MobiFlight Community Support

I was interested in using MobiFlight, but didn't have any of the supported boards laying around. I had a Teensy 4.1 that I wasn't using, so went with that.
I forked the repos and it's pretty easy to make the Teensy work (which is a compliment to how well organized this project is). Only took a few hours to get the initial stuff in place.

Firmware with Teensy support:
https://github.com/rally25rs/MobiFlight-FirmwareSource/tree/rally25rs/teensy41

Connector with Teensy support:
https://github.com/rally25rs/MobiFlight-Connector/tree/rally25rs/teensy41

At this point it "works" well enough that I can use it for my own project, but I wanted to see if there was any interest in "official" Teensy support. I know the more boards that end up supported, the harder it is to test MobiFlight and ensure good support, so I totally understand if the answer is "we would never accept this as a PR into master".

-----

The things I know don't work right now or need some more effort:

* I disabled Servo support on the Teensy because the library that is used now does not compile for Teensy. I did not look for an alternative because I didn't need it for my project.
* No automated firmware updates. The Connector app uses `avrdude` to do firmware uploads, and I'm pretty sure that does not work with the Teensy, so I set it to not support firmware updates.
* Despite the board being set to not support firmware updates in the Connector, the desktop app still shows active buttons to try to update the firmware (probably just a missing conditional somewhere to disable these buttons and menu items)
* I haven't fully tested all supported devices on the Teensy. I don't have any lcd displays or extra steppers laying around to test those out. Buttons and LEDs work fine of course. I have some rotary encoders being shipped so I can test those soon.
* Most of the "MAX_*" device definitions in the Teensy board are a copy/paste of the Mega so may not be totally accurate. Could use a 2nd set of eyes to validate.

If anyone is interested in collaborating on full support, I could lend a hand. Otherwise if anyone comes across this in the future and wants to get a Teensy working, feel free to reference my forks. If you have the dev environment set up (I've compiled and uploaded to the Teensy in both Teensyduino and VSCode PlatformIO) then it's not too hard to get started.

Here you need to request directly to Sebastian (DocMoebius) via Discord !

Our current policy is still.... We basically not want this.
Our prime idea was to allow the MEGA ( and nothing else) .... As you expect.... To get our System as easy as possible.

BUT

There are still users with programming skills who like the UNO, Micro and so on. So they work hard to make these boards possible.
So we make the "step" to implement this two Arduinos now official.... Within our Firmware and Connector Code.

Then again these users and some others ask now for Tensy, RaspPi and many other boards and we again are not "happy" about this.
So our current "idea" is to build in the future a "interface" that allow programmer to build there "own" Firmware for those boards and they also build there own "interface" to MF.
Means MFConnector see a Board that is not known, but in the "ini" File the user can tell MF to use this Board same way as e.g. Mega would be connected.

************
Summary:
I still say the same like always..... Why you guys think about Boards you have in your trash-box.
You like to build a panel.... Buy a Mega and be happy to use all the features 100% as expected.
Do we really need to talk about these 8 US$ for a Mega ?
I understand if budget is limmited.... But you guys pay 100$ for the Sim and 2000$ for a HighEnd GPU..... But you are scarred about 8$ for the Mega ????
( Please not see this adressed to you personaly.... i mean this more global)

I was interested in using MobiFlight, but didn't have any of the supported boards laying around. I had a Teensy 4.1 that I wasn't using, so went with that.
I forked the repos and it's pretty easy to make the Teensy work (which is a compliment to how well organized this project is). Only took a few hours to get the initial stuff in place.

Firmware with Teensy support:
https://github.com/rally25rs/MobiFlight-FirmwareSource/tree/rally25rs/teensy41

Connector with Teensy support:
https://github.com/rally25rs/MobiFlight-Connector/tree/rally25rs/teensy41

At this point it "works" well enough that I can use it for my own project, but I wanted to see if there was any interest in "official" Teensy support. I know the more boards that end up supported, the harder it is to test MobiFlight and ensure good support, so I totally understand if the answer is "we would never accept this as a PR into master".

