gets in the way a bit. One possible workaround would be to distribute a compiled ipa/app file, would skip the requirement to install Qt (16GB WTF!) and maybe even Xcode. BUT, they’d still need to signup for a dev account (free) and jump through a bunch of provisioning hoops and these can be a real PITA.

Honestly, as you stated above Vedder needs to get in contact with all other contributors/copyright holders and ask for different licensing terms for this to end up on iOS ‘proper’. I’d go so far as to say he should also require copyright assignment (just like Qt does). Oh and someone will need to get him on a Mac with iPhone/etc for testing. Probably won’t hold my breath…