Simucube 2 True Drive software feedback thread

Hi Mika,
You can sent me link to d/l as well. I I’ll only return from South Africa on next Tuesday morning your time, but please feel free to sent so I can too test it.

Cheers,
Beano

Hi @Mika.
Can you please explain a bit on the current versioning model. It’s a bit confusing at the moment.
The release on releases wiki https://granitedevices.com/wiki/Simucube_2_True_Drive_releases states 2020.1.
But what I see in TD after installing new SW and FW is this.
image

Does release number refer to the whole bundle that includes TD and FW, are you planning to align them at some point or keep separate versioning like this. If the latter, can we please also have version of FW and SW included in the bundle listed on the the wiki, similar to what we have for Argon releases.
Thanks

Drivers do not need to see the firmware/True Drive/servo drive firmware versions; we need to retain them for development reasons (for now) but we will hide them completely from the UI.

Move to the YEAR.release -format was due to making it immediately obvious to the drivers to see if their software is horribly out of date or not.

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Users do not need to see FW/SW version?
I am the user and I want to see it as in any other software package, OS, or electronic device I use.
Especially as FW and SW are two separate things. This is industry best practice after all.
If you can start listing version of FW and SW included on the wiki, that would be great.

Thanks.

Typical sim racer just downloads the latest version from wiki, firmware (including servo drive firmware) will be automatically updated if required, and starts to use it. 100% peace of mind, no need for confusing version numbers.

You probably have Microsoft Office or Adobe Reader on your computer. Typical user absolutely does not care about their detailed version numbers, while still knowing if they have Office 2003 or Office 2016…

Also, Windows 10. You might know you have e.g. build 1909 (year 2019, month 09) but you will not see the detailed build/version number if you don’t look for it using systeminfo on command prompt, or some other tool.

That typical sim racer argument. Why typical console user can still see version of software and FW included. Or Android OS and FW version on the phone.
Are typical sim racers from stone age and SC2 is the first electronic device they see in their life.
Sorry Mika, but I am afraid you don’t know your audience that well and going too far with too dumb generalization based on some personal assumptions.

Lets see.

Is there a use for individual version numbers to be visible everywhere? Keep in mind, that keeping them updated is not beneficial to driving feel, and in facts slows down other development efforts.

  • Version numbers of piece-parts of the software are important to be visible everywhere
  • Just one version number is enough

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I would like to actually hear about your argument more. You can see the version numbers in the software, but… what are you actually using that information for? You can’t do anything about them anyway, there are just there, visible and doing nothing useful.

Mika, this is software. Doesn’t matter if some user don’t care, and some do, it’s standard software development and publishing principle, that esp. comes handy at troubleshooting time.
You have two separate components included in the bundle, with independent versions.
Based on my last installation experience I could skip FW installation after SW, and I can easily see that you can have release with only updated SW or FW, preserving older version of the other. They need to be aligned only when changes make them incompatible.
Would be nice if we could see that on the wiki, instead of post installation fact, i.e. which parts of the bundle got changed even if we download and install the whole thing.
I see that just as important as proper release notes.

P.S.
I also see that there is Servo drive FW version listed, 3rd component, is that something that will be updated as part of the release bundle as well, or downloaded separately.

Thank you

For debugging and troubleshooting purposes, the individual version numbers are going to be printed in debug log files etc. However, it is not useful either as we will know the versions inside each software release, so just one version number is enough there as well. But, for preview/testing releases those will be printed when needed.

Firmware update cannot be skipped, True Drive will just quit if driver skips that. Soon we will prevent drivers from using any other True Drive than the one that the Firmware requires, the driver will be notified of trying to launch too old version.

Servo drive firmware will be automatically updated, its bundled within the Simucube firmware.

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Any harm for users to know that as well. And as motor FW can be updated too, I’d really love to know in advance what I am downloading and installing and what exactly got changed esp. as some things might not be reversible.
Don’t really understand the mindset, seems like you are willing to go extra mile just to withhold information from user. It’s already there. :confused:

We want to improve the information content, and to keep the previous complex stuff there, takes time from more useful development efforts. “its already there” is not a valid argument, as it has a cost and very limited usefulness.

I’ve just updated the changelog for upcoming release to our releases page. There might be some other small additions there as well.

You are keeping track of versions internally, so what is that “extra development effort” that will keep you from other more useful things? Having that info published as part of the release notes, or arguing about not doing it?
Sounds like making changes to remove these versions from TD will cost extra effort, not the other way around, unless I missed something.
Anyway, I will stop worrying my pretty little head, as seems like this is what you would prefer. :frowning_face:

It is cumulative effort to update the visible version numbers. It takes a few minutes for every release, and judging what we have planned for the life of the product, we would like to spend that time to improve the product instead.

Where as the extra effort to remove the relevant things takes less than 30s and is a one-time deal.

Have you ever heard of the term ‘change resistance’?

i dont see how this fight about every inch of the Status quo helps us to improve it in any way @Andrew_WOT

It is of course not a bad idea to insist for features which we like and use but this constant fight against the smallest little bit of text where almiost no one ever look isnt understandable anymore.

I already see @Mika stopping discuss these things with us just to have a break and i truly want to avoid that.

please think about which fight is worth to be fought and sometimes things actually get better surprisingly

5 Likes

@Revan, it all started as a simple question on versions that are already there, check the original post
Nobody asked for any new features.

i guess you misunderstood my post…

Ah yes, the original post was about whether the version numbers will align. The answer is ‘yes’.

3 Likes

Anyway,
As a power-user of DD wheels, I have to agree with Mika here, there is zero value to have these version-numbers broadcast, it is of no use to us at all. IMHO, a simple single version-number is more than enough for us to keep record of what’s happening.

If it makes it easier on development, I can’t see any harm in doing away with the minor numbers. Again, just my simple view.

Cheers,
Beano