wanted - base for feature adding

hamburger · Post by **hamburger** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 1:25 pm

Hi,
I am new to t9x hacking. I want to add some sensors to the tx for input and replace the LCD with a touchscreen+color display. I need very customizable input mixing and assigning. (my background is some MultiWii hacking)

I can see a lot of work has gone into the various flavours of t9x firmwares. For me as a newcomer it is difficult to decide which one to pick as a basis to start using and coding. I have read parts of various threads, homepages, the new forum. But still have not enough facts to decide on. So I dare ask:
could some kind soul point me to and explain the different features/attitudes of the firmware variants, please? I have also started reading the new forum but did not find a concise answer.

by now I have
er9x - popular
ersky9x - board replacement (would like to try and stick with current board, if possible)
gruvin9x - frsky telemetry (will eventually use spektrum module, so does not apply?)
th9x - 1st alternative
radioclone - separate code base, unrelated.

Thanks.

Post by **erazz** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 6:48 pm

They all are extremely customizable right "out of the box". If you could explain what you want to do more clearly we could probably point you in the right way.

There is no "right" fw. They all have their strengths and they all steal code from each other freely. Many functions you find in one you'd also find in the other.

hamburger · Post by **hamburger** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 9:42 am

I want to do 3 things:
a)
'remove' the LCD and attach (via Serial; is ithat possible?) a color touchscreen. That device has possibility to offload some logic to its own cpu or I could use it to just display the GUI and send button events down to the t9x.
b)
attach gyro+acc 6DOF IMU to optionally steer by tilting/rotating the tx. Preferred method would be i2c.
c)
read telemetry data from model via a BT device, if the neccessary Serial is available (or BT could be shared with a) )

I saw that radioclone has a designated state machine in separate source file which the other flavours do not have. Looked like a clean approach. I wanted to avoid to have to read and compare all the sources of the different firmwares, if possible.

thanks.

Post by **MikeB** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 9:54 am

Fairly major changes then! To get at either serial port the ATMEGA64 has requires hardware changes. The FrSky mod frees one of them and is a 'standard' mod. You may then want to look at the FrSky version of code as it has routines to handle the serial port, and also deals with the two switches that have to be moved.
There is an I2C port on the ATMEGA64, but again the pins are used for other inputs (some of the trim switches). The second serial port pins are also used by other trim switches.
I've only ever really looked at/ done anything with er9x, so would probably be biased if I recommended a starting point for you.

Mike.

hamburger · Post by **hamburger** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 10:09 am

thanks for those pointers.
Just to clarify - I do not want to replace the one stick with the sensors. Those are meant as an add-on and can be de/activated by pressing a push-button.

radioclone is completely different and not being dealt with here?

Rafit · Post by **Rafit** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 4:18 pm

I will answer as RadioClone "representative"

, but answers about hardware mods are common (so I don't want to write it twice).
Maybe better solution is to wait a little for new hardware (ErSky9x) ? It has almost everything you wanted.

With RadioClone mods are one big problem - no free FLASH! You can't simply add some code, because it won't fit into ATMega64. This is major reason for not adding new features to RadioClone. The only solution is to replace uProcessor with atmega128 or atmega256 (but in my opinion you do better when you look at ErSky9x hardware).

hamburger wrote:I want to do 3 things:
a) 'remove' the LCD and attach (via Serial; is ithat possible?) a color touchscreen. That device has possibility to offload some logic to its own cpu or I could use it to just display the GUI and send button events down to the t9x.

It will be hard. You need to convert hardware, and then replace LCD library with your own (but you need to cover all functions that are in this library to avoid changes in menu)

hamburger wrote: b) attach gyro+acc 6DOF IMU to optionally steer by tilting/rotating the tx. Preferred method would be i2c.

Need extra hardware changes and new code (as you remember there is no EEPROM space because of RadioClone size)

hamburger wrote: c) read telemetry data from model via a BT device, if the neccessary Serial is available (or BT could be shared with a) )

Maybe you should connect BT directly to FrSky? (RadioClone has no telemetry support - again, no free EEPROM)

hamburger wrote: I saw that radioclone has a designated state machine in separate source file which the other flavours do not have.

State Machine in RadioClone is a special future, see viewtopic.php?f=33&t=151#p1261

Post by **erazz** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 8:14 pm

Pretty big goals. Not easy to do.

I'd work on the ERSKY9x platform as it's a much more capable MCU. It has many more I/O's, more options, and more power. Mind you that it's still very much in it's infancy.

Post by **Rob Thomson** » Fri Jan 13, 2012 8:22 pm

If you do decide to build make a fork.. or start from scratch let me know & I will get a sub forum up for you!

hamburger · Post by **hamburger** » Mon Jan 16, 2012 12:11 am

thanks for the offer. I will need to take my time to get my way with the new TX and the different firmwares' innards. Then I will decide and come back on that offer when there is some output/ideas to share.

SkyNorth · Post by **SkyNorth** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 7:30 pm

Here is a nice board to start with...too bad about the price...

http://ca.mouser.com/tieklm4f232/?cm_mm ... 232-_-Text

-Brent

hamburger · Post by **hamburger** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 7:24 pm

thanks for the info. So I am decided. Need to recharge my paypal and order the gruvin 4.1 board (+sd board).

Cheers, Hamburger

agressiva · Post by **agressiva** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 12:34 pm

Hamburger, what diaplay are you in mind ?
i never found a display that feet on 9x radio.

Post by **cre8tiveleo** » Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:22 pm

There are a few that would fit, it's the connector and driver that are hurdles.

---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=44.056212,-79.476230

hamburger · Post by **hamburger** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 12:07 pm

agressiva wrote:Hamburger, what diaplay are you in mind ?
i never found a display that feet on 9x radio.

not decided, yet.

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