acs_num_scans requirement is 1..100 - number of scans to be performed that are used to trigger survey data gathering of an underlying device driver. Scans are passive and typically take a little over 100ms (depending on the driver) on each available channel for given hw_mode. Increasing this value means sacrificing startup time and gathering more data wrt channel interference that may help choosing a better channel. This can also help fine tune the ACS scan time in case a driver has different scan dwell times.
Original Value:
5
New Value:
8
Rampant Speculation:
This change makes it take slightly longer for the Solo and controller to boot up, but they have a better understanding of the wifi environment and are better suited to select the clearest channel(s).
Further reading: http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Documentation/acs
Channel list restriction. This option allows hostapd to select one of the provided channels when a channel should be automatically selected.
Original Value:
6 11
New Value:
Disabled
Rampant Speculation:
This change allows the Solo and controller to select from any channels available to it instead of only being able to use either 6 or 11. WiFi channels often overlap to a certain degree, so 1, 6, and 11 are often "preferred" selections since they don't overlap with each other, but if everyone is already using 6 and 11, sometimes it makes sense to have options.
Set the beacon interval. This is the time interval between beacon frames, measured in units of 1.024 ms. hostapd permits this to be set between 15 and 65535
Original Value:
100
New Value:
999
Rampant Speculation:
Changes the beacon frame timing from 102.4 ms to 1022.976 ms. Beacon frames are what is used to broadcast the SSID, among other things. Once the Solo is connected to the controller, these are more or less superfluous, so decreasing their frequency frees up more frames for actually transmitting data.
Sets the Contention Window minimum for 802.11 WMM. This influences how wireless clients and APs prioritize traffic.
Original Value:
3
New Value:
2
Rampant Speculation:
The VI in the variable name stands for video. Lowering the priority value means that video data is more important than it was before. What are we sacrificing to make video more important? I don't know for sure, but I'd guess telemetry data.
Sets the Transfer Opportunity limit for 802.11 WMM. This influences how wireless clients and APs prioritize traffic.
Original Value:
94
New Value:
136
Rampant Speculation:
The VI in the variable name stands for video, the txop indicates that it has to do with packet transfer timing. Increasing this value allows for a greater opportunity window during which the video data can be transferred before it gets skipped. This should allow for a more resilient video data stream, although at the cost of consistency. If I were to hazard a guess, this might be responsible for the "video rolling" that people have been mentioning, although that's at least better than a RTH if you ask me.
Sets the Transfer Opportunity limit for 802.11 WMM. This influences how wireless clients and APs prioritize traffic.
Original Value:
47
New Value:
1
Rampant Speculation:
The VO in the variable name stands for voice, the txop indicates that it has to do with packet transfer timing. Voice is the highest priority level for data when using WMM classifications. I would assume that control data (Solo steering, gimbal control, buttons, etc.) is sent over this channel. Lowering the txop window should mean that the driver is not allowed to introduce lag into the control data, although it may drop a frame here and there and then have to retransmit. Probably results in faster control input under the majority of reception scenarios.
Sets the values of the items changed by applying the August 2015 hostapd.conf Changes back to their original values. Note that this will change the values to what is considered their "original" values regardless of what they are currently set to. This could be a good thing if you've been messing with some of those settings manually, but it could be bad if/when 3DR changes these values in the future. This is why the button is labeled as the August 2015 changes - so people know that if they have firmware newer than that, these changes probably aren't a good idea to make.
This is just an easy way to generate and download the .bin format log file from the Solo. If you're doing this, you probably know what to do with this file.
This tool is free, but if it's helped you and you'd like to say thanks or help make continued development a priority instead of just something I do in my spare time, I appreciate anything you feel like donating!