9XR Pro is Here

[pmullen503]

HK seems to have their sights set on the Spektrum customer, rather than the Taranis customer. There is probably a much larger market there and the price difference would be more dramatic.

[MikeB]

Developments are ongoing. We have dialogue with HK on all this, and things are generally moving forwards. They are responding positively to suggestions.
Just at the moment it is a bit of "watch this space".

Mike.

[fburden]

They seem quite quite deeply committed to replicating the Spektrum system including its drawbacks, telemetry being one.

I see their reasoning: our club of 100+ members in North Vancouver, I know of only 2 others with Turnigy Tx's, the rest are Spectrum/Dsm/Orangerx.
The 9XR-Pro running DSM with decent telemetry+voice will get their attention!

HK seems to have their sights set on the Spektrum customer, rather than the Taranis customer. There is probably a much larger market there and the price difference would be more dramatic.

Dramatically less or more? Price and ease of use NEEDS to be better!!!

Developments are ongoing. We have dialogue with HK on all this, and things are generally moving forwards. They are responding positively to suggestions.
Just at the moment it is a bit of "watch this space".
Mike.

Yes, they have to make it cheaper, better, and easier than current Spectrum Telemetry.
OrangeRx Receivers is used by almost everyone, EXCEPT ME!!!!!!. (and a couple of other guys).
Hopefully, they will LISTEN to all your suggestions, and if they are successful, then the number of guys in my club buying 9XR-Pro's will rise EXPONENTIALLY.


Now, if I show up with a Taranis and an OpenXvario, that will "turn heads" as well. Will it attract converts? hmmmmmmm.......

[jhsa]

OpenXsensor Rocks.. That's what I use on some of my aircraft

[fburden]

OpenXsensor Rocks.. That's what I use on some of my aircraft

Rainier did a great job on how to put it together:

https://code.google.com/p/openxvario/wi ... structions


jhsa,
I know you previously mentioned, that you added a voltage sensor onto this as well ... if a very simplified update with pics showing how to do this could be added to the above document, that would be AWESOME! .. not to mention very professional!

(searching through tons of threads on how to to this seems a kind of tedious....)

[jhsa]

I think Rainer explained somewhere how to do it? The name openXvario changed to openXsensor as it supports more than only the vario
Rainer did an excellent job with this project..

João

[Kyrt]

On the 9xR-PRO, yes. It is fully integrated into ersky9x, and the telemetry values available map to existing (FrSky) named values so are available for use in things like custom switches.

At present, this is not implemented on the Taranis. There is a hardware problem due to the serial telemetry data from the DSM Tx module being non-inverted, while the SPort connection in the Taranis is inverted. The 'PRO has a programmable inverter in the signal line to cope with different signal sense.

Mike.

Hi Mike, do you have a source for more information about the upcoming modules that you can point me to? Hopefully with a mod to the hardware it could work on Taranis, but where will the code for decoding the telemetry protocol live?

[MikeB]

At present we are limited in the information we may make available.
The modules are designed to use the internal antenna of the 9XR-PRO.

If the hardware problems can be sorted, then, at least, "ersky9x for Taranis" will be able to support the telemetry protocol very easily.

Mike.

[Kyrt]

At present we are limited in the information we may make available.
The modules are designed to use the internal antenna of the 9XR-PRO.

If the hardware problems can be sorted, then, at least, "ersky9x for Taranis" will be able to support the telemetry protocol very easily.

Mike.

Thanks for the quick reply. OK I will be patient Interesting about the internal antenna, I hadn't really thought about that aspect. Requiring a second antenna is something that always bugged me about the module system and struck me as a missed opportunity with the Taranis, although the possibility of both internal and external modules is an additional consideration there.

No doubt it will be interesting to see where all this takes us. It'd be great to see some consolidation in this area.

[Flaps 30]

The modules are designed to use the internal antenna of the 9XR-PRO.

This worries me slightly as most of the small RF connectors have a very limited guaranteed lifespan as to the number of times they can be connected and disconnected.

[MikeB]

Of necessity, during development, I have needed to plug modules in many times. The connector in the 'PRO stills seems to be working reliably. It is of a reasonable size, and looks to have significant gold plating to handle many pating cycles.

Mike.

[fburden]

OpenTx Model Wizard on the Taranis, that's a pretty cool feature! The Taranis has a bigger screen, but I bet it can be done on the 9XR-Pro...
any plans for that??

[dinamich]

OpenTx Model Wizard on the Taranis, that's a pretty cool feature! The Taranis has a bigger screen, but I bet it can be done on the 9XR-Pro...
any plans for that??

Wizard is dependent on Lua, and Lua only runs on Taranis because of memory and processing power requirements.

[MikeB]

What are the memory requirements?
The wizard isn't something that needs to run fast, you shouldn't be flying while using it so the processing spped doesn't matter. In any case, we have spare processing capacity available.

Mike.

[bertrand35]

Lua won't run on 9XR-PRO, because of RAM requirements. This wizard can be implemented, but hardcoded in C++, less fun

[jhsa]

are you saying that it is IMPOSSIBLE for LUA to run on the 9XR-PRO??

