Initial attempt at ELRS pages

[jlpoltrack]

Title

@tmcadam @olliw42 please share any feedback.

[olliw42]

many thx. I don't have thoughts on the dev page momentarily concerning the devices page, I have not finished opions, just ranom thoughts, which do even partially contradict themselves LOL.

I think an extensive list like you added can be useful, but I also find it is terribly overwhelming. I would hate having to google them all to make my decission, and many of them may be considered less obvious. I personally would prefer a shorter list of few "typical" devices. I wouldn't call the "recommended" but in some sense that would be what they would be, a subset of receivers selected by "us" to mabye look at first. Or maybe which are better supporte in the sense of being better tested and confirmed. I could even imagine that for these "typical" choices one could provide precompiled binaries named by them, in addition to the generic precomile binaries. The list will become even more overwhelimg once eps32 devices are also added. In short, while some mechanism is needed for a user to find the required info for any possible receiver, I would wish there could be a bit more guidane towards few devices.

Another thing I miss and somehow, by whatever means, would want to have available is more hardware specific details. Some could be relevant even for buying decissions, like e.g. crystal type. So, I guess, I would add fields for the mcu type, and also xtal type to the general list. There is other info I would wish could be stored, like which PA/LNA. I mean, we all could do our own lists and keep them our own, but why duplicating this.

In short, I think without some proper balance between condensed info usefull for first comers or buyers and extensive info useful also for deving we will have a maintaince burden which may become easily not handable (or to become so time consuming that we will stall)

I in fact think that we should not get louted by the temptation to support every and each single fancy elrs hardware out there, but just a significantly smaller subset. Don't forget we will have also the esp32 recivers, and eventually also the tx modules ... and the latter are much more diverse in their options and limitations ...

I in fact even further think that we should not let us limit into only the elrs/esp devices ... at the cost of the stm32 device. IMHO it just has become super clear that the esp devices present challenges and limitatiosn to mlrs ... and I think we should ensure that it is always clear, like super clear to anyone, that the majority of elrs device are just second choices, that they are supported because they exist, and that they are not our first or most recommended choices ... I frankly think that this will be super important for the wellbeing of the project. It will florish only in terms of further improved features with stm32.

I have no good idea myself to propose, but I think we may want to think about what we are doing.

[tmcadam]

We can certainly recommend particular devices/brands that we have tested and are more suited to long range applications.

I think we should list all devices that we have stable builds for, exploiting the fact that most ELRS hardware sits within a small number of categories, of which we now have stable builds for several of these categories.

Having the list is also useful for people with existing ELRS hardware may be interested in using mLRS and seeing if their hardware is compatible. This might be more relevant when a few ELRS TXs are supported also.

[tmcadam]

I also think some discussion, or visual may be useful to explain how this will work with Ardupilot and the rc_channels/rc_ovveride added to Mavlink, so that it operates with just the RX/TX pins, no OUT. Also some detail about this being more fully supported in the next stable Ardupilot release.

[olliw42]

I think we should list all devices that we have stable builds for, exploiting the fact that most ELRS hardware sits within a small number of categories, of which we now have stable builds for several of these categories.

Having the list is also useful for people with existing ELRS hardware may be interested in using mLRS and seeing if their hardware is compatible. This might be more relevant when a few ELRS TXs are supported also.

I totally agree. I just think we could try to somehow have it both ways ... in some not too overwhelming way.

Just a thought: In some other discussion wasn't it said that any user basically can figure out for her/his elrs hardware what target it needs? Like accessing the elrs device by wlan and get the info. If so, we could instead of that exhaustive list provide a recipe for everyone to figure out the elrs template, and then tell them what to do next. Advantage could also be that we wouldn't have to maintain the complete list. And it would work for eps32 receivers and the tx'es too. Just brain storming,

[olliw42]

Ardupilot and the rc_channels/rc_ovveride added to Mavlink, so that it operates with just the RX/TX pins, no OUT. Also some detail about this being more fully supported in the next stable Ardupilot release.

the docs indeed need to be updated as reagrds this, probably in more than one place.

