Release 2.8.1

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To install and run owlcms-firmata, you need to use the OWLCMS Control Panel. This location now only the release notes and the software modules that the control panel will install for you.

• The OWLCMS Control Panel can be downloaded at this location. and you can refer to the Installation Instructions
• User Documentation for the Control Panel is located at this location

Release Notes

• 2.8.1: Fixed the tone generation for the "summon all" case.

• 2.8.0

  • Jury boxes (BlueOwl-Jury and JuryFull configurations): the referee lights now turn green when owlcms reports a referee decision as hidden (fop/decision N hidden), the same as the jury member lights. This is used by the four-member jury review vote in owlcms 69 (TCRR October 2026).
  • Multiple Firmata instances can connect to the same owlcms server without repeatedly disconnecting one another's configuration connection, including when an instance has no devices detected.
  • Fix for missing jar that prevented 2.7.0 from starting

• 2.7.0

  • Summon all referees: the referee buzzers now sound together as a single tone that lasts as long as when a single referee is summoned. Previously the sound was distorted and much longer.
  • macOS: device detection only probes usable serial ports, so boards are no longer listed twice and detection no longer waits on Bluetooth and debug ports.
  • If the configuration folder contains no device configurations, they are copied again from the distribution.
  • Technical: migrated to Vaadin 25 and Java 25. The Control Panel installs the required Java automatically.

• 2.6.1

  • No changes in features or behavior. This version fixes the missing release notes and the build process

• 2.6.0:

  • This version is installed from the Control Panel version 3.0.4 or more recent
  • There is no longer a separate firmata control panel

• 2.5.1: Connections when username/password were configured on owlcms no longer worked in 2.5.0

  • A wrong password will now interrupt the initial autoconnect correctly and give an opportunity to fix the password
  • Fixes were applied to both the MQTT protocol (port 1883) and websocket connections as the Paho library reports errors in different ways.

• 2.5.0: Support for websockets

  • If the port specified ends with 443, the connection will be done using wss: to the /mqtt entry point. This is to support the use of MQTT devices on a cloud server. For example, testingMqtt.fly.dev with port 443 will connect to wss://testingMqtt.fly.dev:443/mqtt
  • If the port starts with 8 the connection will be using ws: instead of wss:. For local tests you can use localhost with port 8080 (or the normal HTTP port of OWLCMS you use). OWLCMS will be called on the detected machine as ws://{detected}:8080/mqtt.
  • Otherwise, mqtt is used (the normal 1883 uses the mqtt protocol)