Flowcode 6 professional (w/ PIC pack) support kind

[miggarcbs]

Hi

As a Flowcode 6 professional with PIC chip pack user I need to know:

What kind of support can I expect from Matrixtsl for my Flowcode 6 professional ?
Will it be forum only or can it be by email also (including code tips and/or suggestions)?

[EtsDriver]

Hi! Im talking here on by myself and I don’t guarantee that all the information or comments are totally the correct or etc. On any errors, and hope you don’t make these your lifeline, and you are welcome to correct me if im wrong:

What I have seen over the years, MatrixTSL keeps supporting their old products until further notice later. FC5 and FC6 are still supported.
FC3 EndOfSupportNotice
FC4 EOS Notice

Support forums still stay up, but are more for community to help each other as Matrix staff are not regularly browsing them anymore.

The forum will continue to exist, it’s just our Matrix staff will not be regularly responding to question in it.

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I think as code and hardware developer that Matrix is responsible to give support to their software product until the product is EOS, and related bugs/problems inside it are their responsibilities. But if your target hardware is not working as you except, you should always take a look at yourself onto it. Same thing as with every other embedded micro/PLC programmer has to face, the Siemens, Microchip, Atmel teams are expensive to debug that one little missing semicolon.

You’ve been raising this topic lately, and I think the support team has to do many other things and they simply don’t have all the time to answer every little bit of questions exclusively for you. That’s why they have opened this forum for users to discuss and help each other, just like Arduino community has done.

As member of this community, I have seen that if someone doesn’t answer to topic, might mean they have seen it, but simply don’t have any answers, and Im okay with that. Some problems are then so big and happen on specific micro, so I understand that you cannot have stocks of every possible chip inside your workplace to test all under 24h period. Some problems are so big that the teams have to put all their energy to it and then all other things stop.
I personally nowadays work as after production tester/quality tester, but we have sometimes to trace customers problems, HW-designer failures, program failures, and then we should have time to test all the newly made devices, there just aren’t enough time and hours on day for couple of people to look at that problem all the time.
(and as old moderator on other sites forum, I hate when people start double posting their questions to same topic to get it seen more, or simply just posting question marks. There is always the bump option on your topic if you feel that nobody has seen/answered it.)

If you think that you really need the exclusive-for-you-under-24h-answers-support, you should take a look at this

And here are some terms and conditions found on Matrix site, but Im not sure if this applies to the Flowcode product?

6 PASSING OF RISK AND PROPERTY
Risk in the Goods shall pass to the Customer on delivery. Property in the Goods shall remain in the Company until payment for the Goods in full has been made by the Customer. If payment in full is not made in accordance with the Company’s standard conditions of sale the Company may require the Customer to return the Goods forthwith and if the requirement is not immediately complied with the Company shall be entitled at any time and without notice to retake possession of the whole or any part of the Goods and for that purpose to enter the premises occupied by the Customer and sever the Goods from anything they are attached to without being responsible for any damage thereby caused without prejudice to any other remedy that may be available to the Company. The Company shall be entitled to maintain an action for the price of any Goods notwithstanding that title in them has not passed to the Customer. In the event of a Liquidator, Receiver or Administrator being appointed the Customer must immediately return the Goods to the Company. In the event of a Liquidator, Receiver or Administrator being appointed then the Company must immediately cancel any Contract sub-sale it has with its customers and forthwith return the goods to the Company.

7 DEFECTS AND USE
Save as herein expressly provided and save to the extent that the exclusion or restriction of liability may be prohibited by statute, the Company shall not be liable for any loss of whatsoever nature or to whomsoever or whatsoever caused arising out of the use of the Goods. The Customer shall indemnify the Company against all claims made against the Company by any third party in respect thereof, unless otherwise agreed. Where the Goods are rejected by the Customer as not being in accordance with the specification the Company will only accept the return of such Goods provided that it receives written notice thereof, giving detailed reasons for rejection, within 14 days of receipt of the Goods by the Customer and if such notice is not received by the Company within the said period of 14 days the Goods shall be deemed to have been accepted by the Customer. The company will not consider any claim for compensation, indemnity or refund until liability, if any, has been established or agreed with the Company. In the case of defects or faulty workmanship in the Goods, or any part thereof, supplied to the Company by a third party Manufacturer or Supplier then the Customer shall not be entitled to receive any compensation credit or refund in excess of that received by the Company under any guarantee or warranty given to it by the Manufacturer or Supplier thereof.

8 GUARANTEE / WARRANTY
In respect of the Goods the subject matter of any warranty or guarantee given by the manufacturers of the same, the Company guarantees to the Customer that such goods will be free from defects caused by faulty materials or poor workmanship for a period of one year. Under this warranty the Company will, at its option, either repair or give a replacement of equivalent quality or issue credit to the Customer for any goods found to be defective because of faulty maintenance by the Company or poor workmanship provided that: The Company is notified within 7 days that of the Customer first discovering any such defects The Goods have been used in an appropriate manner and/or as prescribed in the operating instructions (if any) The defective goods are returned to the Company at the Customer’s expense Examination by the Company of such goods discloses to its satisfaction that such defects exist and have not been caused by misuse, neglect, accident, improper storage insulation or handling or by any repair or alteration not effected by the Company; The Goods not having been modified or repaired otherwise than by the Company or otherwise interfered with; and The Customer shall pay to the Company the cost (as certified by the Company) of any examination of such Goods as a result of which the Company denies liability.

For product breaking failures/problems (eblocks) and licencing problems i have received great support from Matrix trough email by Elektor or the local Flowcode distributor!