Take over responsilibility for inverter development and support

[johu]

So, this is kind of a biggie for me. I want to step back from inverter development completely. So I would be happy to hand over
- Responsibility for stm32-sine and FOC firmware repository
- Responsibility for inverter-hardware, Tesla-Large-Drive-Unit and Tesla-Front-Drive-Unit repository
- Drafting of new releases, integrating PRs etc.
- Maintaining boards
- Optional: Selling boards
- Doing support on the forum
- Doing payed support

I will remain active in BMS, CCS and libopeninv development!

Whichever (group?) takes this over will have to set up a web shop or other distribution channel for the boards if so intended. Happy to leave them in the OI shop as stubs and link to the new source.

If someone wants to pick this up simply fork the repo and work away. I am not available for any video conferences, so do not write to me about wanting to pick up.

---
Reason: I think I've given this topic all I can and I no longer want to deal with blown Tesla inverters especially. I want to focus my resources more on the remaining projects.

For a bit of practise for the willing I will start ignoring inverter-related topics

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

I'll be the first to admit I absolutely do not have the knowledge to take over the firmware. But, I might be able to take on board distribution, at least for the US market*. Its something I've already thought about, but let me do some research over the next couple of weeks.

*given the state of geopolitics, it might be worth having different folks handle the US and EU.

[johu]

Thanks for speaking up.

So, the inventory:
- West side EV already sells SDU and LDU kits
- A Californian citizen is offering to take over HW/SW development AND board distribution
- You also want to distribute boards

So in the US we have 3 (potential) distributors, in Europe none. Lets see how we can build up upon this.

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

So, the inventory:
- West side EV already sells SDU and LDU kits
- A Californian citizen is offering to take over HW/SW development AND board distribution
- You also want to distribute boards

In light if that, I would say go ahead with the person in California. I wouldn't be able to get something set up right now.

I will, however, make the following commitments to the community:
- I will do my best to get a store set up by the end of the year as an additional source for OI related boards.
- I am actively working on getting the education I need to start helping develop new boards - specifically to work on stuff that's only or primarily available in the North American market.

[Zieg]

- I am actively working on getting the education I need to start helping develop new boards - specifically to work on stuff that's only or primarily available in the North American market.

Would love to help with stuff like that where possible. Especially for racing applications, lowering the barriers and getting more conversions on track. What kind of education are you talking about?

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

What kind of education are you talking about?

I don't want to completely hijack this thread, but essentially, basic electronics design. I'm currently researching what I can find online, and considering some community college courses too. My engineering background is much more on the mechanical side of things.

[Scrappyjoe]

Johu, do you want to hand over the wiki and forum administration as well?

If you do, I think it is well worth the time to create searchable backups that don't allow for adding information, but are online forever in the event of things going south. I have been part of communities where the handover of the forum went badly and the community died. These things happen, but the tragedy is the decade of accumulated knowledge that built up in the forum before the handover is now gone forever. If someone had just set up a cron job to export the forum data to a static site on github pages each week that knowledge would still be available.

Happy to help with that.

[johu]

Just the inverter project.
This backup idea might still be worthwhile. Right now I just pull a complete file system and data base backup to a local raid array.

[7yatna]

Hi guys,

I`m Karim the mention "Californian Citizen". I`ve been part of this community and following the amazing great projects here. i do HW design and developments for living and very passionate about the OI community. 2 complete projects running for more than 4 years based on OI work and Johannes's and Damien's best creations.

For this topic i touch based with Johannes and I`m ready to give hand right away on
- inverter-HW development/maintaining, LDU-HW and Front DU-HW.
-Marinating Boards current and future revs.
-Giving support both on OI and other non-conventual requests for the motioned items.
-Selling the Mentions items based of the US to both US and EU. "Web shop is in progress and could be up and running within 2 weeks"
-for the FW repo and managing PRs and releases I'm familiar and have managed my own custom firmware for my projects, but will be more of a partnership with another main POC for FW initially until we can see the workload.

Johannes, thanks again for creating the OI community and your efforts to continue supporting the future of those mentioned items. I would like to give you a hand or two helping as we discussed on our call.

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

Reason: I think I've given this topic all I can and I no longer want to deal with blown Tesla inverters especially.

Heh. I remember a few years back Damien throwing up his hands and saying he's out, he's not troubleshooting LDU or SDU hardware again. And you were like "I'll do it!" And now you're like "Get me out of here, I don't want to deal with LDU and SDU again!"

