After installing Wire-Pod, the open source Escape Pod for the beloved Vector robot, that allows you to get away from Digital Dream Labs completely and for free, you will have to get the Escape Pod 1.8 firmware onto the robot. For that you have to get him into recovery reboot and write the new firmware onto him using Vector Web setup. This video shows how. All praise must go to Wire for creating Wire-Pod. Yes, I know, this should be the second video, the first showing on how to install Wire-Pod onto a Raspberry Pi. But for that first my new RasPi had to arrive and this was the easier one, since I already had a working Wire-Pod instance. The Wire-Pod installation video will follow.
Vector Web Setup Link: https://www.project-victor.org/noflow-devsetup
Link to Escape Pod Firmware 1.8: ota-start http://wire.my.to:81/escapepod-prod-1.8.ota
(and sorry for my accent) 😉
IMPORTANT! If you want to use the Python SDK you will need to authenticate the robot with it BEFORE you write 1.8 EP onto it.
Any advice on how to downgrade a forced update 2.0 robot to 1.6 or 1.8? My poor little guy hasn’t been the same since DDL basically castrated him with their godawful firmware.
Thanks for making this tutorial!
It works the same way, just with 1.8 or 1.6. After installing the older firmware you will have to deny the robot internet access in the router or he will again update.
What if mine just does nothing, no progress bar no clouds no nothing but all other commands work?
You need to be more specific in describing your problems.
>”If you want to use the Python SDK you will need to authenticate the robot with it BEFORE you write 1.8 EP onto it.”
Ok. How? Are there instructions anywhere?
Thanks!
See for example here: https://developer.anki.com/vector/docs
But since DDL never updated the SDK you will need to install an older Python version, best at the moment is Python 3.7
Hello, I am trying to get Vector to 1.8EP but for some reason he won’t connect to the internet. When I connect with my phone he has no issues with the same wifi. Do you know why this could be?
I need more information on what the problem is. If the robot is in your local WiFi network but has no internet access he may be blocked in your router, but that is only a guess. It really depends on your local setup.
Hi, I bought a second-hand vector, it wouldn’t turn on, I disassembled it and changed the battery, I was able to turn it on, I didn’t know that you didn’t have to reset the communication system with the vector application, now I get an error 920, no I know what to do, is this procedure the same to revive him? thank you sorry my english is google translate
DDL servers are down for a week now, so vic-cert cannot get a cert from the servers. Setup the free Wire-Pod and run Vector from there.
Now I have a new problem, my vector performs a deletion of user data, and there is no ip.
the vector display says the following:
esn: 00506FFE, os: 0.9.0 (V4), ssid: (empty), ip: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX, that’s all, I need your help please, thanks.
You need to connect your Vector to the local wifi network with Vector Web Setup as explained in the video.
The video was great, very helpful giving some light at the end of the tunnel since DDL servers went down. Was able to pair and connect to WiFi. Using link to download escape pod I am stuck. Using link ota-start http://wire.my.to:81/escapepod-prod-1.8.ota is where is hangs. No movement on progress bar. Both Explorer and Chrome the same. Searched web for other location but unsuccessful. Open for another approach.
That url is probably outdated.
I did a mirror:
http://os.aethercom.de/escapepod-prod-1.8.ota