New CSV Memory Tool (Excel) for AR-DV10

[dsalomon]

Hi all. I just picked up a used AR-DV10 and very quickly became frustrated with the lack of a simple tool to take CSV data and format it the way the radio needs to load from the SD card. So I wrote one myself and am posting it here to share for anyone who wants to use it.

A few important things to note: This is a BETA tool. It is simple. It may have bugs (although it worked fine and loaded fine in my DV10). It is only for the DV10. I think the CSV file format is different for the DV1, so I'll look at that later. It only lets you enter frequency, mode and tag - none of the other stuff like CTCSS tones, etc. That will come later (this IS a first version, after all). It lets you enter bank names to match the channels. It will produce 2 files: a memory channel CSV file and a memory bank CSV. You MUST have macros enabled for it to work. If you're wary of running unknown macros, then don't use it. I have the code locked so prying eyes can't play for now. Maybe when it's done I'll unlock the hidden stuff. For now, I'm trying to keep it simple and wanted to get it useful quickly. The instructions are on the first tab labeled...wait for it...Instructions. It should be simple enough to follow.

I welcome feedback: comments, suggestion, bug reports, general whining, new feature suggestions, etc. Have at it!

 

[dsalomon]

FYI, here's a copy of the spreadsheet with about 1600 channels / 32 banks that I loaded this morning with exports from RR. It took less than 45 minutes to do all the exports, copy/paste into the spreadsheet, create the CSV files, and load the files into the radio. THAT'S why I created this tool. I'll post updated to the tool as I make them.

 

[grosminet]

Great !!
Is it possible to start with native AOR csv , in order to start with an existing configuration ?

thanks

 

[dsalomon]

Soon. The first version had all the fields in it, but the radio wouldn't load properly. I used the definitions from the java files I found on Github. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that was 1 version earlier than the current tool, and AOR obviously changed the format. Anyway, I now have the correct spec, so the next version will enable using all the fields. Once I've done that, then I can add a feature to do the reverse - what you are requesting - open an existing DV10 CSV file and put it in the spreadsheet. That will be easy. This is a spare time project, so it will probably take me a week to get all the fields back in and working properly, then I can add your suggestion.

Great idea!

 

[fafax]

Hello, with Office for Mac there is something wrong. Could I help you to debug?
Thank you

 

[dsalomon]

Does Office for Mac support VBA, and do you have macros enabled? Both must be true for this to work.

 

[fafax]

Does Office for Mac support VBA, and do you have macros enabled? Both must be true for this to work.

Yes sure, normally all macros work without any problem.

 

[dsalomon]

I just did some quick research on this. I am not a Mac user, so my knowledge is VERY limited to what I just read. The Mac OS is much more restrictive about how and where files can be created/stored. The way I implemented saving files in Windows, where I developed and use this, will not work in a Mac environment. However, I did find a few examples where some people had figured out a clunky work-around. I don't have time to look into this right now, but I will look into it. I never considered Mac users when I wrote this. I'll see if I can learn enough about this to implement a work-around. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[fafax]

I just did some quick research on this. I am not a Mac user, so my knowledge is VERY limited to what I just read. The Mac OS is much more restrictive about how and where files can be created/stored. The way I implemented saving files in Windows, where I developed and use this, will not work in a Mac environment. However, I did find a few examples where some people had figured out a clunky work-around. I don't have time to look into this right now, but I will look into it. I never considered Mac users when I wrote this. I'll see if I can learn enough about this to implement a work-around. Thanks for the feedback.

If you want, you could share only the part of code where you save the file. Just the lines about the composition of the path and the method and I can try to fix it.

Thank you

 

[dsalomon]

Here's the line of code that's failing:

fileSaveName = Application.GetSaveAsFilename(InitialFileName:="memch.csv", _
Title:="Enter Memory Channel CSV File Name", _
fileFilter:="CSV Files (*.CSV), *.CSV")

This is for the memory channel file. The same code is used again for the memory bank file. All it's doing is prompting the user for the file name to save the CSV file. It may be the fileFilter that's causing the problem. There's no guarantee it won't fail open/writing/saving the file once it gets past this. I have a Mac environment running under VMWare, but I don't recall what OS version (it's been a while since I used it) and I don't have Office to test it there anyway.

