List of Snipe and Albatross beeps and messages

[mlachow]

Does anyone have a comprehensive list of all the things the Snipe and Albatross software sends over audio and when?

[mlachow]

Nice video of a flight with the screen and sounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYBANmi_ykI

[mlachow]

Sometimes in Albatross there are some kind of hidden settings and options. One I found was for beeps.


If you go to the settings screen. You see a page full of things.


Well, there are some more that are there but it is not obvious. If you scroll the screen up you will find Beeps.



And if you click on Beeps you get.



I see one in there I want to try. High Volume Beeps. I think this might help on the distance to time beep and turn beep.


Also, the + and - button changes volume on the Snipe. It's common to put the TX down and somehow the volume gets turned down on the vario. You need to tap on the + to get the volume up.

Apparently if you see the LED is green. The +- change the volume of the vario.
If you touch Mode and you get blue, then the +- changes the volume of the announcements.

Hopefully this will help out adjusting the volume to hear all the stuff. You have to love the manual. The descriptions of the buttons is under "Physical Overview".

[hello82]

thanks for additional info Mike...I keep it on High Volume Beeps all the time...but on one flight the other day, the beeps just for the turns went suddenly super low and had to do all turns visually, ...the very first I went so far out until I realized it was not working right. Must be a bug or something, not sure if there is an independent volume just for the turns?

[hello82]

enjoyed that video and seeing him take a thermal on first turn and thermal through the inside of turn. Thats the way to do it! I was having so many various volume issues this past week once I finally started GPSing at the end, but I did realize that if you if you are really finally flying true and straight on the line, which I did briefly here and there, you will not hear anything other than vario, which is good, but that confused me for a while because I had so many volume issues off and on..lol. But once you get that worked out, that really is the goal!

[mlachow]

It takes quite a few flights to finally get things sorted out. I like to do an early flight that is just straight fly the course, no thermal searches. Nice start of the day when you fly a few laps with all the index values under 119.

[RickS]

Voices in Albatross: Time remaining, lap count, start/restart, penalty points, inside.

Voices in Snipe: Time remaining, lap count, start/restart, penalty points, inside, off-course distance (in/out), altitude, altitude gain in thermal, average thermal, altitude warning, battery warning.

Stereo navigation and distance beeps come from the Snipe.

Vario sound comes from Snipe and/or Albatross.

It's always a good idea to page down no matter what page you are on in Albatross. For that matter it's a good idea with any app.

High volume beeps are definitely useful. That's why they were added.

[hello82]

thanks Rick for the breakdown...so the various 3 beeps for the turns, do they only have that switch for high volume? or does one of the snipe blue and green volumes also adjust it to a degree?

Matt

[RickS]

Mike was correct earlier when he said the green led indicates that the buttons are adjusting the vario beeps. That also includes the turn beeps. When the blue led is lit (by pressing the Mode button) the buttons adjust the voice volume. If "Hi volume beeps" is selected the turn beeps are 20% louder than the vario sound. There is no way to adjust how much louder they are. Each user needs to find a happy medium between the volume of the beeps and the volume of the voice. Murphy's law states that there will be beeps when you are trying to hear the voice and there will be a voice announcement when you are concentrating on the beeps.

Practice and time using the system tends to make all of this easier. Being relaxed while flying the task enables the user to better understand and use the information the system is providing.

[mlachow]

A few observations on Snipe mounting on the TX.

It is common for folks to mount the snipe on the back, facing backwards and the antenna upwards. There is a high gain antenna option and if you have that, I guess the only way to mount it would be vertical. I have my Snipe mounted horizontally so the antenna is oriented differently. I haven't had any dropout problems with the antenna mounted that way.

One annoyance if you do mount the snipe on the back is sometimes you accidentally touch the volume buttons. Especially if you put the TX down when hooking up the model for tow. I think having the snipe facing forward with the buttons forward is a better option since you can see the LED light so you can quickly diagnose the no sound problem. e.g. push the buttons or flakey USB cable.

Good USB cable routing is important. A good cable should maintain contact but eventually they do wear out A poor cable connection is the biggest annoyance in this system.

Weight is important for folks who don't use straps or trays. You notice a heavy phone and mount when flying for a long time.

[Csessa]

Voices in Albatross: Time remaining, lap count, start/restart, penalty points, inside.

Voices in Snipe: Time remaining, lap count, start/restart, penalty points, inside, off-course distance (in/out), altitude, altitude gain in thermal, average thermal, altitude warning, battery warning.

Stereo navigation and distance beeps come from the Snipe.

Vario sound comes from Snipe and/or Albatross.

It's always a good idea to page down no matter what page you are on in Albatross. For that matter it's a good idea with any app.

High volume beeps are definitely useful. That's why they were added.

So it seems the snipe provides all the info so why would one select info from “both” the snipe and Albatross?

[mlachow]

So it seems the snipe provides all the info so why would one select info from “both” the snipe and Albatross?

I can't think of any reason if you have a Snipe. But I haven't tried it both ways to see the difference. You have to use Albatross if you are just using a Finch.

I think the audio gets really messy during fast tows through lift when you have both turned on. It gets backed up in the audio queue. They provide great documentation for someone new to this stuff right? At least they finally provided a connection options document. https://www.rc-electronics.eu/wp-con...ptions_v21.pdf