A wish for a user interface.

My sincere apologies for stepping on any toes.

Deviation is a wonderful creation. My inexpensive Devo 7e turns $20 toys into marvelous, subtle, controllable aircraft. It flies large and complex models too. It's almost unlimited in it's capabilities. I've got a diverse collection of model aircraft, as do many others. They all fly much better under Deviation control than with their original equipment.

But Deviation needs a front end. An easily understood user interface to enable a model flier to write, tune and adjust model files. To better describe their needs to Deviation without becoming programmers or learning a new language.

A program running on Windows, or perhaps in Chrome (for portability) like Cleanflight uses ... that will better organize concepts and channels and such. Describe the control and function of a complex model on a single screen. Making switches and buttons and any other controls accessible and organized and easily adjustable.

I'm a programmer by trade, among other things, with knowledge of a dozen or so languages. The Deviation user interface gives me a headache. I'm sure it makes sense to those who built it. (Been there, done that.) But to mere mortals it's another story. The model.ini files are a little better, but not much. Still headache inducing. Especially when you only want to make a few simple changes and get back to flying or building a model. I don't want to become a Deviation assembly language programmer.

Something as common as a three-way switch needs to be built from multiple inscrutable pieces. And the thankful help is so mired in Deviate-speak and associated odd defaults -- that help often leads to treasure hunts for more information. (Those that write programs should not write manuals for the programs they write. For fear no one else will understand them. A common problem.)

Deviation is mind-blowingly, deliciously wonderful. But it's not quite finished. The creation of a good, simple to use front-end will make it so much better -- and so much more in demand. So much more usable. So much more delicious.

Thanks very much to all the wonderful folks that have created and nurtured and supported Deviation. They're all ahead of their time and beyond measure in their importance to the present and future of R/C.

Thank you!

Since you're a programmer by trade, please feel free to write one! You can already mount the file system via USB, so all you have to do is write a UI that reads and writes the existing files. Given that deviation is an open source volunteer project, the only way such a UI will happen is if someone who wants it writes it.

I agree Deviation has a very steep learning curve, I have been a user since it's birth and i still struggle with a lot of things it is capable of...Would be nice to have a program that runs on a pc then simply upload model files ect to the tx when finished..Deviation is still young and growing but is only getting better and better as time goes on..It has came a long ways since its birth and has a long ways to go.Looking forward to future developments and ones that are already in testing like the voice alerts ect...I can only imagine were it will be a year from now..

If users want those guided menus they go and buy a Spektrum DX18 or DX9 for lots of more money (and kicked out features, e.g on DX6-DX7)

Even those klickibunti firmwares missed to explain the stuff, e.g when the glider program update came out for the DX8: Noone had a clue how to go into the flight modes. Spektrum simply missed to explain they have to double-press the roller button.

The DX8 airware was really easy to configure, just like the simple DeviationTX mixer UI.

But on the other side it misses all the free programming stuff DeviationTX is capable of.


I also do not really believe that DeviationTX advanced menu programming is that complicated when I hear what people are writing about OpenTX feature stuff...I am a programmer / IT specialist myself...

I had started a thread a while ago where I wrote about some features / benefits what I like about the simple mixer GUI and what features (e.g auto changing points in point curves, gyro, etc.) I like to be ported from the simple mixer GUI to the advanced mixer GUI.
Maybe I can lookup my old thread and link it here too.

It is not that you would have to start from scratch but at least you have to add:
- free programmable switches
- writing the plane / advanced mixer logic from this "simple GUI".

Like orienting a bit e.g to newer Spektrum airware (DX18, DX9,...) menus, a bit of other vendors here and there as well as in how to get basic menus and mappings ready for planes, gliders (!= helis) too.
But look at Graupners hand book and how many pages it fills just for those menu stuff Nevertheless many questions on RC forums too!


At the end probably its tons of work (especially if you start from scratch) - and I do not really like the PC suggestion as that would mean I have to connect my Devo to USB just for a simple (first) configuration.
But yes, that is an option as well as.
Go for creating templates on PC and simply modifying those on the PC / DeviationTX.

Why not speak to the OpenTX developers and consider to use their pushed-out / working PC GUI app and check if only the low-level mapping needs to be adopted for DeviationTX advanced mixer GUI?
Why has the wheel to be created twice?
Or have they moved to the "run the config wizzard on the Taranis only" route?