I still hope that I can get the RADIO_LINK_INFO in in a not too distant future, I plan to come back to this and work more "agressively" on this again when I'm back from vaccation.

[olliw42]

@jlpoltrack I would suggest to rename ELRS_DEVELOPMENT to ESP_DEVELOPMENT.

[jlpoltrack]

@olliw42 @tmcadam Thanks for the feedback. I'd like to propose a restructure before I get started. The objective would be to have one page where someone can get most (if not all) the info they need. Here's what I'm currently thinking:

• Rename the current ELRS_devices page to ELRS_receivers (there would be an equivalent for Tx modules once things are a little further along)
• Remove the big list of devices
• The first section would include the list of supported targets, e.g. Generic 900, Generic 2400, etc and a sentence or two that explains how one can figure out what target their hardware uses.
• The second section would contain our list of 'recommended' devices and some details about them like previously. At the moment it sounds like this should just be two pieces of hardware BayckRC 500 mW 900 MHz and SpeedyBee Nano 2400 MHz.
• The third section would cover flashing from pre-built binaries (assuming we'll have these), including wiring diagrams.
• The fourth section would cover connections to FC and relevant AP settings, including wiring diagrams.

[olliw42]

sounds good :)

I guess I would swap the 3rd and 4th bullets yes, currently I see only two "recommended" devices, but this may grow, but IMHO should not be more than a handful. What would be a proper word insetad of "recommended"? yes, precompiled binaries should be available. I added a 1st attempt to the PR (tools/run_copy_esp_frimwares.py)

would there be a common landing page for all ELRS/ESP stuff, to which to link to from the docs main page? I see three bullets: elrs receivers, elrs tx modules, esp dev & vsc stuff

[jlpoltrack]

I guess I would swap the 3rd and 4th bullets

No problem.

yes, currently I see only two "recommended" devices, but this may grow, but IMHO should not be more than a handful. What would be a proper word insetad of "recommended"?

I think 'recommended' is okay but perhaps 'suggested'...

would there be a common landing page for all ELRS/ESP stuff, to which to link to from the docs main page? I see three bullets: elrs receivers, elrs tx modules, esp dev & vsc stuff

I was thinking to add another section on the main page, something like 'ELRS / ESP Hardware' and would rename the current hardware section to 'STM32 Hardware'

[olliw42]

👍

[olliw42]

concerning hardware identification, few days ago I have seen in some JB video that when you connect via wifi and a browser to the elrs device you can read off the hardware in the top section ... can't find that video now anymore (and the midroll adds really makes you stop seraching after few minutes LOL) ... but I guess this could be the preferred method for "fresh" elrs devices

[olliw42]

as regards wording, maybe "selected" instead of "recommended"?

[jlpoltrack]

concerning hardware identification, few days ago I have seen in some JB video that when you connect via wifi and a browser to the elrs device you can read off the hardware in the top section ... can't find that video now anymore (and the midroll adds really makes you stop seraching after few minutes LOL) ... but I guess this could be the preferred method for "fresh" elrs devices

This is the section that you see in the browser - but it doesn't mention the layout file:

[olliw42]

concerning hardware identification, few days ago I have seen in some JB video that when you connect via wifi and a browser to the elrs device you can read off the hardware in the top section ... can't find that video now anymore (and the midroll adds really makes you stop seraching after few minutes LOL) ... but I guess this could be the preferred method for "fresh" elrs devices

This is the section that you see in the browser - but it doesn't mention the layout file:

ahhh ... I did get this wrong then ... I believe to have seen him highlighting a generic-layout thing ... but this might have been the one odd duck case

[jlpoltrack]

as regards wording, maybe "selected" instead of "recommended"?

Okay, will update for this.

[jlpoltrack]

Readme updated to specify STM32 and ESP hardware.

[olliw42]

I find it hard to find any complain anymore ... LOL

let's see what @tmcadam finds :)

[tmcadam]

I think this looks really good!

[olliw42]

lgtm too