User Interface controls

VK3KYY
Posts: 7473
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:25 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

User Interface controls

Post by VK3KYY » Mon Jan 03, 2022 12:09 am

Currently the User Interface controls are not ideal

The underlying GD77 user interface, expects the hardware to have more buttons than the MD-9600 / RT-90 has.

Specifically these radios do not have the Left or Right keypad keys, or the SK1 or SK2 buttons.

The radio also has a rotary control, but this is not the same as the rotary control on the GD77S.
The rotary control only senses whether its being rotated clockwise or anti-clockwise, and can be rotated around and around.

For the VFO and the Channel screen, the firmware uses the Rotary control in place of the Up and Down buttons, becuase this is the most logical thing to do on these screens, especially the VFO screen.

The front panel of the radio has Up and Down buttons, but because the rotary control is ideally suited to controling Up and Down on the VFO and Channel screens; on the VFO and Channel screens the Up and Down buttons are mapped to the Right and Left buttons in the user interface

This mapping allows changing of TG / Contact in the TRx group from the front panel in DMR mode, and in FM mode this allows the squelch to be changed.


However in the menu's there is not an obvious choice use for the Rotary Control, or the Up / Down buttons

Originally, I used the Rotary Control to go up and down though the menus, however some people preferred to use the Up and Down buttons to go up and down in the menus, so the firmware was changed to use that mapping.

So the current mapping uses the Rotary control as Left / Right in the menus


Personally I don't like this and would prefer the consistency of Rotary Control is always Up/Down and the front panel Up/Down are always Right/Left, and I may need to add an option into the settings to allow the operator to choose which method they prefer.

On the front panel, the Enter key is mapped to Green and the Esc/Band key is mapped to Red.
I think this is the most logical assignment and is not going to be changed

Currenltly the button P1 is mappeed to button SK2 (Blue) and P2 is mapped to SK1, becuase the GD77 user intergace makes most use of SK2, so it seemed more logical to use P1 for the most used button.

The firmware does not yet fully support things like Long Press of SK2 / P1 or SK1 / P2. However I will fully implement this when I have time.

Button P4 is currently mapped to the * STAR key to allow TS or FM bandwith to be changed from the front panel.

Using P3 as # HASH would not be logical, becuase # is used to enter the TG etc, and this needs to be done via the keypad on the mic.

So P3 may be allocated to some other use, perhaps Scan start



The mic keypad is also not ideal for the UI of the firmware, becuase it does not have Left/Right keys and also no SK2 or SK1 button.

Unfortunatly the electronics in the mic keypad is just a resistor network, so it is not posisble to accurately sense when more than one key is pressed at the same time.

But the mic does have keys A,B,C and D which are not on the GD77

So the current mapping is

"A/B" = Green
"A" = Red
"B" = Right
"C" = Left

Long press of "D" currently toggles latching of SK2, but this is functionality has problems becuase its easy to forget that SK2 has been latched, and this results in the UI not behaving as expected.
SK2 latch automatically releases after 3 seconds.

Currently we do not have any indication on the display that SK2 is latched, and potentially even if we keep "D" as some sort of SK2 functionality we should perhaps not latch it.

VK3KYY
Posts: 7473
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:25 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: User Interface controls

Post by VK3KYY » Mon Jan 03, 2022 11:41 pm

I've add a option which will be in the next alpha version, so that they front panel buttons for Up/Down and the Rotary control have 2 different mappings which can be selected using an option in General Options.

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

Re: User Interface controls

Post by VK3KYY » Tue Jan 04, 2022 9:46 pm

Latest alpha version has an new option

Options -> General Options -> Button remap: On/Off

which changes the operation of the rotary contorl and front panel Up/Down on menus.

VK3KYY
Posts: 7473
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:25 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: User Interface controls

Post by VK3KYY » Sat Mar 05, 2022 2:10 am

Additional menu controls

Options -> Sound options -> Click suppr: Off / On reduces speaker click caused by bad hardware design
Options -> Sound options -> DMR Rx AGC: Off / 0dB - 45db Controls the DMR Rx AGC functionality

There is also a GPS display, in the Radio Info screen, for those radios which have GPS fitted.

