OpenXVario flight reports

[rainer]

Lol... yeah i never liked those esc setup routines myself but this was the best method so far to be able to adjust it and NOT using a dedicated channel.
i prefer to have a pot while as well but for the little oXv i built tonight i used the programming mode as well. i unpacked a D4RII and put my oXv directly as a piggy.pack on top of the D4R-II board. cables just as short as i needed them directly connected to one of the servo ports and the RX pin. than some new shrink wrap around it. and done.not much bigger than the D4R-II itself. No channel wasted in my DLG as i can use the programming mode if i want to change the sensitivity.
It´s so nice to have open9X tell you the current altitude and being able to turn on the vario if you need it. I'm going to put my dlg in the car, so if i get a chance I'll take it for a test flight as well.

[Rob Thomson]

I wonder.... Is the serial link from the module potentially a 2 way link?

Maybe we could send a signal back to the vario via the serial port?


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[rainer]

it is currently only 1 way. i think that i heard somewhere that frsky wanted to implement something liked that in an upcomming version. Then of course we could use that serial uplink.

[Rob Thomson]

Yup. Probably something to do with pxx updates.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[rainer]

I took my DLG to a test flight equipeed with my double pack of a D4R-II (without i's normal cardbox case with a set top oXv all packed up nice in shrink tube.
Everything worked without a problem
my limits have been setup like this: -3 -0.1 +0.1 +3 ( reduced the sink tone by setting the second value to -2 later)
Sensitivity was 300 ( i later tested 120 as well which was almost a bit to sensitive.) i had my open9x configures to "play" the Altitude when pressing the trainer button (got a little button for the trainer function on the bottom of my 9x) I's really a great feature of open9x to actually "say" the telemetry values via the speaker. So after throwing you just press a button and get a nice voice telling you the altitude of your last throw. The altitude was very stable, returning to 0 back on ground.
The weather was not really ideal as there was just a bit of rain after 20 minutes but what the heck... had to give it a try sometime .
I had a couple of nice throws. the vario worked good, but there was no real thermal activity going on.

[Rob Thomson]

Sounds like my session yesterday

I checked my values today.. Looks like nice have been on 300. (default) I was not programing it correctly!

Rob

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[Flaps 30]

You didn't remember the dance steps Rob.. Shame on you!

Even that info is worthwhile.

Haven't flown my vario yet. Only had one flying session this year and that was a couple of days back with a docile model (no vario fitted as it has an old 4 channel Frsky RX installed) to help remove the rust that has formed since the end of November. Probably will be another week before I head out again.

[Rob Thomson]

Only one session?

Shame on you! Too much fair weather flying

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[jhsa]

Well, don't know if this is the right place to post but I consider this a report..
I can't make the vario sound on my radio.. I'm using the latest test version from SVN.
I could make it sound a couple of times if I changed the limits to -3 -0,1 0,0 3.
I set it up as per the openvario wiki. I used a custom function for turning the vario on

AIL Vario

Also the altitude drifts a bit. started at zero, left it on the table and a minute later was showing 4 meters. the Vspd works but I think it has lots of latency and it doesn't seem to like negative values. have to wave it quite fast down for it to show negative values..
The sensor seems to be working but it doesn't seem very accurate and I can't make the vario sound.. obviously I might be doing something wrong. This was expected as with me nothing works the first time why should life be easy? no fun

Ah, I just compiled the .ino file and uploaded it as it was. didn't change anything

João

[Rob Thomson]

Have you tried increasing the sensitivity?

[rainer]

Well, don't know if this is the right place to post but I consider this a report..
I can't make the vario sound on my radio.. I'm using the latest test version from SVN.
I could make it sound a couple of times if I changed the limits to -3 -0,1 0,0 3.
I set it up as per the openvario wiki. I used a custom function for turning the vario on

AIL Vario

Also the altitude drifts a bit. started at zero, left it on the table and a minute later was showing 4 meters. the Vspd works but I think it has lots of latency and it doesn't seem to like negative values. have to wave it quite fast down for it to show negative values..
The sensor seems to be working but it doesn't seem very accurate and I can't make the vario sound.. obviously I might be doing something wrong. This was expected as with me nothing works the first time why should life be easy? no fun

Ah, I just compiled the .ino file and uploaded it as it was. didn't change anything

João

Hi João!
there is a bug in the code. i found it yesterday as well ... the initialization of the eeprom is incorrect. this results in the sensitivity being 65535 unless you program it at least once. (or use a pot for it)
sorry for that. but it only occurs if the eeprom ist still untouched. so for all my other prototypes this was not the case and the problem never occured until i build a new one yesterday using a "fresh" arduino.
you can either just programm it once or use a pot, or change line 305 from
if (kalman_r==0){
to
if (kalman_r==65535){

Rainer.

Btw: Looks nice!

[ReSt]

Also the altitude drifts a bit. started at zero, left it on the table and a minute later was showing 4 meters.

