Hi Guys,

Damn do I have a treat for you this month!

I've been promising this for a long time and I finally got around to it. I have re-written my Serial Controller plugin for Virt-a-Mate and I am really excited to share the results with you.

This is the third version of this plugin, but I believe that this represents a massive step change in the OSR2/SR6 VaM user experience. This is because there are two new features that make a world of difference.

The first is the way that this plugin tracks character movement. For this I have some totally new code, and for this I have to credit the work of a user called VAMRobot. With this plugin there is no need to select the female or target body part, nor do you have to set any motion tracking limits. All of this is now automated, allowing you to chop and change mode of pleasure or female without needing to touch the plugin at all.

The second is a feature that takes advantage of a new capability in TCode v0.3. The plugin has the same set of sliders to allow you to set your preferred movement ranges on your OSR2/SR6. What I've added is a button that saves this information to your TCode device. What this means is that whenever you open the serial connection the plugin instantly and automatically loads up your setup preferences. You don't have to set them for each scene, or mess about with .JSON files on your computer or anything like that. Just plug in and press go, and it's all set up.

With this new plugin you simply load your scene of choice, drop in the plugin, start serial and that's it! You still have to select your comm port, but literally everything else is automated.

I still have a couple of bugs to iron out, but I intend to get up the plugin as an $8 tier release in the next couple of days. I also intend to do a quick blog post, probably a video, showing the new plugin in operation. That will be a $2 tier release.

This plugin release is an initial bare bones version: 3 movement axes and 2 rotation axes fully automated. Going forward I will be adding in a bunch of new features. I want to get in twist support, as well as female hand tracking. T-Valve, vibration and lube functions will also be added, and I have some really cool ideas for those!

Finally, for those of you using the Romeo I have attached the latest firmware update. This fixes a small bug in the user preferences storage function. Definitely worth the update if you're going to use the new plugin!

Watch this space!

Hi Guys,

First I'd like to say a big thanks for the messages of support that I got over the last week or so. I had been feeling quite unwell and I lost a lot of days to it last month. I'm pleased to say that I'm well on the road to recovery now, and I have some new stuff to release today.

The first is the v3.1 firmware, for the Romeo-based OSR2s out there. I was very pleased with v3.0 as a clean total rewrite of the original firmware. I wanted it to be the definitive version, just like the OSR2.1. Unfortunately it turned out to have a couple of bugs. In particular, it would stop responding if used with certain functions on certain apps, for example the random mode on MOSA.

I am pleased to be able to report that I have been able to fix this problem, so I am releasing version 3.1 of the OSR2 firmware with this post. I will package this up with the OSR2.1 and this will become the definitive version of the OSR2. I am pleased about this, because I want to move on and turn my attention to the ESP32 and SR6.

My subscribers who have seen my recent video about microcontrollers will recall that the ESP32 DevKit v1 is a vastly more powerful microcontroller than the Romeo BLE mini v2.0. It is also somehow cheaper and more easily available. Its only downside is that it isn't plug-and-play like the Romeo. However, as the SR6 requires a power bus anyway, I think adopting it is a complete no-brainer.

I have put a lot of hours over the last month into creating an official ESP32 firmware for SR6, which can also be used on OSR2. I will be releasing this later today. I will also be releasing an official ESP32 tray for the SR6 Alpha.

With the SR6 comes the capability to control high-end servos at their maximum command frequency of 330Hz. This has the potential to make the servo movements a lot smoother, improving the user experience and reducing wear.

In order to take advantage of this I have had to address a problem with "live" commands. The short version of this is that it's no good commanding servos 330 times a second if the target position (live from something like Virt-a-Mate) is only being updated 60 times a second. The result is still a sort of grinding effect or "staircasing", which is not pleasant. I have put a lot of work into resolving this issue, and what I have added into the firmware is an automatic smoothing protocol for live commands. It works great, and requires no external changes.

For my $2 tier I have an inside-look video blog post coming in the next week or so. I've recently revisited some of my oldest ideas because I think I might be able to put them to use on OSR2/SR6. I think you'll find it interesting.

These are, of course, what I wanted to get out in June, and I had some other cool stuff planned for July. I'm going to be playing catch-up and we'll see if I can also get any of that out in the next three weeks or so. 

Happy building!
Tempest

Hi guys,

It’s time for a major software upgrade for the OSR2.

Today I am releasing the version 3.0 firmware. This is an open source release, free to all, and should work just fine for all OSR2 versions.

In my mind this is the software equivalent of the OSR2.1 redesign, and it’s long overdue. I’ve spent several weeks on this, because it’s a ground-up total rewrite of the beating heart of the machine. If I’ve done my job well you shouldn’t notice much of a difference in the basic functions, but I now have the freedom to add in some new features.

All TCode devices have been using TCode v0.2 for the last 16 months, but I am now making the move to TCode v0.3. The big changes are the addition of ten “A” (Auxiliary) channels (for valve, lube, etc), the ability to store axis range preferences on the device so that you don’t need to set them every time, and some extra useful “device” functions, including a “STOP” function. There haven’t been any changes to the core protocol, so this code will still work with existing players.

As for the new firmware itself, I have made several improvements to the device setup.

The T-valve is now on the A0 and A1 channels. By default the valve now operates an automated suck algorithm on the “A1” axis. That means it opens on the way down and closes to a commanded position on the way up. It’s 50% by default but you can change the default in the options at the top of the firmware.

“A0” offers direct control override of the valve position for any app developer who wants to write their own valve control algorithm.

I’ve included an easy option to reverse the valve servo direction, which was a popular request.

Another popular request was an auto-timeout function for the vibration channels. The vibe channels will now therefore cut out after a specified time interval if no commands are received, which is 2 seconds by default.

In this release have also supported IssacNewtongue’s popular iLube mod, which replaces the second vibration channel with a lube pump. This feature can be activated at the top of the firmware, and switches the second motor controller to be controlled by a button on pin 13, and the “A2” axis.

The last feature is that for this release I have gone back to using the standard Arduino servo library. I haven’t been particularly impressed with my custom library running on the Romeo given the limitations of the hardware.

This new code currently only works for the OSR2. I intend to produce an SR6 version in the near future, but this will be ESP32 only. In the meantime the existing SR6 firmware should work just fine with any TCode v0.3 player or plugin, it just won’t have access to the new functionality.

Finally, something for my $8 patrons. My main focus this month has been on writing this software, but in working on this new firmware I spent some time looking at the T-Valve.

I think the valve can add a lot to the experience of using the OSR2/SR6, and particularly with scripted content. The biggest problem with the valve has been that the effect seems to have been a bit all-or-nothing. This is because the suction effect only really occurs with relatively small hole sizes.

I’ve experimented with making changes in the software, adding a non-linear opening scale for example, but in the end it was instead a change to the cut-out shapes in the valve base that worked best. Therefore this month I am going to be releasing an improved valve base. It’s a small modification but it makes a huge difference.

It’s being great seeing multi-axis scripting being taken up by the community on eroscripts with pitch, roll and twist axes being added to a lot of popular scripts. I hope that this month’s updates will lead to a similar uptake in “suck” axis scripting.

Have fun!
Tempest