Selected Band Button Fill Color

Scott Russell - N1SER

Colorize the selected band button as a visual reminder when going into the Band menu on the left side bar. Colorize the button when changing bands as a visual confirmation. See my example image.

I know we have the large frequency display on the flag but it would be nice to have a visual indicator of which band you're on or changing to when in the Band menu.

Thank you,

Scott Russell, N1SER

Ken Hansen

A few thoughts: The idea is interesting, but your example color is way too subtle to be useful as s reminder. He would this work? For example, if I pop open the band window and select 40m, then direct entry a 20m frequency, should the band selector show my last selection (40m) or my current band location (20m)? This request could put a lot of logic inside what was previously a very simple control. The current implementation parallels the interface of most conventional radios, adding an indication of which band the currently selected frequency falls in would require the control to query the current frequency and determine which band it falls under. Possible? Of. Course. Easy? Probably. Likely to be implemented? Who knows, while the coding effort may be minimal, touching that part of the code base would consume precious testing resources to make sure nothing was broken after modifying the code.

Scott Russell - N1SER

Yeah I know the color is subtle but just an example of my idea. It can be a brighter color of blue like the buttons on the radio panel on the right.

Yes, the band should match whether you select the band with the button or change the freq manually. It should be a visual indication of the current (or newly selected) band.

K3SF

good idea overall

BUT
my question....what band would be shown if you are outside the ham bands?   For Instance, just doing some swl'ing.

when doing changes like this, it is not that 'simple'. Must consider other use cases. That is other ways the radio may be used and its impact on basic design feature.

Paul K3SF

Bill -VA3WTB

You would like it to work and look as it does in PSDR? That could be done...

Scott Russell - N1SER

Paul, I guess being that anything outside the ham band allocations is general coverage then the "GEN" button would be selected.

Bill, I have never used PSDR but I have used other sdr apps and those with band buttons all show them as selected with a different color to indicate the selected band. So if that's how PSDR worked then yes.

Scott Russell - N1SER

Here's a better example. Just messing around in PS. I'm sure you get the idea.


Scott, N1SER

Ned K1NJ

  Maybe user selectable colors for button and/or text.
             Ned,  K1NJ
                 

Robert Lonn

If your going to add Color, then you might as well make the Number 20 in BOLD text!!

>>>  20  <<<  

Scott Russell - N1SER

Ned, probably not because it could follow the color scheme of the other buttons like on the right side radio panel. For consistency. 

Robert, yes that would be cool but it doesn't quite match the buttons on the right side radio panel. I looks like the Band buttons text is thinner and not BOLD. Either way... good idea.

AC9S

This seems like a small item.  I would really prefer that band stacking registers be implemented.  On my Orion each push of a band button cycles through four different iterations of that band.  I set them up roughly as CW, Digital, SSB, and perhaps AM, depending on the band.  With SmartSDR I implement this scheme with different profiles.  The problem with this appproach is that frequency reverts to what was stored in a profile instead of what I last used.

For that matter, how difficult would it be to implement a simple Quick Store/Restore register?

Keith - AC9S

Scott Russell - N1SER

Keith, I like the multi-push idea. I've had that before on other radios and it is nice.

Scott Russell - N1SER

Putting this in a new reply so it doesn't get lost...

James Whiteway

Unless FRS developers are using custom controls for the band selection, then the buttons provided in C# (Visual Studio) already have the ability to make a color change to the button depending on the button's current state. (FRS uses Visual Studio and C#) James WD5GWY

AA0KM

AA0KM

Something like this would be nice. Just something that can stand out to tell user it is in use.

Scott Russell - N1SER

Agreed, this was a basic oversight.

Scott Russell - N1SER

Good to know!

Bill -VA3WTB

From PSDR,,just simple

Robert Lonn

I think Flex Engineers continues to listen to the group, and if this is not a big deal would implement the changes and or ideas.. Flex wants to stay competitive , we know that, and that is why they charge $200 for major software upgrades.. So for those with 2.**** versions we may see this, but it may be something they are going to introduce in a new 3.**** version, so that will be a $200 investment, but we would assume that along with this new version, would come some very advanced features and improvement... Time will tell,, maybe a nice CHRISTMAS present from FLEX!!!!

