Ham Radio Control Libraries developers

Randy Hatt | 3 Dec 2004 17:58

Rig control via VB6

Hi all,

I’m currently developing a Contest Logging program for the two MARAC contest in Visual Basic 6. My experience level as VB programmer is entry level but I have over 20 yrs of COBOL background.

My progress as far as interfacing with my Yaesu FT990 is limited to Reading the Freq., changing the freq, mode and filter all using MSCOMM through the COM port and a Yaesu FIF-232C.

My next step is developing the code to do CW from the keyboard or pre-formatted messages supplied by the operator via the COM port or LPT. I have no idea how to do this and if it even can be done via VB6. Can anyone on your team help me with project? I’ll be glad to share any code that I have developed with you folks or help you with your project.

I will eventually expand this code to control the ICOM 706MKIIG and the Yaesu FT1000.

Thanks,

Randy – AA8R

AA8R <at> AOL.COM

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J.Rinas | 5 Dec 2004 19:47

set_level, get_level, granularity


Dear Developers, Dear Stephane!

I've several  small question about the interpretation of 
get_level(), set_level() ranges 
and granularity.

1.)
Looking into 
  include/hamlib/rig.h
I find some levels 
in dB, in HZ, in WPM, 
in RAW A/D(rig specific)
and many floats with a range of 0.. 1

1.1)
What is the range of
  RIG_LEVEL_SWR  ?
0.. infinite   would represent the physical value.
0.. 1         would represent a transformation of the above to a linear scale.

1.2)
What is the range of
  RIG_LEVEL_ALC ?
0..1 ?

1.3)
RIG_LEVEL_STRENGTH
/*!< Effective (calibrated) signal strength relative to S9, arg int (dB) */

i.e.
a value of -6 for S8 
a value of 0  for S9  
a value of 10  for S9+10dB

Why is this an integer?

1.4)
why is 
//RIG_LEVEL_LINEOUT
commented out?
Is there an alternative I missed?

2.)
How do I have to interpret the ganularity array?

2.a) 
What are the units of granularity?
e.g. Watts for RIG_LEVEL_RFPOWER ? 
(Are such agreements about physical units fixed anywhere? 
For a power it could also be a logarithmic scale like dBmW or dBW?  )

Is it's purpose to inform frontend programs about the mapping of the
ranges of the float-levels to 0..1?

e.g.:
granularity.min.f=5;
granularity.step.f=5;
granularity.max.f=100;

would lead to the following interpretation of a frontend program:
 set_level(0); => 5W
 set_level(0.5); => 47.500W (no reachable by .steps, so rounded to) 50W
 set_level(1); => 100W

is this correct?

2.b)
Or are these granularity values for internal use in the backend 
implementations of hamlib?

(like done in   kenwood/th.c, th_set_level() ?)

If the are for internal use only, so why are they not marked such?
And why are they visible to the outer world?

best 73 de Jürgen, DC3BW
--

-- 
e-mail: jrinas <at> gmx.de

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Alexandru Csete | 6 Dec 2004 14:17

ANN: Grig Developer Snapshot (grig-0.3.99.2)


Greetings,

After many months of sporadic coding, the Gtk+ 2 port of grig has now
begun to take shape. Last weekend I have decided to make a test release so
that I can get some feedback.

For those of you who don't know, grig is a simple graphical user interface
to the ham radio control libraries. It supports a little subset of the full
hamlib API, namely frequency, rit, rx signal level, mode, passband, agc,
attenuator, preamp, power and ptt. The goal is to support the full hamlib
API and to present the user to the same user interface regardless of which
radio is being controlled.

A word of warning: This baseline contains approximately 10k lines of newly
written code which have never been tested on any radio yet! I can write
code but I have no rig to test it with. Having said that, I have tested a
lot using the Hamlib Dummy backend so there is a good chance that it will
work with real radios as well. Nevertheless, it is very important that I
get some feedback in order to be able to continue on the right track.

Still interested? Good! You can get the source package from the project
page at sourceforge:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/groundstation/

or go directly to:

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/groundstation/grig-0.3.99.2.tar.gz?download

Looking forward to your comments.
73

Alex, OZ9AEC

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Nate Bargmann | 6 Dec 2004 21:10

An opportunity for another backend?

I saw a reference to this company and its products on
one of the Yaesu mailing lists,
http://www.microham.com/  They show downloads for
Windows and Mac, of course.  They show nothing for
Linux, so maybe they're just waiting for someone to
approach them.

73, de Nate >>

		
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Thierry Leconte | 6 Dec 2004 23:22

Re: ANN: Grig Developer Snapshot (grig-0.3.99.2)

Alexandru Csete wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> After many months of sporadic coding, the Gtk+ 2 port of grig has now
> begun to take shape. Last weekend I have decided to make a test release so
> that I can get some feedback.

Look realy nice

seems to work with my thg-71 and TM-V7 (after my last CVS commit)

Just a few questions :
- how could I change the vfo ?
- seems to launch a rig daemon that call the hamlib :
how to make it verbose to check CAT protocol ?

Thierry

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Stephane Fillod | 7 Dec 2004 09:16

Re: ANN: Grig Developer Snapshot (grig-0.3.99.2)

Hi,

Nice job Alex!

On Mon, Dec 06, 2004 at 11:22:07PM +0100, Thierry Leconte wrote:
> - seems to launch a rig daemon that call the hamlib :
> how to make it verbose to check CAT protocol ?

Settings->Debug Level->Trace

BTW, grig segfaults when it's missing its data files (ie. not installed
correctly).

