Suggestion for Knobster iPad support

[ckemper67]

Hi everyone,

I found out about Air Manager and Knobster from Russ Barlow's videos. I just love the idea of combining flexible instruments with Air Manager and the tactile support from using the Knobster.

I currently have the iPad version of AIr Manager, but unfortunately that does not support the Knobster. One of the options would be use the desktop version of Air Manager with an app like Duet or Spacedesk to use the iPad as an additional monitor, but I see that I am not the only one that would like to see the Knobster supported in the iPad app.

So that got me thinking: Could the Air Manager flight sim plugin send the Knobster input data from the desktop to the iPad? It is a bit counterintuitive but instead of this flow:

Knobster -> iPad -> network -> desktop -> plugin -> simulator (which doesn't work because you cannot connect the Knobster to the iPad)

we could use this:

Knobster -> desktop -> plugin -> network -> iPad -> network -> desktop -> plugin -> simulator.

i.e. instead of trying to connect the Knobster to to the iPad (which you cannot do), we will connect the Knobster to the desktop, collect the input signal and send it from the simulator plugin across the network to the iPad together with the rest of the simulator state that is already sent across. When you select a dial on the iPad and turn the Knobster, the iPad app sends this as a regular inner or outer knob turn back to the plugin.

Could this work?
Christian

[Sling]

Wow, now that is a work around. I doubt it would be responsive enough though.

The app is limited. This is one of the many limitations. The desktop does it all.

[ckemper67]

I don't know if latency will be all that bad. We are talking about adjusting radio frequencies after all. As long as the user visible frequency change is reasonably close to the the change in input, it should be fine. Is the processing of the input and the visual feedback done in the instruments themselves or does it get routed through the simulator before the frequency change is shown to the user? I have never looked at the source code for instruments, so I am not sure. If it is handled within the instrument, it would just be the additional latency of one internal network hop which is ~5ms or so. That should not be too bad.

If latency is a concern and the feedback is routed through the simulator, the handling of the Knobster input could potentially be done in the plugin itself instead of the iPad app. All the iPad app would have to do is to let the plugin know the selected knob. Then the plugin can handle the Knobster input and adjust the selected dial accordingly. But of course that would be a much bigger change.

Christian

[Sling]

A few things to consider.

The knobster input is handled by AM desktop and not the plugin.
Many users run AM on a computer remote to the sim and over wifi.
Knobster is used for way more than frequency changes. Heading bug control is a typical example.
Dials can have acceleration where response is important.
The iPad version can be thought of as AM lite. For more advanced features and greater flexibility you need the desktop version.
If the iPad App had more features you would expect it to cost more. Perhaps even as much as the desktop version considering Apple want their slice.
I know you would love knobster for the App as would others but the reality is something else I suspect.