Re: Isaac for Mac software installation instructions

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Velocomp
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Re: Isaac for Mac software installation instructions

Post by Velocomp »

ScottChapman wrote: Thu Oct 11, 2018 8:32 pm Hmmm... Pretty sure I followed the directions.

But when I run Issac is always crashes right after startup.

Any ideas on how to repair?
If, after installing Isaac, the Isaac app crashes, you will need to uninstall and then reinstall Isaac and NI Visa drivers. Follow this link for detailed instructions

https://velocompforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=4846
John Hamann
schinpe
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Re: Isaac for Mac software installation instructions

Post by schinpe »

I messed up a step and now Isaac crashes.

I know this is a kickstarter project, but come on, this is the single worst set of installation requirements I have ever seen for a piece of software. I saw a note that it had to do with security provisions in the new OSX. What it really seems like is you are trying to jam a 90s era piece of software architecture into modern platform.

This sorely needs an update considering the money spent on the device is for nothing without this software.
Velocomp
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Re: Isaac for Mac software installation instructions

Post by Velocomp »

I understand your frustration.

We have offered Mac software for 12 years now. Until the recent changes in Mojave, there were no software installation issues.

We are working now on a new version of Isaac/Mac that will hopefully get rid of these problems.

Apple is a bigger company than us; they are the ones who make "improvements" the rest of us have to suffer for.
John Hamann
kq6up
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Re: Isaac software installation instructions

Post by kq6up »

Has the new Mac version come out yet?
Velocomp
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Re: Isaac software installation instructions

Post by Velocomp »

kq6up wrote: Fri Jun 28, 2019 10:41 am Has the new Mac version come out yet?
No. We are working on it. It is not an easy upgrade to implement.
John Hamann
Velocomp
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Re: Isaac software installation instructions

Post by Velocomp »

kq6up wrote: Fri Jun 28, 2019 10:41 am Has the new Mac version come out yet?
For macOS Catalina instructions with Isaac 5.1, go here:

https://velocompforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5318
John Hamann
TuRu00
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Re: Isaac software installation instructions

Post by TuRu00 »

This is a shameless thing. We bought our aeropod or powered devices without being told about this. Mac is Mac, you decided to develop for that platform and if the OS goes to another version or your software is outdated (as is) we do not have to pay for that twice. Just having a look to the software everybody knows what i mean with "outdated" (it is not just a 32 bit platform thing)

I personally bought PowerPod (and licenses), after that an Aeropod (in kickstarter assuming delays and risks) and i think that this is simply not fair for users. I even had a blog about your device helping another users. If you decided to don't update your software for years it is not a thing about users, it is about you and your business model. I use Mac, you told me that your device and Isaac works on that platform for free! Don't lie.

It is my last velocomp product, and i will make it notice on spanish cyling forums.

Best regards
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lorduintah
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Re: Isaac software installation instructions

Post by lorduintah »

The Isaac application has been with Velocomp for a LONG time and there have been a number of Mac Operating System upgrades during all of that - as well as many changes to Windows. This is the first time that Velocomp has asked for a payment of any kind to HELP cover the cost of a significant degree of upgrading.

I personally have gone through a number of the power meter products offered by Velocomp and am now an owner of a PP3. LabView and National Instruments software has been provided as part of the entire package - the development path Velocomp chose to provide access to the ride data and thus analyze (with Isaac) as a means to convert motion vectors into power readings. As a consequence, several pieces of software had to be integrated and upgraded because Apple rightly has chosen to migrate entirely and exclusively to a 64-bit operating system. This happened years ago when Apple (and Microsoft) went to 32-bit operating systems, too. At that time, Velocomp was not around, but plenty of other vendors offering software were in business.

I think Velocomp chose a reasonable price point. If you do not like that, it is your choice. You could have opted to use a virtualization software package, install Windows and use Isaac for Windows. I happen to have that option also installed. But the software to allow virtualization is not necessarily free (Virtual Box does happen to be free.) The commercial versions of virtualization cost more than this Mac version of the Isaac upgrade.

