ERSKY9X Coding

[MikeB]

Ok, encoder centre button in bootloader mode does not work, at least on my radio.

Interesting, I was testing by updating the bootloader from maintenance mode, then holding the trims in and pressing EXIT LONG to reboot into the bootloader. When I do that, the encoder button works fine.
If I power on directly into the bootloader then I get a reboot from the encoder button.

Mike.

[RCHH]

Having an issue with the 221c5 test version (up from version 221 b6). Once flashed, the tx hangs on the bootloader ready screen and does nothing. Switching the tx off and back on results in backlight only. No go for me at the moment.

All is fine once back to b6.

Any ideas?

TIA

[jhsa]

What radio?

João

[jhsa]

9Xtreme may be a problem. The bootloader doesn't have access to the hardware configuration, so how can it know where the encoder button is connected. Where is yours connected anyway?

My encoder is connected to the m128 processor as I had before I installed the 9xtreme board, and I believe I was suggested to do so. Anyway, I couldn't do it over i2C because I use COM3 for bluetooth.

On SKY type boards, as with the QX7, the encoder button works as short press to select and long press as exit.
Are you trying with a short press on the encoder button?

Mike.

Yes, short press. When in bootloader mode the center button exits the bootloader and starts the radio normally whether I press it short or long.
On the video I am posting (again) on this post you can clearly see that I short press the centre button.

Thanks

João

[jhsa]

Here is a video of the problem.

Timer problem. I can't reproduce the problem, but then I also don't have that double beep instead of the time.
What is timer 2 set to? It may be this is causing the beeps, and blocking timer 1 output.

Mike.

Ar9x board.

Here is the model so you can check the settings.

Timer 2 is OFF, so I can't see how it could be blocking timer 1 output.

In Radio Setup / AudioHapticmenu "Beep Countdown" and "Minute Beep" are checked. I normally don't use this configuration as I don't like the radio beeping after the timer reaches zero, specially when landing the model Can't concentrate at all. It's terrible. So I have selected them just for testing. Otherwise I wouldn't have found this problem.

In the timer menu those options are not checked. You can see it in the video I've posted above.

If I check those settings in the timer menu ONLY all works as it should.. Actually, it is not.. Just checked.. It does the same problem even with another model. So it looks like it is a bug that affects all models with all configurations.

On the 9XR-PRO it seems to work ok.

João

[jhsa]

Ok, encoder centre button in bootloader mode does not work, at least on my radio.

Interesting, I was testing by updating the bootloader from maintenance mode, then holding the trims in and pressing EXIT LONG to reboot into the bootloader. When I do that, the encoder button works fine.
If I power on directly into the bootloader then I get a reboot from the encoder button.

Mike.

Confirmed, and let me add that if you select a file to flash, the radio will ask you if you want to flash it. If you press the centre button long to exit to the bootloader menu without flashing, the radio will exit briefly but return to the flash the file menu. So you can't exit with only the centre button without the exit menu..

João

[MikeB]

Something, I'm not sure exactly what (yet), was blocking or disabling the internal pull up resistor on the encoder button input.
By changing the order in which things are initialised I've got a fix for the problem. It took a little while to find!

I'll look at the timer problem now, I was out yesterday.

Mike.

[jhsa]

Thanks Mike. Here is a copy of my Ar9x radio's eeprom in case it is useful

João

[MikeB]

I've loaded that model into my AR9X, set the radio countdown and minute beep to on and it all works correctly.
This might be related to where the .wav files are on the SD card, or how many there are. I have (for whatever reason) a check against the voice being locked out, and play the tones instead of the voice. Voice is locked out while the logfile is being opened, and while a voice request is being processed. I think I have this in because the 5 second countdown needs the voice file to be played immediately, and if we can't do that, beeps are played instead, so it is a feature!

The 5-second countdown uses the files 0005.wav to 0000.wav. If these are a long way down the directory it could take too long to find them, so locking out the next file, which is why every other one is missed.

Looking more closely, the voice is locked while a voice file is playing, so the beeps will sound if it takes more than 1 second to find and play the countdown file. This seems reasonable as otherwise each following countdown file will get later and later, so the '1' and '0' will play after the timer has actually passed 1 and 0.

