Taranis Vario Setup - Help please

[Hamish]

New to the Taranis but enjoying playing around with the various options etc. However I appear to have hit a brick wall in trying to get sink and climb tones. I have the older style vario connected to a hub which I have been able to accept height readings and get these announced. This suggests to me that the vario is working. My settings are as follows

Telemetry

Vario source -4, -0.6, 0.1, 3

Logical switches

L2 a

L3 a>x, Vsped, 0.3, SD (down)

L4 OR, L2, L3 SD (down)

Special functions

L4 Vario

Any help will be gratefully received.

Edited By Hamish on 07/09/2014 20:25:35

[Bob Cotsford]

Presumably in telemetry you have selected VSpeed for vario source from the choice of VSpeed, A1, A2, Dte or does it appear differently using a hub compared to SPort? I'm not sure what logical switch 2 set to a means, I don't get that option in Companion, so I don't know how it affects the OR on L4. To test the vario function try setting it using a physical switch such as SDdown, if that works then add in any conditions using logical switches until it doesn't - then you know where the problem is.

[flight1]

Well I have mine set up like

special fuctions

sp2      SA- vario

sp3      SA (down arrow)      play value          Alt               7 seconds

in telem screen got default    t -10 - 0.4 0.4 10

source set to VSpd

ticked box Altitude this will display the altitude on the front screen top bar.

 

I use the SA 3 position toggle switch so i can have it all off or switch beteen vario sounding or the altitude being anounced every 7 seconds.

hope it helps

Edited By flight1 on 07/09/2014 21:14:47

Edited By flight1 on 07/09/2014 21:15:11

[Hamish]

Yes I have selected Vsped in telemetry

Misprint for L2

L2 a<x, Vsped, -0.3, SD (down)

Will try various options. Thank for your help

[Hamish]

Flight 1. Thanks, I have that option in but it only give altitude. I was hoping to get different tones for sink and climb.

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

Hamish, I'd simplify things I think. Use a special function that just has a physical switch, and "vario" in it. See that that works and then move on to using logical switches afterwards.

[Hamish]

Yes, I have a switch simply to proved Vario and it works ok.

[andyh]

Posted by Chris Bott - Moderator on 07/09/2014 21:31:25:

Hamish, I'd simplify things I think. Use a special function that just has a physical switch, and "vario" in it. See that that works and then move on to using logical switches afterwards.

^ what he said. you get different climb/sink tones by default. climb is a beeping noise - increased frequency & pitch with increased climb; sink is a constant tone, decreased pitch with increased sink - it's quite intuitive, even if you haven't used a vario before

in any case, it'll probably be April before you catch a decent thermal now anyway

[Hamish]

Thanks for that Andy. Will try tomorrow in this Indian summer we are having. Off to Spain next week for three months in motorhome so may take a glider to catch thermals

[andyh]

is there a way to do a climb-rate avereger on the Taranis? in full-size, if you're circling in light lift, getting some encouraging bleeps for part of the circle, but not much on the rest, an averager - 10-20s say - is rather helpful

I have my vario on a 3-position switch - back/off, middle/vario, forward/vario+alt every 10s. this sort of works, but I need to remember the last alt & then figure out if I'm higher or lower every 10s

failing that, is there a way of submitting feature requests to the OpenTX coding team?

[Phil Green]

Mines a simple setup - I've got tones on SWA up, silence if SWA is central, speech (in feet) every 10 secs if SWA is down. Volume control on the left slider.
In the radio menu I set units to imperial (feet), then in the model memory set custom switches as follows. Switch A up gives vario tones. Switch a central gives silence. Switch A down gives spoken height every 5 seconds (too often in practise). The left-hand slider sets the volume. CF3 is just my sense of humour. On the telemtery page (page 12) I've got vario source to 'vario', then display Alt, GAlt, Vspd, Alt- and Alt+ just for experimenting. Here are the CF's:

[Hamish]

Thanks for that Phil. Gave it a try but all I get is a constant beeping. Height is indicated audibly and visually so will need to try some other combination.

What i have noticed, although possibly not relevant, is that you have a total 13 pages whereas I only have 12. Software version is Ver. 2.0.1 dated 6-6-2014. Should this be updated through Companion?

I have a number of other questions but will wait until i have resolved this one.

