What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Android in the cockpit

ninelima

Member
Kwik EFIS for Android Released

I am pleased to announce that Kwik EFIS has been accredited and accepted as Free and Open-Source software (FOSS) by F-Droid.

Thus, the Kwik EFIS package will now also be available from the F-Droid catalogue at:

https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=kwik&fdid=player.efis.pfd

The current released version is 2.4. It features the portrait mode and the HITS navigation display.
sm_kwik-efis-hits-below.png



Changelog
=========
2.4 (2014-03-17)
------------------
* Waypoint database cycle 2017-03 (usa.can)
* Change bank/skid correction filter constant
* Add automatic de-clutter to HITS

Users may want to install the F-Droid catalogue application as well. It provides a most excellent Free Software portal similar to the Google Play Store.

F-Droid provide easy access to a variety of great FOSS software and a easy mechanism updating your installed apps.
See: https://f-droid.org/
 
Last edited:
Kwik EFIS - Q&A

Good to hear on the 'startup' issue.

BTW, is this a separate app from the original subject of this thread (A-EFIS)? If so, maybe a new thread would be in order, to minimize confusion.

On to comments and more questions....

When I first loaded it on my phone, I still had a couple of red X's on the display. Finally figured out that if you're not moving, it thinks (knows?) something isn't right. :)

What would you consider to be a 'comfortable' level of processing power & gyro/accelerometer quality for smooth, reliable operation? Component ID's are fine, but brand/model of phone or tablet would be even better for the lazy (me) among us. Would a 1st gen Nexus7 be adequate? 2013 version? What about some of the phones that are a few years old, like the Galaxy S4 or similar?

Thanks,

Charlie

Red X's
-------
You are quite correct. The speed has to be non-zero (from memory I think the threshold is 1 m/s). There are also different behaviors below and above the stall speed, which is why it is important to choose a suitable aircraft model in the "Manage" section.

Demo Mode
-----------
In order to practice with the program, enable the "Demo Mode" and it will simulate movement allowing you to use it like a simple flight simulator.

Hardware
---------
I have used the original Nexus7 (2012?) for all the development and testing. It is adequate, but is the minimum I would use. I tested with a Samsung S2 phone and that was close, but not quite good enough to be useful. I have been told that the later models of Samsung S 4/5 works well, but I have not had the opportunity to test for myself.
 
Last edited:
Kwik EFIS - Startup

I just installed the F-Droid app installer/repository, & found the kwik efis app. But both indicate they 'run at startup'. How do we set them up so they only load when we want to use them? Many android apps are battery hogs when running in the background, & I'd like to avoid that issue.

Thanks,

Charlie

Hi Charlie,

The Kwik EFIS app will not run at startup. You need to start it like any other app and once you exit the app it is gone. No background processes at all.

To be as accurate as possible, the app does however use the maximum performance from the GPS when it is running, there is no way around that.

The to 'run at startup' handler code exist in the program and is therefore reported, but is not used and is disabled in the manifest. The 'run at startup' handler is only used in a dedicated version of Kwik EFIS when it is intended as the only app running on a permanently installed device. Ie Kwik EFIS will start running when the device is powered on.
 
Last edited:
It has been a pretty eventful time in terms of Kwik EFIS development. The application now features much improved synthetic vision performance, much more coverage and also voice alerts.

Would you you believe it! We have gone international. In addition to our Ozies and Saffers, we now have American, German and even Russian (Спасибо, Юрий) users.

Kwik EFIS V3.2 has been flight tested and the stable (unsigned) release candidate can be downloaded from:
http://ninelima.org/efis/download.html under the Beta Releases.

Note:
This version of Kwik EFIS has also been released to F-Droid for signing and distribution. There is a unfortunately bit of a technical delay with the data pacs. Hopefully this will be resolved soon and signed app and data packages will be available from F-Droid as a signed and certified package.
(See https://gitlab.com/fdroid/admin/issues/31 for details)
 
Last edited:
Kwik EFIS release candidate 3.10 is now available.

Current Release 3.10
Due to a common request and with some help from the XCSoar project, I have implemented a High Contrast themes for the Kwik EFIS suite.

sm_contrast3-pfd-device-2017-11-04-113818.png

sm_contrast2-mfd-device-2017-11-04-113657.png


It should improve the screen readability in direct sunlight on some Android devices. This release also has the fully terrain aware DMAP. YELLOW indicate less then 1000ft and RED less then 100ft. Use the simulator to play around with the application and get a feel for how this works.

