Portrait mode with split screen as Aspen Avionics E5

[DocTopi]

Doug is right (#20): the further development should prefer portrait mode in my opinion.
In portrait mode it would be possible to split the screen similar to Aspen Avionics E5:
in the upper section the display with the 2019 Release elements without heading,
in the lower section compass arc selectable from GPS or magnetic sensor (additional in Stratux necessary or are iPhone`s sensors suitable?) and heading bug input referring to this with values in true or magnetic north.
Perhaps it is possible to get values of lateral course deviation from Foreflight or a simple app running in Raspberry. In this way it could be possible to display a HSI screen ...

I´m very curious about the further development. Many thanks for the until now done.
Kind regards
Franz

[knicholson32]

Very interesting ideas! Such changes would certainly expand the usability of this software, making it more like a full backup piece of avionics. Below I'll re-list the proposed enhancements and mention my thoughts / basic feasibility research:

Proposed Enhancements (+1 new one)

Aspen E5 Style Portrait Split

Description

While in portrait mode on displays of sufficient size, the display could split, leaving much of the current AHRS on the top half, and adding new features such as a compass or HSI on the bottom half, similar to the Aspen E5. This change would greatly increase the effectiveness of the display space in portrait mode.

Feasibility: ✅

Allocating the space for more user interface elements based on screen configuration should be very doable. Moving the current GPS track compass to this new area should also be very doable.

Use of a Magnetic Compass Source

Description

Magnetic compass heading would provide a new type of navigational information. It would be especially useful due to the fast reaction time, as compared to the gps heading source.

Feasibility: ❓

Access to compass information is a bit limited. Some issues / research points:

• Many phones implement access to sensor data differently, making it hard to effectively support a lot of devices.
• The phone's compass direction will be heavily dependant on the user's device- if the pilot has the phone or tablet mounted to the yoke, for example, flight control inputs could actually change the compass value.
• In iOS (haven't done research for Android), access to the sensor data (compass included) is only possible with permission from the user and if the web page is served via https. User permission is easy, however using https would be a challenge because the cert would be self-signed (prompting a warning on user devices) and stratux serves web pages over http. Moving to encryption may not be possible without extensive modification of stratux, a change that I find unlikely to gain traction.
• Luckly, the sensor used on stratux is the MPU9250, which has a compass. In addition, the stratux situation websocket already contains fields for compass information. However, the current version of stratux does not populate these values because there is currently no way to calibrate the compass information.

Based on these items, it seems like the best chance to use compass data effectively is to either wait for compass support from stratux or make the proposed changes to stratux directly. However, much of the proposed modifications (E5 split, etc.) could be made without compass data available (this could be a longer-term enhancement).

Full HSI Support

Description

With room for a circular compass, an HSI could also be added to aid in navigational and situational awareness.

Feasibility: ❓

Currently there is no way to access course deviation information from Foreflight, though there may be support from other Electronic Flight Bags. This will require more research.

Basic Compass Radar Scope (NEXRAD) / Traffic

Description

Similar to the Aspen E5 middle display in this photo, it would be neat to be able to display simple weather information or traffic information inside the circular compass rose (especially if the HSI is inactive or not implemented). This change would allow stratux_ahrs to be used to display most all of the information stratux provides.

Feasibility: ✅

Save for unknown performance issues, this feature should be possible. stratux sends out NEXRAD weather information and traffic details in the blind, so pulling it would be trivial. Effectively and efficiently displaying it would be harder, but with optimization could be possible.

What's Next?

It seems like more research should be done to determine the benefits to this change. This thread might be a good location to document some additional features that could use this mod.

Performance of the device with the additional computational load of new UI elements, additional processing, and possibly image creation for weather could be a limiting factor.

Certainly this would be a big change to stratux_ahrs. Before actual modifications are made (after analyzing the feasibility and usability of this enhancement), there are some housekeeping items that the core application needs done, particularly related to performance, weight, code consistency, and ease of contribution. However, I certainly like the proposed items and the possibilities they bring.

At some point, I may make a github project for this to help track how things are going, and I'll see about planning a basic timeline (based on future releases, etc.). Thanks for the great suggestion; we'll see where it goes soon enough!

[DocTopi]

Thank you for your detailed comments !!! Here is a screenshot from my iPhone 7:

I´m looking forward to further development :-)