3rd party Controller access

I have a maestro micro 6 channel controller that has been locked by the 3rd party vendor I bought it from. The Pololu software will not access the controller so I can make changes to it. Really frustrating being locked out of the hardware. Anyway to fix this so I can ccess the controller and make a couple of changes to the outputs? Hardware ID is: USB/VID_1FFB&PID_009F&REV_0102&MI_04 USB/VID_1FFB&PID_009F&MI_04.

Thanks

Hello.

What do you mean by “locked out of the hardware”? It sounds like you have the Micro Maestro hardware with some custom firmware on it, so in general, it’s not going to be supported by our standard software, and you should ask your vendor about any issues specific to its end application. I also do not know what you are trying to do in terms of “accessing the controller” and “making changes to it”. We can provide you with the instructions to load our standard firmware on your unit, but you would then not be able to get back to your custom firmware.

- Jan

Sorry the changes I want to make are to the individual channels. Ex: channel 3 needs to be a digital pulse not a servo for my application and as the controller seems to have a 3rd party firmware on it Your software will not allow me access to it(as you said). Out of curiosity how would I load the original firmware back on the controller? And what other programs would allow access to the controller as it sits with the 3rd party stuff on it so that maybe I can save/backup the current firmware and so that I can come back to it later if need be. Or even make changes to the third party firmware. Is it somethign you can provide? Or at least point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

I’m not sure what you mean by the “digital pulse not a servo”; do you understand that the servo control signals are digital pulses?

Instructions for firmware updates (not really an update in your case) are in the user’s guide:

pololu.com/docs/0J40/4.f

There should be no way for you to save your custom firmware; once you overwrite it, it’s gone. Even with our standard firmware, the source is not available, so you’re not going to be able to change it.

I think the right direction that you are looking for depends on what your ultimate goal is. The main thing I can give you is an understanding of the positions of the vendors involved. You have to look at the custom Maestro you have as a part of a larger system from your vendor; if you want to use it in that context, we cannot really help you. If you are not interested in the rest of that system and you just want to get a stock Micro Maestro, you can change the firmware, but you still won’t be able to do customizations beyond what the stock product is capable of. If the Maestro is close to what you need but you need some customizations, we might be able to do them for you, but keep in mind that it won’t necessarily be cheap.

- Jan

Hello.

I’d just like to add that before you can successfully complete the firmware upgrade instructions that Jan linked to, you will need to get the Maestro into bootloader mode. Of course you can’t use the Maestro Control Center as it says to do in the instructions, but you can follow the procedure from this post:

–David