
Dave Weindel

I am 74 years old and I am building a full scale 3D printed R2-D2. I have started programming the arm movements and have them all under voice command. I have around 20 voice command now. To my surprise the program will now only support 10 voice commands unless I pay a monthly fee. This fee is being charged after the fact. It also seems to be a life time fee. If I pay the fee for say a year and finish the robot it will then stop working if I then no longer want to pay the fee because I am done building robots. I could not even give R2-D2 to my Grandson because it would no longer work. There seems to be something wrong with this. If I am paying to use the software then that Robert program should be good for ever. I could understand that I couldn’t add further enhancements to this robot without a fee but what I have paid for should be mine. Like others I have spent a lot of time and money on my project and it seems that I have been shut down. I don’t want to be locked into a life time contract to keep R2-D2 working in the future. Am I missing something about the new system of using ARC? I have been registered member of this community for about 10 years and I am very disappointed by this.
We have a development plan to address that concern :).
Right now, if the subscription is expired, you will not be able to use subscription based features. However, one of the things we're working on is the ability to make a runtime of your project. This means that if you're "done with your robot", you'll be able to press a button and output a version that no longer requires subscription. The goal is to have the subscription for the development. We're using the funding of the subscription model today to continue developing that feature and hope to have it done before November 2021.
PS, on the topic of your R2.. have you been watching the progress of ARC's new autonomous navigation developments? It's pretty awesome - and soon your R2 can drive around entirely on it's own and understand where it is - where it's going - and how to get back :D. There's a few videos of the progress on other threads in the forum
as for the priority of things. The big one right now is navigation.
PS, you save by getting a annual subscription. That's a better and more affordable deal
Have fun and enjoy.
now I actually have to pay for ARC I started using it more and now I am trying to get a better understanding of what the platform can do outside of EZ-Robot.
If you actually have to pay for something you start to appreciate how valuable it is and start using it more.
BTW the support alone is more than worth it.
1. What ever happened to the linux edition of ez-robot that was being worked on?
2. For kids and family members at home and learning robotics is there a EDU edition?
3. For those that bought many products was there an a discount on Black Friday that we missed for the new annual paid version?
I'm only asking these questions as the ez-robot community is actually pretty big with some very long time users of not only your hardware, but also the software.
We do appreciate the product, but a monthly fee or yearly fee can add up really quickly.
1) the Linux version existed for a little under 2 years. However, due to a few reasons it was cancelled a few months ago. The lack of hardware compatibility with Linux caused a number of user issues. The few users who did use it, had trouble maintaining the operating system. And it was less than 1% of our users. It wasn’t a viable investment to pay a salaried full time staff to maintain the code base for something no one was using.
2) there is a free version available that maintains all the built in features you experienced with ezrobot. The product page has a list of comparison against the paid and free version. You can access that by clicking PRODUCTS -> ARC on this website top menu
3) Synthiam did not have a Black Friday sale for the $8.99 software product we sell
As you have experienced, the software has developed far beyond the initial versions. With the ongoing demand of new features and community feedback, full time staff were hired to maintain and develop so your robots could keep doing more. Eventually the customers became so dependent on the software features that it became a product of its own. As you can imagine, the ARC software is millions of lines of code and has taken 10+ years of development totaling more than 12 hours per day of full time man hours.
The free version provides the standard usual features you’ve grown to enjoy in the past. The paid subscription model validates our effort to continue developing new features to make your robots even smarter.
Thanks!