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Nomad 1.0.0-beta.9 Release

Richard Brown
Richard Brown
CTO & Founder

Applies to: Nomad
Release Track: Beta
Version: 1.0.0-beta.9
Requires action: No

Nomad 1.0.0-beta.9 is about your van looking after you and knowing where it is. It brings Tracking, so you can keep a record of a journey when you want one, a full set of Instincts that watch for the things that go wrong quietly, and the first of those Instincts that does something about a problem rather than only telling you.

Summary​

This beta adds Tracking, Radar Premium and a driver profile for whoever is behind the wheel, documents the full set of Instincts including cold-charging protection that acts to save your battery, and sets out what your support plan covers.

Highlights​

  • Tracking. Record where your van has been, when you choose to, and look back over the trip later. Off means off: while it is off, nothing about your position leaves the vehicle.
  • Cold-charging protection. The first Instinct that acts rather than warns. If charge is going into a near-freezing battery, Sensa switches the charge sources off, then puts them back exactly as it found them once the pack has warmed.
  • A full set of Instincts. Thirteen protective behaviours, each one switchable, each one set to warn you quietly or raise a full alarm.
  • Radar Premium and a driver profile. Pick who is driving so the nearby search uses their saved places, and see at a glance which Radar tier you are on.
  • Your support plan, explained. What it covers, what happens if it ends, and how to renew.

What has changed​

Tracking​

Tracking records where your van has been, so you can look back over a trip, share your location with family, or keep a journal of where you have travelled. You turn it on with the Tracking switch on the Settings, Radar tab.

The switch is the whole of the decision, and we have been careful about that. While Tracking is off, your van reads nothing about where it is and sends nothing out, so there is genuinely no journey and nothing leaves the vehicle. Turning it on is you agreeing to record. Everyone aboard is recorded while it is running, not only the person who turned it on, so the switch stays where you can find it and turning it off stops the recording at once.

Position comes from the same source as the map and the nearby search: your vehicle's GPS when it has a fix, otherwise the freshest phone location. A van with no GPS router can still record a journey.

See Radar and tracking.

Radar: your driver, your units and Premium​

  • A driver profile. Everyone on your account can have their own Radar account with their own saved places. The Driver picker on the Cab dashboard's Home screen lets whoever is driving choose theirs, so the nearby list reflects the places that person saved. It does not change who a journey belongs to, which stays with your account.
  • Radar Premium at a glance. The Radar map now carries a small badge reading PREMIUM or BASE. Premium belongs to a person rather than to the van, so the badge follows the driver you have picked.
  • Distance units in one place. Miles or kilometres is now a single setting on the Settings, Radar tab, and it covers every distance Sensa shows you.

Instincts, in full​

An Instinct is a protective behaviour built into Nomad. You do not set them up or wire them together: if your van has what an Instinct needs to watch, it starts watching the day the system goes in. Each one can warn you with a quiet line in the Log or raise a managed alarm that keeps sounding until you deal with it, and you choose which, for each one separately.

The Instincts tab now lists them under Available and Unavailable, so you can see what is watching and what is waiting for a sensor. Between them they cover your leisure and starter batteries, cell imbalance, shore power dropping out overnight, departing with the hook-up lead still plugged in, fresh and grey water, the fridge, low fuel with a filling station in reach, a wireless sensor that has gone quiet, your Schengen days, and Sensa's own storage.

Full reference, including what each one watches and what it needs fitted: Instincts.

Cold-charging protection​

Charging a lithium battery below freezing damages it permanently, and it happens quietly, in minutes. This Instinct watches for charge going into a pack while any of that pack's temperature probes reads below your threshold, and both have to hold for two minutes so a single odd reading does not trip it.

It is the first Instinct that acts rather than simply telling you. With Charge cut-off on, Sensa turns off every charge source it can reach, remembers how it found each one, and once every pack has climbed clear of your threshold and held there, puts them back exactly as they were. If you changed one of them yourself in the meantime, your choice wins and Sensa leaves it alone.

Routines are on the way​

Where an Instinct is a behaviour we build and maintain for you, a Routine will be yours: something you put together from what your van can already do. The tab is on the Intelligence dashboard now with a short note in place of the feature, so it is there and does nothing surprising.

Your support plan​

Buying a Sensa system includes a period of support, and this release spells out what that means. Your plan covers help from us, remote access, the software updates we deliver, and Radar Premium for the people on your account.

If a plan ends, your system carries on working exactly as it did. Nothing inside the van is switched off, no screen becomes read-only, and your licence is untouched. Your van will not nag you about it either: it writes one line into the Log when a plan ends and one when it starts again, with no alarm and no notification. See Your support plan.

Clearer updates and licensing​

  • Update controls live on the Settings, Supervisor tab, under Software updates. One maintenance window now covers both your Sensa updates and your operating system updates, because the question you are really answering is when you are not using the van.
  • Your licence and your support plan are explained as the two separate things they are. The licence is what allows Sensa to run; the plan covers what we look after from our end.
  • A licence code is issued for the Deployment Type you bought, so a code sold for a different type will not activate. If that happens, get in touch and we will sort it out with no reinstalling.
  • The responsibilities table now correctly shows remote access as yours to arrange on an Enthusiast system, alongside your updates, backups and hardware.

Breaking changes​

None.

Upgrade notes​

Beta builds update in place, and there is nothing you need to do. Tracking arrives switched off, and stays off until you turn it on.

Known issues​

  • Tracking has not yet been used on real hardware. It is complete and tested in our own environment, but this is the first beta to carry it, so treat it as new.
  • The maintenance window does not yet hold back an automatic Sensa update. It governs your operating system updates as described. If you need certainty about when a Sensa update lands, turn automatic updates off and use Update now when it suits you.
  • An acknowledged alarm can return after a restart. If the condition that raised it is still true when the system restarts, the alarm is raised again.

This release is recommended for:

  • beta-channel testers already running 1.0.0-beta.4,
  • anyone wanting to try Tracking and the Radar driver profile.
  • See the installation documentation for first-time setup.
  • See the maintenance documentation for update, backup and support-plan guidance.
  • See the reference section for compatibility and release history.

What's next​

Routines is the next substantial piece of work, turning that placeholder tab into the place you build your own behaviours. Beyond it, more device support and further refinement of the dashboards on the way to stable.