Could Apple have done a bit more for all the vendors who have had to revise programs to work in a 64-bit environment - yes. National Instruments could have made a lot of the integration packages a LOT MORE compact and easier to employ. Both of these have made Velocomp's situation more difficult as a result. And for the foreseeable future, Velocomp will not have to rewrite Isaac, meaning this is a one-time charge issue.

There are plenty of applications out there for cyclists - and many of those are not free. And for some they are also charging monthly fees to use their software.

Shameless? No.
Velocomp
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Re: Isaac software installation instructions

Post by Velocomp »

TuRu00 wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2019 11:50 am This is a shameless thing. We bought our aeropod or powered devices without being told about this. Mac is Mac, you decided to develop for that platform and if the OS goes to another version or your software is outdated (as is) we do not have to pay for that twice. Just having a look to the software everybody knows what i mean with "outdated" (it is not just a 32 bit platform thing)

I personally bought PowerPod (and licenses), after that an Aeropod (in kickstarter assuming delays and risks) and i think that this is simply not fair for users. I even had a blog about your device helping another users. If you decided to don't update your software for years it is not a thing about users, it is about you and your business model. I use Mac, you told me that your device and Isaac works on that platform for free! Don't lie.

It is my last velocomp product, and i will make it notice on spanish cyling forums.

Best regards
I'm sorry you feel this way but I think a few points are in order here:

1) We spent over $10,000 to upgrade Isaac 64bit, and this does not include an additional $3,000 we paid National Instruments to gain access to the development systems necessary to update Isaac.

2) We support both Windows and Mac versions of Isaac. The vast majority of our customers use Isaac/Windows. We knew that the Mac upgrade was going to be expensive and that most of our customers would not care, because they use Isaac/Win. So, we seriously considered dropping Mac support (check past forum posts about this). We ultimately decided to go forward with the upgrade, knowing that it if we did not we would disappoint some of our Mac-based customers (those who install Catalina).

3) For the past 14 years we have bundled in the cost of Isaac to the purchase price of our devices, knowing that when we voluntarily make changes to Isaac to add or improve features, this would be without cost to our customers. We still believe this. However, when the 64bit changes were forced on us (by Apple), changes that add no customer benefit, that caused us to rethink things. We simply cannot eat the high cost of the diktat from Apple. We are asking legacy Mac customers to pay $20, one time, to help cover our $13K+ cost. Going forward, Isaac/Mac upgrades will continue to be free. We think that is reasonable.

4) Please note that, for NEW customers who order units manufactured after December 1 2019, the 64bit version of Isaac/Mac will be free. I hope you mention this on your cycling forums.

5) Perhaps Isaac's look could be updated. I bet we could make it look like Golden Cheetah... :D However, the money we would like to spend on software improvements has, instead, been spent on the 64 bit update.

6) People who are in the software business CHARGE for their software: I just paid $179 for the Catalina-compatible version of Quickbooks 2020 (they update it every year and re-charge for it every year); I will need to pay $348 for the Catalina-compatible version of our payroll software (once they get it working--they haven't released it yet); NI charges $1800 annually for its software suite. $20, one-time in 14 years, seems like a good deal to me, anyhow.

7) We are proud of our ability to deliver products on schedule. We have done two Kickstarter campaigns ...and delivered products within 90 days of the promised date. In contrast, there are Kickstarter power meter companies out there, right now, late by over 1 year, not to mention other Kickstarter campaigns that NEVER delivered. And missed ship dates happen to big companies too: it took Garmin 4 years to bring Vector to market; two years ago they bought an aero sensor company and still have not brought anything to market. It took National Instruments 2 years to deliver Catalina-compatible drivers (and they still have some bugs in them).

I hope all of the above helps you understand our thinking.
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John Hamann
TuRu00
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Re: Isaac software installation instructions

Post by TuRu00 »

Thanks for the reply!

1) It out of our matters how much did you spend on upgrading Issac to offer nothing to Mac users. If you were aware about software and hardware platforms in the last 10 years, this count be an issue for users today.

2) It was your decision to release and upgrade Issac for Mac. You were very proud on this forum to offer Isaac for free!

