About erskyTx

[MikeB]

Brief history:
Mostly this all started with the FlySky/iMax/Turnigy/Eurgle 9X radio.
New firmware was written for this by Thomas Husterer, called TH9X.
This was forked and became er9x. Eventually open9x was forked from er9x.
In 2012 I added a voice module to the 9X, I may well have been the first person with a talking transmitter!
Then came the SKY upgrade board for the 9X with an ARM processor (Atmel).
I worked with Brent on the hardware design, then I ported er9x (called ersky9x) to it, requiring all new hardware drivers.
Many of these were then transfered into open9x so that could run on the SKY board.
Next came the Taranis with a STM ARM processor, so another set of hardware drivers was needed, many of which I wrote for ersky9x, and were ported to openTx.
Development continues in both erskyTx and openTx, with ideas and code passed between them.

ErskyTx currently runs on at least:
9X with SKY board.
9XR-PRO (really a SKY board).
9X with AR9X board.
9X with SmartieParts 9Xtreme board
ARUNI board.
FrSky X9D.
FrSky X9D+.
FrSky X9E.
FrSky QX7.
FrSky X9Lite (erskyTx shipped by FrSky).
FrSky X9LiteS (erskyTx shipped by FrSky).
FrSky XLite.
FrSky X12.
FrSky X10.
FrSky X10S.
FrSky X10S Express.
Jumper T12.
Jumper T16.
RM TX16S.
RK TX18.

erskyTx is very powerful, similar in capability to openTx, but is considered by many to be easier to navigate and configure.
There is also a PC program, eepskye, (was called eepe for the 9X) that may also be used to configure the radio. openTx companion was forked from eepe.

Mike

 

[Reywas]

I'm going to give it a try. I'll let you know what I think.

 

[Hank]

Where can I find a detailed description of ersky9x and comparison to OpenTx?

 

[MikeB]

A good idea of erskyTx may be obtained from the er9x manual, see here: https://openrcforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6473#p90349
erskyTx is better of course.

Mike

 

[Nigel]

I wanted to ask for the sake of learning more about ersky, what are the key differences between erskyTX and OpenTX? Any reason I should run one or the other?

 

[Wayne]

For the record I'm no expert on this subject, but ErskTx does not have or need flight modes. OpenTX added the flight modes. This is why OpenTX can be used without flight modes, but have all of the functions of flight modes.

I understand ErskyTx is also a little easier to use(would have to play with it a lot more to decide for myself), but it does have a much smaller user base, so it may be more difficult to find help should it be needed. Like Mike said, check the manual and see what you think.

Functionality - I think you will find them very similar.

One great advantage to ErskyTx is the speed that Mike can make changes to it. Since it is basically a 1 man team, and Mike is amazing, he often times has working code in a very short time period. He typically shares that code with OpenTX team, and maybe 6 months later you will see the new function in OpenTX.

 

[Konrad]

I'd like to learn about the lack of flight modes. On my F-14 I use a lot of flight modes to control the configuration. For example in landing mode I have ailerons as flaps with the aileron function locked out. I use the tailavons as roll control, with trim for pitch and roll. In wing sweep the wing control surfaces are locked. All control is done with the tailavons, again with pitch and roll trim). In low speed (wings out) I have the flaps coupled to the ailerons for strong roll, again with associated pitch and roll trims.

I'd like to look into this non-flight mode programing. I wonder if it is a pyridine shift in thinking like what we got with the Multiplex Profi 4000 with the object based mixers rather than the master/slave concept of most transmitters.

@Wayne I just skimmed the ER9X ( from MikeB's link) manual and do see flight modes, pg 36 & 43. Is there another document explaining why flight modes aren't required?

 

[Wayne]

Oh, maybe he added them in.. pie on face. I told you I'm no expert! (But have been told that OpenTX original goal was to add flight modes to ErskyTx.)

So you know how you use flight modes in your mixes to trigger all of those changes? And you know how you are using switches to trigger your flight modes? Well, just get flight modes out of the middle and you now have all of the same features without the use of a flight mode. Switches trigger the mixes directly.

Flight modes may be easier for some to use, and I'm told they are great when you have hard trim changes that need to change with a flight mode. But for me I have never used a flight mode in OpenTX, so I can not give any assistance in this area, just what I have seen others say or do with it. Not saying I do not have complex mixes, just saying I have not used a flight mode in any of them. It for sure adds more power to the system..

 

[Konrad]

To the way I write the flight modes (configuration changes) I want to be able to re-trim the ship for each configuration (wing sweep or flap settings) without influencing the other configuration trims.

Like you I don't claim to have the answers. I'm open to ideas to make things cleaner and simpler, be it in the programing but more to the point pilot work load.

