K6TU Remote - release announcement V1.2

Stu Phillips - K6TU

First of all, sincere thanks to all the folks who have helped test K6TU Remote and to everyone else for their patience.  The test group has done stellar work helping get the new application tested together with my suggestions for usability improvements etc.

K6TU Remote V1.2 is the first general release of the application and is now available in the Apple AppStore:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apple-store/id1013143753?mt=8

IMPORTANT:

1. K6TU Remote requires an iPad Air or more powerful CPU/GPU iPad (Air2, Pro etc) to provide adequate CPU and graphics performance for seamless operation of the app.  The application moves a lot of streaming network traffic and is graphics intensive.  Although the app will run on older iPads, screen updates will lag/overrun and the audio will break up with pops when using finger gestures to tune, zoom etc.  It was simply impractical to provide adequate performance on the older units.
2. If you use K6TU Remote over a VPN connection and Cellular Data, be aware that you will consume approximately 1 GB of data per hour of operation when using high frame rates (24 fps) on the pan adaptor and waterfall.  Reducing the frame rate and line duration of the panafall will reduce consumption but even at lower levels of update (still eminently usable), you will still consume at least 250 MB per hour.  Using WiFi to connect to the remote VPN is strongly recommended.

K6TU Remote is a free (as in ****) down loadable application from the AppStore.  As downloaded, the app is full function for receive operation on a single slice.  Enabling transmit and dual slice receive operation requires an in-application subscription purchase.  For US customers, a 30 day subscription is $9.99 and a 1 year subscription is $99.99.

A purchased subscription provides full transmit/dual slice operation on all the iPad devices you have registered under your Apple ID providing they are all registered to iCloud with your account.  You must be logged into iCloud to access your subscription on each device.

NOTE:  This release (V1.2) provides support for phone transmission on SSB and AM only.  See release plans below for more details.

An active subscription will work with all releases of K6TU Remote during the subscription period without additional cost.

Support

Support for K6TU applications is available via a Google Group K6TU Remote.  This group provides support for both the K6TU Control and K6TU Remote applications - the group is moderated and applications to join the group can be made at:

https://groups.google.com/forum/embed/?place=forum/k6tu-support#!forum/k6tu-support

You can find documentation and FAQs for K6TU Remote at:

http://k6tu.net/ipad


Future Release plans

I am already working on the next release.  This is planned to include CW Support using an on-screen keyboard or using an external Bluetooth keyboard.  The release will also provide basic logging capabilities in app or via a third party logging application.  Details will be available on the support group.

Subsequent releases are planned to include station integration (external hardware will be required) to allow control of rotor, amplifiers etc.


Thank you again to everyone for their support and patience.
73 and may High Rate and ATNOs be with you!

Stu K6TU

Tom--W4FAS

Congratulations Stu, I already fired up my IPad Air and downloaded the K6TU Remote App. It looks great and I am sure I will have a lot of fun with it. I hope you enjoy great success with K6TU Remote. You deserve.it. 73, Tom W4FAS

Paul Christensen, W9AC

Stu,

Looking forward to this.  I purchased an iPad mini last year.  Looks like I may need to buy myself a new Xmas gift this year!  A shame that none of the present mini models have the computing horsepower as I prefer the smaller screen size for my operating apps.  What I need is an "iPad Air Mini" model to come out for the holiday season.

Paul, W9AC

AE0MW

The iPad Mini 2/3 is essentially an iPad Air. It uses the same processor but clocked slightly slower, and it has a reduced quality screen. The iPad Mini 3 is an iPad Mini 2 with TouchID.

The iPad Mini 4 is a bit more confusing. It got a great screen upgrade from the 2/3, and Apple bills it as very similar to the Air 2, but it uses a different processor and a slightly faster clock speed. Unfortunately, it has 1 fewer cores in that processor so the Air2 still out powers it.

As far as how each perform with K6TU Remote, I can't comment. I have an Air1 and a Mini2, but I haven't had a chance to play with the app yet.

Luke Reynolds

I loaded it on my ipad mini and Im amazed at how well it works. Im having a little problem finger sliding it to the exact frequency but no jitter no anything. I already purchased a 1 month trial!

KY6LA_Howard

you can manually input the frequency by touching the frequency numbers and then use the keyboard for input

DK1EY

Absolutely great! Thanx a lot. VY73 Thomas DK1EY

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback!

