2023-11-13
Minor
It gives me great pleasure to release version 2.12 of fDeck: flight instruments.
I recently had a request from Daniel B who is a skydive pilot:
"while using the hsi instrument , when I arrive over the waypoint (the drop zone) the cdi needle becomes very sensitive, as expected with a vor when station passage occurs, which makes navigation quite difficult close to the drop zone. Is it possible to include in the app in future the option to change the cdi needle sensitivity to act as with a gps waypoint in a garmin G1000 or any other gnss unit with a sensitivity of say 0.3 of a NM? (ie. the sensitivity doesn't change during station passage)"
Great idea! This release adds this feature. CDI sensitisation is now an option on both the VOR and HSI instrument settings and this defaults to ON. When you get to within 3km of a station, fDeck will start to desensitise the needle. I've done good amount of testing but would appreciate your feedback when you get an opportunity to try this please?
Other changes in this release are focussed on the map page.
I added the precipitation weather overlay a few releases ago, but I have now additionally added the following new weather layers:
A reminder that all the weather overlays are premium features. Surely this is a great time to upgrade?
Another request I received was from Greg S who is a helicopter pilot and he asked if it would be possible to change the map icon to a helicopter to be more representative. Done! In fact, I went a little overboard on this - you can now choose between the following icons: General Aviation, Airliner, Helicopter, Transport, Military and...Spitfire!
I also added the option for you to customise the colour of the icon, and also the history track.
You will notice that I have had to create a dedicated Map Settings page to accommodate the additional options.
HSI/VOR desnsitatisation and additional map weather overlays
No changes
I hope you enoy this release, Darren.
apps@sensorworks.co.uk
2023-09-23
Major
Here is a long overdue update to fDeck: flight instruments. This release fixes the OpenAIP layer not working on the map page which I know many of you have been waiting for.
NEW FLIGHT PLANNING INSTRUMENT
No changes
No changes
No changes
No changes
No changes
* NEW INSTRUMENT *
I hope you enoy this release, Darren.
apps@sensorworks.co.uk
2022-10-29
Major
It gives me great pleasure to release version 2.8 of fDeck: flight instruments.
I have been promising this release for a long time to many people! I am so sorry that it has taken so long to get it out to you. No excuses other than life getting in the way. I build and maintain fDeck as a hobby and really don't get as much time to work on it as I would like.
Once again, this release wraps up a bunch of visible and invisible changes and I hope it will be well received by you all.
As always, if you see anything out of place or something that doesn't work quite right, then please let me know and I will jump on it right away.
There is a potential BREAKING CHANGE for some of you in this release. I have changed the way I generate anonymous device ID's. I am hoping that this will be transparent to most of you, but some of you who have previously purchased the app or have an active subscription might find that you start see ing ad's again. If this happens to you all you need to do is a 'Restore Purchases' from the subscription pop-up, or directly using the option in the app settings page.
TWO NEW INSTRUMENTS! I have added a Groundspeed indicator and a Chronometer with fuel totaliser functionality. Both of these instruments use a new rendering framework (based on a 2D rendering engine called Skia) which will form the basis of all new instrumentation moving forward.
Map now can optionally show live precipitation intensity
Simplified X-Plane connection
I hope you enoy this release, Darren.
apps@sensorworks.co.uk
2022-02-09
Major
This release wraps up lots of behind-the-scenes changes, as well as major optimisations of the gesture system and animations. The app is now far less CPU heavy, has even smoother animations and generally feels a lot more polished - IMHO :-)
BREAKING CHANGE: I have changed the message broker for the X-Plane to fDeck app connectivity. This means that if you use fDeck with X-Plane you will need to update the X-Plane plugin otherwise you will not be able to get them to connect to each other.
I hope you enoy this release, Darren.
apps@sensorworks.co.uk
2021-08-29
Minor
This release changes the map provider from Google Maps to Mapbox. This enables a more modern API, smoother animations (for the most part) and a better path for new features.
The ad sub-system has been updated. This has no user noticable impact.
I hope you enoy this release, Darren.
apps@sensorworks.co.uk
2021-07-29
Major
I am really excited to make this release available to you - it is the culmination a huge amount of new work, enhancements and changes based upon feedback from people like you. I really hope you enjoy it. It does contain some breaking changes. As I have changed the underlying database engine, any previously stored custom stations will be lost.
The layout engine has been completely rewritten from scratch. Following feedback from my amazing users I have simplified the layout to make it far easier to use whilst flying. Gone is the slightly awkward and problematic pan/zoom canvas. Instead there is now two modes, ‘Grid’ and ‘Swipe’. The app defaults to Grid on tablets and Swipe on all other devices. Try each layout out and see which you prefer on your device. You can switch layouts in the app settings. In addition to the new layout modes, a ‘double-click’ interface has been added to each instrument. Double clicking on any instrument will immediately make it fullscreen. Double clicking on it again will return you to the flight deck grid/swipe layout.
You can connect your X-Plane flight simulator to fDeck! Practice using fDeck "in-flight", or use fDeck as permanent external flight deck for X-Plane - the way you use it is only limited by your imagination! fDeck even sends commands to X-Plane to tune nav1/nav2/adf1 and synchronise OBS settings! I must admit that I built the plugin to enable me to better test fDeck without having to go flying. Testing the app is a great excuse to fly I know, but prohibitively expensive! More details can be found on our website, under the X-Plane plugin section, including instructions on how to download and install the plugin.
I hope you enoy this release, Darren.
apps@sensorworks.co.uk
2020-06-03
Maintenance
Wrap-up of numerous bug fixes following initial app release
None - maintenance release