Easier fine tuning with mouse! Comments requested

Bob - W7KWS -

I like my 6300 but I've never gotten over lack of a front panel, particularly for fine tuning & volume control.  I've purchased a Tmate 2 and it is an interesting experiment but it still makes me move my hand off the mouse and then back.  I presume that the Flex Control will require the same, extra "back-and-forth".  In a rapid fire contest, this slows things down quite a bit.

I have set the step control for my mouse wheel to 500 Hz. and this works well for landing on top of most signals up and down a band but I still need fine tuning for some signals.

Since I have a five button mouse, it occurred to me that a second step size would be extremely useful.  When holding the third mouse "thumb" button and moving the wheel, the second step selection would be used.  I would set this for 10 Hz. in SSB mode and 1 Hz. in CW mode.

73,

Bob, W7KWS

Kevin LaFata

Bob,  I'm working on a "midi" controller interface for exactly that. I'm using an Akai APC40 (usually meant for music production) that seems like a good fit, plenty of buttons and knobs.  One knob in particular is speed sensitive so I can have it go in smaller steps when turned slow and increase the step size when its turned faster.    I know there's a "flexcontrol" that does something similar, but that's only one knob and a few buttons.  The midi interface can be used to control everything from RF power to bandwidth and volume/balance. I'm not a contester , but I could see that being useful possibly.

I have another message somewhere (I need to find it) that points to a video of it working. I'll see if I can dig that up when I get home later.

Gerald-K5SDR

Bob, you can program the buttons on the FlexControl to change the function of the main knob.  I have mine set up so that the buttons change the knob from tuning to AF, AGC-T, and RIT respectively.  I can clear each one by pressing the main knob to return to tuning.

Bob - W7KWS -

Hi Gerald,

Good to hear from the top.  It's just about as nice as the in depth conversation you, K2XT and I had at Dayton last year.  The FlexRadio support is A1+.

Regarding the Flex Control, I haven't tried one since the functionality you mention in your reply is also programmable on my Tmate 2.  I've found it useful but it slows me down when shifting between point & click and dial control of the radio.

The mouse button in my feature request would make tuning a one hand and a one device operation.  My left foot will be on the foot switch PTT and eyes on the spectrum display.

I guess the left hand could do the logging but I suppose a friend would be better for that.

Thanks for the input, Gerald, and I hope that you find my mouse request worth consideration.  See you in Dayton.

Best Regards,

Bob, W7KWS

DrTeeth

The tuning step box also accepts text inputs so you can define your own steps.

Roy Laufer

Bob, Any chance you can describe how you are interfacing your Tmate2 to SmartSDR? Or are you using another third party control software. I sent the people involved in selling the Tmate2, if they were still working on a driver for direct SSDR control, but no one ever emailed me back. 73, Roy, AC2GS

Bob - W7KWS -

Roy,

I'm using N4PY Pegasus which connects directly to SmartSDR. I don't believe it uses any COM ports or the CAT interface, but I've forgotten the details. You can read the documentation at N4PY.

Bob, W7KWS

Bob - W7KWS -

Hi Gerald,

It's been five months since I suggested this. Since then you have announced the Maestro & I entered my order within a few minutes of you showing it in Dayton.

Despite this, I want to reiterate the third mouse button idea for fine tuning.

The Flex Control & Maestro are fine but I use a Mouse with my Windows tablet in remote mode when I'm away from the radio.  The Bluetooth mouse is still my best solution for the tablet.  The third, fine-tune-mouse-button, would be a great addition in this "most used" situation.

Thanks!