Folks, this is going to be a bit of a long and boring post so I’d strongly recommend not reading:) The catalyst for making this came with a particularly nasty strain of Norovirus that has left me unable to do much of anything this past week. Every time I’d wake up and think of all the house, family, car and ev projects that need some Damien attention. Frustrating doesn’t even touch on how it feels. It can often feel a bit like one of those “world’s strongest man” type of things where the guy has to pull a double decker bus with a rope. Of course it’s not really like that but feelings are hard to shake. Human nature I guess.
Two things that I decided early on when getting involved in selling boards and later board kits to help people use OEM ev parts in their projects was 1) I was not going to attempt to make lots of money. Cost is what holds most DIY ev projects back so I would price things as low as possible. I’d still need to cover costs and make a little profit but nothing more. 2) Time (mine) would be very limited so support would need to be community driven. Be that via the Openinverter forum or whatever else may work. This second point I believe is the most critical and misunderstood. I went to GREAT pains to lay out the reasoning in forum posts and videos. Even so far as to make a specific video on the subject. The following text is displayed on each section of the evbmw webshop to further drive home the point in as succinct a manner as possible :
PLEASE NOTE THE ITEMS FOR SALE ON THIS WEBSITE MUST NOT BE CONSIDERED END USER PRODUCTS. TECHNICAL SKILLS ARE REQUIRED TO GET THEM RUNNING IN YOUR APPLICATION.
IF YOU ARE AT ALL DOUBTFUL ABOUT YOUR ABILITIES IN THIS THEN PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE AND VISIT THE OPENINVERTER FORUM FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.
Now even with this in mind some folks think something along the lines of “Ah well if I can’t make it work I’ll just ask Damien for help”. This will typically come in the form of an email or forum pm with very little information on the exact circumstances of the problem, perhaps a description of the person doing somethat is incorrect or not required and a polite (or not) request for assistance. This hits me a double punch : obviously I hate to see anyone struggle and my first instinct would be to jump in and work the problem, that I get these requests DESPITE trying to be as clear as possible that all support must be community / forum based. Why? Because if I did jump in on an one to one basis to assist folks I would have time for nothing else. Let me repeat that : I can choose to either run a support service OR do what I do. Make as many OEM parts open and available for converters. Be they DIY or otherwise through hardware and (my awful) software.
There is another reason none the less important that I advocate the forum for support. If YOU are having a problem with a certain aspect how many others do you think have the SAME problem? So if we fix it for one person we fix it for all people for all time in one fell swoop. Now I gotta say that makes a lot more sense to me as means of support rather than me sitting at a desk bored out of my skull answering the SAME question 50 times a week like some half baked IT support service. Best of all the support is available when you need it. Not just on my time frame.
But of course some people want a bit more of a personal approach to support and I’ll tell you how that works : I will indeed answer questions and help to solve problems but only via the support thread on the Openinverter forum! Why? See above. Best of all it’s free. No paid support here. Then the answer is available to all. Even better if I’m not there at the time, have other engagements or just don’t have an answer then others may very well be able to jump in with the answer.
Now a little guide on helping the helpers. “It’s not working” is a great start to a post on a support thread but not enough by itself. Describe as much as possible. Don’t leave out any details or steps you took despite how obvious they may seem. Pictures are great but don’t spam. If a picture is relevant to a better description of a particular issue than great. If not just describe. Post support requests and problems in the SUPPORT THREAD! Obvious right but I see a lot of new threads pop up with catchy titles like “HELP NEEDED URGENTLY” etc. etc. Probably seems like a good idea when frustrated and trying to get the attention of myself or others who may be able to offer assistance. Let’s say it works and you get an answer and get up an running. What do you think happens to that catchy thread in a few days or a week? That’s right. It drops off the radar and that catchy title that got the answer you needed so badly is not very searchable so the answer is lost to others. Whereas the support threads are pinned. That means they stay on page 1 of the forum regardless and can be searched in a matter or seconds using a keyword such as say a pin number, IC identifier etc.
I make some of the most boring videos on the internet. Just for you. Certainly not for clicks, money or ego boosting. Where possible I will have included links on the support threads for these videos that while uber long and boring are designed to transfer as much knowledge as possible about the topic in question. They are another free tool that I provide with the express purpose of answering questions in as detailed and personal a manner as possible. I hope soon to be back making more of these to update the info as the past year has been quite tumultuous for me personally (moving house) and for the world with things like the chip shortage and inflation playing havoc with the availability of previously very common electronic parts such as the STM32F1 family of microcontrollers on which most of my kits are based. Sadly I get a lot of folks who may watch a few minutes of say a 1 hour video and either go off and do the wrong thing or pepper me with questions over a range of media (YouTube comments, email, forum pms etc.) which are actually answered in he very same video in much more detail than I can provide in an hour of typing! I have taken to making my videos available on both YouTube (free to me....so far) and Vimeo (I pay for this) to try and make the info more accessible and ensure it doesn't get lost when good ol’ pootube decide I’ve tripped over some rule I’ve never heard about.
Finally (phew!), what can you do to help? Well the best help YOU can give is by parcipitiatg in the forum and helping others. Answer a question or two. Post a picture of your build. Make an improvement on something and tell us about it. Doesn't have to be electronics or software if that’s not your thing. A simple bracket or 3d print. Hell even an idea that could spawn some thinking. If that’s not for you then throw me a few bucks on Patreon or PayPal. I use that money to fund my extravagant lifestyle future and current developments including buying more OEM parts for hacking and open source reverse engineering. So that’s it. Hope this helps to clarify things a bit and make my reasons more understandable. I’ll post this in various places to try and get the message out. Thanks for taking the time to read and I’ll see you in the next uber boring video
