OpenGD77

The VFO scan function is difficult to use for several reasons, including :-

1. Setting the Low and High frequencies is not intuitive
2. Operators can't see the Low and High (Start and End) frequencies for the scan
3. The scan limits are set to the VHF and UHF band limits (VFO A / B) but this is pointless, as the operator may have set VFO A to UHF

The main difficulty is displaying 3 frequencies on the display at the same time (Star freq, End freq and Current freq), when there is only room for 2.

I think we will need to have a special Scan mode for the VFO screen where it displays and operates differently.

I think that in Scan mode the Rx and Tx frequencies will need to be the same, as this would remove the need to display the Tx frequency, and hence the bottom line of the display could be used to display the Start and End frequencies.

So the line showing "Ta" (or "Tb"), would be able to display "F1" / "F2". I don't want to use "Fs" and "Fe" because those texts would need to be translated and I'm not sure that using 2 letter acronyms are that meaningful, whereas F1 and F2 are obviously 2 frequencies.

We could use the Function + Down arrow to move the input focus to the F1 / F2 , then perhaps use Right and left to change from F1 to F2 display and data entry

Or... Use a smaller font for F1 and F2, and not include the text F1 / F2 , but I think we'd need to drop the last digit from the frequency, as currently we show the freq to the nearest 10Hz, and actually the RF chip doesn't have that resolution.

So we may need to only be able to set the scan start and end frequencies to the nearest 1kHz or perhaps even the nearest 100kHz.

If we show the Start and End frequencies to the nearest 1kHz, we could probably display both in the large font
e.g

"439.199 / 490.375"

Then we'd need some way to set this.

Perhaps press Function + Down could put the radio into a special data entry mode, where you enter the whole thing (both numbers) and then press Green to confirm.

So then the scan limits would be easily visible


By default, perhaps the scan limits (Start / End) should be set to the current frequency, and the current frequency +1Mhz or perhaps the current freq -1Mhz and the current freq +1Mhz

I've started to do some work to improve the UI on the VFO scan function

The scan start and end frequencies is displayed at the bottom of the screen in place of the Tx frequency.
Scan mode is entered in the same way that the Scan function was previous started; by pressing the Orange button, and then selecting "Scan".
This text will need to change to "Scan mode:On" / "Scan mode:Off"

However, at the moment, I'm not sure of the best keypad button to use to start the scan as all the keys already have other uses.

Perhaps the VFO frequency (Ra/Rb) can't be changed using the Up or down arrows in scan mode, hence we can use the Up arrow to start the scan.

Pressing Function + Up or Function + Down , moves the input field to either the current frequency (Ra / Rb) or the Scan frequency limits(Scan lower and Scan upper frequencies).
Pressing the number keys either enters the current freq or the Scan limit frequencies

BTW. I will remove the existing method to enter the Scan lower and upper limit frequencies, via the Orange button menu, as this is not user friendly

Prompting to enter the start and end frequencies might be a good interface. If you don't want to change it you press green a couple times.

Or using the same kind of entry used in the channel details screen would also work, only what to put instead of Rx and Tx... Might be easier if it was under a scan settings menu.

looks good

look as a good improving

Whilst I agree we need an easier way of entering the scan upper and lower frequencies I don’t think we need to display them all the time when scanning, that just clutters the display with information we don’t need and that doesn’t change.

A separate ‘Set Scan Limits’ screen accessed from the quick menu would be a neater solution. It could use the same layout as the normal VFO screen with the upper and lower values entered on the two lines.

Colin

I already pushed the new functionality to a separate branch.

The feedback I have been receiving is that people need to see the scan upper and lower limits, and want all the scan details accessible and configurable on the same screen

Somehow after testing an old branch I ended up installing the version from may the 12th (30b9bb4) instead of the latest stable. The scan changes It look nice and it is really easy to set the low and high limits, but how do you exit the scan mode? Maybe scanning is disabled intentionally in this build as it does not show up in the quick menu options, but it is still possible to start a scan using sk2+1

David

It should be documented in the User Guide

Long press UP to enter scanning
Long press DOWN to exit VFO scanning