Backing out of the free support, well, that's an obvious one. But I'm surprised you're not interested in paid support still.

IIRC, OI was your main income source. Did you pick up work elsewhere, or, plan to? Completely different community?

[johu]

Get me out of here, I don't want to deal with LDU and SDU again!

Yes it's not like anybody really got on top of about it but seeing the sad face when you tell people they have to buy a new inverter is priceless in a negative way. And then you can't even say why it happened and how to really prevent it in the future.

But I'm surprised you're not interested in paid support still.

Yes it seems like easy earned money but it's just one hour here and there. Doing a "context switch" back to inverters for just an hour here and there isn't worth it. I prefer withdrawing completely.

Did you pick up work elsewhere, or, plan to?

Patreon has all the answers
Just kidding. I've undergone training to become an electrician. Now I don't want to wire up peoples homes from now on but I do want to be allowed to install PV, battery storage and other systems that require declaring to the utility company.
So, like said, I remain active with Foccci and BMS and will work more on energy management in the future.

[johu]

So a long time has passed and no one really picked up.
It means that I will simply abandon the inverter project and should anyone ever want to pick up on it it's still there. Beauty of open source.

I am not available for any phone calls or whatnot to teach the new maintainer. Just take it or leave it.

[Jack Bauer]

Not on my watch I'll reach out privately to arrange passwords or whatever is required. I DO NOT have the software abilities to add new features to the core nor do I have an indepth knowledge of motors but I will maintain the project to the best of my ability.

[7yatna]

So a long time has passed and no one really picked up.
It means that I will simply abandon the inverter project and should anyone ever want to pick up on it it's still there. Beauty of open source.

I am not available for any phone calls or whatnot to teach the new maintainer. Just take it or leave it.

Hi Johannes,

I`m Genuinely embarrassed that i seem backing out but it isnt that. professional life took a toll and was flying across the globe and i wouldn't ask for you couching me on the SW aspect thant i struggling with as we discusses. it seems the most needed effort at the moment but i will do a thing or two.

[jrbe]

Is this more of a split discipline role / roles? Seems like too much for one person to handle all of the directions something like this goes.

I know there are different people helping with different pieces but not sure how clear it is who helps where, where people's skill sets could plug in, and where help is needed.

Could this be flipped with where skillets are lacking? Then people who think they could help in that area can chime in?

[7yatna]

Guys, myself I'm committed to support and help the whole project but i think the most immediate need that Johannes requests was the Firmware, SW and GitHub code and binaries.

Between my limited skillset on maintaining, adding features for something as critical as Inverter code and genuinely the past month my actual day job took off and was flying over the globe.

the list of tasks that needed to be taken care off already listed on the first post here. i can and will be involve on all of them but i can shine better on some than others.

i will announce and will own those items:
1- Doing support on the forum 100% capacity
2- doing Paid support on the forum 100% capacity if requested.
3- Maintaining boards 100% (I`m HW design engineer for 13+ Years ) HW, PCBs Fab and Debug is my passion.
4- Responsibility for inverter-hardware, Tesla-Large-Drive-Unit and Tesla-Front-Drive-Unit repository 100% on the HW side or 50-50% share this responsibility with who ever gonna manage the code repositories.
5- Responsibility for stm32-sine and FOC firmware repository this is where i need a helping hand. i can at the most do 20-50% of this work as code isn't my strongest suite. I do write my own code for my STM32 based designs, Have my own VCU, Zombie VCU code, Tesla Charger code, and other new systems that i developed and wrote code for it. (My code is OI based and follow the same outline).
6- Optional: Selling boards, Sales Support, Answering after sale questions through email/phone ( i can handle the logistics, getting new inventories, shipping, out of CA USA to US and Europe) i have my own gadgets that isn't officially sold or on a store yet but eventually it can happen by end of the year. i think this is already got covered but i can be another resource for it, either my own webshop or even manage the OI shop for the OI forum.
7- Drafting of new releases, integrating PRs etc. 5-10% based on the other SW person maintain those items. i can help to finish or release, clean and flash the new HW sold with those, but mainly a limited help.

in essence i will be on the forum daily covering these points and when an action item within the 100% capacity listed in this comment i will execute that task. HW design, circuit debug, support for configuration after sale support and if needed and paid support over email, phone and in person within travel limits.

First line of action i will make a new thread/announcement for support here on the OI forum in line with this comment.

The last question here who will be taking over the firmware/code development as first POC so we can privately converse and coordinate tasks? if anyone up to the challenge to be the person for SW/FW lets sync up if not, then i will do as much as i possibly can meanwhile.

