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New Website Features

Many changes across dashboard, messages, and other tooling

Overview

Messages

3 ET message types in draft (experimental/feedback) form:

  • Heartbeat
  • ExpandedBasicTelemetry
  • HighResLocation

New field encoding type for low-cost expanded value ranges

Slots

Slot renaming to from 1-5 to 0-4, too confusing as-is

Dashboard

2-3x faster load, esp on large datasets

Prettier load screen

Faster more responsive charts

Map has:

  • new controls and help guide
  • better spot popup

New dashboard Data Table Control layout and granularity

Future

Jetpack tracker

  • support gpsValid=0
  • breaking change to support Slot0-4 in url params and tracker config
    • (gui will prompt/guide)

Messages

Types

3 ET message types in draft (experimental/feedback) form, found under the Extended Telemetry navigation

Defined using the enumerated HdrType, there are 3 messages being sketched out for utility.

Each type has a goal set forward in its description along with use cases.

Dashboard supports all types now but specific implementation may change as the spec isn't final.

Message Field Encoding

Field encodings using range/step can be costly/limiting

Take voltage for example:

  • precise within a range
  • but if you want a wider range, it costs a lot due to high precision throughout

It's the constant resolution of step throughout which costs the space.

Solution -- Have one field with different resolutions throughout

Imagine voltage where:

  • Defined range of 1.8v - 6.0v
  • Within typical range (eg 3.0v - 5.0v) high resolution (eg 0.05v)
  • Outside that, less resolution (eg 0.20v)

This is possible with a new type of field encoding -- Segmented Field Specification

With SFE, you pay for only what you use. The smaller resolution on the outside has fewer steps, so takes less space, while keeping total range.

The Message Definition format now supports this concept as well

Broken-out version for clarity:

{
    "name": "Voltage",      // name, as usual
    "unit": "V",            // unit, as usual
    "valueSegmentList": [   // list of contiguous ranges, each with own precision
        [1.8, 0.20, 3.0],   // 1.8v - 3.0v -- use 0.20v step
        [3.0, 0.05, 5.0],   // 3.0v - 5.0v -- use 0.05v step
        [5.0, 0.20, 6.0]    // 5.0v - 6.0v -- use 0.20v step
    ] 
}

Single-line standard:

{ "name": "Voltage", "unit": "V", "valueSegmentList": [[1.8,0.200,3.0],[3.0,0.0625,5.0],[5.0,0.200,6.0]] }

Appropriate to mix with other

Specification

Segmented Field Specification.

The previous kind of field encoding, Uniform Field Specification, is also now separately specified.

Example graph of the granularity of a segmented field along its range of possible values

Segmented Field Tooling

Creating a Segmented Field is very easy with the Field Calculator

Use a GUI to define ranges, resolutions, and see total field cost in bits/values:

Auto-visualize the segment boundaries and resolution steps within them:

Auto-generate C/C++ code to encode and decode these fields in a tracker or other utility.

The Field Calculator works for Uniform Field Encoding as well (just define a single segment)

Slots

Slot renaming to from 1-5 to 0-4

Better to standardize, plus feedback that the documentation was too unclear.

Display-only for the moment

In the future, more changes will happen to deprecate url parameters and tracker configuration that relied on slot numbering.

More will be said about that when applicable.

Dashboard

Performance (Query/Load)

Performance improvements

2-3x faster load, esp on large datasets

Prettier load screen

Faster more responsive charts

Map

Map improvements

  • new controls and help guide
  • better spot popup (less data, easier to look at)

New map controls and help dialog

Map Highlight Mode

Highlight mode

The H Map button lets you Highlight the most recent lap around the Earth.

Your busy flight may look like this:

In highlight mode, rewind and highlight the path the tracker took since last crossing that Latitude

Data Table

New dashboard Data Table Control layout and granularity

Basically just pick the columns you want.

Defaults are best attempt at a reasonable view. Button dedicated to resetting to defaults.

The Merged / Synth is combining a "Final" answer to field values that may appear in multiple messages

Charts and Map are powered by these columns, which is why they're selected by default.

Future

Future

Jetpack tracker

  • support gpsValid=0
  • breaking change to support Slot0-4 in url params and tracker config
    • (gui will prompt/guide)