I have not tired the latest iPad Mini (just released a few weeks ago) but it has a 1.5 GHz processor according to:

http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/09/15/ipad-mini-4-uses-overclocked-a8-processor-faster-than-2014-iphones 

I think this places the Mini4 between the horse power of the Air and Air2 - but YMMV and so this is not a recommendation until I can see how the app works on that model.

I also have not yet been able to try the app on the Pro - Apple forgot to send me an evaluation unit so I'm waiting for next week to purchase one.  Over time, its likely there will be a Pro version of K6TU Remote - a lot more real estate to use for interesting control options!

One getting fine tuning - Howard already many the manual input suggestion but my preference is to...

• Pinch to zoom in
• Use the finger drag close to the bottom of the slice filter window
• Zoom back out as necessary

The tuning step applied when you drag your finger on the slice filter window is proportional to the vertical location of your finger (as describe in the friendly documentation on my web site)...  at the very bottom, the tune interval is 1 Hz.  At the top, the interval is designed to keep the slice directly under your finger.

After a little while, the zoom, tune, zoom operation becomes instinctive and very fast.  Faster with practice than tapping on the frequency display and entering the freuqency on the pop up keyboard.

Stu K6TU

KD8TVB

Excellent App Stu! I did loose Ant2 today, likely a profile issue... I had it this morning, but now only have Ant1 on transmit. Howard KD8TVB

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Hmmm....  you should be able to change the antenna... pull up the TX controls (swipe RIGHT from the left screen edge),  then tap the TX controls.  if you tap on the Antenna button, it will display a drop down list that shows you a choice of antennas.  Select ANT2 and you should be back in business.

Stu K6TU

KD8TVB

Drop down this morning had ant1, ant2 and Xvrtr... Tonight only Ant 1 and Xvrtr

KD8TVB

6300 here

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Ah ha!  You don't have Ant2!

The list of antennas should be getting populated from the radio.  Let me check into this but the fact you now only see ANT1 and XVTR is correct.  Why you saw ANT2 is what I will now look into!

Thanks for the clarification!
Stu K6TU

KD8TVB

No, I have Ant 1, Ant 2 and xvrtr

KD8TVB

Ant 2 is my fav

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Odd.  Please do these steps.

1. Before you start the connection to the radio by tapping on its image, swipe LEFT from the right edge of the screen to pull up the debug controls.
2. Tapp on the stepper control + side to get the Debug level to say Verbose
3. Enable logging by tapping the switch so it shows on
4. Tap Done
5. Connect to the radio

Wait a few seconds and now disconnect from the radio.

Pull up the debug controls again, the log file we ant is likely #2 on the list (ie the second one down) - tap on it to select - now hit the email button.  This will pull up an email form to send me the log file as an attachment.  Add yourself as a CC so you can check the file has more than a couple of lines, hit send to email me the log.

The log is a simple text file so you can read it with any editor.

Quit the app and fire up SmartSDR.

Check and see that it will allow you to select antenna 2.  Assuming it does, please use the profile manager (from under Settings, Global Profiles) and delete the profile K6TURemote.

Exit SmartSDR and re-run the app.  See if Ant2 returns...

Sorry for the hassle!
Stu K6TU

KD8TVB

Sent log, will get the profile work done tonight... Baseball training for my 9 year old, my it guys can not figure out how to let me vpn through sonic wall to talk to radio remote, odd

Stu Phillips - K6TU

My bad - there is a bug that affects the manual selection of port ANT2 on 6300's only. You can preselect ANT2 using SmartSDR and then save the profile.  This will remain in effect when you start the app.

I will fix this and re-release - likely in a couple of days then it will be about a week before the update shows in the app store (sorry but that's the "Apple" way - even for update releases).

Again, this impacts 6300 only - 6500 and 6700 are not impacted.

Thanks for reporting this and sorry it wasn't caught during the alpha testing.

Stu K6TU

KD4HSO

Wow, great app. Listening in the background as I type this. Have not tried TX, but RX is fine on an iPad3.

K1FR

Downloaded and briefly tried the app Wednesday evening.  Worked really well.  But now every time that I change bands the app abruptly quits.  Happens when tapping in new freq in slice display as well as when tapping band button in the app's control panel.

Have tried rebooting iPad, the 6700 and uninstalling/reinstalling the app.  Nothing knowingly changed in anything else in iPad or Flex.  Just me?  Thanks.

73, Tom
K1FR

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Tom,

Please try the following: first, I'd like to capture a debug log of what is going on.

1. From the radio chooser, before you tap on the radio picture to connect, please swipe LEFT from the right edge of the screen.
2. This will display the debugging controls.  Please tap on the stepper + control until it says Debug Level VERBOSE.
3. Click on the enable logging switch to turn logging on, now press DONE.
4. Connect to the radio, change bands.

