Devation for mobile devices

I am currently waiting for the arrival of the next round of UniversalTx boards, so I decided to start working on a related project. While the UniversalTx board will be plug-and-play on most radios running Deviation (devo7e will require soldiering), it can also be used with any radio supporting PPM. In the latter case, the UniversalTx board will include an optional bluetooth module which will allow configuring protocols from a smartphone.

I decided to start working on an app to talk to the UniversalTx module while I wait for my new UniversalTx boards.

I decided to use cordova to build it primarily because there is a cross-platform bluetooth module for it. A side benefit is that it can be tested in any HTML5 compliant browser. So you can now test the current code here:
www.deviationtx.com/mobile_test/

The repository is here:
bitbucket.org/PhracturedBlue/deviation-mobile

Currently the code is just a mock-up to see how the layout will work and get me familiar with html5/css/javascript/cordova. It is still very crude, as the last time I did any javascript programming was 15 years ago, and things have changed a little since then.

I am interested in feedback on capabilities/use models, as well as code help if anyone has any mobile programming experience.

More Details:
Q: Is this at all helpful for my Devo6/8/10/12/7e?
A: Yes. Bluetooth will be supported when using the UniversalTx with Deviation. It could bring multiple capabilities including a full GUI implementation for configuring Deviation via your smartphone and voice alerts from the transmitter. I'm open to suggestions (also see the last question below)

Q: Can this be used without UniversalTx?
A: It should be possible to use a bluetooth module with Deviation without UniversalTx by wiring into the uart port, but I haven't tested this as yet. It would provide all the capabilities listed in the previous question.

Q: Does UniversalTx require bluetooth/smartphone?
A: When used with Deviation in a Walkera radio, no. When used in a OpenTx based radio (X9D), no. When used with any other radio via PPM, possibly.

Q: I thought you said it was a mobile app. Why does it run off a web-site? What if I don't have internet access?
A: While the code is HTML5, it is planned that this will be compiled as a native app for Android and iOS. However, at the moment, I am only buildingit as a web-page to facilitate testing (See comment above)

Q: What happens if the bluetooth conenction is lost during flight?
A: As long as you aren't sending PPM over bluetooth (see below) nothing. All parameters are stored on the UniversalTx board/Transmitter

Q: Can this be used with UniversalTx without a transmitter?
A: The UniversalTx board is designed to be able to operate in standalone mode. This means you could theoretically send PPM info to it via bluetooth and use your smartphone as a transmitter

Q: When will UniversalTx be available
A: I have no idea, but probably not very soon.

Q: What features are you planning for Deviation-Mobile?
For Deviation based radios:
* Audio alerts
* Full GUI interface for configuration
* Extra/better model management
* ??
For PPM radios:
* Protocol / Model management
* Full GUI interface for complex mixers(?)

Nice project!

I'm waiting for the UniversalTx module impatiently...

I have just about finished the app side (feel free to test it at the link above). There is still a bit of bluetooth stuff to take care of, but the API and capabilities are basically all there now. I'm also expecting the new UniversalTX boards to arive any day now.

I am not happy with this implementation either.

In mobile, for a given row, it is recommended to only have a single action. having a button to rename/delete as well as click-to-select is considered bad form.
There is also a secondary issue. For the model-name, I don't want to update it until you've actually finished typing, which basically means it needs to be a dialog popup as opposed to edit-in-place.

There are actually several functions needed:
1) Rename
2) Delete
3) Save As
4) Export (provide a way to transfer the model off the phone)
These all seem like file operations to me, which is why they are on the model-list page (which is similar to a file-selection page). having 3 buttons on the model page seems like too much.

How about this:
On startup the model page appears based on the last selected model. The model page has a 'back' arrow to get to the model-list page.
The model-list page gets a 'forward' arrow to get back to the model page
The current 'Model: <name>' line gets moved to the bottom and renamed to 'More Settings' or something. Pressing it will react like pressing the 'Configure' button does today.

Note that there will also need to be a menu linked to the phone's 'configure' button (and/or a top-level button to allow you to get there for devices without said button) to let you configure bluetooth properties and whatnot.

Try it now.
I know there are a couple of bugs:
1) Loading the page for the 1st time doesn't always work
2) if you select rename, you can't select it again until selecting delete
3) The txpower doesn't always show up on the model screen when you 1st load the page

I'm sure there are others too.

The code is now using an asynchronous bluetooth emulator which is closer to the real thing, and should help identify data availability race conditions.

Thanks for the feedback.
I've aligned the icons and fixed the popup menu issues.

I've changed the 'long-press' text so it may be a bit more obvious. I'll think more on how to make rename more obvious. Maybe I'll just add an explicit button for it on the model page (rename being the most common option. I don't think delete/copy need to be there too)

Done

I don't have any more boards for sale.
For a few bucks you can order 3 o them from OshPark. For a bit more, you can get 20 from seeed.
This isn't the trhead though. Go look for the multimod thread if you want to discuss a group buy or something

the mobile_test link above now points at the latest version of the software. This software has full bluetooth support (with a robust emulator in the web version).
I'm running this software on my S3, and have been able to use it to bind the UniversalTx w/ Bluetooth in PPM mode.
The software is still very crude. I need to do something more intelligent about handling channel ordering, and need to spend some more time on the board-side software, but the board is basically working as a PPM->Deviation translator now.

It seems like at a minimum I need a test page to show current channel values, or else it will be difficult to figue out how to map the PPM channels to the protocol channels. If anyone has ideas about how to handle this, I'm all ears.