The truth may be - as I understand it - which also will apply besides DeviationTX for Er9x, OpenTX & Co.: You do not really replicate the 0815 stuff from the vendors, don't you?

IMHO there is a bit more important stuff to be developed / enhanced for DeviationTX than only a different UI
- like protocols & testings e.g Spektrum DSMx new protocol stuff for reliability and telemetry
- glider 5+ flight-modes
- adding flexible display light options (nightly-build added and removed again that sticks stop dimming)
....

I really like the mixer UI and all its possibilites. The most important: It is finished & working


At the end the question even applies:
Do you need those 350-1500euro standard simple menus in a Devo TX and would you even use this TX to fly the same planes / helis / gliders as you would use e.g a 350-800EUR TX for?


Well, I neither want to hold you back for some minor or bigger enhancements


Is there some vote tool already to give some features / ideas some push for attention and assign priorities 1-5 (which the forums can't alone)?

My 2 cents

Thomas

+1
...the 2 cents.

Just as an aside, have you tried the interface on the 6/8/12? I could imagine that navigating through the advanced interface on the 7E is not the best, especially if not using the small interface (did that ever become standard?)
You can use the emulator of the above to edit and create ini files on a PC; so you can use a more user-friendly graphical interface (and touch input) to do your editing, then bring the files onto your "real" 7E

Caveat: It's been 4 or 5 years since I looked at OpenTx & CompanionTx. The config wizard was still in beta and the Taranis was a long way away. So this may be dated.

I don't think porting the OpenTX desktop app to deviationTx would buy you very much. OpenTx requires a desktop component. It doesn't have a USB file system, so you need a tool to move models to/from the transmitter. Further, the files are binary, so you need a desktop editing tool. All of that's expected.

The second issue is that the internal model is different. deviation has switches and channels merged into a single concept. OpenTx has them as two different things, complete with both virtual switches and virtual channels.

The virtual switch feature extends to having real flight modes. I don't know if the config system uses that or not, but if it does, it's yet another thing to deal with.

Bottom line: I don't think you could use a lot of the code outside of the UI elements and maybe a bit of config wizard logic.

If I really wanted to use the OpenTx companion with my Devo tx's, I'd look at porting OpenTx to them. It might be easier, but would be a radically different type of project so it's hard to say. But the upside is enormous. The aforementioned flight modes and a mature voice alert system for starters. The real winner - at least for users of low-end transmitters - is an internal architecture designed to make it easy to select features at compile time, along with a build environment bundled into the desktop companion and a GUI for doing custom builds. You would want to do the port in such a way that you could plug the deviation protocol directory into the build and use them all.

The survey I ran a while back included questions designed to get user input about priorities. IIRC, it was mostly more protocols and some kind of external configuration. But the deviation user base isn't big enough to attract people willing to do "whatever", so the only priority lists that matter are the ones the people willing to step up and do the work have.

Hello,

I would appreciate an user interface like Companion for OpenTx for Deviation.

I like to program my Tx easy at the PC.

Greetings

Horst

I like the idea very much, a software GUI basically setting up your devo over USB.

Ability to edit your devo screens and make model files using a GUI with some wizzards, like quad, heli, plane, have predifined mixers for swash v tail flapperon etc.
But I think could be hell of a jo to do it, but for sure many will apreciate it!

Don't forget about the DeviationTX templates you can already use in the advanced mixer UI.

You can have all those predefined mixes there when you create a new model by loading the appropriate template.

Better let other experts create the ini model / template files and just use / adjust them

First of all, I think a PC interface to edit models would be tremendous. It could allow us to present GUIs that could make some of the more complicated setups tasks easier.

• Complex channel setups
• Screen Layouts
• etc...

Of course, in order to build it, you would have to be somewhat knowledgeable about how DeviationTX works internally. Then you would have to figure out a UI that could simplify the process. This is where I get stuck.

Aren't we essentially just talking about a PC/tablet/phone GUI that can create model.ini files? If so, could be done in any language that has the ability to write a text file, just need to work out an interface, which is the major issue. Didn't someone make an online ini creator a while ago? Might just need some tweaking.