Deviation for Devo F4?

congrats, nice to hear!!

Congratulations!! Sometimes trying to find what's wrong with something can be the most annoying thing there is as often you have to catch the culprit by accident!!

Now you can get back to having some fun!!

Solved a small issue that was bugging me, purely aesthetic, but that's me (one of the blue bling nuts came without a thread so I was one short, and I was also a short arm switch missing for the throttle hold switch which had a long arm one on it, but I had a short flat arm one that had the wrong type of thread... so I just sanded the thread off it, stuck it in place with some hot glue, and stuck the threadless nut into place, and now it looks like any of the other switches... PERFECT!!).

Anyway, I had a brainstorm, but I would need someone to help me with a tiny thing. I wanted to have the throttle trim as a throttle trim, and have some button somewhere to turn the video on and off instead. The problem is I can't figure out (and never have been able to figure out) how to move the control from the trim to one of the switches, for example, to the FMODE switch. Every time I've tried, it just won't do what I want it to do.

The brainstorm I have... I have my transmitter looking very much like an F7 right now switchwise, with the exception of the TRN/HOLD switch which is where I have my video antenna... anyway, getting back to it. I don't need any more switches for my uses, what I have now is perfect for my needs (once I get the dial sorted), and I like to have things look original or at the very least smart. So I was wondering where to put the video switch... and if I can figure out another switch on the MCU for a simple on/off switch, then what I am going to do is fit a small on/off switch where the Devo 10 has its dial trims, as the F4 (and the F7) has the plastic inside molded for it!!



It'll be a perfect little switch to turn the video on and off, and it's not something I'm going to flick by mistake in flight because of how small it is. I have the switch already, as I have an old Walkera WK-2402 transmitter for parts, and the power switch on it is perfect!! So I can have a nice switch that looks original, and be functional.



Now, writing this I have a theory as to why I couldn't get the HOLD switch to work... there are 2 pins marked as HOLD, one of which has an asterisk. The switch is shared along with the TRN switch... so, what about if HOLD is not from the MCU to GND, but rather those 2 pins bridged... and TRN is one of those HOLD pins bridged with the TRN one? If so, would they bridge direct or via a resistor or something? Also, what does the asterisk mean?? I mean, I was thinking about using the GEAR switch for my video switch (video gear, it fits I guess hehehe), but GEAR also has an asterisk. D/R and the 2 MIX pins also have an asterisk, but FMODE doesn't. I'm wondering if an asterisk means that they don't connect to GND, but to another pin... and if it is the case, then which one to which? I mean, if it were the HOLD pin without the asterisk for all of them, why call it HOLD?

I'm going to have to do some testing... if the worst comes to the worst and I can't figure out another switch, then I'll put VIDEO onto FMODE, rewire that into the new switch, and put the existing FMODE switch via the arduino.

BTW... does anyone have an F7 to at least tell me what input name on Deviation is controlled by the dial? It's marked as AUX2, but there is no AUX2 in the Deviation list of switches to change.

wDo you mean the asterisk in the f7 schematics? that means that the pinout has been corrected.

Assigning a switch for video on/off is easy. go to model setup-->video. There you can,select the channel,and the switch for on off. Note: better do this,with a vtx enabled, because if you select video and assign it to a switch that is not installed, you will stuck in,video mode. e.g. the bluescreen without menu.

To get back the trim switch to,work, go to trim and set it up the same way as on,ail for example (but use thr instead of ail obviously)

In the model setup? I've been trying to do it in the virtual channel setup in the mixer menu as I thought that was where it was set up because of the "complex" channel setup...

Thanks, takes a moment to get it right but I got it working on the FMODE channel... and I can find GEAR1 on the selection available... so if I can find that switch and get it working, should work great!!

Shame I can't figure out the pot pin, that would have been perfect... seems a waste to have to add an arduino for just one pot, but I don't need more than one

Right... Switch Update...

I can now confirm that this point here on this image (3rd pin from the bottom, the wire is so fine it didn't come out in the photo) is for the GEAR switch, and it just goes to ground like the FMODE switch does. Supposedly, the D/R switch is right above it (4th pin from the bottom), but I haven't tried it yet, nor do I know what it would change as there is no "D/R" in the input monitor. Those that don't want to add a switch like this might find this point useful to use the GEAR switch in place of a HOLD switch for their throttle... I'm going to try and find one more switch later on to see if I can get that as a programmable switch, as my mod is fine for planes and multirotors, but not good for 6ch helis that need HOLD in the centre of the stick.



