Just got my first open source transmitter (2nd hand X20S) Where would you start?

[MattyB]

9 minutes ago, Ron Gray said:

But it may also mean that FrSky will also up their game and provide more functionality in ETHOS.

 

Maybe. My concern is whether what contract Bertrand Songis (who led the OpenTX team for a long while and now leading ETHOS development, hence it's similarity to the OS firmwares) is on at Frsky, and whether they can retain him long term. If they can I have no doubt ETHOS will get there; if not it cold easily end up as just another instance of Frsky orphanware.

 

19 minutes ago, Ron Gray said:

Personally when I've compared the X20 to my X10S Express I really do like its feel and layout (screen on top). I've seen what fellow members have done with ETHOs in particular @Kevin Fairgrieve and see that there are very few things I would miss going over to ETHOS. whilst I use GVARS I can live without them!

 

Agreed on the physical, screen at the top is always best IMO, though it does matter a bit less now radios have so much voice functionality. I won't be buying a frsky ETHOS radio until it offers off-TX programming though - I don't care how usable the firmware is, I'd still always rather do the guts of any complex setup on my PC.

[Ron Gray]

23 minutes ago, MattyB said:

whether they can retain him long term

They paid him good money to move and what other company would offer the same freedom he had to develop what he wanted? I think he's there for the long term, albeit that id just my guess!

 

25 minutes ago, MattyB said:

I'd still always rather do the guts of any complex setup on my PC

That's what I thought having used Companion for so many years but having seen how easy it is to do in ETHOS I'm not convinced it's a deal breaker (for me). Plus, as has been pointed out above, there will be a PC based programming tool in the not too distant future.

 

But when it comes down to it, from my point of view, do I really need another Tx? Nice to have but.......................

[Mike Blandford]

Bertrand had more than one employment offer from R/C manufacturers at the time he moved to FrSky, so I would expect him to have a proper, employment contract or he would not have left his previous job. I am in contact with him, I've also helped with some programming problems and bug fixes. The upcoming feature "Play Sequence" is also the result of me asking for something like the "Voice Alerts" I have in erskyTx to be added to ETHOS.

I also wonder if support for the MPM was added to ETHOS partly because support for the MPM is in erskyTx and ran on the X20.

 

I find it interesting that the Archer Plus receivers support ACCST as well as ACCESS, and even auto-detect FCC/EU. Anything to do with the UNI firmware for older receivers, that auto-detects ACCST binding, being available?

 

One main problem with new FrSky transmitters is developers need an actual transmitter to test on. In the past, FrSky have provided these free. I have at least 12, FrSky transmitters and I've only bought 2 of them, one of which is an X9Lite for which I was sent the money! I could look at the X18, but I would need to buy one and I have rather a lot of transmitters already!

 

I do now have tools and knowledge that should make working out the hardware of new Txs easier and quicker. Then if the hardware module for a new Tx "looks" the same as other Txs, porting open source firmware may then follow quickly.

 

My understanding is that FrSky have not ruled out having open source firmware on some transmitters in the future.

 

Mike

[Outrunner]

I wish I could put Ethos on my RM TX16S, I really like the TX but I find Edge TX a pain in the backside to program with or without companion, I much prefer menu driven programming like my Hitec Aurora, I'm not trying to do fancy things but I find even simple tasks like adding dual rates a pain.

[GrumpyGnome]

That's interesting. I now find it much quicker and easier than on my (admittedly older) Spektrum.

 

Different strokes for different folks  🙂

[Ron Gray]

1 hour ago, Outrunner said:

like adding dual rates a pain.

How are you trying to do it? If I want 3 different rates then I go to Model Settings>inputs then edit to reduce % throw and use a switch position to activate. Once done I just copy that down then edit to change % throw and assign to other switch position. I then repeat for the 3rd rate. Probably has taken 10 times the length of time to write that than it is to do it on the Tx!

[Mike Blandford]

3 hours ago, Outrunner said:

I wish I could put Ethos on my RM TX16S, I really like the TX but I find Edge TX a pain in the backside to program with or without companion, I much prefer menu driven programming like my Hitec Aurora, I'm not trying to do fancy things but I find even simple tasks like adding dual rates a pain.

ErskyTx is available for the TX16S, maybe you would find that easier. It includes a specific menu for dual (actually triple) rates.

 

Mike

[Outrunner]

4 hours ago, Ron Gray said:

How are you trying to do it? If I want 3 different rates then I go to Model Settings>inputs then edit to reduce % throw and use a switch position to activate. Once done I just copy that down then edit to change % throw and assign to other switch position. I then repeat for the 3rd rate. Probably has taken 10 times the length of time to write that than it is to do it on the Tx!

To be honest Ron I haven't set any dual rates, I just manage without them. Rates was just an example off the top of my head but I'm still struggling with programming, I can set up a simple model (without rates) and so far avoided any model with more demanding stuff like Crow brakes. But I have decided to knuckle down and learn Edge TX properly.

[Outrunner]

3 hours ago, Mike Blandford said:

ErskyTx is available for the TX16S, maybe you would find that easier. It includes a specific menu for dual (actually triple) rates.

 

Mike

I wasn't aware of that, I will check it out. Thank you Mike

[Andy C]

On 21/06/2023 at 01:30, Philip Lewis 3 said:

Not to be too old fashioned but install ethos suite version 1.4.8 and then open it and go the documentation tab at the bottom and download the manual, it's suprisingly readable.