Johan _ SE3X

Awaiting and wanting multiclient feature sooo much! 

Scott Russell - N1SER

A Christmas present would be nice! Agree but this should have been in the final 2.0 product from the beginning. Seems like a 'pay attention to detail' kind of mistake. If Flex does come out with a v3.0 soon hopefully they will give those of us who just purchased a Flex a discount to upgrade. Another $200 in a year for the radio just adds to the overall cost.

Bill -VA3WTB

I don't have those bugs.

Joe N3HEE

No worries, they are no where close to v3.0.  I would suspect another 12-18 months.

Robert Lonn

 A friend of mine had a IC-7610 radio for about 7 months now... Tried to convince him to go with Flex, after I decided to NOT go with the Icom radio... Found out that a month ago, he sold his IC-7610 radio, he said it was a Boring Radio?? He said the new Yaesu FTDX-101MP with 200 watts looked like a more FUN radio, so he will use his FT-991 multi-band radio in the interim!!

Now he just heard that these new Yaesu radios are delayed till Summer of 2019 and his hope for a Christmas gift has faded.. He is NOT a happy camper, and I told him that the 101MP looks to be a $5500 radio, where the 6600M is a $5K radio.. Now most of us have been hams for many years so we have all had our share of radios over the years,, Financial Status, Age, Emotions, influence from friends and family and where you live (Antennas) all play a role in what you use in the ham shack...

Flex was my final choice due to many factors, for me I like COMPLEXITY,, so SmartSDR and all the other things that interface with it, Ham Radio Deluxe is also complicated software with a ton of menu options, takes time and a little effort to learn how to use it.. I have Three WOW factors in the ham Shack. This is when I have friends over or family who are NOT hams.. The 3 items that impress them are

1. Flex 6600M displayed on my 50" LG 4K TV set
2. My Geochron 4K Clock displayed on my LG TV,, and Geochron has just added Satellite Tracking, Very Cool!!!!
3. My new Telepostinc LP-700 Digital Station Monitor

I think non hams who have smart phones, iPads, Tablets, laptops etc. appreciate Visual displays and can relate to all of this... When you look at a basic ham transceiver, it has a lot of knobs and looks complicated, but for a non ham has zero appeal.. Flex advertises the 6600M as "Simply Beautiful" and despite the LG TV set display, they all like the way the front of the 6600M looks,, Again, the display is the center of attention....

Robert

Here is the Geochron with Ham Radio Satellites

 

Ken Hansen

Opinions vary, but I would have encouraged him to look at either the 6400M or the 6400 + stand-alone Maestro, it's a smaller investment, easily sold if/when he wants to try the FTDX-101MP, and leaves money in his pocket for an antenna upgrade, amplifier purchase, or whatever.

Mike VE3CKO

Current band indicator would be welcome, BUT, in the meantime, Gary WB8ROL wrote come code back in 2016 that works nice. It's called BandInfo and it display a line of text that can be positioned anywhere. For example if on 20m, I have 20m displayed just to the left of the FlexRadio logo on the top middle but you can move it to where you want it. There are two files you can edit to tweak:
freqinfo.csv - opening it up is self explanatory. Each line has 2 fields separated by a comma, column 1 is frequency range and column 2 is the text to be displayed. If I remember right I had to use a text editor and not Excel even though it's a csv. 
settings.csv - allows you to adjust height, width foreground/background colors and out of band foreground/background colors and font size. Colors are in RGB rather than hex but a simple google of "rgb color picker" solves that.

BandInfo ver. 1.09 is available for download at : http://oliviamode.com/wb8rol_xtra.htm

To run the program just execute it, to turn it off you double right click on the text and it exits.

Scott Russell - N1SER

Nice. Thanks for sharing!