-----

The things I know don't work right now or need some more effort:

* I disabled Servo support on the Teensy because the library that is used now does not compile for Teensy. I did not look for an alternative because I didn't need it for my project.
* No automated firmware updates. The Connector app uses `avrdude` to do firmware uploads, and I'm pretty sure that does not work with the Teensy, so I set it to not support firmware updates.
* Despite the board being set to not support firmware updates in the Connector, the desktop app still shows active buttons to try to update the firmware (probably just a missing conditional somewhere to disable these buttons and menu items)
* I haven't fully tested all supported devices on the Teensy. I don't have any lcd displays or extra steppers laying around to test those out. Buttons and LEDs work fine of course. I have some rotary encoders being shipped so I can test those soon.
* Most of the "MAX_*" device definitions in the Teensy board are a copy/paste of the Mega so may not be totally accurate. Could use a 2nd set of eyes to validate.

If anyone is interested in collaborating on full support, I could lend a hand. Otherwise if anyone comes across this in the future and wants to get a Teensy working, feel free to reference my forks. If you have the dev environment set up (I've compiled and uploaded to the Teensy in both Teensyduino and VSCode PlatformIO) then it's not too hard to get started.

Hello, I would like to try and use what you did as I have several Teensy 4.1 that I would like to use as well. Do you have any further instructions on how best to use this? I am not an expert at these things and can do some basic work. I am just getting ready to build a motorized TQ and would like to use mobiflight/Prosim/FSUIPC to do this. Thanks.

Here you need to request directly to Sebastian (DocMoebius) via Discord !

Our current policy is still.... We basically not want this.
Our prime idea was to allow the MEGA ( and nothing else) .... As you expect.... To get our System as easy as possible.

BUT

There are still users with programming skills who like the UNO, Micro and so on. So they work hard to make these boards possible.
So we make the "step" to implement this two Arduinos now official.... Within our Firmware and Connector Code.

Then again these users and some others ask now for Tensy, RaspPi and many other boards and we again are not "happy" about this.
So our current "idea" is to build in the future a "interface" that allow programmer to build there "own" Firmware for those boards and they also build there own "interface" to MF.
Means MFConnector see a Board that is not known, but in the "ini" File the user can tell MF to use this Board same way as e.g. Mega would be connected.

************
Summary:
I still say the same like always..... Why you guys think about Boards you have in your trash-box.
You like to build a panel.... Buy a Mega and be happy to use all the features 100% as expected.
Do we really need to talk about these 8 US$ for a Mega ?
I understand if budget is limmited.... But you guys pay 100$ for the Sim and 2000$ for a HighEnd GPU..... But you are scarred about 8$ for the Mega ????
( Please not see this adressed to you personaly.... i mean this more global)

An Elegoo mega is $20.00 us from Amazon. An official mega is $48.40 us from the official store, so I'm not sure where you are finding $8 megas at. An Uno is $27.60 from the official store.

An Elegoo mega is $20.00 us from Amazon. An official mega is $48.40 us from the official store, so I'm not sure where you are finding $8 megas at. An Uno is $27.60 from the official store.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32909503032.html

Quote: "Our current policy is still.... We basically not want this.
Our prime idea was to allow the MEGA ( and nothing else) .... As you expect.... To get our System as easy as possible."

So, you want to force people into a DIY flight controller that is inherently unsuitable for half of the DIY hobbyists.

Point is a mega weighs 63.5 grams...
A Teensy 4.1 weighs 10 grams

When most of the smaller drones/quadcopters weigh in the 20 gram to 250 grams, devoting that much weight to a project not to mention size as well considering the mega is 4 times the size of a Teensy with less computing power is quite obviously a step backwards.

The issue of money has far less of a consequence when you are looking to build a 90 gram "all in" Quad which requires smaller motors, smaller battery and as a result a smaller price tag.

I have to say I will NOT be looking towards a MobiFlight solution.