A Low-Cost DIY Speech Synthesis Sailplane Variometer
I'm Andy Smith and I fly sailplanes at the Cotswold Gliding Club in the UK. I've been using XCSoar and LK8000 since they were first released. My current system uses a Kobo Aura 2, KRT2 radio and Cotswold Vario connected via a Manhatten MTT 4-way usb hub. I will post info and updates on this open-source project on this blog The vario has a 5611 pressure transducer, ADXL345 accelerometer, X25 stepper motor, Arduino Uno ATmega328P and LM386 audio amplifier. These are all breakout boards from ebay and they are connected by soldering to a pcb I designed it for our club because the available commercial varios have lots of features which are difficult for pilots to use in the air. It has only a simple volume control because that was the most common complaint from pilots, they need a manual to turn existing varios up! It beeps when you are in lift and burps when the sink is more than 4kts. If you are cruising it's silent, these numbers can be changed easily in the op...