CAN bus Votol controller BT interface + app iOS/Android

[ifonul]

Hi everyone,

I built (with help from this forum, thank you for that!) an app specifically for a Sondors Metacycle (now bankrupt/discontinued). The motorcycle uses a Votol EM200 2SP (CAN bus).

It uses a CAN - BT bridge based on an ESP32 (in the form of a USB dongle with +5V, GND, and 2 CAN bus wires)
You can see the Hardware/Software for the dongle here:

GitHub - virgilm/votol_tuner_hardware: Hardware to interface with Votol Controllers

Hardware to interface with Votol Controllers. Contribute to virgilm/votol_tuner_hardware development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

GitHub - virgilm/votol_bt_interface: Arduino code for a CAN <-> BT interface for Votol controllers

Arduino code for a CAN <-> BT interface for Votol controllers - virgilm/votol_bt_interface

github.com

You can see the current (metacycle specific) iOS app here:

MetaHack motorcycle remote App - App Store

Download MetaHack motorcycle remote by Project Eureka LLC on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more apps like MetaHack…

apps.apple.com

(Android app with similar functionality is in the process of being published on the Play Store)

Dongle video here.
Please see the app manual here for an explanation of that this device can do when combined with the phone app. Also a few videos of the iOS app can be found here, here and here.

From what I can gather, this should work for a whole series of Votol controllers, like
EM50-4P
EM80GTSP
EM100-4P
EM150-2SP
EM200-2P
EM260P

I got a Ryvid electric motorcycle with the same Votol controller and planning to make the apps work with that one too.

Trying to figure out if there is any interest in making this app work with ALL Votol controllers above.

The initial thought here was to expose a LIMITED set of controller parameters that is more user friendly than the AWFUL Windows Votol Application and allow quick modification of most common parameters while riding, so to evaluate the changes in handling immediately.

Thanks again for all the great information, looking forward to some feedback from the very knowledgeable people in this forum.

 

[gustavo88py]

I have 150sp1 + hc05
I use apk from user fishboard
your app looks interesting

 

[bananu7]

Hey! I am also doing some hacking on my Votol, everything is here: GitHub - bananu7/votol: Reverse engineering notes for Votol EM controller

In those repositories I see that you have a BT-CAN software and hardware, but what about the actual data frames and parsing? Is that all in the iOS app? Would you be willing to share the reference data on the programming protocol? I think I have most of the realtime data figured out, but I haven't done the reversing of the programming yet.

 

[electric_beta]

Hello everyone, I've a Silence S01 scooter equipped with a Votol EM-150/2 controller.
Has anyone tried the excellent app to connect to this scooter?

I'm going crazy because I can't even connect with the USB dongle... it always says ‘communication abnormal, no response’. I've tried everything, enabling the ‘secret menu’ with the tilde, changing speeds, etc., but nothing works.

The only thing I managed to do was with the Flipper and the CANBUS APP and the MCP2515 module, I managed to connect to the CAN and read some data: temperature, acceleration level, etc.

What I wanted to do was slightly reconfigure the controller, which can be done from the app... Is it possible to test the connection to the controller before buying the iOS app?

Great job anyway, thank you very much!

 

[bananu7]

I've tried everything, enabling the ‘secret menu’ with the tilde, changing speeds, etc., but nothing works.

Please list all of the connection settings you've tried in the Votol app. Is your dongle the one that came with the controller? Are you sure it's one meant for CAN controllers?

If you can sniff CAN data, you can try listening to the communication attempt from the dongle. If there's none, that means the computer side of things isn't configured well or the dongle itself isn't the right one. The CAN one I have uses a TJA1050 xceiver that can be seen through the clear plastic. If you have it, then something must be wrong with the COM port side of things - you can sniff that via Wireshark on the PC side.

 

[electric_beta]

Please list all of the connection settings you've tried in the Votol app. Is your dongle the one that came with the controller? Are you sure it's one meant for CAN controllers?

If you can sniff CAN data, you can try listening to the communication attempt from the dongle. If there's none, that means the computer side of things isn't configured well or the dongle itself isn't the right one. The CAN one I have uses a TJA1050 xceiver that can be seen through the clear plastic. If you have it, then something must be wrong with the COM port side of things - you can sniff that via Wireshark on the PC side.

Thanks for answer me

I've a Silence scooter, so I've not receive anything, controller is already installed, I've bought cable from Amazon, I see red and green led blinking.
I've try ALL combinations of COM settings in Votol app, anyway I've check sniffing serial comunication and USB stick response on serial port, for example if I click on "RESET" (ECU) button something resetting in my scooter.

