FOC-Stim: a new approach to DIY stim hardware.

[edger477]

Hello edger477,

Thank you for your extensive work on FOC-Stim files — I've tried many of them, and I’m especially impressed with Euphoria. It’s incredibly well done.

I'm currently experimenting with creating my own files. I understand that the FOC-Stim software can convert a funscript into alpha and beta waveforms, but I'm very interested in how you generate the other parameters such as frequency, pulse_rise_time, pulse_width, pulse_frequency, and others.

While I have a general grasp of how volume works, I haven’t been able to achieve the same level of stimulation quality in my own test files. I would greatly appreciate any insight you're willing to share about your creative or technical process.

I also recognize that producing these files must be time-consuming, so thank you again for your dedication and the value you bring to the community.

Hey, I am quite happy that you are interested in this, I have been trying to motivate people to do it.
Euphoria was just a bit edited by me, is in large part just a remix of files created by digitalparkinglot.

Regarding the other parameters, in order to not repeat myself, please check this post, I described current state of my toolset that I shared in my meg folder there. If you have discord dm me and I will send you invite to my projects server where you can ask any details, but in short this toolset enables you to practically "oneshot" all files (once you generated alpha and beta), then go and edit ramp in OFS and then redo it. And by editing powershell or python scripts you can easily adjust them to make new styles (before current one that alters pulse_frequency by position, it was mostly speed-based in old scripts, and my toolset produces a lot of other non-restim scripts that are used as semi-finished components).

[saint337]

I wanted to once again thank you for the help Ive been given trying to run focstim. This really is an awesome community.
Unfortunately though - I wasnt able to get it to run. I did what edger siggested and tried to run focstim as a device in restim and only after awhile it occcured to me that I should maybe update restim. But when I tried to connect to port it said "Access denied code 5". Reading through the topic i foliowed a sugestion to check voltage and indeed monitored voltage was showing 11volt and prompt to turn on the power. So I changed to another adapter which was actually an adjustable 9-24v and even though I barely put it on 12v or e en 9 to test but it showed 24v anyways. So I switched back to the previous and tinkered with wiring which showed mixed voltage results but never requierd 12 untill i grazed the main board with cables and fried the damn thing. Ah well, im just telling myself that I saved myself trouble of checkimg whats wrong with resistors, then capacitors, then output, and many other things I cant imagine, just as it was with all the previous problems. Seems like it just wasnt meant to be for me. But I still appreciate that people here do try to give a helping hand even to amateur dabblers like me.

[Walks]

Like saint337, I am also don't have any programming knowledge, and am trying to get my FOC unit working. Sorry its not working out for you saint, but your questions did help me get mine working...ish.

I am able to get signal, but after a short while the signal stops due to a time out? This is what shows up in the console:
(Fyi I updated the firmware for the board from the beginning)

(...)
166 -0.427 -1.389 1.816 -0.088 -0.150 0.238 0.000 0.000 0.000
167 -0.541 -1.370 1.911 -0.092 -0.168 0.260 0.000 0.000 0.000
168 -0.646 -1.329 1.975 -0.095 -0.182 0.277 0.000 0.000 0.000
FOC-Stim request 1474 timed out
pending requests: fdict_keys([1471, 1472, 1473, 1474, 1475, 1476, 1477, 1478, 1479, 1480, 1481, 1482, 1483, 1484, 1485, 1486, 1487, 1488, 1489, 1490, 1491, 1492])
closing connection to FOC-Stim

It seems to happen when I increase the volume in restim beyond a certain level. It will go on with no issues if electrodes are not connected, or of the volume is set really low... but what's the point if I can barely feel it
I tried with funscripts of a couple different videos.

Does anyone have any ideas how to resolve this? Any help would be appreciated!

[diglet]

Does anyone have any ideas how to resolve this? Any help would be appreciated!

The log messages just before the timeout indicate the FOC-Stim box encountered an error, this can be unstable power supply voltage or exceeding the maximum safe current. The latter usually indicates a broken cable or error in building the output circuit.

If you go back to the start of the log messages, it says what the reason for the error is followed by a bunch of debug stats. If you can't figure it out, copy-paste the log here I can help you figure out what's wrong.

[Walks]

Thanks diglet, you rock!
I missed the error earlier in the log, and it was indeed exceeding max current. I went over my hardware, and found a solder point had cracked right on the protoboard i used. Fixed, did a quick test, and all seems well.

I'm looking forward to finally running some video scripts through the FOC now.

Cheers

[19Hellothere83]

Hi, I want to build this FOC-Stim device. However I noticed that v3 has a custom PCB. Can it be ordered/bought from someone or should I stick to v1? Is there a V2?

[diglet]

We are still working on the custom PCB, it's not ready. We hope to order new PCB's with a revised design this week.

