TeensyMaestro

Lasse SM5GLC

Len,

I'm a CW guy 99.9% and yes I use 10 Hz tuning for CW, and 100 Hz those odd moments I try the mic. Reason for mention the 50 Hz, was one way of increase the tuning speed, even if it a bit too much when trying to zero beat.

KD0RC

Ah, ok I understand. I am making good progress on the user adjustable acceleration factor and should have something for you to test soon.

Thanks again for your testing and suggestions!

Lasse SM5GLC

Len,

I just did some further testing (after reading our postings from november last year). If I tune very slowly using 10 Hz step, I can acheive ~1.5 kHz /rev and spiining the knob fast with the VFO acceleration on I still have 1-1.5 kH/rev, but have the acceleration set OFF, this may give something like 100-200 Hz/rev i.e. a total waste of turning VFO-knob fast.

So you have really improved the usability! But I am confident you can easily speed up 2x or even 3-4 times from what you have now. Guess we have to test and try it out before one can say it's good enough 😀

I hope you understand my rambling, or I'll try express myself more clearly.

73

Lasse SM5GLC

KD0RC

OK, here is V 1.045 Beta 2. It allows changing the acceleration factor using the last item on the Misc Menu. The lower the number, the faster the acceleration. The default of 2000 is not settable yet, but I will add it to the MMConfig.ini file soon so that you can have it default to whatever you want.

The faster you have it go, the more suddenly it takes off. I am thinking of ways to smooth that out, but for now, this might work. Try an acceleration factor of 1000 and see if that makes it better. I allow it to go down to 100, but at this rate, it is very hard to control. On the high end, it can go to 20000, but that is pretty much like having no acceleration at all.

Give it a shot and let me know if this is an improvement.

TeensyMaestroPlusKeyerV001.045 Beta 2.ino.zip

KD0RC

1.045 Beta 3 is ready

TeensyMaestroPlusKeyerV001.045 Beta 3.ino.zip

*****************************V 1.045 **************************** 
Added VFO tuning acceleration  
Added tuning acceleration on/off to the MMConfig.ini file  
Added tuning acceleration on/off to the Misc Menu  
Added acceleration factor adjustment to the Misc Menu  
Added acceleration factor to the MMConfig.ini file

The acceleration factor can now be set in the MMConfig.ini file. I am currently using 1500 for both SSB and CW. I will be getting on 40 CW this evening to see if I really want the same factor for both or if I need to make the factor settable by mode.

Lasse SM5GLC

Len,

I've been playing with the acceleration factor and for me, using CW and 10 Hz step, I find a acceleration setting at 800 seems to be a sweet spot. Faster means I overshoot when tuning, and less means slower tuning. It also depends on how wide I have the panafall, as if I "watch" wide part of the band I like to tune faster and with less spectrum slower tuning is better. So 800 seems to be ok as an average.

Good job indeed! A big thanks for this new feature!

73

Lasse SM5GLC

Lasse SM5GLC

I notice 800 setting is too fast when using SSB i.e. 50 Hz tuning step. So do look into have two settings in the config file if possible, one for tuning-steps <50 Hz and one for 50 Hz and larger.

73

Lasse SM5GLC

KD0RC

Hi Lasse, 800 is my sweet spot for CW as well! I like double that for SSB, but most of my testing last night was with the 160 meter CW contest, so I have to get more experience with SSB.

I will think about how to scale the acceleration better based on step size.

Thanks again for all of your insights, they really help!

KD0RC

OK Lasse, here is the latest… Try a VFO Acceleration Factor of 2400. I scaled it down by a factor of 3 for a step size of less than 50. This seems to be a good value for SSB and for CW, at least for me. Let me know if this is a reasonable set of rates for your operation.

I will be playing with it over the next week or so, and if it seems good, I will go ahead and publish. If it needs a bit more tweaking, I may put out some more beta versions here first.

TeensyMaestroPlusKeyerV001.045 Beta 4.ino.zip

Lasse SM5GLC

Testing Beta4, and initial feeling is OK. Slight "overshoot", not bad at all. Mainly tested with 10 Hz step, and just had a quick look at 50/100 Hz.

Not sure if you are using varable rate i.e. adjust depending on how fast the VFO is acually spinning or if you have a "hard threshold". I find my self having slight overshoot when looking at the spectrum and tuning, and seems to jump past the wanted signal, when slowing down. Understand the timing problems as the frequency commands not easily matched against the spectrum display, but maybe you can do some adjustment on the start/stop timing of incorporating the acceleration, i.e. invoke acceleration a tad faster but mainly start a bit sooner the deacceleration (start slower tune faster) .

This is really fine-tuning, I can easily live with how it behaves now! And I didn't even bother to play with other than 2400 setting in config.

Bands are pretty lousy right now so not many signals to tune into.

73

Lasse SM5GLC

KD0RC

Hi Lasse, I am using a variable rate. In this version, I take an encoder count over the course of 2 ms instead of 5 ms to help make it less aggressive and more responsive to velocity changes. I do change the acceleration based on velocity. The only hard threshold is when to start the acceleration. I use a "dead zone" at lower velocities to keep the acceleration off so that fine tuning is easier.

Try moving the Acceleration Factor up from 2400 up to 3000 to see if that helps the overshoot. I am trying that now, and so far, it might be the sweet spot for both SSB and CW.