Forcing complete param download is incredibly frustrating in practice

A recent update has pushed a functionality where the config/tuning options are prevented from being shown unless all parameters have been downloaded. This is incredibly frustrating for me in actual practice.

Unfortunately due to the nature of the radio I am using, I get packet loss, maybe 5-10%. In operational usage this isn’t so bad, but it especially frustrating now when trying to do anything related to parameters. What happens (as far as I am aware) is that MP asks the drone for the complete param download. By the end of the 1000+ parameters, a few parameters have been lost on the link, so it asks for the param download again, and again, and again, and often taking 5-10 minutes before MP fully downloads every parameter since at the default 10hz a param fetch takes ~2 minutes.

Previously I was able to cancel the parameter download and be able to view and edit the parameters that I did get; which was often enough to do what I wanted, and if it wasn’t I could refresh once and try again.

Now that’s not possible, since cancelling the parameter download doesn’t prevents me for viewing many of the configuration options.

Is it possible to restore the previous behaviour or at the very least make it an option? This would be very nice especially with the param load in background option. I will be reverting to an older version of MP until this is resolved.

As an additional suggestion; perhaps the behaviour of “the param dl has failed to get every parameter, ask for them all again” might be changed to “the params have failed so request the missing params singly by number until all have been downloaded” or even “present the user with which parameters were missed and if they want to attempt to download those ones again specifically”.

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Param fetch via MAVFTP is coming to the next release, only takes a couple of seconds.

Sweet. Until then it’d be really nice to not have to hate using MP everytime I want to change a parameter over the air.

I just wonder that what kind of radio gives you 10% packet loss when you are on the ground and within a couple meters from the ground stations ? Perhaps the solution is to solve this problem instead of bending the software to accommodate it.

I’d love to fix that, but can’t. Sometimes these problems are simply a matter of constraints.

please provide a tlog of the download process. so i can see just how much loss you are seeing.

MP by default request the full list. if it gets less than 75% it re-requests the full list. if it gets over 75% it pulls the params 10 at a time.

ie the tlog will give me an idea on the metrics you are seeing