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Releases and versions

A firmware release is a number: 101, 104, 105, … Every release is a tag V<number> in the firmware repository and a GitHub release that carries the image spectral-bldc-firmware-V<number>.bin, a manifest firmware.json with the image's size, SHA-256 and the commit it was built from, and the release notes. The notes are the firmware's changelog; the appendix collects them.

Which release does my driver run?

#Info

prints Software version: <number> among the rest; Motor GUI shows the same number in the driver's identity, and over CAN Send_Respond_Device_Info returns it as the third byte. From firmware 105 the number is the build's own version. Before that it was read from the EEPROM, where the last #Default wrote it, so it names the firmware that last restored the defaults, not necessarily the one running: 101 and 104 both write 101.

Drivers that report 101

A driver that reports 101 runs either release 101 from the main branch, without a bootloader, or release 104 (or an earlier build of Bootloader_main), which also writes 101 and runs above the bootloader. Drivers sold before release 105 shipped with firmware 101 or 103.

To tell whether yours has the bootloader, power it up while bl_flash.py list or Motor GUI's Scan bootloaders is polling: a driver with the bootloader answers in its first two seconds. With the bootloader, update it to the current release as in Updating through the bootloader; the release it ran before does not matter then. Without one, install it first: Installing the bootloader on an older board.

Which release does this site describe?

The one in the version box on the landing page and in the version selector in the header. When a newer release changes what a page says, a new version of the site is published and the previous one stays reachable from the selector. The compatibility table says which releases go with which bootloader, Python library and PAR6 runtime.

The STEPFOC counterpart

Most Spectral Micro releases have a STEPFOC release with the same changes. The numbers do not always match: the current pair is Spectral Micro 107 and STEPFOC 108, and the compatibility table lists the others.

The two branches

Releases from 104 on are built from the Bootloader_main branch of the repository, whose firmware is linked to run above the bootloader; 104 is the first of them. The main branch holds the firmware linked to run without a bootloader: release 101 and earlier, and a few later changes that were never tagged as a release (among them the Kt request and the voltage limit message). It is not updated.

Version 101 of this site documents a board running 101. It also fits 104, which adds the Send_Respond_Kt request, Send_Voltage_Limit (in the release image) and the bootloader. The 104 release image was built from commit 20765c9 on Bootloader_main, not from the source at the tag V104, which does not have Send_Voltage_Limit yet. To move a board without a bootloader to a current release, see Installing the bootloader on an older board.

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