Flight Instruments/Engine Instruments/Arduino

This is a continuation of my old Arduino thread https://vansairforce.net/community/showthread.php?t=151119&highlight=arduino, which has covered a lot of territory and is getting long and complicated. Anyone who has followed the old thread know that Rob Prior and I have been developing open-source avionic displays for the last 3 years. We successfully introduced a suite of flight instruments and a tailBeaconX control head.

I have been working on engine instruments for at least that long, but never released them because there were too many configuration options to support, and there is no industry standardization on how to display all of the various engine parameters.

Recently, I received an email from a pilot who was using the flight displays as a backup to his Dynon HDX. He experienced a screen failure on his HDX, but was able to use our displays to successfully complete his flight. His one request was to include engine instruments in the software so that he could monitor critical engine parameters. Since I already had the code prototypes complete, it was easy for me to roll into a software load.

Of course, nothing is ever that simple... recent updates to the software development tools introduced some bugs that took some wrangling to work around. All this means is that I can't yet post the source code. However, I am able to generate binary files that are easy to upload to existing instruments (either the M5Stack or the huVVer-AVI displays) using Over-The-Air (OTA) updates.

Soooo.... I am introducing a Beta (trial) version of my Engine Instruments as an extension to the Flight Instrument library. Anyone interested in trying them out and providing feedback, please PM me and I will email the file(s).

Here's some Pics. Please note: The raw data for these is provided by a Dynon SkyView display. Garmin G3X also works, but without the fuel economy and range computations. Note that the last two photos look similar. The first one provides fuel level gauges, while the second one shows fuel flow and fuel remaining--- for aircraft that don't have fuel gauges (ahem).

The Flight Instruments library now contains 11 gauges, not including diagnostic pages, all selectable in flight. A favorite (power on default) gauge can be selected, and unused gauges can be turned off.

Revised QuickStart Guide for Version 7

This guide covers the additional engine instruments, plus the support for Group Dimming. Group Dimming allows any one instrument to control the brightness level of all attached instruments.

Also, the huVVer-AVI load and QuickStart Guide are available for download here: https://www.huvver.tech/huvver-avi/

Note: the M5Stack version is also available, but it does not support Group Dimming without an external CAN bus transceiver.

View attachment huVVer-AVI-V7A.pdf

Update: We are now at release 7, with additional features:

Standard flight instruments, OnSpeed energy display, plus engine gauges consisting of
- Engine Power
- CHT/EGT
- Fuel/Oil/Electrics with dual tank levels or flow/fuel remaining.

- Added 4-channel selectable group dimming. When using multiple displays, changing the brightness level on one instrument will set all displays on the same channel to the same level. Requires the CAN bus wiring to be connected.

- Added Garmin Airdata Set 2 message decoding for more compatability with Dynon SkyView features.

- Shortened power-on time and increased screen update rate for smoother graphics.

- A new Instrument Reference that provides a summary of all instrument settings:

View attachment huVVer-AVI-Ref-V700.pdf

Release 7 is available for OTA updates on the huVVer-AVI or M5Stack Core devices. FMI www.huvver.tech

Cheers, Vern

Thanks for all the work to keep improving the platform!

I have a huVVer-AVI that I'm using as an engine monitor, and I'm wondering how hard/easy it is to modify the composition of the screen to swap out some text indicators (e.g. show highest CHT instead of range). I have some basic arduino experience, is it worth trying to figure out how to mod the code, or does it require a lot of familiarization with the codebase / build / update process, and carries risk of bricking the device?

romirez said:

Thanks for all the work to keep improving the platform!

I have a huVVer-AVI that I'm using as an engine monitor, and I'm wondering how hard/easy it is to modify the composition of the screen to swap out some text indicators (e.g. show highest CHT instead of range). I have some basic arduino experience, is it worth trying to figure out how to mod the code, or does it require a lot of familiarization with the codebase / build / update process, and carries risk of bricking the device?

Click to expand...

Hi Roman.
One of the reasons I introduced the engine gauges two years after the flight instruments is that there is no standardization on what pilots want. So I took my best shot at it, as an example. Since it is open source, you can make your own instruments by using the existing ones as a guide. Unfortunately, there is a glitch in the matrix…. new versions of the Arduino IDE and board managers require some tinkering under the hood to get things to compile.

Since I don't/can’t/won’t/am unable to support any questions about how to set up the IDE on your system, and the new IDE releases are a bit of a challenge, I have not published the huVVer-AVI version 7 source code to the world on my huvver.tech website

What I have done is to email the source code to qualified developers. The main Flightinstruments.ino file has all of the instructions required to download the required libraries and hack the IDE to get it to compile. I can do this for you.

The library is extensive and complex, but battle hardened. Good Luck.

BTW, if you brick a device, just hold down the top two buttons at startup, or run the provided utility in the library to do a 'restore all'.

Send me a PM withyour email address.

Vern

Version 8

Version 8.00 “Developer Edition” of the huVVer-AVI instrument library is now available for download at www.huvver.tech.

The good news is that it is identical in function to Version 7.11, so no immediate upgrade is required.

The better news is that the design architecture has been streamined to simplify the source code and to use the industry standard TFT_eSPI library directly. This means that developers who are working with the library can now see a simpler path to enhancements and modifications. It also means that the huVVer-AVI can run all of TFT_eSPI programs directly, opening the door to hundreds of non-Aviation applications.

Note: this enhancement no longer supports the M5Stack Design environment.

Source code will be distributed to qualified developers upon request.



Cheers, Vern