Ethos DevTools Extension

Ethos DevTools flyingeek.ethos-devtools is a VS Code extension that complements the bsongis.ethos extension.

It adds those commands to VS Code:

• Ethos DevTools: Play Telemetry CSV — replay a CSV telemetry log (Ethos or EdgeTX format) into the running simulator and pin a telemetry status label in the Ethos extension
• Ethos DevTools: Stop Telemetry — stop the current telemetry playback and clear the pinned status label
• Ethos DevTools: Set Telemetry Value — pick a sensor frame by name and inject a single value into the running simulator
• Ethos DevTools: Deploy to Simulator — copy a Lua app folder from the workspace into the Ethos simulator's scripts directory, with optional manifest-driven selective copy and post-deploy steps
• Ethos DevTools: Deploy to Radio — deploy a Lua app folder to a connected radio. The radio can be connected in Ethos Suite or Serial mode.
• Ethos DevTools: Radio Serial Console - Tail the radio's serial console output into the Ethos Deploy output channel. The radio must be connected in Serial mode for this to work.
• Ethos DevTools: Radio Debug — useful tools for debugging a connected radio (see Debug Connection).

The extension is only activated in workspaces where the bsongis.ethos extension is active. It requires bsongis.ethos to be installed.

Note: This extension was previously named "Ethos Simulator Manager" and used the ethos prefix for settings and commands. It was then renamed to "Ethos VSCode Extension" as all the simulator management commands had been integrated in the bsongis.ethos extension.

Finally before publication on the VS Code marketplace, the name was changed again to "Ethos DevTools" to better reflect the scope of the extension.

The command and setting prefixes have been updated from ethosExt. to ethos-devtools. to reflect the new name.

Installation

Download the latest VSIX for your platform from the Releases page and install it via the Extensions panel in VS Code (drag and drop the VSIX file in the panel).

We also ship an universal VSIX, more limited but that should work on all platforms. The platform-specific ones are recommended as they include native dependencies for the radio connection features. In other words, all radio connection features (deploy, serial console, debug) require the platform-specific VSIX.

Configuration

For Deploy to work, the minimum settings to add is:

"ethos-devtools.deploy": {
    "app": "appname",
}

Telemetry Playback

Ethos DevTools: Play Telemetry CSV replays a flight log into the running Ethos simulator via the ethos.injectTelemetry API:

Telemetry frame discovery uses sensors.json from the simulator root.

1. Pick a CSV file from the workspace (or browse the file system).
2. Select a replay speed. The default options are 1×, 2×, 5×, and 10×, configurable via ethos-devtools.telemetryReplaySpeeds.
3. Choose Play once or Loop.

Supported formats:

• Ethos log — columns such as Altitude(m), RxBatt(V), ESC voltage(V), RSSI 2.4G(dB), GPS (space-separated lat lon), …
• EdgeTX log — columns such as Alt(m), RxBt(V), 1RSS(dB), RQly(%), Curr(A), GPS (space-separated lat lon), …

Only frames listed in sensors.json (as returned by ethos.getSensors) are injected — extra CSV columns are silently ignored. The progress notification shows the current row, percentage, and the frame names sent on each tick. Playback can be cancelled via the notification's cancel button or the Ethos DevTools: Stop Telemetry command.

Note: You can read more information in the telemetry doc file.

Set Telemetry Value

Ethos DevTools: Set Telemetry Value lets you inject a single value into any sensor frame of the running Ethos simulator:

1. Pick a frame from the list returned by ethos.getSensors (e.g. Altitude, VSpeed, RSSI).
2. Enter the value in human-readable units (e.g. 150 for 150 m).

The simulator is updated immediately. The command requires the Ethos simulator to be running.

Deploy

• Ethos DevTools: Deploy to Simulator (ethos-devtools.deploySimulator) copies a Lua app folder from your workspace into the correct simulator scripts directory.
• Ethos DevTools: Deploy to Radio (ethos-devtools.deployRadio) copies a Lua app folder from your workspace to a connected radio.

Destination path

Simulator

<ethos.simulatorsFolder>/<ethos.board>_<ethos.protocol>@<ethos.release>/scripts/<appname>

Radio

RADIO:/scripts/<appname>

<appname> is:

• manifest.folder when ethos-devtools.deploy.manifest is set to a non-empty string
• path.basename(ethos-devtools.deploy.app) otherwise

RADIO: is the first available storage key (sdcard or radio) containing a scripts folder on the connected radio. You may change the priority order of storage keys via ethos-devtools.radio.storageTargetPriority.

The radio is synced using different methosds:

• Lua mode ethos-devtools.deployRadioLua: only .lua files are copied, useful for quick iterations when project is quite big.
• Fast mode ethos-devtools.deployRadioFast: uses rsync like mode, the manifest is skipped.
• Manifest mode ethos-devtools.deployRadio: is like fast mode but the manifest is used to determine which files to copy and delete.
• Ultra Safe Mode ethos-devtools.deployRadio: extra steps ensure a safe deployment, this is the default mode when no manifest present.

All thoses modes (except manifest mode)were ported from rob thomson's deploy scripts.

Deploy Configuration

Configure the command via ethos-devtools.deploy in your workspace settings:

"ethos-devtools.deploy": {
    "app": "gps-qrcode",
    "manifest": "ethos_lua_manifest.json",
    "stageSteps": [],
    "steps": []
}

The full configuration schema is described in the Deploy steps and manifest doc.

ethos-menu.json

To integrate with the Ethos extension's menu, add entries to your project's ethos-menu.json file:

[
    {
        "label": "📊 Telemetry playback",
        "command": "ethos-devtools.playTelemetry"
    },
    {
        "label": "✏️ Set telemetry value",
        "command": "ethos-devtools.setTelemetry"
    },
    {
        "label": "🚀 Deploy to simulator",
        "command": "ethos-devtools.deploySimulator"
    },
    {
        "label": "📻 Deploy to radio",
        "command": "ethos-devtools.deployRadio"
    },
    {
        "label": "$(debug-start)Deploy & Launch SIM",
        "command": ["ethos.stop", "ethos.clearLogfile", "ethos-devtools.deploySimulator", "ethos.start"]
    },
]