F3G - Technic

Jeti F3G Timer & Announcement

Introduction

At F3G, it is necessary and helpful for the pilot to be up-to-date and accurately informed over a wide range of periods. These are e.g.

  • The 30 seconds of motor run time to know when the logger turns off the motor

  • The 40 seconds after starting the motor to be able to fly into the course at distance and speed

  • The 4 minutes "working time" for distance

  • ...

For training, but also for competition, it is possible to use the possibilities of modern remote controls and to measure these times precisely and have them output via the voice output on the transmitter.

I have therefore set up various stopwatches on my Jeti DC16, which tell me the times precisely, starting with the motor on.

Probably the most important timer is the announcement of the remaining motor run time (30 seconds) followed by "counting down" to the 40 seconds from when I can fly into the course at distance and speed.


Implementation

The implementation is actually not rocket science and consists of 3 components

  • The timer/stopwatch on the DC16. This is automatically activated when the engine is started (stick switch).

  • A customized language configuration file which executes a corresponding language file after 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 seconds and counts down from 9 to 0 after the 30 seconds.

  • Some additional language files for the voice output of the values, which are not included in the normal scope of delivery of the Jeti transmitter.


Preparation

In order to copy the language files and the language configuration file to the transmitter, it must be connected to the PC using a USB cable and USB transmission must be activated on the transmitter.
Alternatively, you can also remove the SD card from the transmitter and edit it directly on the PC.


Voice Files

So that I can get the "intermediate values" such as 15 seconds, 25 seconds, etc. announced, I had a total of 6 voice files in .wav format created on the Internet free of charge via a so-called "Text to Speech" offer. Its quite straight forward to create voice files (.wav format) for other languages using the internet Text-to_Voice services.
My language files are in German and are copied to the "Audio\de" directory on the Jeti transmitter (Download Voice Files (German))


Jeti Voice-Configuration File

Jeti has a total of 3 configuration files in the "Config" directory on the transmitter, which are used to control when which language file or sound should be output. I have adjusted the TimerV2.jsn for F3G and my requirements. The "transmitter" then counts up the engine runtime - 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 - and after the 30 seconds, down the 10 seconds to entry - 9, 8. 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 , 1, 0.

The file is quite simple:

[

{"Time":40,"Type":2,"File":"0.wav","Vib":0},

{"Time":39,"Type":2,"File":"1.wav","Vib":0},

{"Time":38,"Type":2,"File":"2.wav","Vib":0},

{"Time":37,"Type":2,"File":"3.wav","Vib":0},

{"Time":36,"Type":2,"File":"4.wav","Vib":0},

{"Time":35,"Type":2,"File":"5.wav","Vib":0},

{"Time":34,"Type":2,"File":"6.wav","Vib":0},

{"Time":33,"Type":2,"File":"7.wav","Vib":0},

{"Time":32,"Type":2,"File":"8.wav","Vib":0},

{"Time":31,"Type":2,"File":"9.wav","Vib":0},

{"Time":30,"Type":2,"File":"30sec.wav","Vib":0},

{"Time":25,"Type":2,"File":"25sec.wav","Vib":0},

{"Time":20,"Type":2,"File":"20sec.wav","Vib":0},

{"Time":15,"Type":2,"File":"15sec.wav","Vib":0},

{"Time":10,"Type":2,"File":"10.wav","Vib":0},

{"Time":5, "Type":2,"File":"5.wav","Vib":0}

]

(Download TimerV2.jsn)


Timer / Stop Watch

If the language files and the TimerV2.jsn are on the transmitter (it is best to switch off the transmitter after copying and switch it on again so that the configurations can be read in/updated), only a corresponding stopwatch needs to be set up. It looks like this for me.
In my case the "Sk" switch is configured as the motor switch and at it will, the same time, starts the stopwatch for the motor time.


Comment

However, the solution presented by me has one limitation / weakness. In the case of a "restart" in F3G, the stop watch on the transmitter must be "reset" via the display or a reset switch, otherwise it would be "silent" on the second climb and no announcements would be made.

All in all, the timer is a great help and relieves the helper in the competition from having to concentrate on what is happening in the flight and not struggling with a manual stopwatch all the time.