New ongoing "Development" version has been created

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W1CY
Posts: 76
Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2020 6:57 pm

10/25 pre-release issue

Post by W1CY » Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:09 am

Hi,

I just loaded the new test version (10/25) and my GD-77 could not connect to my hotspot anymore.

I then reverted it back to the 10/16 version and it worked again.

The hotspot is a pi3B+ with latest pistar version.

Not sure what changed, but the timing sync was not established between the radio and the hotspot with the 10/25 version.

VK3KYY
Posts: 7478
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:25 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: 10/25 pre-release issue

Post by VK3KYY » Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:51 am

W1CY wrote:
Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:09 am
Hi,

I just loaded the new test version (10/25) and my GD-77 could not connect to my hotspot anymore.

I then reverted it back to the 10/16 version and it worked again.

The hotspot is a pi3B+ with latest pistar version.

Not sure what changed, but the timing sync was not established between the radio and the hotspot with the 10/25 version.
Interesting.

No one else has experience this problem.

But only a total of 27 other downloads so far for this version, so its difficult to know if the problem is widespread.
But at least you now have the option to go back to a version which works for you

VK3KYY
Posts: 7478
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:25 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: New ongoing "Development" version has been created

Post by VK3KYY » Sun Oct 25, 2020 9:49 am

For those who may be wondering whats going on...


I have uploaded another Experimental / Development release to Github, and its showing up in the new CPS, as the loader in the new CPS shows all versions that are currently available for download, as soon as I upload them.


The new firmware release is

https://github.com/rogerclarkmelbourne/ ... 2020.10.25


* Added individual Channel power control (This may have been in the last pre-release, but I'm loosing track of which was a pre-release and which version I put out as a very experimental download via my Google drive)
* Added DTMF Contacts and dialling
* Experimental user band limits (from the CPS)
* Changed VFO -> New Channel, so that the new channel is added to the current zone. (or all channels zone)
* Removal of legacy Calibration setting from the Options screen
* Added Display option to show battery voltage instead of percentage
* Bug fix to TS override and Contact TS override system.
* Attempt to hold off incoming DMR call details for 2 seconds after TG or channel is changed. (does not always work)
* Various other bug fixes.


The Band Limits from the CPS requires the new CPS pre-version to be used.


https://github.com/rogerclarkmelbourne/ ... 2020.10.24

This version is experimental, but at least with the new CPS loader, it is now possible to try a new version, and if there are problems, you can download and install an older / more stable version again.

Re: Band Limits.
IOn the Options screen, the "Band limits", setting needs to be changed to "CPS". The 3 options are now "OFF" "ON" and "CPS".
(I still need to update the User Guide with details of this feature)

Note.
I've realised that there is an unintended feature of the Band Limits that the USA 220Mhz band is still allowed even when the option is set to CPS.
This will be "fixed" in the next pre-release, so that only the bands shown in the CPS are allowed when that option is enabled.

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m1dyp
Posts: 601
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 8:03 am
Location: Hertfordshire, U.K.
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Re: New ongoing "Development" version has been created

Post by m1dyp » Sun Oct 25, 2020 3:45 pm

great thank you

NA7Q
Posts: 151
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2020 3:41 pm

Re: New ongoing "Development" version has been created

Post by NA7Q » Sun Oct 25, 2020 5:50 pm

Will you be updating the repo code any time soon?

W1CY
Posts: 76
Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2020 6:57 pm

Re: 10/25 pre-release issue

Post by W1CY » Sun Oct 25, 2020 7:41 pm

VK3KYY wrote:
Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:51 am
W1CY wrote:
Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:09 am
Hi,

I just loaded the new test version (10/25) and my GD-77 could not connect to my hotspot anymore.

I then reverted it back to the 10/16 version and it worked again.

The hotspot is a pi3B+ with latest pistar version.

Not sure what changed, but the timing sync was not established between the radio and the hotspot with the 10/25 version.
Interesting.

No one else has experience this problem.

But only a total of 27 other downloads so far for this version, so its difficult to know if the problem is widespread.
But at least you now have the option to go back to a version which works for you
Second time was a charm... I tried it again today, but instead of using the standalone firmware loader I used the new 10/24 CPS. It worked fine and the radio is operational. Not sure whether it was a coincidence or whether using the CPS loader made a difference or not. The bottom line is that everything is working now. Thanks again for your support.

