I opened up the Hexa

[peter]

Hi guys,

I’m super bored by the Golang way of working with the Hexa, uploading skills etc.

I also feel a little left in the dark, by you as a company. There are no updates, nothing new coming to the Hexa.

It’s like you scored your investment from Lenovo, plus us a buyers money, and you’re out.

It’s like you create super cool and high quality hardware, but your software is just not interesting. I have asked several times for you to release some schematics, open source the software, hardware and so on.

Just full on ignore. So here you have it. I’m not using the Hexa anymore, because you want to control all aspects, and yet you develop nothing new for what you control.

Let us have full control. Or don’t brand the Hexa as a “Hackable robot”.

[oalvarez]

I couldn’t agree more with Peter. But I haven’t opened it yet with the hope of Vincross opening the software in future updates.
Was anyone able to actually “hack” the robot?

I work at the university, and we bought one with the idea to do some simple programming at the robotics class. But without having full control, and needing to interface that app for the skills, it’s just not suitable for the class. We want to have direct access to the software (not just receiving info from the sensors, also sending commands) via ROS. And ONLINE.

Honestly, you are losing a lot of sales here, since we’re not using this one and definitely not buying any more until it’s possible to actually program them. And I’m sure that many more people think the same as me.

[virafz]

It is the same story with MIND KIT.

The software is not up to par, totally disappointing.
I had very high hopes for MIND KIT during Kickstarter, but it is now just collecting dust, expensive paperweight.

I also hope they can release schematics, open-source software, hardware, and so on.

[strodude]

Ditto here. I kickstarted both a Hexa and a top of the line Mind Kit.

Expensive paperweights with poor support at best.

What’s the saying? “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on
me.”

Well, shame on me.

With great disappointment,
Darrin

[costarich]

Yep, ditto for me as well. I bought the tank and a bunch of other parts, and it’s basically useless. It is completely unacceptable for the purpose I bought it for as it was supposed to go to my stepdaughter’s school as a stem project they could play around with. Learn programming and robotics. But it’s so buggy and erratic that it would do nothing but frustrate kids. Heck, it frustrates me and I’ve been coding and hacking on things for 30 years. I’m about half a second away from just gutting the control system and putting an Arduino or Raspberry Pi in there and just using the motors directly.

I keep telling myself to quit backing stuff on kickstarter. I feel like an idiot for backing this thing. Unless they make dramatic improvements to the software, it’s another $300+ I’ve wasted.

[noe.perez]

You are soooo right!!!
It is almost impossible to program anything! Just stupid sequences of movements!
We need open access and a ROS wrapper to access sensors and actuators and command them. Otherwise, Hexa is a spoilt gadget!

Peace and love!

[strodude]

All

The lack of any response whatsoever from a Vincross representative
regarding this thread (original posting 30 Oct and it is now 7 Nov), is
very telling.

Darrin

[c11]

I agree with the below speakers.

It is completely useless for me because the software is so locked down. I feel ripped off. Just open it up like you said you would. I would love to use it (for instance in my touring theatre show which features me and a dozen other robots) but as it is right now I could never make it function with the system that controls all the other robots.

Please stand by your original promises at least a little bit. It seems well built and I want to use the robot, but the software is useless for any purposes other than expensive toy.

Karl Berseus

[strodude]

The last time the copyright on the Vincross website was updated was 2017.

Are they still in business?

Darrin

[markg4634]

Pretty cool, I can chat sometime in a few weeks.

Erik

[Tianqi]

Hi guys! Glad to discuss with you all. Sorry for the delay.

HEXA is a device that supports 3-party dev with a provided framework. It’s not a “completely open source” hardware. We never said it’s totally open source, and it won’t be. It’s like you can develop apps on iPhone but you might need to use the way Apple provided, instead of asking “why can’t I develop it with the Android way”. HEXA is not ROS, not Raspi, it uses Golang from very beginning.

