2.0.0rc9

This is a release candidate for Open.HD 2.0, there will be several more pushed out in the next few days to quickly fix any issues that are discovered in this one.

If you don't want to risk upgrading and encountering a problem, wait for the stable release.

Downloads

• Stretch
  • All of our previous releases were based on Raspbian Stretch, we are still providing it for people who want to use the old OSD, which does not work on Buster or Pi4
• Buster
  • Required for Compute Module 3+, or Pi4, but works on all pi models
  • ONLY supports the new QOpenHD OSD, the old OSD does not work on Buster or Pi4

Test notes

• The boot screen may flicker for a moment when a TX is connected to the ground, this is expected (there is a bug in a system library we use)
• Report problems with interference/corruption on the screen, but first:
  • Make sure the wifi card(s) power supply is adequate, if you have them directly connected to USB they may not be getting the proper voltage/current even if the Pi itself is not showing a low voltage warning
  • Try to track down and exclude any external interference first, for example nearby devices transmitting on any frequency
  • Try removing any extra USB devices that may cause USB bus problems (pi4 should not be affected, pi3/zero might be due to the single USB bus on the processor)
  • If you're sure that a new release may be causing video problems, see what the CPU usage was at the time (either on the OSD, or better yet via ssh in htop, where you might be able to spot a specific process using too much CPU time)
  • There have been reports that Pi4 HDMI can interfere with wifi frequencies, including the hotspot, but there are some things we can change to prevent this from happening
• Report problems with customizing the old OSD (changing a setting doesn't change the OSD, that sort of thing)
• Report problems with GPIO use, Smartport/FrSky/LTM/Vector telemetry
• Report problems with high CPU usage on the ground or air, these can affect video stability, for example:
  • Ground CPU load exceeding 50% for more than a second (any Pi model)
  • Air CPU load exceeding 70-80% at all (especially Pi Zero)

Changes in 2.0.0rc9

• Prevent throttling when pi is seeing undervoltage
  • If you are at all concerned that your power supply might be weak, test carefully on the ground before flying
  • The possible consequence of preventing the pi from throttling when it wants to is that it could actually freeze or crash if the power supply really is too weak
  • If you see any stability problems, or you think your power wiring/supply might not be good enough, remove the avoid_warnings line in /boot/config.txt on air and ground (you can edit the file from any PC)
• Fix GPU memory running out and preventing the camera from having enough memory to run the video stream
• Fix home longitude appearing it latitude field in QOpenHD

Changes in 2.0.0c8

This is the first release where everything is packaged rather than rebuilt from source for every release.

Because things are packaged now, we can release updated images in a matter of minutes, and in Open.HD 2.1 the entire system will be remotely upgradable in-place, managed by the QOpenHD app.

• Fix black screen and unexpected resolution changes when certain HDMI devices are connected to the ground station
  • Headplay goggles and a few others are the most common
• Switch default video save format to mp4
• Add support for Pi4 8GB
• Add VEYE IMX290/327 lowlight setting
  • If your config file does not have a IMX290_lowlight setting, add it:
    • IMX290_lowlight=0x00
  • 0x00 means disabled, other values (see VEYE wiki) will permit the camera to reduce framerate to increase camera exposure
• Add support for setting width/height/fps on IMX307
  • Just use the existing WIDTH/HEIGHT/FPS settings, they will now be applied to the IMX307 as well
  • Does not work on IMX290/327 because those cameras do not allow changing resolution or framerate
• Increase video recording space in memory
  • At an average bitrate of 5Mbit:
    • Pi3a+: 5 minutes
    • Pi3b+: 11 minutes
    • Pi4 2GB: 22 minutes
    • Pi4 4GB: 45minutes
    • Pi4 8GB: Longer than your battery can keep it in the air, probably
• Fix USB/IP cameras
  • First bug affected the display on the ground station
  • Second bug was mostly an issue of configuration, IsCamera1Enabled=1 must be enabled in the settings file in order to ensure that the ground side is aware that it should be listening for those video streams. If you have an old config file, check that setting.
  • You may also need to look at the USBCamera line carefully and adjust it. This can be very tricky and irritating for some cameras so if you have trouble please ask for help on the forum or in telegram
• Generate new SSH host keys at first power up
  • Previously, everyone using Open.HD had the same SSH host keys because they were stored with the source code
• Allow NTP time sync if ground/air have internet access
  • Will likely need to set it with GPS from telemetry messages too, enabling NTP is mostly of use for Open.HD developers
• Stop adding gstreamer videoconvert element when auto-replacing omxh264enc element in old config files
  • On buster, omxh264enc does not work and must be replaced with v4l2h264enc (irritating, yes)
  • We autoreplace it to ensure that people with old config files don't have any trouble, but in some cases it's still necessary for people to edit the USBCamera line themselves to update it, as it is not easy to guess which element combinations will work for a particular camera setup
• Fix very small text in Preset configuration area of QOpenHD
• Internal changes
  • Everything is packaged now, the way images are built is no longer a huge multi-hour compile job but 10 minutes of package installation
  • If you're brave you can run rw && apt update && apt upgrade to upgrade in-place, but beware that you MUST upgrade the ground and air together, and until Open.HD 2.1 is released this is a very manual process that requires connecting a keyboard/ssh and internet access (generally ethernet) to both the ground and air
  • If you're looking for things where they used to be in the /home/pi directory, most of them are now in /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/share/wifibroadcast-scripts. Source code is not on the image, but all of it is still on Github.

Known issues

• The boot screen may flicker for a moment when a TX is connected to the ground, this is expected at the moment (there is a bug in a system library we use)
• The boot screen and QOpenHD may not show up on Raspberry Pi Zero on the Buster releases, this is not intentional it will be resolved in a minor update (2.0.x) once 2.0 stable is released
• The first few messages may not show up on the boot screen at the moment
• The size of OSD elements in QOpenHD is fairly small on high resolution screens, HiDPI is not currently being detected automatically. If necessary you can increase the scale in the QOpenHD settings panel under App->Screen. This will be configurable through a settings file soon for those won't don't have or want a mouse/touchscreen connected to your ground station
• Video may stutter or freeze when ground recording to SD card is enabled with VIDEO_TMP=sdcard
  • This is an old problem, the settings file has had a note about it for probably a year or more
  • A temporary solution is to use VIDEO_TMP=memory instead
  • Will be resolved soon by separating the recording system from the rest of the video pipeline so it can't affect live flight
• GNUplot is not being installed on the Buster image, it pulls in 670MB of other packages and fills the SD card
  • This affects the telemetry charts that are saved when you plug in a USB drive after flying
  • GNUplot itself should be installable separately, so this is a temporary issue
• Some parts of the old OSD may be reversed when Vector Open Telemetry is in use (#283)