Auto Zoom is also now also finally functional and is enabled with a horizontal swipe. Zooming IN and OUT (with a vertical swipe) disables auto zoom.

Data Pacs
The initial data pac for South America, Panama to Argentina, (data.pan.arg) has finally been released. It should be available on F-Droid in a few days. Check https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/player.efis.data.pan.arg

Work In Progress
Work is currently underway to port the Kwik EFIS to an E-Ink readers (Kobo etc). This is however still a ways off from public release. In the mean time, please do have a look at XCSoar. While it is intended mainly for our gliding brethren, it is nevertheless an awesome piece of work.

Download Details
I develop and maintain a small suite of aviation related of Android applications named Kwik EFIS.
It is distributed under a Free and Open Source (FOSS) license in the hope that it would be useful to fellow flyer's.

The Current work in progress candidates (unsigned) are always available, from:
http://ninelima.org/efis/download.html

All artifacts of Kwik EFIS are also released to F-Droid for FOSS certification, signing and distribution.

https://f-droid.org/packages/player.efis.pfd/
https://f-droid.org/packages/player.efis.mfd/

It normally takes a couple of days for applications to be processed by the volunteer staff at F-Droid. The signed applications and data packages will be available at the above links when ready.
 
Last edited:
Feature request

Not sure if this is the right place, but I'm wondering if you have a database of frequencies, and if so, if you could have a feature that shows you what frequency you should or could be talking on - perhaps even an ordered list. Thanks.
 
Not sure if this is the right place, but I'm wondering if you have a database of frequencies, and if so, if you could have a feature that shows you what frequency you should or could be talking on - perhaps even an ordered list. Thanks.

The short answer is no.

The longer answer is that I did and still am considering something like it. It is a little bit tricky though, since there can be a number of valid frequencies at any given time for any given porition. Which one to show? Destination, Closest airport, Centre, AWIS, ATIS, etc.

I also deliberately keep user interaction to an absolute minimum, which is why the idea of a list does not really appeal to me.

Having said that ... the entire code-base including all the current databases are available on github and the development tools are available for free from Google. I would encourage everyone to fork the project and have a go at implementing new ideas.
 
Last edited:
Hey Dave,

I'm revisiting the Kwik EFIS app, in light of recently hearing about the AHARS features in newer Stratux hardware. Any chance there will be hardware in the future that will add true air data?

Also, is there a home on the interwebs where users are discussing installations/operation/etc?

Thanks,

Charlie
 
Kwik Composite

I am pleased to announce a new addition to the Kwik lineup of free EFIS products.

Kwik Composite is now available through F-Droid. This app is a combined composite display of Kwik EFIS and Kwik DMAP. Displaying the primary flight display and the moving map on a single device.

https://search.f-droid.org/?q=kwik&lang=en

COMP_sm.png
 
Last edited:
I am pleased to announce that Version 5.0. The latest Kwik suite of EFIS Android apps has completed FOSS certification. Certified and Signed copies are now available on FDroid.

In addition to the Stratux traffic, Version 5.0 now also supports "Open Sky Network" as a traffic data source.
This means you get real-time traffic whenever you are in range of a cellphone tower.

device-cfd-traffic.png
device-2020-03-07-143217.png



The best way is to use the FDroid app https://f-droid.org/en/
or otherwise download from the usual sources:

Homepage:
http://ninelima.org/efis/download.html

FDroid:
https://search.f-droid.org/?q=kwik&lang=en
 
Last edited:
Nice ..
I tried Kwik DMAP and Kwik comp and downloaded and installed Kwik DataPac
the app is working but the map is not visible :confused: am I missing something!
 
NICE! Do you plan on having it receive and display data via WIFI from a DYNON SkyView system?

:cool:
 
Nice ..
I tried Kwik DMAP and Kwik comp and downloaded and installed Kwik DataPac
the app is working but the map is not visible :confused: am I missing something!

1. The DEM data (synthetic vision will only load after a valid gps position has been obtained
2. Make sure Synthetic Vision / Synthetic Terrain is ticked under the settings menu.

Did you install the correct DataPac?
Data pac links:

DataPac (zar.aus) - Southern Africa/Australia

DataPac (usa.can) - United States/Canada

DataPac (eur.rus) - Europe/Russia

DataPac (sah.jap) - Sahara/Japan

DataPac (pan.arg) - South America
 
1. The DEM data (synthetic vision will only load after a valid gps position has been obtained
2. Make sure Synthetic Vision / Synthetic Terrain is ticked under the settings menu.