BTW, the double beep when the timer goes negative only sounds for 5 seconds these days.

Mike.

[RCHH]

What radio?

João

Ahhh good spot!

It is my trusty soon to have M9 gimbals Sky9X rev.b.

[jhsa]

I've loaded that model into my AR9X, set the radio countdown and minute beep to on and it all works correctly.
This might be related to where the .wav files are on the SD card, or how many there are. I have (for whatever reason) a check against the voice being locked out, and play the tones instead of the voice. Voice is locked out while the logfile is being opened, and while a voice request is being processed. I think I have this in because the 5 second countdown needs the voice file to be played immediately, and if we can't do that, beeps are played instead, so it is a feature!

My 9xtreme radio also has the same problem. voices 4 and 2 of the countdown do not play. The radio beeps instead. No logging active. So, is this a feature??
Let me check my voice pack.. maybe thew files are missing? Can't think of anything else..

The 9XR-PRO has a problem then, as it doesn't have this feature

BTW, the double beep when the timer goes negative only sounds for 5 seconds these days.

Mike.

I find it absolutely horrible and useless. The radio already told me the time is up by counting down the last 5 seconds (When it works of course ). No need for it to continue screaming at me anymore. even for 5 seconds

João

[MikeB]

See my (updated) post above.
Possibly you need to get an unsorted list of the files in the \voice\system directory. I think that if you run a command prompt and use the "dir" command this does give an unsorted list of files. Ideally, 0000.wav to 0005.wav want to be the first files in the list, and they should only say the number.

Mike.

[jhsa]

Ok, The 9XT and Ar9x have the same voice pack. the PRO had an older voice pack. installed the same pack as the others and now I have the same feature the others do.

Will try to find out why the numbers 2 and 4 are not playing correctly on this pack.. pack was generated by the TTSAutomate tool.

Thanks for looking into it.

João

EDIT: PM'ed you my voice pack

[MikeB]

It is my trusty soon to have M9 gimbals Sky9X rev.b.

You now need to flash ersky9xs_rom.bin then. ersky9x_rom.bin has become too large to fit (I didn't think we would run over 256K when we first did this board, the prototype only had 128K). Currently, the only differrence in the 's' version is many of the languages have been removed to save space, so I've left just English, French and German. This frees off around 28K of flash space.
The 9XR-PRO and AR9X boards have 512K of flash.

Mike.

[jhsa]

Just did "dir" inside the system folder of my voice pack in the SD Card.
as you can see the files are at the top as they should be. Please see picture.

João

[MikeB]

For example, your 0005 file is 32K long. This is 16K 16-bit words, so, at 16kHz, will take around 1 second to play. This will overrun the request to play the 0004 file.
My 0005 file is only around 17K.
Have a check of the file to see if it has any "silence" around the actual word "five".

Since you just sent me your voice pack (via pm), I see your 0005.wav file shows nearly 0.5 seconds of "silence", some at the start and some at the end. I removed that with Audacity and the file is then only 17K long.

Mike.

[RCHH]

It is my trusty soon to have M9 gimbals Sky9X rev.b.

You now need to flash ersky9xs_rom.bin then. ersky9x_rom.bin has become too large to fit (I didn't think we would run over 256K when we first did this board, the prototype only had 128K). Currently, the only differrence in the 's' version is many of the languages have been removed to save space, so I've left just English, French and German. This frees off around 28K of flash space.
The 9XR-PRO and AR9X boards have 512K of flash.

Mike.

Brilliant Mike. So it will be 9xs from hereon in. Many thanks

Just a thought - is there a 512k MCU that can/could be transplanted into the Sky board? I am not averse to a bit of the ol' smd work ... lol

[jhsa]

You have another (not so expensive) option. Have a look at the Ar9x board

http://www.ar9x.net/

João

[jhsa]

Since you just sent me your voice pack (via pm), I see your 0005.wav file shows nearly 0.5 seconds of "silence", some at the start and some at the end. I removed that with Audacity and the file is then only 17K long.

Mike.

Yeah, I thought it would be something like this as I have also noticed the difference in size between those files. As I said, these were automatically generated by the TTSAutomate tool. Will edit them and test.

Are there any other files where the little silence at the beginning and/or end of the file could be a problem??

