Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by pd0wm 1631 days ago
In this case the EPS already came stock with the functionality to request torque over CAN, that part of the code or the amount of torque was not touched. I agree it would not be a good idea to patch that functionality into an EPS that doesn't come with that from the factory.
1 comments

One system I know of had to have software to reduce torque at the end stops or it could destroy FETs and shut down. If this system needed such protection, we might wonder if its included when taking external torque commands. I would if I wrote the code, but you never know when operating outside their expected use cases.

It's also much more benign to destroy components than to have actual bugs. And he's not changing software at the source level.