João

That's muuuch better than altitude drift from my GPS module.

Put on a fixed place, it can drift up to + - 50 m

But when moving around, it looks much better. After a ten minutes flight, there is, most of the time, a difference of only some meters.

Reinhard

[rainer]

Also the altitude drifts a bit. started at zero, left it on the table and a minute later was showing 4 meters.

Ignore that drift. this is due to the fact that the kalman_r parameter being 65535 instead of a value lower than 1000.
It is actually not a drift, but a really slow filter. With that way too high value the filter will take that long till the value stabilizes.

It will be ok once you have a reasonable value set for the sensitivity.

[jhsa]

Hi João!
there is a bug in the code. i found it yesterday as well ... the initialization of the eeprom is incorrect. this results in the sensitivity being 65535 unless you program it at least once. (or use a pot for it)
sorry for that. but it only occurs if the eeprom ist still untouched. so for all my other prototypes this was not the case and the problem never occured until i build a new one yesterday using a "fresh" arduino.
you can either just programm it once or use a pot, or change line 305 from
if (kalman_r==0){
to
if (kalman_r==65535){

Rainer.

Ok, fixed.. Thanks Rainer. A question though. when resting on the table it keeps beeping. Is that normal?
I have the default settings -3 -0.1 0.1 3
Also, the altitude still drifts a little with time.. If I leave the sensor on the floor, it wil ldisplay 1 meter instead of zero after some time.. I think that is acceptable. Very acceptable
Temperature is off by a couple degrees, but I guess that can be tuned in the code right?

Btw: Looks nice!

Thanks. Not as nice as I wanted to. The shrink tubing was to large. 40mm
And the paper didn't do it's best to stay in place.. But that is not to look pretty. it is to be functional.
I decided to solder a female header for programming. it doesn't make it so much bigger. my gliders are bricks. I doubt I will ever hear a positive lift beep, unless when climbing with motor

Thanks for the time you spend on this project Rainer. It's funtastic and we do appreciate it..
And it can only get better and better

João

[rainer]

A question though. when resting on the table it keeps beeping. Is that normal?
I have the default settings -3 -0.1 0.1 3
Also, the altitude still drifts a little with time.. If I leave the sensor on the floor, it wil ldisplay 1 meter instead of zero after some time.. I think that is acceptable. Very acceptable
Temperature is off by a couple degrees, but I guess that can be tuned in the code right?

the beeping on the table is normal to some degree. you could turn that off it by setting the kalman_r to a higher value ( i bet it didn't do that when it was at 65535 )
we shouldn't judge the vario on the table... when you are in the air even a vertical speed of "0" would actually mean a slight lift, as the neutral vertical speed for a glider would be a low negative value defined by the glide angle.
the altitude and the vertical speed always has some noise left in it. the filter is already massively reducing this. (try setting kalman_r to 1 and see how it behaves with less filter influence)
My personal opinion: in the air a little higher response speed is more important than less noise so i always tend to use lower values for kalman_r. The last bit of filtering is done in my head.

The altitude drift has more than one reason.
1. temperature related. as the temperature of the vario slowly increases this has an influence on the MS5611's measurement.
2. normal drift of air pressure ( weather related)

the normal drift of air pressure is quite big even over a single day you can experience 50 to 100m or more. 1mBar of pressure change will result in approx. 8m of altitude change. just look at your preferred internet weather site and look at the measured air pressure values (watch out though, for weather purposes they are normally recalculated to sea level !)

the temperature is a side product as it is required for the actual pressure calculation inside of the MS5611. it will increase in the first minutes by 5-10 degrees due to the heat of the electronics on board)
just leave it running for some time, calculate the difference to the real temperature and put that value ( multiplied by 10) into the temperarute offset define statement.

[jhsa]

the beeping on the table is normal to some degree. you could turn that off it by setting the kalman_r to a higher value ( i bet it didn't do that when it was at 65535 )
we shouldn't judge the vario on the table... when you are in the air even a vertical speed of "0" would actually mean a slight lift, as the neutral vertical speed for a glider would be a low negative value defined by the glide angle.

You are absolutely right.. Maintaining altitude on a glider means lift.
By the way the Vertical speed indicator in the aircraft (big(ish) ones) that I've flown also had about 1 second latency. That was told to me on my first lessons when learning to fly

the temperature is a side product as it is required for the actual pressure calculation inside of the MS5611. it will increase in the first minutes by 5-10 degrees due to the heat of the electronics on board)
just leave it running for some time, calculate the difference to the real temperature and put that value ( multiplied by 10) into the temperarute offset define statement.

Will do, thanks..

João

[Flaps 30]

Good work there João Now that you have posted in the flight report thread, yet having not flown that module. You will have to go out and chuck it in the air (preferably in a glider) and report back to qualify your post.

Shame on you! Too much fair weather flying

Cold weather=cold hands along with a body function that speeds up that isn't good when flying away from certain facilities.

