Profile Auto Save Discussion

Don Cunningham

I'm still thinking an on/off option is the simplest, then both can do as they like.  Of course, I'm not a programmer and this may be less simple than it seems.  Thanks for the consideration though, Eric.

Johan _ SE3X

Please keep it simple guys! On/Off or it will never happen in near time.

Why complicate matters? Just for the sake of complicating things, or what?

Joe N3HEE

Chris, I understand what you are saying and yes it will work but it seems like alot of effort to make it happen in software tweaks. 

I just find it easier and more convenient to come back after dinner turn on the rig, and without doing anything, have my TX profile loaded and driving the now cold amp to 1500 watts.  When the amp heats up again I simply back the power down.  My profile is not overwriten.  This is how it currently works in version 2.49.

I guess we will see what Flex chooses to do.

ctate243

Joe I hear you.  My needs of course are a bit more demanding.  As an SO2R operator I am cqing on 2 bands at the same time.  If my amp gets warm and the power drops, If I make an adjustment, the next time I switch back and fourth.. my settings are lost with the old profile method.  Now at least I can remain persistent and not have to re-tweak constantly.  Its a PITA.  so having the perisistence per profile load session makes the most sense.  Lets leave the programming difficulty to the development team. 

Lasse Moell

Some want to have the profle to autosave other want it to stay as it was from the beginning. Why not have a "file lock"-feature, if this is set, that specific profile cannot be overwritten, you may save as a new. If the profile is unlocked it do changes as per V3.

Wim

Adding my vote for a simple on/off setting for the autosave feature as I would not like to use it, as it would change my 'golden profiles' settings , so I would need to double the amount of profiles I have the golden ones and the scratch ones, it's already complicated with mic profiles, global profiles, transmit profiles, already too complex to start with

Patrick

Make it optional with a selection button in the profile selection window. Orr have a pop up window that asks if you would like to save new settings.

Eric-KE5DTO

Soon!  If I had an exact date/time, I would tell you. 

Eric-KE5DTO

FYI -- this issue was addressed today and will be going into the next Alpha release for testing.  Thanks again for bringing this to our attention.

Neal Pollack, N6YFM

I vote strongly for a setting on the radio setup tabs where a user can turn autosave on or off.
This would make SmartSDR happy for both camps of users.

73

Neal

K9DUR

Eric,

Yes, a prompt after every change would be gruesome.  But a single prompt when closing the client or selecting a new profile would be more in line with the way many other programs work.  

In any event, I fully support being able to defeat the AutoSave feature.  In my opinion, it totally destroys the usefulness of profiles.  I see a profile as a known operating environment that is a benchmark that I can return to whenever desired.  If at anytime you need to temporarily change something, you have just destroyed your benchmark.

The simplest approach is probably just an "On/Off" option.  (Of course, as a programmer, I realize that absolutely nothing is simple.)

73, Ray, K9DUR

Rich McCabe

"Yes, a prompt after every change would be gruesome.  But a single prompt when closing the client or selecting a new profile would be more in line with the way many other programs work.  "

Yes, that is what I think.

KC2QMA_John

Here is a link to my post on the Auto Save issue a few months before v3.0 was public.

https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/question-about-tx-mic-profile-changes-in-v3

I'm sure there are a many ways to handle the auto save protocol I laid out a few ideas in my original post from a few months ago. In my opinion the simplest way would be to  just to add an on/off switch to SSDR and by default it is off until the user turns it on.

The more complex and elegant way is to have a temp file being written to in the background logging all the changes the user makes during their session, Then either the user can click a simple save button to instantly save changes or when the user exits SSDR it will prompt something like "Do you Want To Save Session Changes?" YES or NO.
If the user clicks YES the data from the temp file is saved to the users current profile.
If the user click's NO the temp file is wiped and no changes are saved.

Thank you Eric for engaging in this topic with us, I always feel the best communication is direct communication.

Matt NQ6N

Autosave sounds like a very smart change.  Can't wait to start using it. 

Michael Wheatley

Eric,  

Thank you for listening and replying to all of the arguments for an Autosave On/Off switch.  I was really hoping that part of the reason of the delay of SSDR V2.5 availability was that work was underway to provide this switch.  But alas V2.51 is now available without the switch.

I would really like to upgrade to the latest release, and to V3 when DDUtil supports it, but I cannot without the Autosave switch.  

What is your recommendation?  Is there any chance we will get the Autosave switch in either V2 or V3 in the next 2 or 3 months?

Michael -- KM6LHD

KC2QMA_John

I have $199 burning a hole in my pocket and as soon as the Auto-Save feature gets the On/Off switch I will buy V3.0!

Robby

I have avoided adding to this list of ideas as I have only had my FLEX for a month so I have a lot to learn and little to contribute. I thought this profile set up was something I should look at so I created a transmit profile and called it 27W. I was naïve enough to think that when I used my amp I could select that profile and my power level would be 27W and it was for a while but eventually that reliance cost me! 

