Vincross - Time for action and a little criticism

[peter]

Hi guys,

I’m having good fun with the Hexa. I wrote essentially a python remote control, to control the Hexa from my laptop. Now this is exactly, what I expected from a “hackable Hexa” as you, Vincross, has branded it as. Thumbs up!

However,

Here is some criticism, I want you to address:

1. The forum posts: What’s going on guys. Every post, comment and whatever, must be approved by you? Do you want to create a community or exercise authority? Instead moderate the forums. If a member makes inappropriate comments. Remove the comments, give a warning and ban the user, if they don’t respect the warnings. The current model kills communication flow.

2. The iOS app: Time for an update guys! The app has many bugs. DirectLink mode is, for me, not working at all. So instead, I’ve had to run recover procedure with dupont cables, to change wifi network.

3. The lack of updates: The HEXA project, seems abandoned. No updates, no news letters, no nothing. The Hexa is still v0.61. Where are the accessories, add-ons etc, to expand the Hexa?

4. The robots need to connect to your servers: Why does the Hexa need to be connected to the internet to work? It seems like, we pay 1000$ for a robot, that we rent from you. The consequence is that I cannot control the Hexa, connected to a wifi router, without internet. Can I as a developer, get more freedom of control, like being able to configure the “mind.d” to not insist on WAN connectivity - meaning not starting a hotspot, when the access point doesn’t have internet? This is great for mobility, and directlink mode is not an option.

Finally! You guys have made a fantastic product! You really have. The build quality is amazing, I just wish your software would be more neat and stable.

Your business becomes more relevant, as students start learning more and more coding and robotics.
We need a company like yours, in the game, just don’t drop the ball at this stage, and use the criticism! Because competition is tough.

Kind regards

[mcdnvs]

yea they really dont care, i cant even programme the robot via the computer the software is very broken

[mb1]

peter- Thanks for the note! At Vincross we are always open to criticism and always enjoy hearing positive comments about our products.

1. Basically every real post we receive, we approve and try to approve in a timely manner. We do receive a good amount of spam and we we block the community from dealing with that spam. If our community was larger and more active, we would love to not have to approve the comments but since we mostly get spam we have instilled the system that we currently have in place.

2. We have recently updated our iOS app. Our changes mostly revolved around compatibility with other devices and new software updates. I’m surprised that your DirectLink mode isn’t working. The easiest way to test the direct link mode is to turn on the HEXA outside of your WiFi network. The HEXA will first try to connect to your WiFi, fail, and then turn “purple light”. When the HEXA displays the “purple light”, you can connect your device the the HEXA WiFi that it is now broadcasting. You can also go to the HEXA settings and force the HEXA to direct link mode. If there’s any issues with this, please feel free to contact us here https://www.vincross.com/en/support

3. We wanted most of our updates to be community driven. At the beginning we had users uploading new skills on a weekly basis. For some reason it slowly died down. I have contacted a lot of HEXA users and it seems like our users are still doing great things with the HEXA. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like too many are uploading their new skills to the community to be shared with everyone. We’re actually brain storming ways to get this type of community back. We’re hoping the launch of the MIND Kit will bring back this type of community and we can start seeing new skills developed.

4. Again, you may have to mess around with your HEXA to get the direct link mode working. If there is issues contact customer support. You only need to be connect to the internet the very first time that you activate your HEXA. After that, you could use direct mode exclusively if you desired.

Thank you for the complements. We love getting people involved in robotics and love introducing to the world of robotics!

mcdnvs- Please see our tutorials located here: https://documentation.vincross.com/Development/installmind.html. We go through the steps to connect your HEXA to the computer. If there’s any difficultly with this, please feel free to contact us.

[peter]

Thank you, for a comprehensive answer. To me it shows there’s still life at the other end - which I actually doubted.

What I really want to discuss, is open-source. I bet a many of your customers are tinkerers, like myself.

The Hexa is what I would call “blackboxed”. It runs, and does whatever the compiled code, tells it to do.

I want at least an accessible API that I can integrate with other code. Best thing is, you already have one in the Simulator Skill using the websocket/rpc API.

It will give so much value, to release documentation, on how the json commands are constructed, to move the legs etc. Add the documentation of the json command structure. This way, any piece of code, that can talk websockets, can control the Hexa.

Because of the above, I’m hestitant to buy more from your company. I believe in Vincross, but the fun is very limited when, there is 1 textbook way of controlling the Hexa in Golang. Yes, I found a way, to use Python, but it’s a workaround.

The more you open your code, the more interest you will get. The opposite is true, and why interest fall, when the Hexa is not open enough.

I hope you will consider the above, because, this is what it is missing. An API and customizability.

Kind regards

[misdiva1bil]

Post removed because it is spam