A few noob questions - Devo 6s & Macintosh

Hello,

This is my first post here, so hello from Brooklyn NY. I've been reading the forums quite a bit, while deciding if I wanted to get a Devo 6s with deviation... and I finally pulled the trigger and got a modded Devo 6s from Jon on RCgroups. It came today, and I've already messed it up twice, so I thought I'd seek some guidance.

I thought I'd get a feeling for the file system by making a custom splash screen and adding it to the system. I'm a graphic designer, and have photoshop, so making a bmp hasn't been a problem. I am, however, on a mac, and I'm having issues getting the files I make to work, and also with disconnecting the unit. I've already had one big problem, where I think I disconnected the unit before it was ready, and the media and layouts folders disappeared off the devo. When it started up, most of the graphics were missing and replaced with gibberish text. I had made a backup into a disc image on the mac, so I was able to replace those two folders, and it booted back up normally.

In order to connect, I've had to go into the settings, arrow back a page to the usb connect mode page and enable usb mode. Then it appears right away on my Mac. But I can not seem to disconnect without just shutting it off, which gives an error on the mac (which is typical of pulling a drive without "ejecting" it first) but what's really strange is, that if I eject on the mac, it ejects, and then reappears 2 seconds later, everytime I eject, it keeps remounting the mac. Also, once I put it into usb mode, the devo won't let me press enter to exit usb mode. I also can not leave the USB message screen. It's like the controller is not responsive until I reboot. (is this normal?)

With the graphic files, I know I need to create a 16-bit A1-R5-G5-B5 BMP, and have been doing so with Photoshop CC. when I copy a new splash.bmp back into the media directory, it seems as if all has gone well. But when I reboot the devo, it does not display the graphic, just shows a blank space instead.

I'm hoping someone else has experience mounting and maintaining a Devo on a mac and can share some knowledge.

I've been tinkering a little bit more...

I now realize I can connect with usb mode starting with the enter key pressed. That's a major help. It still doesn't like to disconnect, and reconnects instantly if I don't shut off the transmitter right after ejecting from osx. is this normal?

I also have managed to upload a splash screen that works. The radio is really finicky, and only likes files that are flattened and saved in a very particular manner. I'm still trying to figure out a best practice for getting transparent files to work every time. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

I believe we're pretty much on the same page. I'm a retired graphics professional, use a Mac and have a Devo 6S as well as a white Devo 10. And I'm pretty new to Deviation - still learning a lot.
WRT USB remounting after being ejected, yes, I experience the same thing on both of my Devos. I don't see that behavior with other USB devices like hard drives, thumb drives, SD cards in cameras, etc. Those all behave as expected - eject and done. So I have to think it's a Devo issue and not Mac related. On the other hand, I haven't heard of the same issue with Windows users, so maybe...
I have not heard of or seen the other USB issue you mention, not dismissing the USB screen and not able to access the tx operations. So, even though you managed to get your radio working again, I believe you'd be wise to reinstall the firmware, rather than rely on your replacement of components as the solution. If you're really paranoid about it, you can go back to Walkera's Devention firmware to check factory performance and then reinstall Deviation.
Have you thought about installing other modules in your radio so you can fly other machines with other receivers? That's where I'm at, deciding on the options available. Fun project! I'm happy to help with any more questions, if I can.

thanks for the insight Arnold.

I'm not really paranoid, but I also haven't done any flashing on this Devo myself, so I'm not sure where to start with that for Macintosh.

I bought this unit from Jon.M.Barter over on RCgroups www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2364228 - he added a A7105 and a cc2500, flashed it and got everything initialized and running before sending it to me. Since there are very few Devo 6s's available nowadays, I was pretty stoked to get one all ready to go, without risking my noob soldering skills on it.

But since I got it pre-flashed, I don't know what I'm doing with the Mac.

So you say that you can exit usb mode when you enter usb mode through the TX settings? I thought I was able to do that once. but I don't remember doing it more than once.

