DFM Maps and Instrument Panel Apps updates ... and some thoughts on AR glasses

Hi All,

Just to keep my fellow pilots up to date - we did update DFM-Maps and DFM-InsP to work on the new (DC/DS-24II) transmitters when they first came out, and as far as we know they both run well in the compatibility mode where the DC/DS-24 I screen size is placed on the new larger screen. This is currently the default mode for the 24II transmitters. Please let us know if you have any issues with the apps in this mode. See www.jetiluadfm.app if you don't know about these apps.

What we'd really like to do is utilize the entire new screen and we're working on that using the native drawing features of the 24II. That will require changes to the apps (my to-do) as well as our data-generation website (my son Russell's to-do .. he built these and arranged the hosting for them), and that's a lot of work .. but we're happy to do it.

Most recently, we have been testing with the beta copy of the new lua updates Jeti has prepared for upcoming release. We need to make sure we are compatible with the planned lua updates, and can take advantage of new features that are being made available. I was delighted to see several of my requests included in the new version, and Jeti development has done a really good job in advancing lua capabilities on the DC/DS platform. I think everyone will be pleased with the changes when they are released.

I would like to make a large public thank-you to Jeti's dev team for their help and support with this ... this is how a great company supports their customers! Amateur developers like me always enjoy the chance to work with real professionals

Also as always a big thanks to my collaborator, Harry Curzon for his input on app design, testing, and features. He has shaped the development of the apps in a major way and I always respect and appreciate his contribution. He also has invested many hours in training videos to get new pilots on board with the apps.

We will keep you up to date as all of this progresses.

We are also excited about exploiting the new bluetooth telemetry stream of the DC/DS-24II to drive a set of AR glasses to provide a number of images that can be used during flight. The most basic capability is a graphical display of critical flight parameters shown in a way that has a light cognitive load on the pilot .. so not numerical data, but graphical data. Not needle gauges with numeric legends but arc or bar graph gauges that can be "read" by glancing at their shape vs. mentally parsing numbers. For my jet flying this is focussed on fuel state (fuel remaining, and time to bingo fuel) or approach speed on landing, depending on flight state.

It turns out that even if the gauges are overlaid with the aircraft position so you don't need to look away, there is still a significant issue with cognitive load in mentally focussing on an overlaid image. We've confirmed this with military pilots who use heads-up displays in combat operations, and with our own model flying experience. Interesting stuff...

We have also experimented with a "heads-up" display of aircraft position and DFM-Maps no-fly zones,  an "ILS" system with set of needles to guide horizontal position and glide slope on landing, and a "movie screen" 2D projection of vertical aerobatic manuevers vs. ideal shapes for practicing things like IMAC. It all works surprisingly well, and I have the sense there are a lot more good ideas possible, and a long road to develop there ideas with the community to enhance our flying in a meaningful way rather than just being "eye candy". 

All of this is working on the 24-I with a DIY bluetooth transmitter installed inside the TX in the little red connectors .. something us "mad scientist" types are comfortable to do, but not really suitable for pilots generally. With the new transmitters, the bluetooth stream is built-in, and we'll do an ios app to drive the glasses from the phone. Stay tuned! We have been using the Engo glasses with the ActiveLook API framework.

Another great AR app for the future would be a tracker for glider flying. If the glasses had head position tracking, we could place a small target on the glasses where the computed position of the glider is, and show the pilot where his/her plane is even if they lose sight of it. Then offer an artificial horizon and heading indicator to fly the glider back "by instruments". The Engo glasses don't have this capability, but there are other glasses that do, and new ones are coming out all the time. The Engos are really good for our application because they are self-contained (no wired connection) and have good battery life .. and are visible in bright sunlight. But AR stuff is advancing rapidly so we'll see...

Many of you may have seen posts from Dieter (nichtgedacht) here and on other fora about his pioneering efforts to use AR glasses in RC flying. He deserves great credit for seeing this possibility, and starting down the development path on it. His initial implementation showed that the basic connectivity from the TX to the glasses is workable. A very impressive piece of work! We worked together for a while on this, though our interests eventually diverged and Russell and I created our own system to support our interests, which had to be done differently to eventually allow it to be driven directly from the transmitter.

Let me know by DM if AR glasses are of interest to any of you.

Dave