Change Release Notes
Hello World! We at Synthiam have been working hard developing ARC and all the amazing features that make your robot smarter. We've been trying to keep up with developing feature requests as well! However, millions of lines of code takes a lot of time and effort - and it's not something we can afford to do for free any longer. We've been exploring a variety of ways to implement a financial compensation model around the ARC software that doesn't dent your wallet - which we've released today
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Inspired by many conversations on the forum and in real life, we've identified a great model that serves us all. We hope you're excited to participate in the licensing model to help fund additional features! I can tell you that we're really excited as well.
You Can Do It!
Please do us a huge solid, visit the ARC product page and press that 'Buy' button while we start checking off feature request items to make your robots even more awesome!
And for those of you who can't afford to support us with a license, ARC can still be used with basic functionality for free.
New ARC Editions You may notice a few other changes, such as removing the ARC Beta. That's because we've implemented an internal beta program for testing bugs before they get to you (fingers crossed). This allows us to split ARC into two editions, for those who love immediate new features and bug fixes and those who want months before updating. They've been named ARC Pro and ARC Free respectively.
Premium Support In addition to the new licensing model - we've also implemented a premium support system. This is real cool because it allows you to directly work with one of us to solve a programming, hardware or design problem (over email, of course). You get 1 free premium support per month with a license, and you can purchase additional requests. Or, if you don't have a license, you can still purchase a request (but it costs more).
Let's Get Robot'ing! This new change allows us to focus our time where it counts - developing ARC software features! Now that we won't have to worry as much about keeping the lights on, we can spend more time programming! Beep bleep boop
Upgrading All of your preinstalled plugin skills will require to be updated. With an internet connecting during ARC’s loading, you will be prompted. Due to a number of improvements, the legacy plugin system isn’t compatible with the new ARC.
Sincerely,
- DJ, Jer, Valentin, & Amin
ARC Downloads
ARC Free
Free
- Includes one free 3rd party plugin robot skill per project
- Trial cloud services
- Free with trial limitations
For schools, personal use & organizations. This edition is updated every 6-12 months.
ARC Pro
Only $8.99/mo
- 2 or more PCs simultaneously
- Includes unlimited skills
- Cloud backup
- And much more
Experience the latest features and bug fixes weekly. A Pro subscription is required to use this edition.
Runtime
Free
- Load and run any ARC project
- Operates in read-only mode
- Unlimited robot skills
- Early access fixes & features
Have you finished programming your robot? Use this to run existing ARC projects for free*.
- Minimum requirements are Windows 10 or higher with 2+gb ram and 500+MB free space.
- Recommended requirements are Windows 10 or higher with 8+gb ram and 1000+MB free space.
- Prices are in USD.
- ARC Free known-issues can be viewed by clicking here.
- Get more information about each ARC edition by clicking here.
- See what's new in the latest versions with Release notes.
Compare Editions
| Feature | ARC FREE |
ARC PRO |
|---|---|---|
| Get ARC for Free | View Plans | |
| Usage | Personal DIY Education |
Personal DIY Education Business |
| Early access to new features & fixes | Yes | |
| Simultaneous microcontroller connections* | 1 | 255 |
| Robot skills* | 20 | Unlimited |
| Skill Store plugins* | 1 | Unlimited |
| Cognitive services usage** | 10/day | 6,000/day |
| Auto-positions gait actions* | 40 | Unlimited |
| Speech recongition phrases* | 10 | Unlimited |
| Camera devices* | 1 | Unlimited |
| Vision resolution | max 320x240 | Unlimited |
| Interface builder* | 2 | Unlimited |
| Cloud project size | 128 MB | |
| Cloud project revision history | Yes | |
| Create Exosphere requests | 50/month | |
| Exosphere API access | Contact Us | |
| Volume license discounts | Contact Us | |
| Get ARC for Free | View Plans |
** 1,000 per cognitive type (vision recognition, speech recognition, face detection, sentiment, text recognition, emotion detection, azure text to speech)
Upgrade to ARC Pro
Synthiam ARC Pro is a new tool that will help unleash your creativity with programming robots in just seconds!
Thanks DJ
grandfather EzAng
There is a lot of positive discussion in regards to how we meet DJ and crew (who we all respect and appreciate their work) need for a business model, and our need for a hobbyist robot platform.
I am more than happy to support the platform and community but I believe the community needs to have input on their needs to make sure we are all aligned. (EzAng Suggested a Zoom Call)
Having input from the community is important, and I believe in hindsight there should have been an open discussion prior to an announcement versus the first hint of a pay per month model coming when our robots stopped working on Halloween.
I like Perry_S and dReadSolJah idea of a one time licence fee (perhaps community support only) for existing users. I believe this with a pay for an upgrade model if we believe the next version provides value if we upgrade (additional features we need).
I struggle with the idea of a monthly fee as there is no guarantee this fee will not increase or that there will be additional features we need to justify the fee in future. If we invest our time developing on the platform we need some way to predict future costs. If a monthly fee must be the model I would prefer if it was a SaaS based cloud model so I don't need to worry about scaling, security, hosting, backup, DR, upgrades, support etc. This would however require some core app dev work and an update to the EZB / ESP / microcontroller code so they auto connect to the SaaS environment. This would also be extremely valuable to enterprise customers (especially if you provided a secure connection with Tokens and SSL/TLS etc).
I fully support paying community members for plugins, but it is important that community members also get the money or at least a % of the money. a bit like Apple App Store.
I can confirm this process is OK, bought a subscription, it activated quickly (upon download), downloaded the Early Access versions which detected a license and activated itself. The activation is tied to my forum account as opposed to some sort of software key that must be entered. Works as it always has for me now although I have not tried too many functions.
Glad you are working on the AIML2 program D.J. Better be, your dealing with paying customers now and we are always right (whip cracking noise) xDxDxD
I myself would preferred a one time licensed program. Like when you buy your fav software in a store , it comes on a CD, and has the license key that you must enter in during the install. Then its a full complete package good forever. When an uprade is available, you buy that one with its license and install it over the old one, etc... and of course with a fully complete detailed users manual.
I might add that the auto renew function is not appropriate. It is a chachki for bad services that make most of their money from people that are too busy to cancel services. This is my first substantive feedback. Good place to differentiate yourselves as good guys. I would remove the auto renew.
Perry
Good news about our auto renew is you get a few emails 30 days before the renewal letting you know.
We'll make sure there's notice - rather than being sneaky and billing without letting you know ahead of time
I've given you guys a free software program for years - no reason to start trying to rip you off now haha
So far so good as far as I am concerned. I will add that to some extent I do not feel like I have been getting this software for free to some respect. The original EZRobot software which was very good was something that came along with the EZRobot controller that I bought from your company. I did not buy a controller with no software so please be sensitive to your user base on that point. While you may see it as free software, all of us on this forum that you speak to came about by paying money to use it via buying a EZRobot controller. Nobody here has received free software from our standpoint since some amount of our money is already in your pocket.
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Cheers
Perry_S is right. I, for myself, bought an EZ-Robot JD for around 500 euros 2 years ago. I wouldnt even consider starting to program a Robot, if there wouldnt be a sofware available. And my thoughts on starting with robotics would be different, if I had to buy the robot AND the software seperat.
But, as mentioned before, I am willing to support you as far as i can, but I would need a valid payment option like Paypal, because creditcard-payment isnt very common here in europe/austria. Please let me know of your plans, or if there is another option to pay you, because in the mean time i am not able to continue with my work