 

[fafax]

Here's the line of code that's failing:

fileSaveName = Application.GetSaveAsFilename(InitialFileName:="memch.csv", _
Title:="Enter Memory Channel CSV File Name", _
fileFilter:="CSV Files (*.CSV), *.CSV")

This is for the memory channel file. The same code is used again for the memory bank file. All it's doing is prompting the user for the file name to save the CSV file. It may be the fileFilter that's causing the problem. There's no guarantee it won't fail open/writing/saving the file once it gets past this. I have a Mac environment running under VMWare, but I don't recall what OS version (it's been a while since I used it) and I don't have Office to test it there anyway.

The fileFilter attribute is not supported on Mac Finder. It is a feature of Windows Explorer interface.
Simply remove it in case of Mac OS.

To detect the right OS you can add this statements to your code:

#If Mac Then
' Code for the Mac
#Else
' Code for Windows
#End If

 

[dsalomon]

Try this...

 

[fafax]

Try this...

Now the first step is ok and I can choose the file name and folder.
After this I got another error, in attachment, but I haven't element or other information.

If you want I can help also for this.

Thank you

 

[dsalomon]

I'm using the following code to create the text file: " Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")". FileSystemObject is part of the windows scripting library, which doesn't exist on the Mac. I can use a different approach to opening the file which should work on the Mac. I'll get an update a bit later today.

 

[dsalomon]

I said "a bit later today". What I meant is: I'm anal retentive and can't let a problem sit unresolved.

Try this. I used a somewhat ancient approach to opening files in VBA which should be supported on the Mac.

 

[dsalomon]

BTW, the next version of this tool will be to add all the editable columns, plus the ability to read in an existing CSV file and populate the spreadsheet.

 

[fafax]

I said "a bit later today". What I meant is: I'm anal retentive and can't let a problem sit unresolved.

Try this. I used a somewhat ancient approach to opening files in VBA which should be supported on the Mac.

It works PERFECTLY!

Thank you!

 

[dsalomon]

Great! Thanks for the feedback and testing. I'll try to have the next version available in a week or so and will post it here. As I noted, it will give the ability to open an existing DV-10 style CSV file, i.e., backup from the radio to the SD card and put it in the spreadsheet for editing, then saving back to CSV. My guess is that I'll have issues opening the existing CSV file in the Mac environment, so additional testing help would be great.

BTW, I was reading your other posts about the NFM issue you reported to AOR. Have you heard back from them about that? Sometimes, they're great at responding and sometimes they don't respond at all. I sent a feature suggestion to the office here in the US and got no reply.

73 - David, AG4F

 

[fafax]

Great! Thanks for the feedback and testing. I'll try to have the next version available in a week or so and will post it here. As I noted, it will give the ability to open an existing DV-10 style CSV file, i.e., backup from the radio to the SD card and put it in the spreadsheet for editing, then saving back to CSV. My guess is that I'll have issues opening the existing CSV file in the Mac environment, so additional testing help would be great.

BTW, I was reading your other posts about the NFM issue you reported to AOR. Have you heard back from them about that? Sometimes, they're great at responding and sometimes they don't respond at all. I sent a feature suggestion to the office here in the US and got no reply.

73 - David, AG4F

Thank you for your promptness and efforts in addressing this.
I am fully available for further testing.

Thank you for forwarding the matter to the US office.
Let's hope they respond!!

 

[BobHGL]

With the data supplied in AOR AR-DV10 CSV Formatter - Writer (V0.1).xlsm of Aug 29, I can write memch.xlsx and membk.xlsx. I only changed 2205A to 2305AT in B3.
When I try to open one of these files Excel on my Mac says:
Alert
Excel cannot open the file ’memch.xlsx’ because the file format or file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file.
When I open memch.xlsx with OpenOffice on my Mac, I see this:
Error 2015
MC0,05,08
MC1,00,00,0152.88500,012.50,000.00,+00,+00000,0600,2000,00000,0,2,0,0x0000
MC2,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,000,2,00,00,00,1,0,0,0,0,00,"SMW "
MC3,00,0,0,0x000,0,0,00,0,0
MC1,00,01,0154.60000,012.50,000.00,+00,+00000,0600,2000,00000,0,2,0,0x0000
MC2,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,000,2,00,00,00,1,0,0,0,0,00,"MURS-5 "
MC3,00,0,0,0x000,0,0,00,0,0
MC1,00,02,0160.23000,012.50,000.00,+00,+00000,0600,2000,00000,0,2,0,0x0000
MC2,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,000,2,00,00,00,1,0,0,0,0,00,"CSX AD/JB Di"
MC3,00,0,0,0x000,0,0,00,0,0
et cetera

Any idea what the problem is?