 

[MikeB]

Yes, I added flight modes to erskyTx not so long after they appeared in openTx. You have two switches you may configure to enable each flight mode. This is usually enough so you don't need to use a logical switch, so it keeps things together in the same menu.

erskyTx also has a very powerful voice alert system. Here is the menu item for a voice alert:

Source is the item such as a telemetry item.
Function is one of: ------- v>val, v<val, |v|>val, |v|<val, v~=val, v=val, v & val, |d|>val, v.mod.val=0
Value is the val used in the function
Switch is used to enable the alert
Trigger is one of: ON OFF BOTH ALL ONCE or a value from 2 to 30 seconds
On Delay allows for a pause before starting the output, useful when the switch a 6-pos switch.
Play Source is No, Before or After (the voice file specified later)
On no Telemetry allows alerts to be muted hen no telemetry is available
Trigger = ON, means play the alert when both the function and the switch are TRUE.
Trigger = OFF, means play the alert when both the function and the switch were TRUE and one or both become FALSE.
Trigger = BOTH, means play for both ON and OFF, with the last character of the filename having 1 added to it for OFF.
Trigger = ALL is like BOTH, but works for the 6-pos switch with 0,1,2,3,4 or 5 being added to the last character of the filename, or with the current flight mode.
A trigger value of 2 to 30 causes the alert to be repeated periodically at the specified rate (as long as the function and switch are true)

There are 8 global voice alerts, common to all models, and each model has 36 voice alerts. These are easy to set up, again, everything you need is in the one menu, no need to have to set logical switches then special functions.

One other thing, I've kept the radio and model data structures backward compatible, so updating the firmware doesn't need any special care regarding updating models in EEPROM. Even models from old releases still work, they get automatically updated on the radio. Models are also very compatible between different radios, although you do need to take care of specific hardware differences by hand, e.g. when you transfer a model to another radio that has a different number of switches or pots.

MIke

 

[MikeB]

To give a flavour of the erskyTx user interface, here are a couple of screen shots (from 128x64 display):
The popup from the main screen:

The model setup index screen:

The model index screen from a colour display:

Mike

 

[Wayne]

The voice alert screen alone is a major improvement over how OpenTX handles the same job. Nice!!

 

[PhilE]

I always thought that OpenTX left out the Expo/Dual Rates screen. I find the the keys to get to the Radio Setup and Model Setup in OpenTX confusing in OpenTX. Have loaded erskyTX on one of my Taranis... much better. Also have a 9X upgraded with a AR9X board and erskyTX running on that. Bought one of the infamous Jumper T12 with the external 4 in 1 module. Stolen the module and put the T12 back on the market. Its a bit small for my hands. If I kept it, I would load erskyTX on that too!

Thanks Mike for all the work you have done on erskyTX, I would like to help but my C/C++ skills are not what they could be (I've ended up as a web developer - I could tart up er9x.com ;o)

Phil

 

[RVan]

This 10 min video Joao posted on YT might also be useful for those interested in erksyTx: https://openrcforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8797

Rick

 

[MikeB]

I've posted a few screenshots of the current look on the X20 here: https://openrcforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13679&start=60#p155596.

Mike

 

[Wayne]

Mike, you really need a graphics guy.

 

[Hank]

Mike, you really need a graphics guy.

It could use some jazzing up graphically.

 

[MikeB]

I've only recently sorted the touch function, and just put a few, simple icons in. I'm happy to have input, including suitable icons and graphics form others.
On the Horus I did add some icons on the Model Setup Index screen (see below). These can be 24x24, although I started with 20x20 so some are still this size. I kept these to just 16 colours. Again, I did them quickly, but needed to write the code to display them in the correct place.
I should be able to add icons to the X20, I think they can be 48x48.

I kept to 16 colours so icons will embed into the firmware without becoming too large, so my current code for displaying them expects 16 colours. 24x24 with 4 bits per pixel is 288 bytes.

I probably do need some help with their design!

Mike

 

[RVan]

Mike,

Your efforts are forcing my hand regarding the purchase of an X20.

Rick

 

[Yuriy]

Brief history:
Mostly this all started with the FlySky/iMax/Turnigy/Eurgle 9X radio.
New firmware was written for this by Thomas Husterer, called TH9X.
This was forked and became er9x. Eventually open9x was forked from er9x.
In 2012 I added a voice module to the 9X, I may well have been the first person with a talking transmitter!
Then came the SKY upgrade board for the 9X with an ARM processor (Atmel).
I worked with Brent on the hardware design, then I ported er9x (called ersky9x) to it, requiring all new hardware drivers.
Many of these were then transfered into open9x so that could run on the SKY board.
Next came the Taranis with a STM ARM processor, so another set of hardware drivers was needed, many of which I wrote for ersky9x, and were ported to openTx.
Development continues in both erskyTx and openTx, with ideas and code passed between them.

ErskyTx currently runs on at least:
9X with SKY board.
9XR-PRO (really a SKY board).
9X with AR9X board.
9X with SmartieParts 9Xtreme board
ARUNI board.
FrSky X9D.
FrSky X9D+.
FrSky X9E.
FrSky QX7.
FrSky X9Lite (erskyTx shipped by FrSky).
FrSky X9LiteS (erskyTx shipped by FrSky).
FrSky XLite.
FrSky X12.
FrSky X10.
FrSky X10S.
FrSky X10S Express.
Jumper T12.
Jumper T16.
RM TX16S.
RK TX18.

erskyTx is very powerful, similar in capability to openTx, but is considered by many to be easier to navigate and configure.
There is also a PC program, eepskye, (was called eepe for the 9X) that may also be used to configure the radio. openTx companion was forked from eepe.

Mike

Hello Mike.
Thank you very much for your work.
My 9xr-pro still in use and no want's to go out.

I have a couple of question: 223 firmware from http://www.er9x.com/ will work with r9-m on ExpressLrs, right?
Is it the latest firmware for Turnigy 9xr-pro?