I think the switch has come out pretty good, and looks very luch like the pot trim switch on the Devo 10



And on the inside, just glued in carefully with hot glue, being careful not to glue the actual switch as the switch is open on the ends, and you can get glue inside... but it came out great I think!! As I said, it just directs the pin from the MCU direct to ground, which here I just wired it into the ground of the FMODE switch



As far as working os concerned, it works great!! In the up position, the screen in is "menu mode", and in the down position, it's in "FPV mode". It protrudes enough to be able to flick it easily, but low enough in comparison with the other 2 switches up there to not be knocked by mistake in flight... you have to consciously turn it on and off, which is just what I was looking for, and aesthetically fits in just right with the rest of the transmitter I think.

Thank you Sir for clarifying that with the video switch, I now have one model base which I will use as a template, so they all have video on/off from the initial creation.

I flashed with Defuse my I DEVO F4 but is still labeled USB DEVIATION. Can you tell me where I can find a guide?
Thank you all

In the USB drive created, do you have a file called "devo.fs"?

If not, copy it in...

Has anyone tried copying the devo.fs file over from an Android device with an OTG cable? Just thinking of an alternative...

jepp,works.I even did some changes in devo.fs with a tx!t editor because of the lack of a laptop charger. forgot it at home and am on vacation

PhracturedBlue wrote: ... If you are on a Mac, this is known not to work, and you'll need to find some alternative

For me the alternative is to use the buildfs tool to create the devo.fs file directly on the controller. And since you'll be using that tool anyway to make changes to the contents of the radio, it may as well be the last step in the process, in my opinion.

<Edit> Thanks SirDomsen & Epitaph!

PhracturedBlue wrote: ... If you see any issues, let me know (or even better just fix them, the wiki is open to all users)

Nice! I fixed a couple of minor typos, but ...
I question this:At this point the Deviaton Uploader Tool 0.8.0 does not recognize the F4 - don't know about the others in the F series.We need to use the special version of the Uploader that you created (Thank You!).
I guess I should let you decide what you want to say about that.
I could copy the info from the Wiki to the manual, but I don't think I'm competent working with markup and this calls for section headings.

That wiki seems pretty sound from what we've been finding out here... nice work FB!!

That said, are you going to add F4 to the "Welcome to Deviation" initial home page list or are you going to wait till the major bugs are ironed out?

Ok... I got hold of a VERY good offer, I pulled the trigger on a Hobbyking moment of lucid absence and got five OrangeRx DSM2/X short range telemetry units for $4 shipped, and I now have them here in hand...

But one thing I was wondering, I haven't had the chance to try them out yet so i don't know, but is there a way to get the telemetry overlay on the video feed? I mean, if there isn't a way or it can't be added because of limitations, then there isn't... but if you can, it would be good for things like battery voltage and things like that.

BTW Sir, what sketch did you use in the end for your controls? I've used one that Cereal_Killer made which is working alright (I only have the 1 pot through it) but I had to put some weird values in the setup (centre PW 1630, Delta PW 380) for it to get the full range and centre properly, which it is now perfect.

I'm feeding the Arduino exactly 5V in via the Vcc in pin (not the USB port), and the pots get their Vcc and GND off the existing transmitter pots (which is something like 3.6V). I found that feeding the Arduino directly from the battery gave a fluctuating value to the PPM values depending on the charge of the battery, hence why I fed it off a UBEC to have a constant value. I tried with the pots getting their Vcc off the UBEC too, but that was giving me even more wackier results on the centre and the end points.

I mean, it's working now and going great as long as I remember those values in the setup when i configure a model, but I was just curious as to what sketch you ended up using.

@ Epitaph I use a much modified skatch, don't know if it was from cereal_killer or not. I changed the values in the sketch in a way that I have to use delta 500 and 1500 center which is pretty easy to memorize. I can upload it here if you want me to...
I'm feeding the arduino with 3.3V from Devo's stock 3.3V supply - works great, as the Arduinos I use run very stable at that voltage (Pro mini somewhere from Aliexpress, black PCB)

@PB I have an assumption what happens while in Video mode: If you fly FPV (which works great with your devo.fs improvements you mentioned!) and reach the end of transmitting range, some noise gets into the display. The noise seems to "blow" the OSD away. If the picture gets really bad, almost everything of the OSD is gone. When signal is lost, The F4 overlays that blue screen. If you use the video out, you can see the noise it still receives - but the OSD cant be seen on noisy background. I suppose that we should have an algorithm here that switches video off if no video signal is received anymore - perhaps when the Devo starts dispaying its blue screen, if there is any chance to get that for Deviation. that would also prevent us from a weird thing: If you want to select the switch for video on/off, you always have to connect a working vTX, because video mode gets activated once you want to select Video switch and you will likely stuck in that blue screen then and can't see what you are doing in the menus anymore. It's difficult to select the correct video switch then