Thanks

João

[jhsa]

Voice problem fixed.. That was the problem.
we must pay attention to at least these files when making a new voice pack. Silence at the beginning or end of the file seem to be critical.

Thanks

João

[RCHH]

You have another (not so expensive) option. Have a look at the Ar9x board

http://www.ar9x.net/

João

Ahhh but you see I have one of those from the first batch.

But the rev.b board was my first 'upgrade' of any sort RC related and I have a certain fondness to that one, as it effectively kindled the yearning to modify everything! Lol! So giving it a hefty 512kb would be nice! Heh heh!

[MikeB]

Atmel AT91SAM3SC8, or Atmel AT91SAM3SD8 will do nicely! (e.g. http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/microcontrollers/8996823/)
These are used on the 9XR-PRO and the AR9X boards. Fully pin compatible, they increase the flash from 256K to 512K and the RAM from 48K to 64K.
The only problem with ersky9x will be it looks at the CHIP ID and sets the AR9X bit if it is a 512K flash part, but I could easily change this.

Mike.

Edit: Just had a look and the ATSAM4S8C is also pin compatible. It has an M4 ARM core (instead of a M3 ARM core), but from experience with the STM M4 core, it runs unmodified M3 code. The 4S8C also runs up to 120MHz (instead of 64MHz) and has 128K of RAM.
Looking on Farnell the ATSAM4S8CA-AU is also cheaper than the SAM3S8C.
I wonder if we could have an AR9X+ board?

[MikeB]

João: We don't really want much silence in any voice files. The ones that say "point 5" etc. would definitely benefit from no silence at the start, but many of the "number" files don't want silence as they are played one after another to announce a complete number.

Mike.

[jhsa]

you're right. Will look at the TTSAutomate settings and see if it is possible to configure the amount of silence on the files

Thanks

João

[RCHH]

Atmel AT91SAM3SC8, or Atmel AT91SAM3SD8 will do nicely! (e.g. http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/microcontrollers/8996823/)
These are used on the 9XR-PRO and the AR9X boards. Fully pin compatible, they increase the flash from 256K to 512K and the RAM from 48K to 64K.
The only problem with ersky9x will be it looks at the CHIP ID and sets the AR9X bit if it is a 512K flash part, but I could easily change this.

Mike.

Edit: Just had a look and the ATSAM4S8C is also pin compatible. It has an M4 ARM core (instead of a M3 ARM core), but from experience with the STM M4 core, it runs unmodified M3 code. The 4S8C also runs up to 120MHz (instead of 64MHz) and has 128K of RAM.
Looking on Farnell the ATSAM4S8CA-AU is also cheaper than the SAM3S8C.
I wonder if we could have an AR9X+ board?

I am certainly willing to give this a go - AR9X+M4 and an ErSky9X Rev.B+M4 with the ATSAM4S8C MCU's. Has the be worth a shot for under a tenner!

These: http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/7692549/ albeit currently OOS until beginning April.

[MikeB]

In stock at Farnell: http://uk.farnell.com/atmel/atsam4s8ca- ... dp/2215352.

Mike.

[MikeB]

"c6" posted. This should fix the bootloader problem with the encoder button on the SKY/AR9X boards. I've removed the test screen that shows an image for now, it needs more work before it is at all useful.
The reading of "multi.txt" nay now work better.
When displaying the Type when using the Multi protocol, all values are displayed using numbers after any named types so all are useable, even if multi.txt doesn't read properly.

Mike.

[jhsa]

Ar9x. Encoder button working well with bootloader..

All FrskyX types now showing in the protocol menu.

Thanks

João

[flygear]

Edit: Just had a look and the ATSAM4S8C is also pin compatible. It has an M4 ARM core (instead of a M3 ARM core), but from experience with the STM M4 core, it runs unmodified M3 code. The 4S8C also runs up to 120MHz (instead of 64MHz) and has 128K of RAM.
Looking on Farnell the ATSAM4S8CA-AU is also cheaper than the SAM3S8C.
I wonder if we could have an AR9X+ board?

Not a problem to check ATSAM4S8C compatiablities on both hardware & software.
I'll update you once ATSAM4S8C in hands.

JK

[jhsa]

Thanks JK..

João