Thanks.  Doing this now, but notice that whilst github has version 1.4.8(your link), frsky website only seems to have 1.4.5 for ethos suite.  Could someone please explain why the difference and which I should be using / trust?  Thanks

[Philip Lewis 3]

I'd would go for the latest version, and I'll give you a good reason, Ethos suite itself is likely to download for you version 1.4.9 so if you use instructions for 1.4.5 they will be out of date.

 

If you installed ethos suite 1.4.5 it would also ask you to update it anyway, (which might just be the reason why FrSky is just being lazy in updating their website as well).

 

As far as I know no one has reported any issues with 1.4.8, these are release stable issues not beta versions know as nightly builds.

 

I'm using 1.4.8 myself.

Edited June 26, 2023 by Philip Lewis 3

[Andy C]

Thanks Philip. 👍

[Andy48]

On 21/06/2023 at 14:43, Philip Lewis 3 said:

 

 

Certainly nothing I could have done in Open TX that I can't do in Ethos.

 

 

 

Firstly, unlike OpenTX, you cannot have a telemetry value that reads the lowest cell of a battery. I find this extremely useful in warning when a battery is starting to fail. For example when I hear my low battery reading on take off, it means one of two things, either I've accidentally put a used battery back in the plane (something I never normally do), or one of the cells is failing, and of course it tends to show when on full power. Its quite common for just one cell to be much worse than the rest so monitoring the whole battery voltage is nowhere near as good.

 

Secondly without a lot of fiddling you cannot have a timer that starts when the throttle is opened. Its one of the timer options on OpenTX, but not Ethos. I'm really surprised at this. If you use throttle trigger the timer starts as soon as you switch the tranny on.

 

.... that's just after a couple of hours playing with it.

 

[Philip Lewis 3]

Wouldn't know about the first one as I have never tried to do that but on the second you are both right and wrong, yes it isn't an option to just select but is quite easy to do as as all my timers only start when the the throttle is opened (and armed) and only run when the throttle is open, they pause when the throttle is closed and I don't recall that being particularly difficult to do.

 

I can't see why you can't do the first one either just that I haven't done it but I'd put my shirt on it that someone on here will know how.

[Andy Meade]

13 hours ago, Andy48 said:

 

Firstly, unlike OpenTX, you cannot have a telemetry value that reads the lowest cell of a battery. I find this extremely useful in warning when a battery is starting to fail. For example when I hear my low battery reading on take off, it means one of two things, either I've accidentally put a used battery back in the plane (something I never normally do), or one of the cells is failing, and of course it tends to show when on full power. Its quite common for just one cell to be much worse than the rest so monitoring the whole battery voltage is nowhere near as good.

 

Secondly without a lot of fiddling you cannot have a timer that starts when the throttle is opened. Its one of the timer options on OpenTX, but not Ethos. I'm really surprised at this. If you use throttle trigger the timer starts as soon as you switch the tranny on.

 

.... that's just after a couple of hours playing with it.

 

 

I've seen the lowest cell voltage done on the RCG mega-thread, and in fact found out how to do it straight away with google search in a youtube video.  You will of course need an FLVS and the relevant LUA.  

I know the throttle timer works natively, as I use it on my electric and IC machines every flight.  The manual is a good place to start.

 

[MattyB]

34 minutes ago, Andy Meade said:

I've seen the lowest cell voltage done on the RCG mega-thread, and in fact found out how to do it straight away with google search in a youtube video.  You will of course need an FLVS and the relevant LUA. 

 

I'm sure you're right, but I think his point was that you don't need to know oir use any LUA to do that on OpenTX/EdgeTX/erskyTX. Not necessarily a problem, but I've met plenty of people for whom even the idea of LUA is a step too far for them - as a result I do think (given ETHOS's prime goal was to be more accessible than the OS firmwares) functioanlity like this should be embedded natively over time.

 

 

Edited June 28, 2023 by MattyB

[Andy48]

9 hours ago, Andy Meade said:

 

I've seen the lowest cell voltage done on the RCG mega-thread, and in fact found out how to do it straight away with google search in a youtube video.  You will of course need an FLVS and the relevant LUA.  

I know the throttle timer works natively, as I use it on my electric and IC machines every flight.  The manual is a good place to start.

 

Thanks for the sarcasm, I've read the manual. There's an awful lot left out, and its a very uninspiring read! I'm not a great fan of videos, one wades through interminable woffle at the start, and has to endure ages of badly produced video to get to the nugget you need.

 

That's the point, you need a LUA to make it work, you don't with OpenTX.

 

I am well aware the timers work, they just don't work as well or as simply as as on OpenTX. Set the timer to trigger, and it starts counting as soon as the transmitter is switched on. How useless is that? Set the timer to absolute and it stops counting when the throttle is closed, as you suggest, but its not what I want. I want something that will count how long a flight is, which is what OpenTX does. I don't need it to measure the throttle open time. I use telemetry of the battery consumption for that these days.

Edited June 28, 2023 by Andy48

[Philip Lewis 3]

Just use the arming switch as the switch for the timer. I'm pretty sure that's all I did initially but then I changed it bvecause I wanted it to run with throttle on time.

[Andy48]

15 hours ago, Philip Lewis 3 said:

Just use the arming switch as the switch for the timer. I'm pretty sure that's all I did initially but then I changed it bvecause I wanted it to run with throttle on time.

That's all right when I use an arming switch for a model, but most of them I don't, I use an arming plug instead.

[Philip Lewis 3]

Then as you are using telemetry for battery voltage just set a logic switch that is "on" when the voltage is greater than X.