There is quite a learning curve to getting on the air with a FLEX radio. I don't mean it's steep but it sure is long. Most of my radio time is spent reading. I will not rely on profiles again until I understand them better. 

I think having the ability to disable autosave would be a very good thing.


73,

Robby
HP3SS 

Bill -VA3WTB

Robby, when you saved your profles, any time you sellect that profile you saved, all your settings will come up just as you set them.

In case of anything going wrong you can set the max transmit power to say, 30w. That way if anything happens it will never transmit over that power level.

Robby

Wrong.

ctate243

Robby, I think that was a terminology mistake, I think what Bill meant is that you can re-import a saved set of profiles to get yourself back to where you need to be, as suggested by Eric W.   So when you have all your settings they way you want them, save that off to a file, and if you need to revert after making adjustments duing your session, simply re-import.  takes about 5 seconds.

Bill -VA3WTB

Chris, Robby said he created a profile called 27w. then when he sellected it, his settings were not there as he thought.

Robby, under the TX tab under radio settings, you can set your max power out to 27w. This will protect you from a mystake.

ctate243

The best short term solution is to get the settings where you need them, export them, and then re-import if things get out of wack.  I have been doing this for years testing alpha versions of software that can have a wide range of effects.  If I need to, I to a clean reset and re-import.  Its not that difficult, works well and gets you where you need to be, quick.  Yes.  its an extra step.  but it works.  and its easy.

ctate243

and yes, setting a hard power cap in the radio settings is always a best practice.

Eric-KE5DTO

Michael,

We appreciated the feedback and have already begun the design phase of how we will handle things.  Unfortunately, we were not in a position to complete this work in a timeframe that would make sense for this release.

I've learned over the years not to give estimates on how long something will take that is early in the design phase.  There are too many variables and too many following steps for me to be any good at guessing that target.  I can assure you that it isn't as easy as just adding an on/off switch.    Suffice it to say that we have heard loud and clear that this is a desirable feature (disabling Auto Save) and that we are exploring how that will work technically.  Once we have something for you, we'll let you know.

Eric-KE5DTO

I agree with others here -- the recommended way to protect from overdriving hardware like an amp is to use the Max Power setting and not to rely on profiles or the persistence of a setting to protect you.

Tom W3FRG

That's a fantastic idea IF YOUR AMP requires the same input power level on all bands.
I've never come across one of those amps to date.
My LDMOS requires an input power range from 5 to 20 watts over the HF bands the FRS operates.
Now, unless I've missed something, how do I set the MAX POWER setting to satisfy these conditions?

Resetting this value each time I change bands is an accident waiting to happen.

I'm really disappointed that Ver 2.51 included this error in programming. In reality its really designed for operators that don't/won't read the manual and cannot create a Profile. 

Tom W3FRG

KC2QMA_John

In SmartSDR go to SETTINGS the click on the TX tab at the bottom you will see the Max Power box.

Set your max power to 2 Watts.

You can always increase power as needed.

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Tom,
Similar situation here.  Still on V2.4.9 and have two profiles that have worked great for me for years.  My setup is very basic and the mode is always CW.  

• AMP ON - different power setting per band, it does also vary quite a bit. 

• AMP OFF - set to preferred power for barefoot operation by band

Occasionally I'll tweak the power but don't want it to affect my profiles.  I like knowing I can rely on the profile values.  I don't see how setting the max power would work for me.  I wouldn't want to set it to the lowest "AMP / Band" setting and have to adjust it up for all of the other bands --  that would also require me to remember the setting for each band.   

Not a big deal for me to wait till the AutoSave ON / OFF switch is added before upgrading.  Sounds like there will be a 2.x and 3.x release eventually with this feature.  The Flex team knows that it is something many folks want so I don't doubt we'll see it eventually.  

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com







 

Jon_KF2E

My worry is that since it didn't make 2.51 version 2X users are out of luck. We'll have to pay $200 to keep our profiles from auto saving. I guess I'm stuck at 2.49.

KC2QMA_John

 Eric KE5DTO,

I was thinking one of the benefits of the auto-save On/Off switch is it would be great for fast profile building.

The way I would use the Auto-Save feature is the following:

I would turn ON Auto-Save then go from band to band change all my setting to the way I like for each band and mode. Then just turn OFF the Auto-Save and ta-da... my radio is totally set the way I like and locked in.

Now if I want to fine tune my settings a bit I just turn Auto-Save On again and re-adjust my settings then turn Auto-Save OFF.

I could make all kinds of profiles for a multitude of applications like amp on, amp off, home qth, remote qth and so on.

This seems like a great way to build profiles very fast!

So in my opinion having the On/Off switch actually makes the Auto-Save feature even more powerful.