Rainer - I didn't find any problem with sensitivity with my unit. So I guess that having disabled the remote (rain dance) sensitivity setting system means that I didn't suffer from the issue you mention.

How about having the facility to set the sensitivity with a pot at any time without having any time limitations and a report back of what that value is? I still prefer to disable any remote setting method.

[rainer]

Rainer - I didn't find any problem with sensitivity with my unit. So I guess that having disabled the remote (rain dance) sensitivity setting system means that I didn't suffer from the issue you mention.

yes, by removing all those 3 earlier mentioned defines related to PPM, you are not using the value stored in the eeprom at all, so you are using the default value as defined in the code.

How about having the facility to set the sensitivity with a pot at any time without having any time limitations and a report back of what that setting value is? I might still prefer to disable that method and change it in the sketch file as I have so far.

The report of the sensitivity(=kalma_r) value is there. the current default is in the RPM field. (rounded to the next 30s)

If you use a pot to control the sensitivity, the kalman_r value will be set each time after reading the current PPM value, so no problem with that bug as well.

Once you found you preferred setting for the sensitivity, of course there is no reason to keep the ppm functionality enabled. i just recommend everybody to experiment a little with the different values, and a pot to control it is the best way to get a feeling for it.

On my gliders 'm going to leave the programming option enabled. I think i will attach an oXv permanently to most of my receivers anyway.

[jhsa]

Good work there João Now that you have posted in the flight report thread, yet having not flown that module. You will have to go out and chuck it in the air (preferably in a glider) and report back to qualify your post.

Well, I think I still didn't have much time to do it due to the fact that I finished building it last night at 5 am, or should I say this morning?

I will probably throw it in my eazystar as it has more chances of getting more lift than any of my current gliders
I can always turn the motor on if I want to hear some beeping
Question, how do I disable the sound when the plane is descending?
Thanks
João

[Flaps 30]

IIRC - With Open9x you cannot disable the sink sound at this present time but that may change with a future release. My limit settings in Open9x are -3 -3 +0.2 +3 That seems to work pretty well in stopping the sink indication.. Unless the sink is really high..

[jhsa]

Unless the sink is really high..

And that wouldn't be a good sign I suppose.. specially with a glider.

Thanks, I will try those settings.. For now I'm just enjoying annoying my family
Speaking about annoying
João

[BBvideo 425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN5PoW7_kdA[/BBvideo]

[jhsa]

Well, mine doesn't sound much like a vario yet.. I think that the tone generation might need a tweak.
On my fw version is not possible to adjust the inner limit to -3. it goes from -2.0 to "OFF"

i just upgraded to the latest test version of the fw and the result I have with the vario is this concert

limit values are -3 ___-0.1___ 0.1___ 3

[BBvideo 425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-ndL12n ... e=youtu.be[/BBvideo]

[rainer]

sounds a bit like the old donkey kong.....
something is definetly not OK.what did you configure on you telemetry screen? is there maybe something configured for A1/A2 port for vario / m/s unit?
how did you setup all the vario related options in the telemetry screens?
which board/ sound board do you use. (i personally use a sky9x 3.0)

On my FW version (r1947) too i can set the inner limits from -2 to 1 and -1 to +2 (but not overlapping). so that looks OK.

[jhsa]

I copied your settings from the wiki.. I have the stock board with the atmega 128. nothing on A1/2 ports for vario.. have voltage and temperature.. the vario seems to be working on screen. it seems that is the audio that is completely crazy.. maybe it has to do with the test versions of open9x? I just updated to the latest svn before I did the video and I think it got worse..

João

[rainer]

can you please try with r1947?

[jhsa]

hhmmmm, my eeprom is not compatible with it..
But I guess if I save my eeprom, I can put it back, right?

[rainer]

you can back it up and later reuse it with the current version again.
i just wanted to find out if it is related to the current veriosn of open9x.

maybe you could try creating a new model. i had a problem once where i used a build and i had to create a new model in order to have it working again.

[jhsa]

yes, yes.. I just wanted to make sure that I don't have to redo all again. will do in a little while.. wife came back and peace is gone

[Flaps 30]

sounds a bit like the old donkey kong....

Sure does. Mine sounds real sweet by comparison.

I have the stock board with the atmega 128.

Ohhh!! I thought you had done the Megasound modification, where the buzzer signal is fed into a speaker via the LM386 amplifier. If that is the case, maybe that explains why it sounds so bad.

[jhsa]

Yes.. My board has the megasound board where the beeper signal goes through the amplifier..
That could be the problem, but what about the skyboard? doesn't is use a beeper signal? are the beeps an audio file? So, it seems that people that converted to the sound module will have to bear with a bad sound then and what about the ones that did the piezo speaker mod? it should be the same as with mine..
Anyway, Rainer, I just changed to the latest released version and it improved a little bit but it still has a horrible sound, specially when descending.

João