I solved the powerSDR not keeping up with the pulse rate by buffering the
pulses in my N4PY program and only sending the new frequency to powerSDR
every 100 msec no matter how fast the pulses come in. This scheme works
perfectly.
Carl Moreschi N4PY
121 Little Bell Drive
Bell Mountain
Hays, NC 28635
www.n4py.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg - ZL3IX" <zl...@inet.net.nz>
To: "Reflector Flex-Radio" <flexRadio@flex-radio.biz>
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 2:27 PM
Subject: [Flexradio] Re-Knob Tuning
Note heading change, as this is no longer anything to do with speakers.
I have completely disabled keyboard shortcuts, as I find that, when I have
several apps open at once (eg logger, chat window) I am forever forgetting
to change focus. I start typing, only to find that PowerSDR had focus,
and has suddenly done something I didn't want - irritating in the extreme.
I had a shaft encoder from a much older project, which has a heavy wheel
and can be spun. I have modified an old mouse and interfaced the shaft
encoder with the old mouse wheel circuit. That part works fine, but I
find that PowerSDR can't keep up with the pulse rate, and the PC beeps at
me if I spin the wheel too fast. (I wish someone would fix that) So I am
back to dragging the pan display for large changes and using the knob for
small ones. Nothing gained over the original mouse wheel, really!
Greg ZL3IX
N4PY2 wrote:
Brian,
I have solved this problem with a mouse wheel that is the type that is
weighted and spins. I have a logitech MX620 mouse that works very well
in this application. Then I use my N4PY software that has parameters in
it to allow a step multiplier when the wheel is spun fast. You can
customize both the trip point for when the multiplier comes into effect,
and the multiplier value itself. I have mine setup and it works
extremely well.
Carl Moreschi N4PY
121 Little Bell Drive
Bell Mountain
Hays, NC 28635
www.n4py.com
----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian Lloyd" <brian-wb6...@lloyd.com>
To: "Ray Andrews, K9DUR" <k9...@rnacs.com>
Cc: <flexradio@flex-radio.biz>
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 1:55 PM
Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Speaker set-up
On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 5:03 AM, Ray Andrews, K9DUR<k9...@rnacs.com>
wrote:
There an additional advantage to using this method -- I found a useful
application for my Griffin PowerMate. Like many, when I bought my
SDR-1000,
I was nervous about not having a VFO knob, so I bought the Griffin
PowerMate. I quickly found that I did not like using the PowerMate for
frequency change.
This is an interesting example of how a tiny change in user-interface
can make a huge difference in usability. I too like a VFO knob. It is
actually a very natural way to change frequency and everyone is very
comfortable using it. On other radios it works very well. Older radios
with analog VFOs have a much faster tuning rate so that one can use
the finger dimple and quickly QSY from one end of the band to the
other. Once you get near the desired frequency, the fact that the VFO
is analog means that you can tune spot-on just by turning the knob
very slowly.
Newer radios approach the problem a different way. Newer radios either
have a PLL or DDS VFO which tunes in discrete steps. The problem is,
you want to go quickly when QSY-ing to the other end of the band and
then you want to go slowly when you tune to the final frequency. I
have seen two approaches to this problem which work pretty well:
1. use a small step-size but have a free-wheeling weighted VFO knob
that can be spun very quickly to make gross frequency changes and yet
still have a reasonable step size, usually around 10Hz, that will let
you tune in the desired signal when you get near;
2. use "acceleration" to increase the step size when tuning quickly,
e.g. 100Hz, and then change to a smaller step size when tuning slowly.
The problem with the Griffin knob is that you can't spin it. So in
order to move quickly you need to change to a much larger step size.
That precludes final tuning of the signal without changing the step
size again. Some use the ability to push down on the knob to change
the step size but then it is more awkward as you are trying to push
and turn at the same time. So the only way to make the Griffin knob
work well would be to apply acceleration when turning the knob
rapidly.
So you can see why the Griffin knob is not particularly useful AS IT
IS CURRENTLY IMPLEMENTED. If one were to add acceleration to frequency
selection in PowerSDR, the Griffin knob would become very useful and
desirable.
As it is, I think most people have adopted the same approach to
solving the problem: drag the panadaptor display for gross frequency
changes and use the mouse-wheel for fine tuning. Both are accomplished
from the mouse which saves moving one's hands around to different
places. If that is going to be the preferred method of tuning the
radio then I would deprecate the use of the Griffin knob entirely.
Here's a question: does anyone use the keyboard shortcuts to tune the
radio? I know there are keys that will tune up/down for the various
digits in the frequency display but in over a year of use I have never
been even slightly motivated to use them. Am I the rule or the
exception?
73 de Brian, WB6RQN/J79BPL
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