I am sorry to hear that you are having trouble!
Can I ask for some more info?
- Are you on the latest FW4 version (4.0.12)?
- What script are you having trouble with?
- What app do you use to play the scripts?
Correct. The HSSP mode on API v3 (and the adapters on the old APIs) is a wrapper around HSP. There is no HSSP mode on the Handys with FW4.
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I know this is probably no help at all to the people who don’t like how the new FW “feels”, but as someone who has lived through the RealTouch → Fleshlight Launch → The Handy eras in the scripting scene and they ways we script, I can confidently say that keeping the old interpretation of the scripts just because current scripts are meant for the old algorithm would be a mistake.
IF there is consideration to make scripts “smoother” so they feel like they used to, it should be done by extending the scripting-language (e.g. bezier-curces or arcs, maybe “easing” options like in animation as an option additional to hard polylines).
I’m sure they won’t force the update until it is complete, but if everyone keeps downgrading to FW3 they won’t have the feedback needed to make it as good as it could be.
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Hi
Yes, we are looking at two solutions now:
- Make it possible to modify the motor driver settings through the onboarding app
- Adding an option to smoothen the script using different techniques through the API (HSSP)
Correct, we will not force any updates before FW3 has reached the end of life (2026-2027 ish).
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If v4 makes the fun part worse, there’s not much draw to it.
People reverting to Handy v3 firmware because they don’t agree with v4’s Dr. Roboto motion is legitimate feedback.
The Handy is built to move an object back and forth.
Changing that motion is a big deal.
The vast majority of scripts so far have been made and tested with v3 motion.
Those scripts didn’t need smoothing added to them, because the Handy added smoothing.
v4 removes that smoothing, so the scripts just say “slam up and down” and the Handy does so.
If people think the result is a worse experience than v3, why would the persevere with v4?
I can’t see any new scripts made for v4, boasting “10x detail”.
I haven’t seen any scripters revisit their old scripts to add more detail with the release of v4.
The massive catalogue of scripts currently available is a big draw to Handy buyers and owners.
Compromising them would be daft.
So it’s about finding a way to preserve the back catalogue whilst progressing.
Users reverting to v3 sends a clear message to the Handy gang: It’s all about the motion.
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- Yes, Version 4.0.12
- Any script longer than approximately 4 minutes
- Scriptplayer, Version 1.2.2
At random, the device will slow to a crawl and no longer follow the script accurately. This occrs after a few minutes of activity, whether you’re starting from the beginning or you scrub to a specified point.
Sometimes the device will figure things out and resume if given a moment, but most times power cycling is required to resolve the issue.
Curiously, this problem seems have cropped up only in the last two weeks.
In another thread someone had problems with their handy as well in the past days and it was identified to be an issue with Handy’s servers being unavailable (another reason why we need a true offline mode).
Apparently that issue has been resolved, so can you check if your problem still persists?
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I haven’t tried fw4 yet, but reading the discussions above cause flashbacks to the fw2 to fw3 switch (or if it was fw1 to fw2).
In the beginning TheHandy was more robotic/mechanical and after a firmware update TheHandy was experienced as softer due to smoother acceleration/deceleration and many didn’t like that. Now the softer experience has become the norm and people react when it changes back to a more robotic/mechanical experience.
The circle is closed 
I think there already is an offline protocol/mode, but it just hasn’t been implemented in third party software (like heresphere) yet.
the only thing I care about is them making the handy able to connect faster to the video. I hate waiting for the dam script to work to start while watching the video.
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Honestly they just need to make the Handy API hosted on our own individual servers so that we can lower latency and response times and also prevent issues of when Handy servers go down. Biggest issues from making this device perfect for me is how long it takes to upload and how long it takes for scripts to pause and the action to stop.
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In these times, it is very important for companies to not give you full control over the devices you bought from them.
Being able to change the terms of the deal after the sale via making you depend on an online service that only THEY can provide, and that they can restrict in what ever way they like, is essential in generating recurring revenue.
Not letting you run your own server enables them to:
-
Enforce digital rights management (e.g. disabling the playback of scripts when a subscription has expired and preventing file sharing)
-
Plan your devices obsolescense (oh, sorry, we can’t afford running the old server any more, please buy the new Handy PRO V2 for only $599.95)
-
Charge content providers for API access / device integration
And just because they’re not doing it right now doesn’t mean they’re not keeping that door open for the next wave of enshittification. Once the market is saturated with stroker devices, they will need to find new ways of exploiting their userbase, and later also their content creators.
This is the 2024 online business playbook.
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I can confirm this, by the way. I made the mistake of updating to V4 - and now the handy is basically so unreliable it’s useless. It randomly stops in the middle of a script, and nothing can get it to respons again except for powercycling.
Does anybody here know a way to downgrade?
This has already been shared in this thread before (probably more than once lol), but given how many people are looking to downgrade and how many replies this topic has I feel it can’t hurt to share it again:
Exactly this. There is an incredible collection of scripts here that feel amazing on v3 because they were written with v3 in mind. Also, having the Handy automatically smooth scripts that only have one point for the max and min of each stroke makes writing immersive scripts a LOT easier.
Very, very few of these scripts are going to be “edited” or “updated” in any way to be optimized for firmware v4, which is why I’m happy to hear that the team is taking adding a smoothing option back to v4 seriously.
If they can successfully add an option to turn smoothing on and off, and it’s comparable to the feel of v3, then that’s a legitimate upgrade. Without that, v4 is a downgrade because your catalogue of available scripts becomes tiny, and it requires a lot more effort to write a script for it that doesn’t feel robotic.
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A tried fw4 thought it was great IE the speed of uploading scripts and changing between scripts … went back to fw 3 deffo better movements but the uploading and even connecting to HereSphere VR player is rubbish always can’t connect ect .but in fw4 it’s perfect connects in seconds and can change scripts in seconds np… .just movements not as good…
Can’t they just add the 2 fw together lol and make 1 perfect one 
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To see if my own biases were clouding my observations, I upgraded to FW4 and used it exclusively for two weeks. Additionally, I also upgraded to the latest (V1.2.2) version of Scriptplayer in hopes of maximizing compatibility.
Overall, my opinions and observations remain unchanged. FW4 fundamentally alters the feeling of all scripts running on it. Actions are simply not as smooth, and mid to high speed performance is markedly worse. Stroke length continues to be in some way limited: under FW4 it required manual tweaking to prevent overtravel, wherwas FW3 does not exhibit this issue.
Some degradation of reliability was also observed, though this could be related to the recent server issues or the beta version of Scriptplayer. Previous comments about the sound of the machine changing under FW also stand.
Downgrading to FW3 was like a breath of fresh air, albeit much slower to connect and download scripts.
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Thank you for your indepth review. We are taking notes and investigating
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Hi,
I “dumbed” down the motor driver to the absolute minimum in a test build. I’m curious if this makes the machine move more to your liking.
You can test it by going to: https://new.handyfeeling.com/#/ota-optin
Select FW feature flag staging and FW version 4.0.12-25.staging+27d257f9
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I’m starting to think FW4 borked my Handy. When I first downloaded it, my handy got super noisy and made a clicking/griinding noise when it went all the way up. Sync was better but something was off. Scripts I had loved before just diidn’t seem right. I reverted back to FW3 and it was okay for a little bit. Movement was definitely better, but the noise came back with a vengance. Followed the lubrication instructions to the letter, but it never went back to the same way. Kind of frustrated with it now.
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