Update to spoken indications
Michael Cooper
Hi All—
I’ve uploaded a new beta firmware with a few changes to spoken indications and one “bonus” feature:
- Fixed a bug which sometimes caused corrupt log files.
- Fixed a bug in speed units used in speech.
- Added “decimal place” control for spoken indications.
- Added a “vario” mode for tone rate.
The updated firmware is available on the wiki, as usual:
http://flysight.ca/wiki/index.php?title=Latest_firmware
Decimal place control is handled through the “Sp_Dec” configuration item. If you set this to “0”, for example, you’ll hear “six five” for sixty five miles per hour, instead of “six five point zero zero”. For speeds in particular, this makes for more efficient communication, I think.
The “vario” mode is intended for paragliders. FlySight could already be used to indicate vertical speed, like a paragliding vario, but it wasn’t quite the same. What I realized is that a vario uses both pitch and rate to indicate vertical speed, with a low pitch indicating sink and a high pitch indicating rising air, but with the rate indicating the rate of sink or rise. With the latest firmware, you can do this using settings something like this:
Mode: 1 ; Vertical speed
Min: 1000 ; 10 m/s
Max: -1000 ; -10 m/s
Mode_2: 8 ; Magnitude of Value 1
Min_Val_2: 0 ; 0 m/s
Max_Val_2: 1000 ; 10 m/s
Note the new option for “Mode_2”. With these settings, the lowest pitch will indicate 10 m/s sink (controlled by “Min”); the highest pitch will indicate 10 m/s rise (controlled by “Max”); the lowest rate will indicate level flight (i.e., the magnitude of vertical speed is zero, controlled by “Min_Val_2”); and the highest rate will indicate 10 m/s sink or rise (i.e., the magnitude of vertical speed is 10 m/s, controlled by “Max_Val_2”).
I’ll be out of town July 11-31. If you run into any issues with this firmware before then, please let me know and I’ll try to take care of it before I leave.
Thanks!
Michael