Virtual channel monitor?

In doing complicated or complex mixes, it's often useful to be able to see the output of a virtual channel, to verify that it's doing what you expect. Even something simple like the dialable stagility mode, I can check the input from AUX5 & the sticks, and I can check the output of the mode select channel, but to check the state of the switch that connects those things, I have to set up an output channel that just maps the virtual channel that is the switch.

Is there something I've missed that would let me check on that? If not, is there any chance of getting those added to the channel monitor display?

Hi,
I think you're right.
I use a bar graph in the gui to check my virtual channel, but a real monitor must be a plus!

You can leave a comment on the BitBucket section.

I created an issue on bitbucket here:

bitbucket.org/PhracturedBlue/deviation/i...s-in-channel-monitor

I've added this feature to the nightlies and created a pull request . While I was at it, I added a PPM input monitor for Extend mode. It might be possible to make it work in Channel & Stick mode, but that didn't seem nearly as useful, so I didn't look into it.

If you can't build your own, let me know what Tx you have and I'll provide a build with this code in it (among other fixes).

It's good to be able to see all virtual channels.

I could see one of my virtual channels not working as it should (which I was not aware of before) so it has already been helpful to me, thank you.

However (and this is just my opinion), I would like to see just 2 screens; all inputs on one screen and all outputs on the other. On "Outputs screen", virtual channels would just follow actual channels like on a models Mixer page. I would change the number only for channels to the extended name (to be consistent with the Mixer page) eg. 4-Rud, 5-Gear, Ch6.

When PPM-input is set to "Stick" and the trainer switch is enabled then:
- "Stick inputs" monitor should be showing the students stick movements.
- "Channel outputs" monitor should be showing the result of all mixing on the master transmitter, including virtual channels.

When PPM-input is set to "Channel" and the trainer switch is enabled then:
- "Stick inputs" monitor should just display a message like "Student has control"
- "Channel outputs" monitor should be showing Channel outputs from students tx and nothing else (no virtual channels).

The only indication that PPM is active would be in appending (PPM) to the title:
- "Stick inputs (PPM)"
- "Channel outputs (PPM)"

When PPM-input is set to "Extend" then you would see additional inputs on "Stick inputs" screen; with "Channel outputs" screen showing all, including virtual channels.

I actually set out to do things they way you described, with the virtual channels following the output channels on that page. This causes problems on the touch screen controllers, where the page organization is totally different. The existing monitor pages (output, telemetry, and button input which isn't in the b&w controller firmware) are laid out radically differently and don't scroll. Changing that page would have required redesigning the page layout, then rewriting all the code for it. Adding them as separate pages there was much simpler, but meant that I really needed to do things that way on the b&w controllers as well, or it would have caused the code to diverge even further. Since I don't think the single-page UI design is a clear win, I went with the simpler, more maintainable code.

I've never actually used the PPMIN stuff before - I just added that page because it was easy to do while I was working on this, seemed useful and might prompt the people who were actually using it to make suggestions.

I'd expect that the output monitor to show the values you're asking for, because those are the outputs in those modes. If that's not the case, I think we need to create an issue for it as a bug. Adding the "(PPM)" notation to the output monitor would just be confusing, as the output channels in that case aren't going to the PPM output line, but to the RF module.

The input channels are a different case. While the monitor doesn't have special handling for the case of the inputs coming from the student, that might be happening in the input processing code. If so, then all you really want is a change in the labels and setting the input channel count to 0 in one case. That's easy enough.

If you're using these features, could you let me know if my conjecture about the output values is right, and how the input channel monitor currently behaves? If you're not using it (which doesn't mean suggestions aren't welcome!), I'd rather hold off on anything complicated until we can get input from someone who is using these features.

All the pages on the touch screen controllers need to be updated to make use of scrollable. Currently only 2 pages use scrollable, even thou it looks like many do. I think the reason is because they were created by PB before scrollable existed.

It needs to be done to take advantage of scrollable. Automatically scrolls when navigating past first or last item. And to keep both code bases similar.

I know, not much gained for the amount of effort required which is why I've been putting it off. And I just needed a break from Scrollable. What originally started as a fix reboot issue grew into a complete rewrite of it.

For now stick with what you have done, until I update the pages to use scrollable.

The more I think about it, the less sure I am that we want virtual channels on the output channels page. Inputs are clear: they are values read from controls on the transmitter. Outputs are also clear: they are values sent to the RF module (or the PPM output socket). The label "Output channels" is something of a misnomer because they can also used as input. Virtual channels aren't really one or the other. They aren't read from controls on the transmitter, and they aren't sent to output hardware. And it's not at all clear to me that there's any advantage to being able to scroll up/down to them as opposed to being able to scroll to them left/right - especially if they otherwise all fit on a page!

PPM inputs are pretty clearly inputs. Adding the ones I've got set up to the Inputs page should be straightforward, and would work fine on everyth. But I'd still like to hear from people who are using them to see what they'd say.

Another point: leaving them as multiple pages means you can point quickpage menu items at them. This works now on the touch-screen controllers. It doesn't work on the b&w controllers because they aren't really different pages. Expanding the b&w transmitter menu to match the touch-screen structure would mean switching between them would require navigating up/down the menu tree to change between them, which would be really ugly.