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Selected Band Button Fill Color

Scott Russell - N1SER
Scott Russell - N1SER Member ✭✭
edited March 2020 in New Ideas
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

image

Comments

  • Ken Hansen
    Ken Hansen Member ✭✭
    edited March 2020
    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
    Scott Russell - N1SER Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018
    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
    K3SF Member ✭✭✭
    edited November 2018
    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
    Bill -VA3WTB Member ✭✭✭
    edited November 2018
    You would like it to work and look as it does in PSDR? That could be done...
  • Scott Russell - N1SER
    Scott Russell - N1SER Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018
    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
    Scott Russell - N1SER Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018
    Here's a better example. Just messing around in PS. I'm sure you get the idea. :)
    image

    Scott, N1SER
  • Ned K1NJ
    Ned K1NJ Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018

      Maybe user selectable colors for button and/or text.
                 Ned,  K1NJ
                     
  • Robert Lonn
    Robert Lonn Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018
    If your going to add Color, then you might as well make the Number 20 in BOLD text!!

    >>>  20  <<<  
  • Scott Russell - N1SER
    Scott Russell - N1SER Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018
    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
    AC9S Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018
    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
    Scott Russell - N1SER Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018
    Keith, I like the multi-push idea. I've had that before on other radios and it is nice.
  • Scott Russell - N1SER
    Scott Russell - N1SER Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018
    Putting this in a new reply so it doesn't get lost...

  • James Whiteway
    edited November 2018
    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 Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018

  • AA0KM
    AA0KM Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018
    Something like this would be nice. Just something that can stand out to tell user it is in use.
  • Scott Russell - N1SER
    Scott Russell - N1SER Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018
    Agreed, this was a basic oversight.
  • Scott Russell - N1SER
    Scott Russell - N1SER Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018
    Good to know!
  • Bill -VA3WTB
    Bill -VA3WTB Member ✭✭✭
    edited November 2018


    From PSDR,,just simple
  • Robert Lonn
    Robert Lonn Member ✭✭
    edited February 2019
    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
    Johan _ SE3X Member ✭✭
    edited January 2019
    Awaiting and wanting multiclient feature sooo much! 
  • Scott Russell - N1SER
    Scott Russell - N1SER Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018
    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
    Bill -VA3WTB Member ✭✭✭
    edited November 2018
    I don't have those bugs.
  • Joe N3HEE
    Joe N3HEE Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018
    No worries, they are no where close to v3.0.  I would suspect another 12-18 months.
  • Robert Lonn
    Robert Lonn Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018
     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

    image 
  • Ken Hansen
    Ken Hansen Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018
    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
    Mike VE3CKO Member ✭✭✭
    edited April 2019
    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
    Scott Russell - N1SER Member ✭✭
    edited November 2018
    Nice. Thanks for sharing!

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