FlySight Configurator
Contents
Downloading the FlySight Configurator
The FlySight Configurator is available for Mac or Windows:
| Windows | Download |
| Mac | Download |
| Source code | GitHub |
On Windows, just unzip the downloaded file and move the extracted folder to a convenient location.
On a Mac, open the downloaded drive image and copy the FlySightConfigurator application to a convenient location (usually your Applications folder).
General Settings
General settings control how the FlySight measures position and velocity.
Dynamic model
When GPS signals reach the ground, they are very weak. In order to make sense of those weak signals, the FlySight uses a “dynamic model” which gives it an idea of what kind of motion to expect. Any other motion is discarded as noise. For example, if you tell the FlySight that you’re walking—i.e., using the “Pedestrian” model—and then suddenly you seem to be in freefall, it will assume that this is an error in the data and will “smooth out” the sudden jump in speed.
Because of this, it’s important to pick the right dynamic model. For general skydiving, the “Airborne with < 1 G acceleration” model will be best. If you’re likely to experience higher accelerations—for example if you’re flaring a wingsuit or using a high performance landing—then you may want to use the “2 G” or “4 G” airborne dynamic models.
Sample period
The sample period tells the FlySight how often it should take measurement. The default is 5 measurements per second, or 200 ms between measurements. A lower sample period will mean measurements are taken more often, but it will also lower your battery life and take up more room on the FlySight’s internal storage. The sample period is also limited by the FlySight hardware as follows:
| Serial number | Minimum sample period |
| 1246 or lower | 200 ms (5 per second) |
| 1247 or higher | 100 ms (10 per second) |
Tone Settings
The FlySight can convert any measurement into a tone between 220 Hz and 1760 Hz. The FlySight does this by “stretching” a range of values over that range of tones. For example, by default the FlySight will indicate glide ratio from 0:1 up to 3:1. This means if your glide ratio is 0:1, the FlySight will play a 220 Hz tone. If your glide ratio is 3:1, it will play a 1760 Hz tone. If your glide ratio is somewhere in between—say, 1:1—then the FlySight will play a tone that is between those two tones—in this case, 440 Hz.
Mode
This setting controls which of FlySight's measurements will determine the tone's pitch. By default, FlySight indicates glide ratio (i.e. horizontal speed divided by vertical speed). However, FlySight can also indicate your horizontal or vertical speed, your total speed, or the inverse glide ratio (i.e., vertical speed divided by horizontal speed).
Minimum and maximum value
The minimum and maximum values determine which measurements correspond to the lowest-pitch and highest-pitch tones. Generally, you should set these to a value that is outside the range you expect to hit, but not too far outside. If the value is too far outside, you’ll wind up “wasting” some of the available tones on values you will never hear. The best way to determine the minimum and maximum value is to go for a jump with your FlySight and then look at the measured values in the FlySight Viewer.
Limit behaviour
The limit behaviour tells the FlySight what to do if you’re outside these limits. You can have the FlySight:
- Produce no tone at all outside the limits
- “Clamp” the pitch to the lowest- or highest-pitch tone
- “Chirp” to indicate that you’re outside the range
A “chirp” is a sound whose pitch goes up or down as the tone is being played. The chirp can be used, for example, if you want to keep your vertical speed within a particular range and want a clear indication if you’re outside that range.
Volume
The tone volume can be set between 0% and 100%. This sets the volume for all tones, including tones used as an alarm.
Rate Settings
The “rate” refers to how often the FlySight plays a tone. By default, the FlySight will play a tone once per second if the measured value is steady, and up to 5 times per second if the value is changing quickly. It is rare that someone will want to change these settings. Usually, changing the rate settings will only result in “too much information.”
Mode
The “mode” setting determines what measurement the FlySight will use to determine rate. By default, the mode is set to “Change in tone value”.
Minimum and maximum value
The minimum and maximum value determine the range of values corresponding with the lowest tone rate and the highest tone rate, respectively.
Minimum and maximum rate
The minimum and maximum rate determine how fast the lowest and highest tone rates will be.
Flatline at minimum rate
Optionally, we can set the tone to “flatline” when it reaches its minimum rate. If this box is checked, the FlySight will produce a constant tone when the rate falls below the minimum. This sudden transition from a low rate to a constant tone can be used, for example, to indicate level flight or as an alarm for minimum total speed.
Speech Settings
In addition to producing tones, FlySight can also dictate measured values. The “speech” settings control this feature.
Mode
The speech “mode” controls what value will be dictated.
Units
The “units” indicate what unit will be used for dictation. This is separate from the units which are used in the Configurator and in the FlySight Viewer.
Period
The “period” setting controls how often the FlySight will dictate the value. Typically this value will be between 3 seconds (very often) and 10 seconds (very infrequent). To turn speech off completely, set the period to 0 seconds.
Decimal Places
If you’re indicating glide ratio, you will probably want to hear one decimal place—i.e., to indicate a glide ratio of 2.5:1 the FlySight would say something like, “two point five”. If you’re indicating speed, you will usually want zero decimal places—i.e., to indicate a speed of 210 km/h the FlySight would say “two one zero”.
Volume
The speech volume controls the volume of all speech, including any files played as an alarm.
Threshold Settings
The threshold feature will disable the FlySight’s audible indications until some threshold speed has been met. This can be used to suppress tones in the aircraft or under canopy.
Vertical and horizontal speed
By default, the “vertical speed” threshold is set to 10 m/s. In practice, this does a fairly good job of excluding time in the aircraft or under canopy. However, there are cases where you may want to hear feedback, e.g., while you’re under canopy. In that case, you could set the vertical speed threshold to 0.
