mikeRES
Standard Member
There are various different firmware versions that OVMS can use. This firmware is the software the OVMS device will run when it boots up.
The "factory image" is the first firmware that your OVMS has installed when it was built. It is likely to be very out of date but is known to be stable. If all else fails with a new firmware, the OVMS device can fall-back to it in a kind of safe-mode. You should not replace this, just leave it there.
"OTA_0 image" and "OTA_1 image" are two locations OVMS can use to store a new firmware. It alternates between them every time you update. This is so that if an update fails it will roll-back to the older image.
You can see how this looks in the "status" page:
So what firmware should you be running? Well thats up to you:
From my experience when we find a new feature on the MG the timescale to OVMS firmwares are as follows:
The "factory image" is the first firmware that your OVMS has installed when it was built. It is likely to be very out of date but is known to be stable. If all else fails with a new firmware, the OVMS device can fall-back to it in a kind of safe-mode. You should not replace this, just leave it there.
"OTA_0 image" and "OTA_1 image" are two locations OVMS can use to store a new firmware. It alternates between them every time you update. This is so that if an update fails it will roll-back to the older image.
You can see how this looks in the "status" page:
So what firmware should you be running? Well thats up to you:
- default - "main" OVMS : The OVMS unit will default to this, and will automatically pull updates from the OVMSv2 Server. MG ZS EV support has recently been added and it should work reasonably well.
- "eap" and "edge" OVMS: You can change to these channels via the firmware options tags. They have new featues added sooner but may be less stable. Any new features from us will come over here first before going into main.
- Our custom firmware. For the very latest in MG features you need to join our slack channel and pull one of our custom firmware builds. We are developing features daily and would really appreciate help in testing and proving new features. (Remember to turn off auto update if you do this to avoid rolling-back to core OVMS versions)
From my experience when we find a new feature on the MG the timescale to OVMS firmwares are as follows:
- New feature is added to a custom firmware for users to test (approx. nightly/weekly builds)
- Circa 2-3 months later a bulk collection of MG features will be added to OVMS "edge" version
- Some point it gets to "eap"
- Features are seen on "main" build approx 6 months from date that feature was found
