Improve Vario on ersky9x/er9x

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ersky9x was a port of er9x for use on the sky9x board.
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jhsa
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Improve Vario on ersky9x/er9x

Post by jhsa »

Today I decided to configure my glider on my ersky9x radio. flew it. there were no thermals anymore as I went to the field too late but I made a flight with it and it was working. Need to test it more though. I'm using the oXs sensor (vario and voltage).
It seems that when Mike implemented the vario he only had the first frsky unit that had a very bad resolution. the oxs has a resolution of 10cm/s. I think I've read somewhere that it can do even better than that but I'm not sure.
Also the beeps could be improved. I don't have much experience with varios and I never flew real gliders unfortunately. Only stinky engine powered planes.. Miss that by the way.. Remember the smell of the gasoline when starting the engine. Miss that too.. but that's another story :)
As I was saying, I think the vario tones and the speed could be improved.. Maybe some of you guys have some ideas and can also test the vario in ersky/er9x. Of course, the 9x radio will have limitations. can only generate square wave sounds for example..
My idea is having the lift tones increasing the tone frequency and the repeat frequency proportionally to the lift.
Not sure about the sink tones, but maybe a continuous decreasing tone also proportionally to the sink rate? until it reaches a certain value and then it stays the same?

João
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mstrens
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Re: Improve Vario on ersky9x/er9x

Post by mstrens »

Jhsa
Some weeks ago, Bertrand improved vario sound for Taranis (for release 2.0).
You can follow the result in this tread :
viewtopic.php?f=86&t=5081

In the tread, it is explained what is the impact of the speed on
- pitch of tone (for climb and rise)
- duration of tone (when rise)
- ratio silent/tone (when rise).

I presume that the same principles could be used for ersky too.
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jhsa
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Re: Improve Vario on ersky9x/er9x

Post by jhsa »

Thanks for your reply and for the link. I just started the thread so people can share their ideas. Mike is the person that codes, so hopefully he will have a look when he can.

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MikeB
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Re: Improve Vario on ersky9x/er9x

Post by MikeB »

I'm sure I can improve the vario tones, I just put something together to get started.
What I'm just doing is to add the Scalers to the vario sources. It seems appropriate to have them, and as a side effect for testing, we can set a Scaler up with (say) a pot as input. This means we could do testing without needing to fly and find a thermal, just simulate the Vspd with a pot.

Mike.
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jhsa
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Re: Improve Vario on ersky9x/er9x

Post by jhsa »

Thank you Mike.
As I reported today in the other thread, having the vario or not having it was nearly the same. The resolution on the tx is not matching the oXs at the moment..

So you will add the scalers to the vario inputs the same way you will add them to the mixes, etc, correct? As you say, it is good for testing and maybe later the vspd could be sent on another ID for example, we never know ;)

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MikeB
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Re: Improve Vario on ersky9x/er9x

Post by MikeB »

Have a 'play' with SCALERS. You should be able to use a scaler as the vario source, and Vspd as the SCALER source. For testing, you could also use a pot or stick as the SCALER source so create an artificial Vspd value. You can 'chain' SCALERS, so you could use a pot with a SCALER to create an artifical Vspd, then use this with a SCALER to test the response.

Currently I have, if Vspd is not zero then:
if Vspd < 75 bleep at a slow rate.
else if Vspd < 125 bleep faster
else if Vspd < 175 bleep faster still
else bleep fastest.

If you are using the oXs vario, and want greater sensitivity, then try using the SCALER to increase the value of Vspd, so that a vlaue of 10 becomes, say, 50. This will increase the sensitivity of the vario's tone responses.

With this sort of testing, I can then, hopefully, come up with a better vario implementation.

Mike.
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jhsa
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Re: Improve Vario on ersky9x/er9x

Post by jhsa »

Thanks Mike. Will do. The scalers will be a wonderful tool to figure it out I think.

João

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mentero
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Re: Improve Vario on ersky9x/er9x

Post by mentero »

Hi,

I am resurrecting this thread because I think ersky9x deserves better vario tones. Not sure if other users or Mike agree with that. :D

Opentx generates tones very much inspired (I think) by this paper, http://www.wstech.de (go to Variometerkunde). (In German)
See here: github issue #670
and here (already mentioned in this thread): New vario sounds in Opentx

Briefly, (if I understand that right), it uses a low frequency tone as a basic tone (as low as 270Hz) and a change of frequency of 1Hz per cm/s.
The possible tones are split in five areas, separated by four points in the sinking/rising line: Maximum sinking, sink rate in still air (model dependent), Min lift, and max lift.
As an example, -3m/s, -0.6m/s, 0m/s, 3m/s can be a start point for thermal hunting. Those figures should be user defined.

Anywhere under the still air sink rate of the plane, a continuous tone is heard; between still air sink rate and Min lift, a tone with a duty cycle of 50:50 is generated and above zero a tone with a duty cycle of 25:75.
Above and below max sink and max lift, there is no change of tone frequency.
There is no "silent zone". This can be made using logical switches.

A correction of volume is also necessary due to the increased energy necessary for low frequencies, and freq response of the speaker.

Let us know what you think.

Miguel
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jhsa
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Re: Improve Vario on ersky9x/er9x

Post by jhsa »

Yes, I do agree with you that Ersky9x would benefit from better vario tones..
Mike has already improved them a lot, but still there is a big difference in vario sound quality when listening to a radio running OpenTX..
Perhaps, if Mike has time for it and if he agrees that the vario tones should be improved, he could have a look at the data you linked.. :) ;)

João

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MikeB
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Re: Improve Vario on ersky9x/er9x

Post by MikeB »

I may well be able to just "grab" the openTx vario tone code. I just had a look at it and it doesn't look too difficult to add in. Give me a few days and I'll see if I can add it as an option initially.

Mike
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mentero
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Re: Improve Vario on ersky9x/er9x

Post by mentero »

Open software at its best.

Thank you, Mike.

Miguel
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jhsa
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Re: Improve Vario on ersky9x/er9x

Post by jhsa »

Mike, that'd be great. Thank you..

João
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mentero
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Re: Improve Vario on ersky9x/er9x

Post by mentero »

Hi Mike, and all,

Knowing that you have a lot on your plate with new developments, this is intended to be just a remainder on this matter.
If you find the time and motivation to advance on this matter, great. In any case, thanks for your job on this firmware.

Best,
Miguel
We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty. Douglas Adams.
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Re: Improve Vario on ersky9x/er9x

Post by CatRovacer »

Nice tool for feeling tone&duty https://www.windeckfalken.de/special/xc ... /main.html
But IMO better parameter like this
# supported vario tones are None, XCTRACER, and BlueFly
varioTone=Custom 
ClimbToneOnThreshold=0.1
ClimbToneOffThreshold=0.05
SinkToneOnThreshold=-0.7
SinkToneOffThreshold=-0.6
tone=-9.98,200,574,80
tone=-2.97,293,595,75
tone=-1.88,369,582,70
tone=-0.99,440,595,65
tone=-0.5,475,600,60
tone=0.0,493,600,50 
tone=0.5,550,550,50 
tone=1.0,595,500,50 
tone=2.0,675,400,50 
tone=3.0,745,310,50 
tone=5.0,880,250,50 
tone=10.0,1108,200,50
I would prefer not 100% duty for the rise zone either.
This is a habit inherited from the use of the Brauniger IQ One (not adv of blm!)
good food & warm summer

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