Setting both speed thresholds to 0 can also be useful for testing. If you set both thresholds to 0, then the FlySight will produce tones and speech even while you’re on the ground. This can be used to help set the appropriate volumes or to test other settings.
Miscellaneous Settings
These settings control miscellaneous options.
Timezone offset
By default, log files on the FlySight are named according to the date/time in UTC of the first point in the log. However, this can result in a day of jumping being split into two folders, since the UTC date may change even though your local date has not. The timezone offset is actually the offset from UTC in seconds. You can use this map to find out what your timezone offset is in hours. To convert to seconds, just multiply that value by 3600.
Note that this setting does not affect logged values—it affects only the names of the folders and log file names. The time values in the log file are always given in UTC.
Adjust speeds to sea level
Because air is thinner at a higher altitude, terminal velocity is also increased. This means that we tend to fall faster, and fly faster horizontally, than we would at a lower altitude. If you set FlySight to indicate true vertical speed, then jumped out of the plane and held the exact same body position throughout freefall, you would actually hear the tone get lower as you fell, simply because the air is getting thicker. To compensate for this effect, by default, FlySight can adjust your speed to a sea level equivalent, so it will not change as your altitude changes.
Note that this setting does not affect logged values—it affects only the tones that are produced in freefall. The values in the log file are always true velocities.
Initialization Settings
These settings control what the FlySight does when it is first turned on.
Mode
The “mode” setting controls what the FlySight will do when it is first turned on:
- Do nothing
- Play a “speech test” consisting of all of the digits one after another
- Play a particular file
Filename
If the mode is set to “Play file”, then the name of the file to be played should be specified in the “Filename” text box. It is assumed that the file is in the “audio” folder in the FlySight’s root folder and that the file uses the “.wav” extension. So, for example, if you want to play “audio\time.wav” on initialization, you would simply set the filename to “time” (without quotes).
Alarms
Window above
Window below
Ground elevation
Alarm elevation
Alarm type
Alarm filename
Finally, the beta firmware allows you to set up to 10 alarms which are triggered at a particular elevation. The cautionary note at the top of the alarm settings should be heeded. If the FlySight loses signal at an inopportune time, if your earphone falls out of your ear, or if the plug comes loose from the FlySight, you may not hear the tone at all. This means the FlySight's audible alarms should never be relied upon to indicate break-off altitude or pull time, for example.
There are two parameters which are common to all alarms:
- "Window" defines a region around your alarm elevation where no other audio will be produced. This will help you distinguish alarm tones from the regular tones. The alarm window is given in meters. For example, if you set "Alarm" to "100", then you won't hear any other tones from 100 meters above your alarm to 100 meters below. Freefall speeds are about 50 m/s without a wingsuit and 20 m/s with, so if you want to have one second of silence before and after your alarm, you would set "Window" to "50" if you're not flying a wingsuit or "20" if you are.
- "DZ_Elev" gives the elevation of your dropzone. Your alarms will be defined relative to this value. This makes it a bit easier to move between dropzones. You will still need to change the "DZ_Elev" value manually, but you won't have to change your defined alarms.
The other parameters are repeated for each alarm. "Alarm_Elev" gives the alarm elevation above ground level (which is given by "DZ_Elev"). The "Alarm_Type" determines what you will hear at the alarm altitude. To set more than one alarm, just repeat these parameters like this:
Window: 50 ; Alarm window (m) DZ_Elev: 750 ; Ground elevation (m above sea level) Alarm_Elev: 2700 ; About 9000 feet AGL Alarm_Type: 1 ; Beep Alarm_Elev: 1800 ; About 6000 feet AGL Alarm_Type: 2 ; Chirp up Alarm_Elev: 900 ; About 3000 feet AGL Alarm_Type: 3 ; Chirp down
To play a sound file at a specified altitude, set "Alarm_Type" to "4", then enter the file name in "Alarm_File". For example, here’s what that section would look like with a simple countdown alarm finishing at 3000 m AGL:
Alarm_Elev: 3300 ; Alarm elevation (m above ground level)
Alarm_Type: 4 ; Alarm type
; 0 = No alarm
; 1 = Beep
; 2 = Chirp up
; 3 = Chirp down
; 4 = Play file
Alarm_File: 3 ; File to be played
Alarm_Elev: 3200 ; Alarm elevation (m above ground level)
Alarm_Type: 4 ; Alarm type
Alarm_File: 2 ; File to be played
Alarm_Elev: 3100 ; Alarm elevation (m above ground level)
Alarm_Type: 4 ; Alarm type
Alarm_File: 1 ; File to be played
Alarm_Elev: 3000 ; Alarm elevation (m above ground level)
Alarm_Type: 4 ; Alarm type
Alarm_File: 0 ; File to be played
With this configuration, you should hear “three… two… one… zero”, with “zero” happening exactly at 3000 m AGL. What’s actually happening here is that—say, for the first alarm—the FlySight is playing “audio/3.wav”. With custom audio (7812 Hz, mono, 8-bit uncompressed WAV), you could drop the file into the “audio” folder and use its name instead, like this:
Alarm_Elev: 3000 ; Alarm elevation (m above ground level) Alarm_Type: 4 ; Alarm type Alarm_File: cust ; File to be played
This would play “audio/cust.wav” at 3000 m AGL. As usual, the filename can’t be more than 8 characters (not including the extension).
Silence Windows