João

[bertrand35]

I am really afraid no, how much RAM do we have? 64K, right?

[fburden]

Lua won't run on 9XR-PRO, because of RAM requirements. This wizard can be implemented, but hardcoded in C++, less fun

OpenTx seems to be using LUA for other purposes besides the Model Wizard.

Would Lua be a bit overkill for just showing a few bitmaps, and asking a few questions?

Maybe the Model Wizard itself is worth doing in C++, just create a few objects and functions in C++, so it feels like LUA?

[gohsthb]

are you saying that it is IMPOSSIBLE for LUA to run on the 9XR-PRO??

João

Seen that impossible word used many times in respect to the original 9x. Given enough time Mike could probably get lua to run on an m64!
-Gohst

[jhsa]

Exactly.. Why do you think I wrote it in BOLD?
We all know and seen what Mike can do with "IMPOSSIBLE" stuff

João

[MikeB]

Yes, there is 64K, 16K more than the SKY board. So just how much RAM is the LUA interpreter needing?

Mike.

[fburden]

I was reading somewhere else, someone saying it needs 120kb of flash memory. Can't that be "released" once you are finished running the wizard?

[MikeB]

Flash is not a problem on the 'PRO, we have 512K, same as on the Tarains.

Mike.

[fburden]

"32k of RAM might prove just fine"?????

http://wiki.eluaproject.net/FAQ#minimumrequirements
What are the minimum requirements for eLua?

It's hard to give a precise answer to this, because this is not only dependable on the footprint of eLua or it's resource requirements but on the final user applications as well. As a general rule, for a 32-bit CPU, we recommend at least 256k of Flash and at least 64k of RAM. However, this isn't a strict requirement. A stripped down, integer-only version of eLua can definitely fit in 128k of Flash and depending on your type of application, 32k of RAM might prove just fine. We have built eLua for targets with less than 10K RAM but you can't do much than blinking an LED with them. It really largely depends on your needs.

[MikeB]

I can't help wondering why it needs so much RAM. Having come from a background using a Z80 and only a few k of memory for all programs and data, I suspect no great effort has been made to keep RAM usage down. Tiny BASIC needed only 2K for the whole editor and interpreter! A reasonably complete, floating point BASIC needed less than 6K.

Mike.

[fburden]

yeah, it would be a real shame if the 9XR/PRO and skyboard users all got left out of the Model Wizard, for the sake of a few ram, and a little "un-fair".....

EDIT: For the last 15 years I have, until recently been working Psion/Teklogix/Motorola customizing Visual Basic Script for Wireless handheld scanners for data collection for SAP in the backend. It was wonderful when a client needed changes to screen layout or functionality, that it was just a matter to copy an updated script to a Server; The user just had to log off and log back on, and it was done. Quick, easy, and powerful.

This is basically what the openTx developers are trying to do with Lua Scripting, for creating Models, etc, etc. For new scripts, and updated scripts, eg. new helicopter scripts, fancy mixes to other new models, all they have to do is just copy the scripts onto their SD card. BEAUTIFUL!!!

Going out to my club field, and someone asks, "Hey can you do this?" and you say "Easy, here's a script a child could follow...."
The radio can now belong to absolute newbies, wow! "Revolutionary"!

Hopefully, the developers can find a solution that fit's everyone's needs.
Very Exciting!
Thankyou!!

[redalert]

Hi,

Received mine yesterday & have a couple of observations/questions, which hopefully you guys can answer?

1. When monitoring the 'sticks' on the LCD, if I slowly decrease the throttle, the rudder channel jumps about. Could I have a faulty gimbal pot?

2. I wanted to use this with the Spektrum DM9 module, but it does not 'seat' correctly, due to the antenna fowling against the TX, which means it does not make contact with the pins & fails to power the module. It stated on Hobbyking's site that it was JR module compatible, it appears that in this case it is not?

Thanks in advance for your input.

[MikeB]

Can you post a picture of the problem? From the few pictures I've just looked at the DM9 seems to have an odd antenna arrangement.

Does a servo on the rudder move?

Mike.

[redalert]

Mike,

Thanks for the prompt response.

I do not have it with me at the moment, but can confirm that the plastic of the antenna on the DM9 module 'protrudes' slightly forward at the top of the module, which in a JR/Graupner radio was not a problem. The case design of the 9xr pro means that the module sits a couple of mm out at the top, preventing it from going all the way in. Guess I may have to 'modify' the casing of the DM9.

However, if the gimbal is indeed faulty it will be going back, so irrelevant…..

I can't try it with a servo, due to the above unfortunately.

I've just read in the manual about it being critical to calibrate the gimbals, so i'll give that a go tonight, but it looks like a spike coming from a faulty potentiometer to me, which is really annoying as it will cost a small fortune to send back to Hobbyking China & hardly worth it.

[MikeB]

Yes, definitely do a stick calibration.
Then go to the main display where you see 8 numbers showing the first 8 channel positions. Watch the number for the rudder channel as you move the throttle stick. Does it change significantly, we expect some jitter, it is showing an accuracy of 1 part in 2000.

Mike.