VK3KYY
Posts: 7478
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:25 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: 10/25 pre-release issue

Post by VK3KYY » Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:54 pm

W1CY wrote:
Sun Oct 25, 2020 7:41 pm
VK3KYY wrote:
Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:51 am
W1CY wrote:
Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:09 am
Hi,

I just loaded the new test version (10/25) and my GD-77 could not connect to my hotspot anymore.

I then reverted it back to the 10/16 version and it worked again.

The hotspot is a pi3B+ with latest pistar version.

Not sure what changed, but the timing sync was not established between the radio and the hotspot with the 10/25 version.
Interesting.

No one else has experience this problem.

But only a total of 27 other downloads so far for this version, so its difficult to know if the problem is widespread.
But at least you now have the option to go back to a version which works for you
Second time was a charm... I tried it again today, but instead of using the standalone firmware loader I used the new 10/24 CPS. It worked fine and the radio is operational. Not sure whether it was a coincidence or whether using the CPS loader made a difference or not. The bottom line is that everything is working now. Thanks again for your support.

I have not had time to update the standalone firmware loader, and because of a bug in the way Github displays the order of releases, its possible that the version you downloaded via the standalone downloiader wasn't the latest Experimental Development version

I will try to find time to update the standalone loader today, and I need to release another update to the firmware version today, with some updates sent to me by Daniel F1RMB

BTW.

I also forgot to say, that the band limits from the CPS is enabled via the Band limits setting in Options, and needs to be set to CPS

Currently there is a bug which allows 220 MHz operation even though the CPS does not shoe this range, so I will need to fix this error

VK3KYY
Posts: 7478
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:25 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: New ongoing "Development" version has been created

Post by VK3KYY » Sun Oct 25, 2020 9:49 pm

NA7Q wrote:
Sun Oct 25, 2020 5:50 pm
Will you be updating the repo code any time soon?
I don't operate this to a schedule, I only update things when I have some free time; so I have no idea when the code will be stable, bug free and clean enough to be put onto Github.

My priority is fixing bugs and clearing the features request backlog, wherever possible.

VK3KYY
Posts: 7478
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:25 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: New ongoing "Development" version has been created

Post by VK3KYY » Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:20 pm

Guys

Please note. There is a currently an bug / oversight, where even when the CPS band limits are selected, the radio will still transmit on the USA 220 MHz band.

I will try to release and update to this ASAP.

VK3KYY
Posts: 7478
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:25 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: 10/25 pre-release issue

Post by VK3KYY » Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:42 pm

W1CY wrote:
Sun Oct 25, 2020 7:41 pm
Second time was a charm... I tried it again today, but instead of using the standalone firmware loader I used the new 10/24 CPS. It worked fine and the radio is operational. Not sure whether it was a coincidence or whether using the CPS loader made a difference or not. The bottom line is that everything is working now. Thanks again for your support.

FYI.

Its a long boring story about the change to the release method and the CPS, but just to explain in more detail

Originally the CPS and the Standalone downloader, "Screen scrape" the Github Releases page, searching for specific things on the web page, specifically a version code that looks like a release , e.g. R2020.10.10 or a development release e.g. D2020.09.27

However to support displaying a list, using screen scraping was no longer practical.

So my first attempt at building a list of releases, was by using the RSS feed available on Github, and I spend several hours battling with this data format, only to discover that it didn't actually contain the release version (aka release_tag) . This was an arrrghh moment, as I'd just wasted over 3 hours on this.

I then found Github also has an API download , which does contain this data

https://api.github.com/repos/rogerclark ... 7/releases

So I had to then rewrite all my code to use this data forum instead. Probably around 2 hours work.
Just to complicate matters, I then found that the Micosoft built in data parser for the API data format (called JSON), is not compatible with Linux , so the Standalone installer could not be used on Linux...

Yet another aarggghh moment.

Luckily, I found a third party plugin (DLL), that could parse JSON format, and was also compatible with the build process that Daniel F1RMB uses to make the Linux version of the standalone firmware loader.


But, here's the kicker as they say...

When I looked at the list of release names using the new loader in the CPS I noticed that the older releases didn't have proper names and I'd simply put the release version in the Release Title.

But when I corrected this on Github by editing the title on the old releases. Github decided that these old releases now needed to be displayed above the newer releases, on the Releases web page, which the Standalone Loader still uses.

IMHO, this is a bug on Github, as editing some text about a release should not make it the latest release.

I partially fixed this, by re-editing the newer releases to change the title to include the year "2020" but I think somehow the old Firmware loader is still incorrectly detecting some old releases as if they are new releases :-(



So, as you can see, nothing is ever as simple as it looks!

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