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
.
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
Get access to the latest features and updates before they're released. You'll have everything that's needed to unleash your robot's potential!
amin
i have only paypal i can use . i will send a mail to google ,maybe somethin come up.
thanks
No need to contact google Nomad. I believe PayPal with google pay does not work with our payment processor. We are looking into other payment options like directly from a bank account. Stay tuned.
amin
great thank you .
Hi Jeremie, did you ask DJ
free talk servo yet? lolEzAng
Well, I guess I won't be working on my robots for a while. 15% pay cut due to Covid, and no raises or bonuses this year, and I already haven't been doing enough to justify the cost of replacing all my dead Lipo batteries. I certainly can't do $9/month or even the discounted yearly for something I am not using regularly.
Hope to be back at it this winter.
That being said, I hope this goes well for you and the team DJ. I knew you were going to need to monetize Synthiam at some point, and although I see the point of some who are complaining that they bought hardware that had a promise of free software along with it, that could not last when the company split in two, and I do plan to subscribe when my salary is restored this winter.
I do think a little more lead time notice, and maybe a reduced rate for the first year for long time users would have eased the pain some. There have been several companies lately that have been badly burned in the tech press for doing this exact thing. IFTTT and one of the home automation companies (Truvia I think?) - imposing a new few on a formerly free product and either reducing the features of the free tier or not having a free tier at all. i don't think Synthiam is big enough yet to get noticed by that kind of press, but this trend is leaving a bad taste in the mouths of the maker community.
Alan
Thanks Alan - sorry to hear about your job. The alternative to a payment system is to shut down the company and ARC stops working. I hope your employment situation improves and you can return to building robots with us
DJ,
No worries on the job front. Salary will be restored later this month, just been a tight summer (although no raises or bonuses in the company this year, so will take a while to fully recover).
I totally understand that you needed to find a way to make money for this work and that whatever you got paid for EZ-Robot wasn't going to last forever.
I'll still participate in the community in the mean time.
Just had another thought. For occasional users who can't justify $9/month. How about a usage based micro-payment with a monthly cap. Say, 50 cents an hour that the software is connected, and if it exceeds $9 it converts to monthly for that month. Might be a way to get new free tier users to try the advanced features and keep the money flowing in......
Alan