FYI,
I just had to restart some things, and it has cost me half an hour to get things to work again....
I searched for a compatible VESC_TOOL because all of them said: The attached vesc is too old, please upgrade with a programmer. I may have a "slightly older" vesc6, and I don't currently want to risk bricking it by trying (and failing) to upgrade the firmware....
Anyway... it turns out that I had found the right VESC_TOOL, but when I select the right TTYACM and then click the big "connect" button, it keeps reporting too old, upgrade using programmer. Turns out that the big button I was clicking is the "connect to last device" button, and not the "the currently selected".
Consider:
* Disable the big connect button when on the "connection" tab.
* make the big connect button connect to whatever is selected in the connection tab. (and remove the button on the connetion tab).
The message is also confiusing: I have another project that happens to be connected and that too uses CHIBIOS virtual com port.... What do I have to implement to make vesc_tool say: "The attached devices says it's not a VESC"? :-)
The small connect button on the right toolbar is for connecting to the last port. The big connect button actually does auto connect. This means that it will try one serial port at a time, connect to it, send the read firmware command and wait for the response with a 500 ms timeout until it receives the firmware or all ports have been tested. The only way for it to mistake the serial port is if the port responds with a packet according to the VESC packet structure with the correct checksum that happens to have the first byte the same as the enum for the firmware rx message.
I could rename the text on the button to autoconnect. The tooltip actually says that it will try to autoconnect over USB, but it could be easy to miss.
Good idea, it'll be more evident!
Have a Nice Day.
Thierry