The command line is missing the -C, --set-conf=parm=val[,parm=val]*,
ie. set config parameter, which is necessary for some rigs.

In the wishlist: would it be possible to select whatever RIG_LEVEL (drop
down list) for the Vu-meter, in RX and in TX mode? Or maybe a double
needle? 

Keep on the good work!

Stephane

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Joop Stakenborg | 7 Dec 2004 09:20

Re: ANN: Grig Developer Snapshot (grig-0.3.99.2)

Op ma, 06-12-2004 te 23:22 +0100, schreef Thierry Leconte:

> - how could I change the vfo ?

Left and right click the digits with your mouse.

Joop
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Alexandru Csete | 7 Dec 2004 10:15

Re: ANN: Grig Developer Snapshot (grig-0.3.99.2)

On Mon, 6 Dec 2004, Thierry Leconte wrote:

> > After many months of sporadic coding, the Gtk+ 2 port of grig has now
> > begun to take shape. Last weekend I have decided to make a test release so
> > that I can get some feedback.
> 
> Look realy nice
> 
> seems to work with my thg-71 and TM-V7 (after my last CVS commit)
> 

Glad to hear that, thanks.

> Just a few questions :
> - how could I change the vfo ?

If you mean changing between VFO A and VFO B the answer is you can't.
Currently, grig only reads the active VFO, but the possibility to change
the active VFO is on my todo list.

> - seems to launch a rig daemon that call the hamlib :

Yes, indeed. One of the major changes since the last release is the
introduction of the daemon, which takes care of the hamlib interface and
keeps the GUI isolated from the hardware.

> how to make it verbose to check CAT protocol ?
> 

You can specify the debug level on the command line with -d or, as
Stephane mentioned in another mail, selecting Settings->Debug Level in the
menubar. The command line option needs a number between 0 and 5,
0=RIG_DEBUG_NONE and 5=RIG_DEBUG_TRACE.

> 
> Thierry
> 

Alex
OZ9AEC

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Alexandru Csete | 7 Dec 2004 10:50

Re: ANN: Grig Developer Snapshot (grig-0.3.99.2)

On Tue, 7 Dec 2004, Stephane Fillod wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Nice job Alex!
> 

thanks a lot!

> 
> BTW, grig segfaults when it's missing its data files (ie. not installed
> correctly).
> 

I noticed... I have it on the todo list to exit cleanly with an error
message if this happens.  The good news is that you can install anywhere,
even your home dir.

> The command line is missing the -C, --set-conf=parm=val[,parm=val]*,
> ie. set config parameter, which is necessary for some rigs.
> 

Ok, thanks. I'll add that. I didn't know it was necessary for some rigs.

> In the wishlist: would it be possible to select whatever RIG_LEVEL (drop
> down list) for the Vu-meter, in RX and in TX mode? Or maybe a double
> needle? 
> 

The plan is to have the meter behave like it does on real rigs: Show the
signal strength in RX mode and one of the tx levels in tx mode according
to meter_level_e. The range in tx mode will be user selectable so that it
is useful to both qrp and qro people.
Is there anything else than the received signal strength that is
interesting in rx mode? Maybe RIG_LEVEL_RAWSTR?

> 
> Keep on the good work!
> 
> Stephane
> 

Thanks again.
Alex

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darren.hatcher | 7 Dec 2004 12:48

RE: Rig control via VB6

Randy,

You're just about where I am on this.

In terms of putting a basic Win32 system together, Stephane has put Win32 DLLs cross-compiled into the library. I have tested these against an Icom PCR1000 and Icom 735 and they do run ok with 'rigctl'. However, as far as I know, there isn't a Win32 GUI-based application - which I think is where you are going.

In the way there is Grig and other Linux front-ends, I think it's time we had a VB equivalent and popped it on sourceforge or with the main library.

To get this going, I have done a bit VB and C++ on and off over the last few years and have started a basic Grig-like test harness - see attached image. The idea is to use this as a test for the Win32 elements, although I haven't finished the internals (config, logging, etc).

Alexandru, please forgive me for borrowing much of your Grig UI. It's a good app and they say copying is the best form of flattery!

My plan is to get this running as an early alpha over the Christmas break. The first step is to be able to drive a radio directly (serial port) and then later using the TCP-based RPC rig in hamlib.

I know most of us are Linux-oriented, but if anyone has a specific request for the Win32 test harness, drop me a note.

73,

Darren - G0WCW

-----Original Message-----
From: hamlib-developer-admin <at> lists.sourceforge.net [mailto:hamlib-developer-admin <at> lists.sourceforge.net]On Behalf Of Randy Hatt
Sent: 03 December 2004 16:58
To: hamlib-developer <at> lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: [Hamlib-developer] Rig control via VB

Hi all,

I’m currently developing a Contest Logging program for the two MARAC contest in Visual Basic 6. My experience level as VB programmer is entry level but I have over 20 yrs of COBOL background.

My progress as far as interfacing with my Yaesu FT990 is limited to Reading the Freq., changing the freq, mode and filter all using MSCOMM through the COM port and a Yaesu FIF-232C.

My next step is developing the code to do CW from the keyboard or pre-formatted messages supplied by the operator via the COM port or LPT. I have no idea how to do this and if it even can be done via VB6. Can anyone on your team help me with project? I’ll be glad to share any code that I have developed with you folks or help you with your project.

I will eventually expand this code to control the ICOM 706MKIIG and the Yaesu FT1000.

Thanks,

Randy – AA8R

AA8R <at> AOL.COM

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