I use the "ENT" key to start up in USB mode, I've never gone through the link in the firmware, though I know it's there. I'll have to try that method and see what happens.
As far as Mac support is concerned, yeah, it's pretty weak. You'll have to find your own way. Here's one thing to get you started:
To install Deviation, the manual recommends you download and use Walkera's installer, but that's Windows only, as is nearly all of Deviation's software tools. At the following link you'll find a Java installer software (cross-platform) written by PhracturedBlue (PB), a prime mover in Deviation-world. Here's the link:
deviationtx.com/downloads-new/category/161-dfu-usb-tool
The Java installer software's name is Deviation Uploader-0.8.0.jar
Download that. Here's the discussion thread about it:
deviationtx.com/forum/7-development/1744...-testers-for-usbcode
To install firmware, whether Deviation or Devention:
Use PB's Deviation Java USB installer (you need the Java Runtime Environment installed, of course, from Oracle).
- Don't use a USB hub - connect your Devo directly to your Mac.
- Run the installer.
- On the Devo, hold down the Ext button and turn on the Tx.
- In a few moments, your Devo should show up as the Transmitter at the top in the installer window
- The "Install/Upgrade" tab should be active
- Click the "..." button on the Firmware line.
- Browse to the location of the Zip file for the firmware installer you downloaded and Open it
- Check the box for "Format" if it is not ghosted
- Click the "Install/Upgrade" button
- Agree to format the drive
- Wait till the installer is done.
Using the PB's Java installer via USB, you can just use the .zip package containing the firmware you want to install and the installer will take care of unpacking it and putting everything in the appropriate place on the tx. You don't need to unzip the package to install it. This procedure should overwrite anything you've done previously and put things right.
There's a lot of useful information accessible through the links in the sidebar on the left. Lots of valuable reading for you if you're up for it. If not, it'll just take longer, but, of course there's no rush...

I'm sure I'm probably doing something wrong... I downloaded the jar file, but when I try to run it with jar launcher, the default app on osx 10.10.5, it will not run, tells me to check console, where i have an error

11/17/15 1:07:22.612 AM Console[21443]: Failed to connect (_consoleX) outlet from (NSApplication) to (ConsoleX): missing setter or instance variable

I guess my second question is, once I get that running, which firmware should I be running. my startup screen says I have

devo6-v4.0.1-583c468

That version of Deviation that you show there is the most recent nightly build, from Oct. 25th. You can get to the nightlies (and other stuff) by using the "Downloads" link in the sidebar on the left. Find the version for your radio and download it. The Devo 6 & 6S use the same firmware. Do not download the "Emu" material. Those are Devo emulators that run in Windows. (unless, or course, you have Boot Camp/Windows on your Mac, then that should work.)

For your Java problem, I doubt that the Java Launcher (a 3rd party app from SyncEdit Software, not part of OS X) is adequate. Download the Java Runtime Environment from the Java developer, Oracle:
www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/d...wnloads-2133155.html
Find the one for MacOSX and install that. Then the Java app should run so you can proceed with the firmware installation.
Carry on...

I'm curious if you ever tried connecting through the menu, and then disconnecting... or ejecting from finder and waiting to see if it reconnects?

mellowvision wrote: I'm curious if you ever tried connecting through the menu, and then disconnecting... or ejecting from finder and waiting to see if it reconnects?

I just tried it. Rather interesting.
- Plugged in the USB cable tx and Mac through a 7 port hub
- Enabled USB in the firmware Devo info screen and the volume appeared on the desktop as "NO NAME" as usual
- I was unable to leave the Info page on the tx - stranded
- Ejected from the finder and it remounted within seconds. Tried it several times, using both the mouse and keyboard to eject - same result
- Ran Disk Utility and the volume shows up as normal. Clicked the "Unmount" button and it ejected. Did not remount this time.
- Still, the name of the volume, "NO NAME" showed in the app. So I clicked the "Mount" button and the volume mounted again. I suppose this is all normal behavior.
- With Disk Utility still running, I ejected the volume from the keyboard and it remounted within seconds.
- I then clicked the "Repair Disk" button and it finished within a couple seconds. Doing that restored about 1/3 of the space available on the volume. It was completely full with no remaining space available prior to repairing - after repairing there was ample space available again. The volume shows up as a 3.9Mb device. I now have 1.4Mb available.

Very interesting. I guess unmounting and ejecting are different routines in the OS, huh?

yes it is. thanks for checking. I'm thinking I didn't do anything to change the 6s, that it's just a little wonky with the mac.

Hi. I'm on a Mac as well/Newbie and the Devo7 that came with my Walkera F120 3D SUX so I bought a DEVO 10 for better reception range-hopefully...
Has anyone recently Deviated their DEVO 10 on this post? If so, can you link a walkthrough? I bought my semi-used DEVO 10 from eBay(waiting for it to be delivered) and the seller said he installed most recent Deviation but was concerned if he updated on a PC, if will I be able to update later on, if I wanted, to on my Mac. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

There are walkthroughs in the manuals.