Did you install the correct DataPac?
Data pac links:

DataPac (zar.aus) - Southern Africa/Australia

DataPac (usa.can) - United States/Canada

DataPac (eur.rus) - Europe/Russia

DataPac (sah.jap) - Sahara/Japan

DataPac (pan.arg) - South America

thanks ... I will give it a good try:)
I was down in Johannesburg last November ... I visited airplane factory where I flow the Sling TSi ... nice plane
 
thanks ... I will give it a good try:)
I was down in Johannesburg last November ... I visited airplane factory where I flow the Sling TSi ... nice plane

The Dynon serial output stream can be found in Appendix 25 of the SKyView installation manual, though I am not sure how one would access that through a Wifi connection.

According to the Dynon folks, a WiFi data stream will be provided in the V16 release of the Skyview softare - date TBD.

https://forum.flydynon.com/threads/dynon-skyview-airspeed-stream-from-wifi.12341/post-72181
 
The Dynon serial output stream can be found in Appendix 25 of the SKyView installation manual, though I am not sure how one would access that through a Wifi connection.

Thanks. It would be fairly simple to parse those strings.
I wonder if there is a WiFi add-on from Dynon?

I'll have a look. It would be an interesting exercise, but I cannot think how to test/debug it without access to the hardware. Or someone with hardware willing to do a fair bit of testing for us.
 
All the source code and documentation for Kwik EFIS are publicly avialable here: https://gitlab.com/ninelima/kwikEFIS

The compiled production apps are available exclusively through F-Droid, where the code is compiled, signed and certified as FOSS.

As the principal author and fellow RV pilot/owner, I vouch for the legitimacy of the Kwik apps. I have never had any issues in 10 years of using Kwik myself.

Also, I would really encourage anyone to check the source code for themselves. And if you do not possess the technical know-how yourself, there are any number of freelance online sites like Fiver, Airtasker etc where you would be able to hire someone to do it for you.
 
Last edited:
check the source :)

... Also, I would really encourage anyone to check the source code for themselves. And if you do not possess the technical know-how yourself, there are any number of freelance online sites like Fiver, Airtasker etc where you would be able to hire someone to do it for you.
:D I think those days are over. It was hard to check the source in the 80s when you or your small team wrote every line, and you went through it with code reviews that took hours or days. Today, you pretty much have to just trust, and looking at the recent Solar Winds exploit, I think it's clear that we can't trust anyone. You have to assume that the software you run will have bugs, will crash, and will expose any data that it has access to. Ensure you have a plan for these things happening.
 
All the source code and documentation for Kwik EFIS are publicly avialable here: https://gitlab.com/ninelima/kwikEFIS

The compiled production apps are available exclusively through F-Droid, where the code is compiled, signed and certified as FOSS.

As the principal author and fellow RV pilot/owner, I vouch for the legitimacy of the Kwik apps. I have never had any issues in 10 years of using Kwik myself.

Also, I would really encourage anyone to check the source code for themselves. And if you do not possess the technical know-how yourself, there are any number of freelance online sites like Fiver, Airtasker etc where you would be able to hire someone to do it for you.

Oh I see last time I visited F-droid site and I didn't get any source code and documentation of Kwik, Because there sort in GitLab site. am I right?
 
:D I think those days are over. It was hard to check the source in the 80s when you or your small team wrote every line, and you went through it with code reviews that took hours or days. Today, you pretty much have to just trust, and looking at the recent Solar Winds exploit, I think it's clear that we can't trust anyone. You have to assume that the software you run will have bugs, will crash, and will expose any data that it has access to. Ensure you have a plan for these things happening.

Hello Mickey,

If you are hacking the code and need any help, I am happy assist where I can.

Every single line of the code in Kwik EFIS that is executed is available for perusal. There are pre-compiled no libraries or any binaries compiled into the Kwik EFIS apk.

The FOSS certification process by FDroid is fairly rigorous and goes a long way to keeping authors honest. FDroid really is a great resource and I am in awe at the work the volunteers do.

Cheers
Dave
 
Last edited:
Oh I see last time I visited F-droid site and I didn't get any source code and documentation of Kwik, Because there sort in GitLab site. am I right?


Yes, exactly.

You can get all the source code here: https://gitlab.com/ninelima/kwikEFIS
The Kwik EFIS homepage is here: https://ninelima.org/efis/index.html

The software has reached a level where it is rock stable on all the devices that I use and is serving my needs very well.
If you have any feedback, suggestions, gripes ... Lemme know and I will see what can be done.

Cheers
Dave
 
Last edited:
Back
Top