Glossary

Glossary

Quick definitions for the jargon scattered across this wiki.

Term	What it means
NaviCore	This project — the WCB‑based RC controller firmware + browser config tool. (Formerly RC‑Controller / HyperCore.)
WCB	Wireless Communication Board — the ESP32‑based boards in the droid ecosystem that talk to each other over ESP‑NOW. NaviCore runs on WCB v3.2 hardware and joins the WCB network as a peer.
WCB v3.2	The specific board revision NaviCore targets — an Espressif ESP32‑S3 module on the WCB carrier.
ESP32‑S3	The microcontroller. Dual‑core, native USB, 3 hardware UARTs — relevant because NaviCore juggles SBUS in, SBUS out, a Maestro bus, and a USB console across them.
SBUS	The serial protocol FrSky (and others) use to send all channels on one wire: inverted UART, 100 000 baud, 8E2. NaviCore reads it as input. SBUS‑16 = 25‑byte frames, SBUS‑24 = 36‑byte frames (auto‑detected).
Matrix channel	One SBUS channel (default CH7) onto which the transmitter multiplexes all its push‑buttons as distinct PWM bands. NaviCore decodes which button is pressed from the value. Lets ~20 buttons share one channel.
ESP‑NOW	Espressif's connectionless peer‑to‑peer radio protocol (no Wi‑Fi router/AP). How NaviCore reaches remote WCBs and Maestros, and how Via WCB works. 250‑byte packet limit (hence fragmentation).
ETM	Ensured Transmission Mode — the WCB network's ACK'd/reliable unicast layer over ESP‑NOW. NaviCore's wcb->send() rides it.
Via WCB	Managing the controller wirelessly by relaying config‑tool traffic through a USB‑tethered WCB. See Remote Management over WCB.
Special‑peer slot / Device ID 20	The WCB network slot a non‑WCB device (like NaviCore) claims. By convention NaviCore is always ID 20, leaving 1–19 for real WCBs.
Maestro	A Pololu Maestro servo controller. NaviCore drives one locally (wired) and others remotely (over ESP‑NOW). See Maestro Setup.
Pololu protocol	The Maestro command framing that includes a device number, so multiple Maestros can share one bus and only the addressed one responds. NaviCore always uses it (never "compact").
qus	Quarter‑microseconds — Maestro's servo position unit. Typical servo travel is ~4000–8000 qus (1000–2000 µs).
Kyber / Kyber_Remote	The WCB pass‑through path NaviCore broadcasts remote‑Maestro bytes on; a WCB with Kyber_Remote enabled forwards those bytes to its own Maestro port.
HCR	Human‑Cyborg Relations vocalizer — a droid sound/emotion board. NaviCore fires HCR commands over serial or WCB. See WLED and HCR Audio.
MP3 Trigger	A SparkFun MP3 Trigger v2.x sound board. Driven over serial or via a WCB's MP3 driver. See WLED and HCR Audio.
WLED	An addressable‑LED controller running the WLED firmware — a first‑class device/action type (RA_WLED). A button or switch fires a ;L<id>,<verb> command that NaviCore routes per id (the wledSlots table) to a local aux serial port or a remote WCB. See WLED and HCR Audio.
WcbCmd	The greghulette/WcbCmd command‑formatting library, shared with the WCB firmware, that NaviCore links against to build the Maestro / HCR / MP3 / WLED command strings. Pinned as a CI build dependency.
NVS	Non‑Volatile Storage — an ESP32 flash key/value area. NaviCore used to store config here; config now lives in LittleFS (below), and NVS is only a one‑time migration source. Full Wipe & Flash erases NVS.
LittleFS	The flash filesystem where your saved configuration lives, as a single JSON file /config.json (survives reboots and firmware updates). It sits on the spiffs partition of NaviCore's custom 16 MB table (partitions.csv). Full Wipe & Flash does not erase it — use Restore Defaults to clear the saved config. A second LittleFS lives on the dedicated 12 MB clips partition and holds the record/replay clip library.
DTG	Date‑Time‑Group — the timestamp stamped into the firmware version (v0.2.0_011009QJUN26) by the pre‑commit hook, so a binary's name matches the running version.
FQBN	Fully Qualified Board Name — the arduino-cli board+options string the build uses (esp32:esp32:esp32s3:USBMode=hwcdc,CDCOnBoot=cdc,PartitionScheme=custom,FlashSize=16M,PSRAM=opi). PartitionScheme=custom + FlashSize=16M select NaviCore's own partitions.csv (needed for the clips filesystem); PSRAM=opi is required — the runtime config lives in external PSRAM.
USB CDC (on boot)	Native‑USB serial mode on the ESP32‑S3. NaviCore is built with it enabled, which frees a hardware UART for SBUS‑out and is why Serial is the native USB port.
Mode	One of three complete mapping sets, chosen by a 3‑position switch (default SE). The same button does different things per mode — tripling your control surface.
Tap window / multi‑tap	The window (default 500 ms) NaviCore waits to see if more taps are coming, so single / double / triple taps can each fire different actions.
Exclusive vs cumulative	Per‑button tap behavior — exclusive fires only the matched tap tier; cumulative fires every tier up to it.
Record & Replay / clips	Capture the droid actions you dispatch into a named clip, then replay it with the original timing (RA_RECORD / play / stop actions, driven from the command library). Recording buffers into PSRAM; saved clips persist in the dedicated clips LittleFS. See Record and Replay.
Fragmentation / reassembly	Splitting an oversized JSON payload (a config) into ESP‑NOW‑sized chunks for Via‑WCB transfer, then rebuilding it on the far side.
Failsafe / lostFrame	SBUS link‑health flags. failsafe = link gone (NaviCore freezes outputs); lostFrame = one missed frame (ignored). See Failsafe and Signal Loss.
Config tool	The single‑file browser app (config_tool/index.html) that configures everything over the Web Serial API (Chrome/Edge).

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