G4EML
Posts: 919
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 10:01 am

Re: User Interface controls

Post by G4EML » Sat Mar 05, 2022 10:24 pm

For those of you that have a GPS fitted you will find the GPS screen in the Radio Information menu.

Note that the GPS position is not automatically transferred to the Location screen.

The Location screen is used when calculating satellite passes. This location is normally entered manually so that the Satellite mode will still work without a GPS or indoors where the GPS will not work.

If you are on the GPS screen and have a valid fix you can transfer the GPS position to the Location screen by pressing D (SK2) on the mic followed by B.

Colin G4EML.

AA3RP
Posts: 86
Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2021 3:22 am

Re: User Interface controls

Post by AA3RP » Sat Mar 12, 2022 9:14 pm

I have the Alpha version of 5 Mar 2022 running on my MD9600 V5 hardware, and so far most things seem fine. Yet there is one thing I am unable to do.

On my GD77 / DM-1801 / RD-5R pressing the SK1 gives me frequency and other information about a channel when in Channel mode, and when released the display reverts to Channel mode display. Currently when in Channel mode on the MD9600 I have pressed the P2 button which is said to be programed to SK1 and nothing happens to show the settings and freq. of the channel I am on.

Am I miss reading or misunderstanding this, or is this just not functional in this Alpha release?

VK3KYY
Posts: 7473
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:25 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: User Interface controls

Post by VK3KYY » Sat Mar 12, 2022 10:07 pm

AA3RP wrote:
Sat Mar 12, 2022 9:14 pm
I have the Alpha version of 5 Mar 2022 running on my MD9600 V5 hardware, and so far most things seem fine. Yet there is one thing I am unable to do.

On my GD77 / DM-1801 / RD-5R pressing the SK1 gives me frequency and other information about a channel when in Channel mode, and when released the display reverts to Channel mode display. Currently when in Channel mode on the MD9600 I have pressed the P2 button which is said to be programed to SK1 and nothing happens to show the settings and freq. of the channel I am on.

Am I miss reading or misunderstanding this, or is this just not functional in this Alpha release?
Many things are not yet functional

VK4MWL
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2020 7:52 am

Re: User Interface controls

Post by VK4MWL » Sat Mar 19, 2022 11:58 am

Hi,

Firstly great work on the firmware for the GD77 and now MD9600.

I have put together the attached keypad controls diagram. Let me know if I have missed anything and I will update.

Thanks Mike VK4MWL
Attachments
MD9600 OpenGD77 Keypad Controls.jpg
MD9600 OpenGD77 Keypad Controls.jpg (66.4 KiB) Viewed 3760 times

AA3RP
Posts: 86
Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2021 3:22 am

Re: User Interface controls

Post by AA3RP » Sat Mar 19, 2022 5:28 pm

VK4MWL wrote:
Sat Mar 19, 2022 11:58 am
Hi,

Firstly great work on the firmware for the GD77 and now MD9600.

I have put together the attached keypad controls diagram. Let me know if I have missed anything and I will update.

Thanks Mike VK4MWL
Frist off, thank you for doing this. Second, and in the thought of helping out and getting this the most accurate as possible, I believe you may have P1 and P2 incorrect. Reading what is posted

"Currently the button P1 is mapped to button SK2 (Blue) and P2 is mapped to SK1, because the GD77 user interface makes most use of SK2, so it seemed more logical to use P1 for the most used button."

it seems you have them reversed in you diagram.

VK3KYY
Posts: 7473
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:25 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: User Interface controls

Post by VK3KYY » Sat Mar 19, 2022 9:27 pm

Yes. P1 is SK2,
P2 is SK1

Because SK2 is used much more than SK1 hence it was put on P1 because its easier to access

Also SK2 latch requires long press on button D on the mic.
Short press on button D, is used to set the Tx TG to the currently received TG ( similar to the functionality on the GD77)

P1 and P2 functionality of SK2 and SK1 does not fully work yet.

P3 currently does nothing

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