SmartSDR for Windows - requested enhancements

W8QB

Enhancement 1 - As others have already requested, it would be nice to have the option to toggle to an analog style S-meter similar to the one found on the IC-7610.  This presumably would be fairly trivial to implement.

Enhancement 2 - Eliminate the two stand alone windows of DAX and CAT and merge the same functionality directly into the main window of SmartSDR.  DogparkSDR is an excellent example.  His GUI is highly functional without having to resort to too many stand alone windows.  Being able to access all SmartSDR functionality from a single window would be more efficient, and would also make it more aesthetically pleasing.

Tim - W4TME

#2 is probably not going to happen because the modular design of DAX and CAT allow them to run on different PCs and connect to the radio.  I use this feature all the time when running 4 instances of CWSkimmer waterfall with SDR bridge; Bridge and CWSkimmer run on one PC and SmartSDR-Win runs on another because the CPU load of doing everything on 1 PC is just too great.  By integrating it into SSDR, you will not be able to do this since only one instance of SDR-Win (a GUI client) can connect to a radio at a time.

W8QB

What percentage of your user base uses this level of (relatively complex) functionality?

Bill -VA3WTB

Doug, I would think for most of us we would not need to do what Tim does. But to his point in doing it the way it is made lets users have all kinds of options. I would expect many DX contest stations using Flex and there are more of them all the time, that they use these options a lot.

George KF2T

Doug, I use it. The ability to direct audio and control without running the main client is a powerful tool. DAX and CAT take up very little resources, are normally loaded at startup, and provide good, stable performance. By the by, I primarily use Dogpark SDR. xDAX and xCAT, by an excellent third party developer, bring greater flexibility and capability to the Mac platform. Like their Windows counterparts, they run discreetly and reliably without the main GUI client.

Tim - W4TME

This is relative FLEXibility and extensibility.  A small price to pay (separate programs) for a high value of return.

W8QB

Understood.  Any chance that we will soon see an analog style S-meter?

W8QB

Also: how is the patient doing? Hope you are feeling better!

K3SF

I tend to agree with Tim

i do make the most of my 6600M using multiple dax/cat ...

i do not want dax/cat built into a single ssdr GUI

i run xDax and xCat in mac environment and Dax /Cat in VM win7 at the same time, doing FT8, RTTY and CWskimmer on multiple macs

By the way dpsdr does not have xDax nor xCat builtin. These are add on's and are separate apps with their own GUI. This is the way a client server architecture works.

As for analog style s-meter...my personnel opinion is it takes up valuable screen real estate. A lot of empty space just to support a needle bouncing around and do not think it would be best for the M-models.

i know this is more of a personal preference.

W8QB

Good points, but as for the analog style s-meter: it needn't be one or the other, i.e., bar-style of s-meter vs. an analog style meter.  What I am proposing is having the option where the user can select their preferred type of meter on demand, by toggling between the two options.  This solution sacrifices nothing, and I see the "needle bounce" as a huge plus for those of us with less than 20-20 vision.  The dancing needle is a more intuitive way of discerning signal level vs. the (far less visible) bar-style of s-meter.

Bill -VA3WTB

That is why I installed the woodbox meter, big clean, and looks like part of SSDR.

W8QB

Woodbox meter does work very well, albeit active development of it apparently has been discontinued.  Also, Woodbox is not an OEM provided solution for the Flex, nor does the Woodbox meter allow for permanently attaching the analog style meter to the radio bar of SmartSDR for Windows.

Tim - W4TME

Doug - The patient is improving.  I started PT on my shoulder last week.  Range of motion is slowly improving at the great expense of the get your attention type of discomfort.  Just have another 12 weeks of it. :-/

The meter challenge is the needed real estate on the slice flag to implement.

W8QB

Would it be possible to simply create a new pane rather than alter the slice flag?  The pane would reside directly inside the "radio" bar located on the right side of the SmartSDR GUI.  Interesting, the length/width of the Woodbox meter is identical to such a pane, which presumably is not a coincidence.

W8QB

Unlike the Woodbox meter, an OEM-created pane would be integral to the radio bar, eliminating the chore of continually re-positioning a (3rd party) pane to make it align with the SmartSDR radio bar.

