tinyOSD – current progress – live spectrum view and betaflight integration

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By | August 10, 2017

As you might know I am quite busy with the development of my tinyOSD. This will become a nice alternative to the common max7456 based OSD we see nowadays. All graphics are generated by a custom firmware running on a tiny STM32.

Right now I am working on the proper betaflight integration. Just by chance I met Azolyoung from Runcam in the betaflight slack group. We had a chat about camera and OSD stuff (Runcam split will probably get an OSD feature!) and we both agreed that it would be nice to have an open Camera, OSD, and VTX protocol. Having implemented an optimized and efficient protocol for my tinyOSD tests I prepared a rough sketch that might become an open standard some day. You can have a look at the draft version at my github repository. You are invited to join the associated discussion at the betaflight github issue.

In order to test the new protocol I recorded a short demo video. This video shows the custom “boot” animation and the brand new spectrum feature. Just in case you wonder where this strange noise comes from: I used an electric toothbrush to simulate a (very) unbalanced motor ๐Ÿ˜‰

Keep in mind this is just an early preview, I am still working on it ๐Ÿ˜‰ The screen is refreshed using the proposed openTCO protocol, notice how fast the screen updates (e.g. spectrum, stick animation and the artifical horizon):

 

Stay tuned for more!

10 thoughts on “tinyOSD – current progress – live spectrum view and betaflight integration

  1. Jan Felsner

    Hey Simon,
    super Teile die du da entwickelst.
    Dein tinyOSD interessiert mich sehr.
    Kann man diese bei dir eventuell kaufen? Oder ein Prototypen testen?
    Wรคre super GruรŸ

    Reply
    1. fishpepper Post author

      Ist leider noch in der Entwicklung. Leider gibt es das noch nirgends zu kaufen, ich selber verkaufe keine Hardware und meine handgelรถteten Prototypen sind leider so aufwendig dass ich aus Zeitgrรผnden nicht mal eben ein paar mehr machen kann. Sorry da musst Du leider noch ein bisschen Geduld haben ๐Ÿ˜‰

      Reply
  2. Jimmy

    My wishlist:
    1) a single stack 30mm of RX, FC, OSD, VTX, 10A ESC (basically everything)
    2) a 2 stack 20mm of RX, FC, OSD, VTX, 6A ESC
    3) a compatible frame that can mount 11mm motors and 3 inches props.

    Reply
  3. alex

    That is awesome. I was hoping you are working on the OSD because it’s the area where micro quads need the most development. The current solution bases on the MAX7456 IC (which is discontinued since a few years now) it really power hungry and inefficient. The graphics in the video look crazy fast, stick movements look real time, that is nice.
    How about the hardware, you mentioned it uses a ST micro. Do you have a schematic for the OSD part?

    Reply
  4. Jaap

    You’re truly pushing the envelope Simon. The new OSD features and performance looks great. The possible devices that could implement OpenTCO are limitless.

    In the last year(s) we saw the external OSD board become integrated with the FC.
    I wonder where this will finally lead to. Will The OSD could become an integral part of the camera? Will it become a part of the VTX? Or will it stay on the FC, but we can finally drop the max-chip and save some space? Who knows ๐Ÿ™‚

    And Runcam being the first to (maybe) implement it on the Split. interesting times!

    Reply
  5. Kyle Wineinger

    This is awesome! It will probably end up being even more groundbreaking to the hobby than your fc design for micros! Keep up the amazing work!

    Reply
  6. Vadym Lishchenko

    Damn, that is mind blowing! 7456 is last century’s relic, should have been retired long ago.

    Reply
  7. Simon

    This is so cool. I’m just building a 2s pepperFIISH and I’m hoping that you’ll create a really small tinyOSD / VTX someday ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Keep up the awesome work ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
    1. fishpepper Post author

      A 16×16 vtx/osd combo is in the works ๐Ÿ˜‰
      sneak preview:

      Reply
      1. Simon

        ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜
        I WANT THIS!!!
        How long do you estimate until it can be purchased? ๐Ÿ˜‰

        You should really consider selling your work yourself / making some money from it.

        Reply

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