However, I understand that the framework is still too young and somehow buggy. It doesn’t satisfy, not even close. So I totally understand you. To be honest, sometimes I feel angry with this framework much more than you. But we are keep working. We do try to update the OS to support a more directly use of ROS, providing more functionality and interfaces. It would be a huge rebuild and we need time.

So please let us know what specifically you want, we are working hard for that. We would like to post update here to keep discussing with you and accept criticism sincerely. Thank you everybody to support HEXA. We’ll be better to make you happy.

[strodude]

Tianqi

Thank you for the response.

If your team is “working hard” on updating the framework, wouldn’t it be
easier to start with you telling us what they are doing and when the
releases are coming?

Thanks
Darrin

[Tianqi]

Hello Darrin,

We are making a major update of the MIND OS to support a more directly use of ROS, so that you can develop HEXA with an ROS way. Also, we are working on supporting C++ and python. We have had a big progress but you know that these are actually huge reconstruction of the whole OS. It’s hard to say when the release are coming, but I hope we’ll have an alpha in 2-3 months. HEXA and MIND KIT uses totally different CPUs and other processors, that’s a nightmare for OS development.

[etothex23]

Has anyone opened up their HEXA? I’m sure it’s a pi or something. Just hack
it. When i get home i will open mine up and see if i can just overwrite
their garbage. Nothing about this robot is special. Every part is just
generic Chinese components. Which probably all have libraries. This
vincross group has been full of shit about this robot. I can barely ever
get it to connect anyway it’s wifi is garbage 2.4ghz only. I’ll see if i
can nail break mine. It’s not worth anything to me anyway besides parts.

So if you have requests, etc. let me know

[billvitez96]

I have opened a HEXA to replace the batteries.

Find the battery replacement instructions on their website to get details (not very detailed).

I am not a company person but a hobby robot enthusiast with about 30 bots. About 50% built myself.

The HEXA is not Raspberry Pi based and is full of proprietary electronics which are surprisingly well executed. The purple PCBs have “Vincross” silkscreened on in white.

Be careful, if you open the bottom shell and expose the servos you need to use a calibration program (in the Skills library) to recalibrate the bot for proper functioning.

If you don’t have to open it up, I would advise against it.

Best of Luck!

Bill

[strodude]

@Etothex23

If you have not opened a Hexa, how can you be sure it’s built from “generic
Chinese components”?

Darrin

[billvitez96]

As stated before. I have opened a HEXA and found no obvious generic electronic components inside.

The fact that the PCBs were the same Vincross purple color as the cover under the white round “head” and “Vincross” is silkscreened in white on the PCBs is a strong indicator that at least the PCB’s are Vincross proprietary.

Also the excellent manufacture quality of the PCBs is indicative of non-generic origin. Open a Ubtech Alpha 1S to see crappy PCBs.

In the build design my criticisms are that you need small fingers to reattach the video ribbon cable as you close the top of the bot with the Purple Top Shell as the cable is very short (it took me several tries to do this and it is a requirement when replacing the batteries). The other is the difficulty to replace one bad servo, if it is one of the 6 that are “hidden” in the body. The servos also seem to be of Vincross propriety design but could just have a propriety case/housing and be made by some other company.

[peter]

Glad to hear you are working on a more open API. I must admit, I need to see something from you, to regain trust in the Hexa project. So far, I cannot recommend anyone, to buy from Vincross.

However, if you do deliver, what you say - and we get more room and can take control of the product we bought, in a proper manner. Not just develop in the way you decided. But how WE feel like.

If you deliver on that. I will gladly recommend the company.

[billvitez96]

Just use the Contact icon on the HEXA portion of the Vincross website and send an email to let them know what you need.

They have been very responsive to my requests in the past.

Keep in mind that this is a small company and do not expect the same shopping experience as you find with larger robotic company websites. They are also based in South Korea and only have an office in the US (at least as far as I remember).

If this should fail (no reply or answer after 48 business hours have passed) then post again and I’ll assist.