I've also check with a USB-CAN adapter in sniffing mode, USB Stick send CAN frame when I try to connect, or trying to open Display page on Votol app, I've also see a lot of CAN frame in RX when connect to the scooter but nothing appear in Votol app

 

[bananu7]

So when you initiate the communication from the PC side, you've confirmed that the handshake frame is physically present on the bus but the controller doesn't react to it properly? Is there any answer at all?

 

[electric_beta]

So when you initiate the communication from the PC side, you've confirmed that the handshake frame is physically present on the bus but the controller doesn't react to it properly? Is there any answer at all?

Exactly, comunication between Votol USB Stick and PC is OK, but NOK from Votol USB to Controller via CAN, no answer.

 

[bananu7]

Honestly if that's the case and if the controller does react to bus changes but not to the handshake specifically I'm suspecting a mismatch between the PC software and the ctrl firmware. You might need to flash it. And since it won't flash via CAN because it doesn't want to talk to you you'd need to open it and hook up to the stlink pins.

 

[selamib]

Hi everyone,

I built (with help from this forum, thank you for that!) an app specifically for a Sondors Metacycle (now bankrupt/discontinued). The motorcycle uses a Votol EM200 2SP (CAN bus).

It uses a CAN - BT bridge based on an ESP32 (in the form of a USB dongle with +5V, GND, and 2 CAN bus wires)
You can see the Hardware/Software for the dongle here:

GitHub - virgilm/votol_tuner_hardware: Hardware to interface with Votol Controllers

Hardware to interface with Votol Controllers. Contribute to virgilm/votol_tuner_hardware development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

GitHub - virgilm/votol_bt_interface: Arduino code for a CAN <-> BT interface for Votol controllers

Arduino code for a CAN <-> BT interface for Votol controllers - virgilm/votol_bt_interface

github.com

You can see the current (metacycle specific) iOS app here:

MetaHack motorcycle remote App - App Store

Download MetaHack motorcycle remote by Project Eureka LLC on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more apps like MetaHack…

apps.apple.com

(Android app with similar functionality is in the process of being published on the Play Store)

Dongle video here.
Please see the app manual here for an explanation of that this device can do when combined with the phone app. Also a few videos of the iOS app can be found here, here and here.

From what I can gather, this should work for a whole series of Votol controllers, like
EM50-4P
EM80GTSP
EM100-4P
EM150-2SP
EM200-2P
EM260P

I got a Ryvid electric motorcycle with the same Votol controller and planning to make the apps work with that one too.

Trying to figure out if there is any interest in making this app work with ALL Votol controllers above.

The initial thought here was to expose a LIMITED set of controller parameters that is more user friendly than the AWFUL Windows Votol Application and allow quick modification of most common parameters while riding, so to evaluate the changes in handling immediately.

Thanks again for all the great information, looking forward to some feedback from the very knowledgeable people in this forum.

Hi, did you specially make your module for CAN controllers ? I bought a bluetooth module for Votol on Ali and it seems that does not work with CAN, i suppose it works only with serial.

 

[Selami352]

Hi everyone,

I built (with help from this forum, thank you for that!) an app specifically for a Sondors Metacycle (now bankrupt/discontinued). The motorcycle uses a Votol EM200 2SP (CAN bus).

It uses a CAN - BT bridge based on an ESP32 (in the form of a USB dongle with +5V, GND, and 2 CAN bus wires)
You can see the Hardware/Software for the dongle here:

GitHub - virgilm/votol_tuner_hardware: Hardware to interface with Votol Controllers

Hardware to interface with Votol Controllers. Contribute to virgilm/votol_tuner_hardware development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

GitHub - virgilm/votol_bt_interface: Arduino code for a CAN <-> BT interface for Votol controllers

Arduino code for a CAN <-> BT interface for Votol controllers - virgilm/votol_bt_interface

github.com

You can see the current (metacycle specific) iOS app here:

MetaHack motorcycle remote App - App Store

Download MetaHack motorcycle remote by Project Eureka LLC on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more apps like MetaHack…

apps.apple.com

(Android app with similar functionality is in the process of being published on the Play Store)

Dongle video here.
Please see the app manual here for an explanation of that this device can do when combined with the phone app. Also a few videos of the iOS app can be found here, here and here.

From what I can gather, this should work for a whole series of Votol controllers, like
EM50-4P
EM80GTSP
EM100-4P
EM150-2SP
EM200-2P
EM260P

I got a Ryvid electric motorcycle with the same Votol controller and planning to make the apps work with that one too.

Trying to figure out if there is any interest in making this app work with ALL Votol controllers above.

The initial thought here was to expose a LIMITED set of controller parameters that is more user friendly than the AWFUL Windows Votol Application and allow quick modification of most common parameters while riding, so to evaluate the changes in handling immediately.

Thanks again for all the great information, looking forward to some feedback from the very knowledgeable people in this forum.

Hi, did you try to Connect to Votol mobile app ?