[andyh]

I'm on 2.0.8 & have 13 screens - the 13th appears somewhere between 2.0.1 & 2.0.8 - can't remember the exact release offhand. you might want to upgrade at some point, but it's probably not urgent unless you want a feature that appears after 2.0.1

[Hamish]

Updated to 2.0.8 last night, which was very easy to do. Tx now shows updated version, however no screen 13 ??????

[andyh]

hmm, actually, I just looked & I only have 12 screens too!

screen 13 is for model templates, but I don't seem to have any loaded on my Tx, so maybe that's why it's not displaying

[Bob Cotsford]

When you set up preferences in Settings there are various tick boxes covering features such as Heli, LUA, FAI mode etc, these determine which features are built into the copy of Companion and the TX firmware that you get to download. Some features will have their own tabs, such as LUA scripting. This means the number of tabs doesn't depend on the version number of OpenTX but which features you have enabled in preferences.

 

ps - just found that it's up to version 2.0.10 now!  It looks to be mainly tweaks for Taranis+ and minor LUA fixes.

Edited By Bob Cotsford on 09/09/2014 09:25:00

[Hamish]

Thanks for that info Bob. Now on 2.0.10 but will delve no further due to lack of knowledge.

[Phil Green]

Posted by Hamish on 08/09/2014 11:36:54:

Gave it a try but all I get is a constant beeping. Height is indicated audibly and visually so will need to try some other combination.

Personally I feel that just keep trying different things until you find something that works isnt good programming practise Hamish - if proven methods dont work I always assume I've done something wrong rather than that the method is wrong

Re the constant beeping, and just taking the previous post as an example, if you've nothing assigned to "SA centre" then it cant beep with SA central unless something else is wrong, such as maybe its assigned elsewhere. You could disconnect the beeper but I'd rather find out whats been assigned wrongly! I'm only joshing of course. We're all learning here!

/2p

Cheers
Phil

Edited By Phil Green on 09/09/2014 14:17:56

[Fatscoleymo]

Slightly off topic..... I love this Frsky 'stuff'. Best thing since sliced bread.

I've got the high precision vario into an XR8 receiver in my Bixler - to have vario tones and altitude voice announcements selectable on a switch is FAB. volume adjustable on a slider as well.

No longer if someone asks me 'how high do you think it is' do we have to guess. Just flick a switch and the lovely lady tells us.

I find now that while chasing / centering in thermals (not my attire - I'm wearing shorts at the moment) I prefer just the spoken altitude rather than the vario. I've got it at 10 second intervals, which seems ok for me.

Today got into a corker at 55 mts, and wound my way up to 365 mts when I had to 'bail out' as the Bixler was only just visible.

Gotta love it!!!!

Steve

[Hamish]

I agree with what you say but sometimes you just have to doodle around for a cause and effect.

I stripped everything out and just left vario but still have the constant beeping when activated. I then put Alt on the telemetry screen along with a function to provide audible height which both worked suggesting to me the vario is ok

I put Vsped on the same screen and during a test flight it never moved which suggests that this is where my problem is. Will have another look to see if I have missed a switch somewhere.

As an aside I got an Orange Tx module and have bound in two models that were Orange and Spectrum on DSM2 so at least making progress.

[Hamish]

Steve, do you have different tones for rise and sink? If so, give us the secret please

[Fatscoleymo]

Hamish - this is the 'new' vario straight into the s port. You are having problems using the hub I believe?

I just plugged it in and it worked.

I get rising tone pitch for lift, and descending for sink, just as I used to get in full size. The default pitch for 'neutral'(?) can be changed if you want. Plus all the other parameters, although it does fine for me out of the box.

As I mentioned earlier after using it now for a few weeks, I mostly just use altitude called out at intervals, although I do switch on the vario on occasion, but the continued warbling gets on me t**s.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

Steve

[Hamish]

Thanks Steve for info.Having had a good search on the web it appears that Vsped is required to provide the varying tones. I had a look into the log of previous flights and this is not recorded which suggests thats what my problem is. Will just set up to give audible indication of hight for the time being.

Will order current Rx and vario to resolve problem. Off on hols for a time so will be later on in the year.

Thanks to all who have assisted and hopefully my assuimption is correct

Really enjoying the Taranis as it gets the mind thinking.