4 replies to this topic

[Malx]

Since I finally got a cable free connection (bluetooth) I have started to use GCS for more than just the configuration. One thing I found a little strange is FlightTime.

Shouldn't that be UpTime instead since its the time the board have been powered, not the time it has been flying. FlightTime would for me be the time it has been armed...

I realize that this may be some form of standard on how they are logging flight hours on "commercial"/regulated aircrafts. In that case, just ignore my question

[peabody124]

No standard that I know of.  That's a good point.  We could also add a FlightTime which counts how long it is armed too.

[Malx]

Something like that would be great. I'm guessing the normal behavior for a UAV is that you power it on, connects it to GCS and doing preflight checks, mission control and stuff like that before it gets a go. In that case, today's "FlightTime" would already be a couple of minutes.

I'm not sure the "armed time" is the way to go, it was just a suggestion. That may be better ways to count flight time (Mission time for an UAV as example).
I suggest that we at least change name on today's "FlightTime" to "UpTime"/"RunningTime"/? since "FlightTime" is misleading.

[FredericG]

And also, as a small note, it would be good if GCS would not show seconds, but min:sec

[jes1111]

Yes - I wondered about this, too.

As I see it, we should have a configurable "timer" module, so you can add multiple instances to your GCS setup. The module should have configuration options for what it counts (from UAVobjects) and how. For example, you could have a "total airframe flight time" counter, which is cumulative, i.e. cannot be zeroed. Or a battery pack timer (which counts time spent above idle) with a settable alarm time (after which the figures turn red and count "over time").

The code would be relatively simple but keeping it lean and clean would require some thought.