Once we ironed out all the bugs, hopefully in about 2 months, you will be able to order your own PCB batch from JLCPCB or participate in a group order. But we will start with fairly limited quantities to limit risk.

I recommend building the V1 if you want to play with this hardware in the short term. The custom PCB version feels exactly the same, it just adds one output and a few quality-of-life features such as a battery and wifi.

[19Hellothere83]

We are still working on the custom PCB, it's not ready. We hope to order new PCB's with a revised design this week.

Once we ironed out all the bugs, hopefully in about 2 months, you will be able to order your own PCB batch from JLCPCB or participate in a group order. But we will start with fairly limited quantities to limit risk.

I recommend building the V1 if you want to play with this hardware in the short term. The custom PCB version feels exactly the same, it just adds one output and a few quality-of-life features such as a battery and wifi.

Got it, please if there is a list please put me on it for the custom pbc, for now im going to vuild v1 then
Thanks

[puste]

I have now tried many times with the new firmware and version 1.45. But it is only working for the first 15-30 minutes.
Then I get this error:
V_BUS overvoltage detected 13.01. Current V_BUS=12.99. Restart device to proceed.
FOC-Stim request 63 timed out
pending requests: fdict_keys([57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77])
closing connection to FOC-Stim

But I am sure that the V_BUS is not over 13 volt. It says 12.01 volt on my meter and I use a very prof. powersuply.
And with old firmware I did not have this problem it could run for hours, without any error and stopping.
It is very frustrating that it stop that way. What can I do ?

[diglet]

This is a known hardware bug on this board. The underlying problem is that the board tries to supply 5v to the computer through the 12v adapter. For most people, this only seems to happens when using a powered usb hub.

An alternative solution is to just increase the voltage range in code. I took the opportunity to expand the range by default (https://github.com/diglet48/FOC-Stim/co ... 63c60eaa7d).

[puste]

Thank you. I did not use a powered USB hub only a USB C Hub. But thanks for the help.
It is working super. And It seems that it is working better than with the old firmware.
One thing I do not fugured out is why it some times missed to auto load the correct funscript files.

[edger477]

But before ordering the parts from Mouser, I have one final concern: will I be able to use "legacy" funscripts with Restim/FOCStim? There's many old productions that I've loved for a long time - good old Pseudonym's Auditions, Frantzo's and RedLighter's creations, older stuff from dpl, etc. I've downloaded (and used, with my vibrators) legacy funscripts for those; will the same funscripts adequately drive the 3 signals of a FOCStim (insertable, base and frenulum)?

You have to use Restim/tools to convert script to alpha/beta to get "basic" circular motion, but there is much more (different pulse frequencies = different sensations, faster stroking - stronger intensity etc), I have created bunch of python scripts orchestrated in powershell (I am sure you will adapt it to bash if you like it) that generates all these restim axes from legacy funscript (+ alpha/beta that you created with restim). I have been using that to help me create custom scripts, but recently I have managed to get it pretty close to be very nice without manual editing of scripts after "generation". I do need to make one more edit to generate pulse freq/width scripts that don't oscillate with alpha for -prostate box (if you will be building 2 boxes, might as well use them both), I will publish that soon (probably tomorrow) but you can take the tools from tools folder in my mega (in signature) and play with it. Note that it generates bunch of intermediary scripts (because it is orchestrated with powershell so each step is a file) but it copies relevant ones into funscript-output folder at end - you only need these.

And if you like to adapt your experiences, this is a great tool to generate all axes, then edit them on open funscripter instead of manually going at it :)

[diglet]

Restim does a basic conversion from 1-D stroker funscripts to threephase scripts. It's pretty simple, if you can program you can try writing a better one .

The discord is joanne's e-stim community: https://discord.com/invite/mzJKC5Kq3k. A few other e-stim boxes are being developed there, too.

[HerBoneRanger]

Hi All,

I've been using Restim for a while now with a homemade Stereostim box, and can say that Diglet, you are a genius. I want to switch to a FOC-stim box because it is tiny and I travel a lot.

I've got all the materials, I can solder things, and am yet to build, but I want to get the "Computery" stuff with the board sorted so I can plug-and-play when it's built.

I've got as far as installing STM32CubeProgrammer & Updating the Firmware on the board easily (Thanks DPL for the USB cable pointer)

I've downloaded VS-Code, but what next? I know literally nothing about it. Is there anyone who can help with a guide for Absolute Total Idiots? Like literally step by step. I only want to know where and what to click/type like a monkey, get wired up and stim. I'm not that interested in how VS-Code works.

Thanks in advance
HBR

[diglet]

Thanks for your kind words. I added a github action that builds the code, so you don't have to do it yourself.

Click on the latest workflow here and download the artifacts titled "b_g431b_esc1_firmware". You can upload the firmware binary using STM32CubeProgrammer.

https://github.com/diglet48/FOC-Stim/ac ... /build.yml