3) As you said, Isaac offers nothing new to Mac users. I don't mind to pay for new features, but it is completely not fair for Mac users to be stuck on this MacOS version.

4) I will, but it is still not fair. Is it? Are new users better than old users? I owned two product, what make me worse than others?

5) You shouldn't make jokes for other software developers work. Golden Cheetah is a very reputable software. Hope that you receive the same attitude that you show.

6) Other companies charge for new features. Is Quickbooks 2020 the same that was on 2010? I pay for a lot of software (I am a software developer) and I they don't stuck intentionally features to do not work on other operating systems.

7) I know that you were successful on Kickstarter. I bough the Aeropod there. But I assumed risks too (and now punished). It seems that always the thing is about others: the drivers, Golden Cheetah, Apple, Security Issues, but the thing is that the users are yours. And at least me, I won't be anymore.
Velocomp
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Re: Isaac software installation instructions

Post by Velocomp »

The central problem here is that Velocomp and our customers are the "tail" being wagged by Apple's "dog". One of Apple's decisions killed 32bit Isaac, and other security-related decisions made Isaac software installation (including drivers) much less user-friendly. Our choice was: do we drop Mac as a platform, or spend a lot of $ to upgrade?

This is the first time in 15 years we have had to spend Isaac software development $ on something other than feature upgrades. In the past, when we have updated Isaac to fix bugs or add in new features we have not charged for the updates. (This is in contrast to major developers such as Microsoft; I just paid $120 to upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10).

Since 95%+ of our customer base is legacy customers, since legacy customers are the ones who have used Isaac for years, and since it is legacy customers who would be most upset if we dropped Mac, it made sense to us to share a SMALL portion of the upgrade costs. Believe me, we are NOT going to recover even 10% of the money we spent on this upgrade.

As we reported in August: customers who wanted to use Isaac could keep their macOS on Mojave. We are not alone in this approach: I have several important apps on my computer that are not Catalina compatible. Their developers recommend against upgrading to Catalina.

When we are criticized about the look and functionality of Isaac (as happened in this thread) my response is: what is the target? Golden Cheetah? Garmin Connect? WKO? They aren't our style. Most certainly other software has features we don't have. But Isaac has features that they don't have. If that were not the case then there would be no need for Isaac to exist.

Having just installed QB2020 I can tell you that, for the way we use it, QB2020 has ZERO difference from QB2016. And I paid $180 for QB2020.

One final thing: if you are an AeroPod user, then there IS something in Isaac/Mac/5.1 that you should really like: we improved CdA analysis substantially. CdA analysis is now much easier to do, and the CdA numbers calculated in Isaac 5.1 are based on our latest calculation algorithms (Isaac 4.x had algorithms that were created in 2008). Check out the CdA analysis command, and the new Power Meter Comparison functions, both of which make CdA analysis a drag-and-drop affair.

We hope all our Mac customers like Isaac/5.1, and until Apple goes to 128 bit :-) future upgrades of Isaac will continue to be free.
John Hamann
TuRu00
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Re: Isaac software installation instructions

Post by TuRu00 »

No Thanks, I do prefer to spend my 20€ in some Red Bull and wiresharking the usb messges on /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART for non profit purposes. See you soon.
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lorduintah
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Re: Isaac software installation instructions

Post by lorduintah »

I am a Mac user as well as a Velocomp customer from early on.

I like what Isaac provides and anything else that I would like to see I can get from other software.

Is Isaac an elegant package - no - but then I also think the Microsoft Office suite of applications is not elegant. Would I like to see the interface look a bit flashier - maybe - but there is still a lot offered as is.

I personally am amazed that Velocomp has been able to go this long without asking for some nominal fee to cover a portion of the software development. Isaac provides a way to field check calibrations - great. From the early products to the AeroPod and PP3 the reproducibility and stability of the initial calibration has increased dramatically. This last summer I may have run four or five calibration rides and the coefficients have not changed much at all. That was not the case a few years ago. (Or maybe I just have gotten better at being reproducible?)

I have posted critical comments in the forums to John, but I have also commended his company for providing some really innovative products. Hopefully Velocomp will still be afloat (literally) in Florida for years to come.
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