Lets Keep this hobby/passion going i hate to see OI as the next diyelectriccar.com.

Best regards,
Karim
knageeb20@yahoo.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/komara6894/

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

i hate to see OI as the next diyelectriccar.com.

Hey, we're still there. I try to keep up with basic spamkilling and admin tasks, hands tied as I am by the absent corporate owners.

...

I've spent a lot of time on boards, running communities or projects directly or behind the scenes. Normally I find on projects, non-profits, etc, there's lots of people who are willing to help, but it takes someone willing to herd all the cats. The biggest pitfall being, if you do the job too well, everyone just backs away and crosses their fingers that they can ignore things into you doing it all. So you regularly have to rally the troops. It's both a technical job and a social one, or things tend to just decay like a healthy body with no head.

I think there's people to help, but it's hard to talk someone into the responsibility of ownership. If you've got that, the other pieces should fall into place with a little nudging. Sometimes, the best people to volunteer are those that just didn't think they were good enough and so never stepped up. I've had good success just knowing who to ask, and asking.

There are SO MANY people with the technical skill to help out, who have USED OpenInverter, and those that have made money from it, it'd be a damn shame if none of them stepped up.

...

I think some separation and explanation would be helpful in terms of what is needed to maintain what's already there, versus what the project's goals are for the future. Then people can see where things are headed and what role they could play.

"Who's taking over OpenInverter?" is a scary and intimidating assignment. You having the hardware side covered is a relief.

[modellfan]

As I am running the SDU in my car and I see a need to clean up the code base and I have some software background, I would be willing to moderate the STM32-sine rep, work on better documentation and add features based on pull requests / community discussion. I know how to work with git and I have the toolchain standing.

I a not sure, how much of support I can handle timewise though.

[davefiddes]

I'm a bit late to the thread. Sorry. Totally understand the desire to move on to do other things. The stm32-sine inverter has felt like a mature, stable project for quite some time. Many thanks for all your efforts over the years. I've learned a ton about inverters and motor control from stm32-sine.

I don't think it makes sense for me to offer to maintain stm32-sine (according to GitHub I'm only #3 contributor but not by LOC modified ) as I don't have and am unlikely to gain a functioning stm32-sine based vehicle. That seems like a pre-requisite for ongoing maintenance and release management. I'm happy to provide code-review input to anyone picking up that side of things just @ me on GitHub or drop me an email.

I'll continue to assist Damien in his Tesla M3 adventures if that's desired.

[Beggernator]

Also a bit late to this one.

Happy to contribute towards wiki stuff. I have already made small contributions, page edits ect. had some thoughts around a current status / newest versions / recommended hw usage page, but I don't know how to make new pages, so you are safe for now.

I am fairly new to the open inverter usage. people may have seen my IMA inverter thread. but I am a fairly acceptable electrical engineer. (my day job is HV automotive PCBs) so I am happy to do some board designs ect. honestly already have some possible changes I would want to make to the mini mainboard. currently I am not sure how best to prevent the designs from fragmenting where different people take it and run different directions.

I am based in the UK and happy to do small volume manufacture / distribution of HW.

Software is my weak spot. I know very little about programming, best I have done is copy and paste an amalgamated mess of example code to get a can datalogger working after weeks of effort.
not exactly great for an inverter, or contributing to a larger project.

I am working on my understanding of motor equations. most of my background is BLDCs with the likes of early vesc project and derivatives. so still getting to grips with IPMs.
After I am a bit more useful I am happy to provide forum support. not sure about paid support hours. will see how good I am first.

Anyway one step at a time. currently I am likely the supportee rather then the supporter, I need to get my setup tuned and running well first. after that will be happy to be a test mule for software.

[johu]

If anyone wants to practice a classical reproduction/fault finding task, here it is: viewtopic.php?t=6733

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

I dunno if I missed an update. Did we have a formal passing of the torch? Was there an announcement? Status update? How are things going with that and are there ways I/we can help?

[davefiddes]

We're waiting for the volunteers to show up, join in and do stuff.

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

We're waiting for the volunteers to show up, join in and do stuff.

Reading through the thread, there were specific people, or maybe a couple groups or whatnot, interested in picking up some tasks. I never know what's gone on behind the scenes. Have those discussions stalled out, or Life In the Way but still planned, etc? That's why I was asking.

[davefiddes]

Sorry Matt. It was an entirely reasonable question. I was hoping that some of the vocal enthusiasm might have translated into action...