āReal Lifeā shares that opinion I would prefer if I could stay all the time with my hobbiesā¦
I think there are at least 3 different āversionsā re: the SkyRC MC3000: the firmware version (see below), the hardware version (which is reported both via Bluetooth and on the chargerās display at the end of the Settings screen ā mine is 2.20) and the manual version (probably updated when then change any of the first two in a way thatās apparent to the user). 1.20 is my paper manual version, sorry for not being clearer on this.
Last firmware that I can find (and what my two units are on) is 1.18.
Actually the firmware on mine is still version 1.17 ā that was the one available when I purchased my MC3000 as 1.18 was published at the end of last May.
I havenāt upgraded it yet as all my computers run Linux and the firmware upgrade canāt be done over bluetooth ā and on its USB interface, SkyRC did violate quite a few protocol rules (using invalid/made-up vendor/device IDs, and ones outside the accepted range to boot) that preclude me from running their Windows software in a VM. Also, v1.17 seems to be working really fine, and version-wise I tend to stick to the old motto, āif it aināt broken, donāt fix itā
But I have it noted here that the next time I have to reboot my main Linux machine (itās been 41 days and change since it was last rebooted, and that was when I had to turn it off for travel), I will take a detour double-booting into Windows just to upgrade the firrmware (and try their effing Windows-only software which so far I havenāt seen).
Do you have any idea as to what changed from v1.17 to 1.18? SkyRC apparently doesnāt publish any changelogsā¦
Also, just out of curiosity, what are your unitās hardware versions?
Well, quite interstingly, the 10+ year old unit says 2,20 for the hardware versionā¦
AND, I guess I misremembered. I have firmware 1.15 on it. As I upgraded the spare at eht same time, I am sure it has the same version.
I may try 1.18ā¦ just to see how it works. I understand you can flash back versions , so I can go back (I think).
No idea what has changed. I have never seen a changelog from them. They used to cover some of it in the MC3000 threads on CPF. Maybe I will mosey over there one day soon to see if they are still keeping up with it.
This is really interesting and IMO seems to indicate that this āhardware versionā isnāt much useful or at least doesnāt 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 ā Googling āMC3000 site:candlepowerforums.comā 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 predicamentā¦,.
Thatās 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 canāt find it now.
Only one mention of 1.18. Most of the discussion was about 1.15. So hard fail there.
Flashing āBACKā 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 wouldnāt trust it. https://www.skyrc.com/downloads
1.18 is listed for Download. I donāt 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 canāt find anything on 1.17. I am beginning to think that this is a manual revision number and not firmware release ???
Oh, the hardware versionā¦ 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 toolā¦ without the charger connectedā¦ it does not seem to have the ability to save the current firmware/configuration. Just an āUpdateā button.
So I emailed Chadd yesterday and he answered me the same day (he and ProgressiveRC really rock), here are the relevant parts in āQā (me) and āAā (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. [ā¦] 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. Itās something you canāt see as itās 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 ā itās just the internal spring retainers that got upgraded (perhaps to make them more robust as Iāve 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 didnāt 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 boardā¦ after the original āpostsā 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 (āLast edited: May 31, 2018ā and only covering eg firmware up to v1.15-alpha), but otherwise seems to be what you described: SkyRC ā IFA 2014 ā MC3000 charger-analyzer | Candle Power Flashlight Forum
Was that it?
If so, what a shame it isnāt being updated anymore the post author seems to be still active in CPF, but his last post to that thread was in 2020ā¦ :-/
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 OPā¦
Thanks @dmenezes for this info - it accords with my understanding of the change situation of the MC3000.
There appear to be three āversionsā of the MC3000: the ORIGINAL version (which had the problem with the sliders breaking off their posts and some other issues I canāt 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 havenāt 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 doesnāt 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 hereās 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 aināt broke, donāt fix it. Especially in this case where I have no idea of what changes were made.
Youāre most welcome, my friend, as well as all our brothers and sisters here on BLF.
I hear you loud and clear. Itās the same reason I havenāt updated to 1.18 yet: the 1.17 version mine came with works reasonably well (albeit Iāve seen one instance where the charger ālocked upā 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 canāt 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 insteadā¦
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 Iāve seen) and Iām 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 canāt 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 donāt use very much.
