I tested to install Wire-Pod, Wire’s open source Escape Pod onto a Raspberry Pi 4, as recommended. There were some problem that I was able to solve with Wire’s help (thanks for that!) and some improvements were added to the installation process because of it. During that I also prettified the chipper web interface and created a logo for Wire-Pod.
To do this yourself you will need basic Linux knowledge, for example how to write an image into an SD card to use in a RasPi, to SSH into that RasPi and/or to activate a VNC server to access the RasPi desktop via another computer. You will have to issue some commands from a Linux console to install Wire-Pod. After that you will need to open Vector Web Setup in a browser and write an official Escape Pod OS (1.8.x) onto the robot you want to tether to Wire-Pod. Before that your Vector will have to be installed completely with the official app or via Vector Web Setup, an unused Vector fresh out of an unopened box (yes, I still had one) will not work (my fault). During the installation of the EP firmware user data will not be deleted.
The installation instructions can be found on the Wire-Pod Github page.
It has weather and knowledge graph via external APIs (the weather API access will cost you a monthly fee) and the responses are faster than with the official DDL Escape Pod. Also this is expandable, I can imagine additional functions added to the Open Source Escape Pod. I also think that this can be made more user-friendly with some time, I have ideas for that.
But the really good news is: This is huge! You can now get away completely from Digital Dream Labs without any cost besides buying a Raspberry Pi. You can tether any 1st generation production Vector to Wire-Pod. You will still retain a completely functioning Vector (far better than with the official Escape Pod), that is even expandable with new reactions to voice commands.
Wire cannot be praised enough for creating this!
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Bonjour,
J’ai suivi la procédure Wire-Pod, mais lors de l’update ota-start pour installer escapod, la barre d’avancement semble ne pas avancer. Qu’elle est la durée de téléchargement ?
Merci
Depends on your internet speed, as I said in the video. Minutes. If the progress bar does not advance, your computer is not able to access the OTA URL.