When you say the radio abruptly quits, does the app return to the radio chooser (disconnects from the radio) or does the app literally quit?

In any event, please get back to the radio chooser and again bring up the debug controls.  Assuming we have captured the issue, the log file we want is the second one from the top of the list of log files.  Please tap on it to select and now tap on Email Log.  This will bring up an email window with the log file attached to it.  You might want to cc yourself on this message to check the log file has more than a couple of lines in it.  The log file is simple text so any application like NotePad, TextEdit etc will open the log.  Please email that log to me.

You might try changing bands with the band buttons on SmartSDR and run the radio through all the bands making sure that there is one pan adaptor and one slice per band.  Assuming this works ok, please try connecting with the iPad app again and see if the app changes bands ok.

If it doesn't or if SmartSDR also abruptly disconnects from the radio, we need to fix the issue.

I suspect that the persistence database in the radio is causing something to happen when you change bands.  We need to reset the persistence data.

1. If you have global profiles that you have configured in the radio, the first step is to go an export these using SmartSDR.
2. Once you have done this, please reset the radio to Factory Defaults.
3. Now you should be able to run the application on the iPad again.

Please let me know how you get on.  If this doesn't work, please email me and I will schedule time with you for a phone call to discuss live.

Thanks and sorry for the hassles.
Stu K6TU

Paul Christensen, W9AC

This morning, I purchased and installed K6TU Remote on my iPad Mini.  Spectacular results.  Just my opinion, but it seems like the Mini is a capable and qualified device. 

A few comments for future enhancements:

1) Ability to quickly and easily "snap tune" to the nearest 10Hz, 100 Hz, or 1kHz without needing to keypad-enter the slice frequency;

2) Variable receive-bandwidth selection;

3) "Pinch" control of the vertical scale to compress-expand dB range of screen. In the alternative, up/down buttons to accomplish same.

Congrats, Stu.  This is an awesome app.  Highly recommended.

Paul, W9AC

K1FR

Stu:  thanks.  I will try all the above when I get home this afternoon.  Just for clarification though - the app literally quits and must be started again.  73, Tom K1FR

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Paul,

Thank you!  Which Mini are you using?  The latest Mini has a much more powerful processor and while I haven't had a chance to try it, I suspect it will handle the app ok.

On the features...

Snap tune - maybe.  You can change the tuning rate by where on the slice window you place your finger to drag.  This changes the step size when you tune.  Try zooming in, precise tune and then zoom out.  After a while this becomes quite automatic.

Variable bandwidth receive; you can use the RX controls to change the filter bandwidth.  At this point I am not planning on adding the ability to change the filter bandwidth by using touch gestures.

Vertical scale adjustment - on the list! :-)

Thanks!
Stu K6TU

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Thanks for this - I will check and see if there are any crash logs that have been sent to Apple.  This is a first report based on a band change.

Stu

Paul Christensen, W9AC

Stu,

Just a Mini 2...

In lieu of variable bandwidth, it would be highly desirable to add the following pull-down Rx bandwidths:

SSB:  3.5 kHz, 4.0 kHz (common ESSB bandwidths);

CW:  2.4 kHz, 2.7 kHz, and 3.5 kHz as some die-hard CW ops like to get a feel for the band around them.  Sure, not useful when contesting, but nice for casual rag-chews.

Tnx!

Paul, W9AC

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Thanks - that's good to know.

I plan on making the filter sizes configurable just as the K6TU Control app does.

Its "on the list" (tm) :-)

Stu K6TU

KD4HSO

Stu,

Could you make the side menu translucent instead of white, so one can sort of see what's going on behind it?

Stu Phillips - K6TU

I will take a look...
Stu K6TU

K1FR

Stu:  

Problem fixed!

Just sent you the log file after the problem occurred again.  Then went to next step you suggested - using SSDR to step through all bands. Started the app after that, and all is well.  Stepped through all bands without issue.  Must have been something gooned up in the persistence database as you suspected.

Sorry to trouble you with self inflicted issue here.  Thanks for the super fast help,  

Looking forward now to playing around with the app.  Great work!

73, Tom
K1FR

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Tom,

Thanks for the debug log - it was inconclusive as the log ended shortly after the band change was commanded.  I'm perplexed with what undoubtably caused a crash due to some information from the radio.  This I have not seen before despite several months of testing with the alpha test team for the app.

Glad we found a way to resolve it.

Stu K6TU