K3SF

Speaking of the s-meter...peak-hold would be a welcomed addition. Where hold only last a few seconds ( or user defined time even better)

KY6LA_Howard

I gotta throw my 2 cents into this discussion

 I find the current Line Meters - red on black invisible to me albeit it is corrected with alternative colors on SSDR/iOS

There are already several analog meters available.. the best being Woodbox and Denzone

Yes they are not integrated

I prefer the Denzone because it reads out digital numbers which are so much more useful.

PLUS this is the 21st Century...  Who really needs these analog approximations anymore.

I want Large DIGITAL NUMBERS for SWR, POWER and S-METER. 

Better yet.. remove the Analog Meters completely - why copy the clutter of the 7610

W8QB

One man's (analog) clutter is another's pleasure...and they are indeed far more visible!

KY6LA_Howard

Other than eye candy.. Analog meters are at best an approximation

I like numbers  - peak and Instantaneous would be useful

BTW- I have several external digital SWR and Power Meters (LP-100, LP700, Wave Node).. and my SPE Amp reads out digital number -  these all give real numbers so much more useful than the analog approximations where you guess the readings.

However.. I have also seen shacks adorned with Flashing Lights and On the Air Signs - so to each his own Eye Candy even if it is not that useful.

KY6LA_Howard

Here is what a useful digital meter looks like

W8QB

I'm typical of a large demographic: the folks who've been in the hobby since the mid-70s.  My first radio was an HW-16, followed by a Swan 350, eventually migrating to a hybrid, combination solid state/vacuum tube TS-520.  Manufacturers stopped producing vacuum tube transceivers long ago...but it would be fun to see Flex bring back a (dancing needle) analog meter.  User selected meter, analog or digital from a drop down menu.

KY6LA_Howard

@Doug ... I am one of the young guys who got into the hobby in the late 1950's totally with homebrew equipment.  By the mid-70's I was playing with solid state synthesizer radios...

I do not want to be reminded of the bad old days with inaccurate analog meters that continually gave incorrect and misleading approximations to needed information. 

If you note my meter display above, the power out is really 50.1W and the SWR is really 1.01.  I worked hard to get my MonstIR antenna to optimize its performance  Could not do that with an analog meter.

Other than eye candy to compete with the 7610, I personally do not see any benefit to analog meters other than increasing useless clutter

MY 2 Cents...

W8QB

I understand why you prefer digital meters, but why not let the user decide by providing a drop down menu for selecting digital-or-analog meter?  Space is no issue, because the analog meter can take the form of a pane residing in the SmartSDR radio panel.

Brad A. Steffler

I have to agree with Howard. I much prefer the precision of the digital meter to the vagueness of the analog meter.

Brad
KE4XJ

Bill -VA3WTB

The Flex is laboratory accurate equipment. Readouts and meters should be as well. digital. but I understand  the connections to old memories.
Personally I don't think Icom did themselves any favors for using antique type meters.

KY6LA_Howard

@Doug - it would mean adding yet another Nerd Button/Switch to the screen or controls... As I said there are already lots of Analog meters out there...

OTOH... if eye candy sells radios to your older demographic from the mid 1970's maybe Flex should consider it as clearly the 7610 has struck a nerve.

Bill -VA3WTB

Howard? you know that eye candy is more important then function don't you?

W8QB

I don't think that's a fair remark.  One person's "laboratory accuracy" is "overkill" in the eyes of others.  If people were so obsessed with "accurate" signal reports, then we would not constantly hear people proclaiming "you are 5 x 9!"

Bill -VA3WTB

It is not over **** really. What the Signal meter is saying is laboratory accurate on the Flex 6000s. but what you say is true, if you are giving a signal report on a non SDR radio, the report means very little simply from the way the signal is reported in the radio.

W8QB

Exactly.  A software rendered analog-style s-meter, not to be confused with mechanical needles on older radios is every bit as accurate in displaying signal levels as the alternative bar-graph s-meter.  One is not better than the other, but it is nice to have the option to choose one or the other, which is something the proposed analog pane would readily accomplish.

Bill -VA3WTB

I agree, but here is the thing Doug. for some time people have been complaining about how visible and easy things are seen on the SSDR software. Most resent is the colors of the meters. So it seems a signal meter if changed should be very easy to see at a glance. This is why clear digital readouts are a better choice. If I look at the meter on the 7610 I see a multi meter with very small increments, something you have to study to see what it says.