This is really interesting and IMO seems to indicate that this “hardware version” isn’t much useful or at least doesn’t represent what we think it does, as certainly the hardware has changed in the last 10 years (eg the multitude of modifications they did ca. 2017).
If you do and could clue me in as to what thread exactly is keeping up with that, I would really appreciate it – Googling “MC3000 site:candlepowerforums.com” points to an eff-ton of different threads and to go through every one of them would be like trying to drink from a firehose in my current predicament…,.
That’s interesting, would allow one to fallback to a previous version if the new one is FUBARed. Do you perchance know where I can get a copy of version 1.17 and/or whether their Windows software would allow me to back up my current version before upgrading it?
Thanks for the updates here. Be interesting to see what you come up with from Chadd. As I mentioned above, when I contacted SkyRC last week I was told there was no update to the slider material recently.
I wonder if they have archived some threads. There was one with thousands of posts where they went all through the development process. Including betas and bug reports. A guy had a spreadsheet of all the problems, fixes and status. I can’t find it now.
Only one mention of 1.18. Most of the discussion was about 1.15. So hard fail there.
Flashing “BACK” to a previous version is something that I vaguely remember from the thread I mentioned above. The one I can no longer find. So I wouldn’t trust it. https://www.skyrc.com/downloads
1.18 is listed for Download. I don’t see 1.17. In fact, I have tried to download new versions when available. My files go from 1.15 03 2020 to 1.18 05 2023. I can’t find anything on 1.17. I am beginning to think that this is a manual revision number and not firmware release ???
Oh, the hardware version… maybe it is the version of the chip in use rather than the overall unit build. That would account for it not changing over the years.
I just ran the updater tool… without the charger connected… it does not seem to have the ability to save the current firmware/configuration. Just an “Update” button.
So I emailed Chadd yesterday and he answered me the same day (he and ProgressiveRC really rock), here are the relevant parts in “Q” (me) and “A” (Chadd) format:
Q: I remember that you mentioned the unit you sold me was the latest version, and that one of the things that had been upgraded were the sliders and contact materials. […] do you mind commenting on that? The info is for a couple of friends that asked about it.
R: The spring retainers for the sliders (inside the charger) have been upgraded. It’s something you can’t see as it’s internal to the charger, but that is one upgrade and the two ways to know you have this upgrade is that the contacts that actually touch your batteries have a different pattern than the old version, and your new version has two fans instead of one.
So it seems I was delusional when I thought Chadd had told me about a slider-material upgrade – it’s just the internal spring retainers that got upgraded (perhaps to make them more robust as I’ve read they had a tendency to snap in older units?), at the same time they upgraded the contact patterns and started using 2 fans instead of 1.
As per the PDF equivalent of my v1.20 paper manual, he said he didn’t have it but would try and get it from SkyRC (hope he has better and/or manages to get more of their attention than me). Told me to ping him again next week, will do and if I get that manual, will post a link here.
My Spare unit has those upgrades (purchased late 2019). Apparently from the ~2017 upgrade. The one I use nearly every day does not.
I reconnected the springs in the daily driver to convenient holes in the PC board… after the original “posts” failed. It works just fine in this configuration. I have been using it like this for at least a couple of years. Glad to hear my spare has the upgraded spring attachments. I knew about the fans and contact configuration.
I just mustered all my Google-Fu to try and find it, and I think I just did: not actually a spreadsheet, and a little outdated (“Last edited: May 31, 2018” and only covering eg firmware up to v1.15-alpha), but otherwise seems to be what you described: SkyRC — IFA 2014 — MC3000 charger-analyzer | Candle Power Flashlight Forum
Was that it?
If so, what a shame it isn’t being updated anymore the post author seems to be still active in CPF, but his last post to that thread was in 2020… :-/
There are a few. None very active recently. One guy did a nice google docs spreadsheet where you can input what you want to do and it spits out (his) optimal settings.
Yeah, this has drifted well away from answering the OP…
Thanks @dmenezes for this info - it accords with my understanding of the change situation of the MC3000.
There appear to be three ‘versions’ of the MC3000: the ORIGINAL version (which had the problem with the sliders breaking off their posts and some other issues I can’t recall), the JUNE 2016 version which fixed all the problems, and then the POST 2016 version with the three bumps on the positive terminal and two fans.
UPDATE: I haven’t heard back from Chadd, so I tried (again) contacting SkyRC directly and this time, after some back and forth on their website chat, I got lucky and managed to get a PDF for their version 1.20 manual.
It was an image-only PDF, of the kind that not only is gigantic, but doesn’t allow searching nor copy/pasting, so I did some OCR work on it and generated what I hope is a better one, and placed both it and the original (above) on my website: Index of /manuals/SkyRC
I also compared it page-by-page (using the excellent diffpdf tool) and here’s the differences between it and the v.1.17 PDF available for download from the SkyRC website; there were only very minor changes, and only on the last 2 pages:
p.41:
info@skyrc.cn info@skyrc.com
p.42:
This content is subject to change. This content is subject to change without notice;
Please refer to our website for the latest version!
info@skyrc.cn info@skyrc.com
(C)2020 (C)2022
[Version 1.17] 7504-0680-08 [Version 1.20] 7504-0680-09
So nothing terribly important, but I thought interesting to make it available to all.
Still debating whether to update my 1.15 firmware to the latest I could find (1.18 I think). If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Especially in this case where I have no idea of what changes were made.
You’re most welcome, my friend, as well as all our brothers and sisters here on BLF.
I hear you loud and clear. It’s the same reason I haven’t updated to 1.18 yet: the 1.17 version mine came with works reasonably well (albeit I’ve seen one instance where the charger ‘locked up’ and refused to update its display, respond to keys or to the Bluetooth app, and only became responsive again after disconnecting/reconnecting power, and also a few cases where it refused to provide an IR value for the cells it was charging), and I can’t find the firmware files for 1.17 anywhere to fallback to in case 1.18 is hosed.
So your 1.15 works alright? I might move ahead and try 1.18 and if anything bad happens, then fallback to 1.15 instead…
Yeah, no issues with 1.15. Though I have seen a couple of occasions where I had the same kind of issues that you mentioned. Sort of. I just have had times when BT would not connect without power cycling the thing. No button lock or (that I noticed) lack of IR readings.
Thanks for the details. I see on the SkyRC site that there are downloads for firmware versions 1.15 and 1.18 but not 1.17 (never mind 1.16), so perhaps my version is somehow bugged (would explain these issues I’ve seen) and I’m better off getting out of it.
Will try and upgrade my MC3000 next time I reboot my computer (it runs primarily Linux and SkyRC made the unfortunate decision to use USB VID 0 and PID 1 for the MC3000, which are actually illegal and makes the VirtualBOX virtualization USB driver ignore it, so I can’t connect it to a Windows VM and run the software there).
WIll try upgrading to 1.18 first, and will let you know how it goes.
Thanks @dmenezes for the update and @Mandrake50 for the comments - all very helpful.
I have not updated my firmware from the original (v1.13) that came on my MC3000 because I do not want to lose my programmes and settings - most of which admittedly I don’t use very much.
So I contacted SkyRC over their website chat again, and got some info about that.
Instead of placing that info here (where it will end up kind of buried / hard to find), I will create a specific MC3000 thread and place it there (along with links for the info I have already posted) so it’s easier to find, then come back and place a link here.
Found this other already-existing thread here in BLF, decided to post there instead of creating a new one as (despite not being updated in a while) it was already serving as a kind of “central” thread for the MC3000: SkyRC MC3000 help thread
the post author seems to be still active in CPF, but his last post to that thread was in 2020… :-/
