Official Butel ARC-500 Software Thread

[Neal]

The BUTEL ARC500 was released today. I loaded it on my PC and downloaded a copy of everything on my PSR500. Everything looked good on the screen. Some cool edit features, etc.

I made some additions to the tables, made some changes to exsisting data and uploaded it to the PSR500. CONV objects worked OK but no TGRP's. I downloaded the PSR500 again to ARC500 and found that none of the TG ID's showed up! Also the TSYS for all the TGRP objects was blank!

Fired off a msg to BUTEL via there web site and immed got an inquiry for more data. Sent them the saved .gr5 (BUTEL format) data file and waiting for a response.

It looks good....if it just worked.....

Of course, it could be something I did while playing with this new version (V.0.9).

Anybody else having any luck with the new BUTEL ARC500?

 

[CqDx]

I noticed the same symptom as well. First download it copied all takgroup informations, but not the system they are affiliated with. I tried download again and this time it worked. The software looks really promising. I will be purchasing it tomorrow!

oh btw, a batch edit feature would be neat. I wish I can just highlight a bunch of objects and assign them all to one scanlist!

 

[Butelsoftware]

The TG problem was fixed in 0.9 build2.

Gommert
www.butelsoftware.com

 

[Butelsoftware]

oh btw, a batch edit feature would be neat. I wish I can just highlight a bunch of objects and assign them all to one scanlist!

You can already do that, highlight the scanlist cells than use keyboard buttons 1-0 for scanlists 1-10 or q-p for scanlists 11-20. See helptext under the grid for shortcut info

Or set the scanlists in one cell than either use Copy/paste or the Fill option.

Gommert
www.butelsoftware.com

 

[Neal]

Version .9 build 2 report

1. When adding a TGRP at the end of the TGRP list, the pop-up window
containing all of the scan lists boxes will drop off the bottom of the
screen if the list of TGRP's is long enough.

2. EDIT 21:21 hours.--------DISREGARD!!!!!!!!The window containing the ARC500 application does not seem to be resizable.
If you click on the resize button in the upper right corner of the window,
the icon changes but you can not grab a corner or side of the window and drag it
to a new size.-----EDIT--DISREGARD THIS ONE! LOWER LEFT CORNER STARTS THE PROCESS!

3. When on the TGRP screen, there is a note at the bottom that says,
"Select Sweep type. Use double click or F2 to edit." I may not understand this
properly, but it seems to be a misplaced message.

4. I down loaded the contents of my PSR500 into ARC500 and made some changes. I saved
the .gr5 file and then uploaded the new changes to the PSR500. One of the changes
I made had the TGRP tag as "TEMA MEM 2". However, when it shows up on the PSR display,
it shows, "TEMA ME 2M".

5. The ASCII character representing a dash "->" seems to show up differently in ARC500.
I mannually entered some TGRP tags with a dash and they show up as the letter "C" with a
accent mark on the bottom of the "C" (not sure what the correct name is for this charcater.

6. I had a LIMIT manually entered into Scan List 3 with the Alpha Tag of 406-419.
I noticed after I had reloaded my changes to the PSR500 from ARC500, this alpha tag now reads,
"406419-". I'm not sure if the change was made on the download or the upload. I only
noticed it after both operations had been done.

7. Page 18 of the HELP manual shows a screen shot of the Radio Schack PRO433/528.

8. I notice that the ARC500 assigns new Object ID numbers. I'm not sure that this is a problem.
In fact, I can think of cases where this is a good feature and I can think of cases
where this may be a problem. Let me think about this one.

9. The scroll wheel does not seem to work when displaying a Scan List page from the Scan List tab.

10. There are LED colors showing on the Scan List display when there is no LED color. Looking
at that same object in the TGRP page, it shows no LED color (0).

11. Exporting ALL DATA in CSV format gave me some objects in ScanList -27 and -37. Is this correct?

12. The Edit-Find function does not seem to work on the TRGP or CONV objects list display. There is nothing in the pull down box labled "In".


The Build 2 seems to have fixed the original problem I reported regarding the missing TSYS and TG ID's. Thanks for the speedy repair.

Keep up the good work...we will get there.

Vince

 

[Neal]

Selecting Scan Lists

You can already do that, highlight the scanlist cells than use keyboard buttons 1-0 for scanlists 1-10 or q-p for scanlists 11-20. See helptext under the grid for shortcut info

Or set the scanlists in one cell than either use Copy/paste or the Fill option.

Gommert
www.butelsoftware.com

Gommert,
I have found that you can make multiple selections using left click and shift right click to choose a contigiuos list of objects to make the changes. However, I have not been able to select multiple objects that are scattered through out the list. Normally a "control right click" would be the windows standard way of doing this. Am I missing something?

Vince

 

[wjf]

wjf should be chiming in any moment now...I wonder what he thinks of this new version?

I'm not going to "chime in", because I don't own a GRE and don't even have a reason to look at this product.

But I still have a beef with the 396 product and lack of support or bug fixes.

I would advise anyone who is considering anything from Butel to save their money.

So there. I guess I chimed in.

 

[Butelsoftware]

Gommert,
I have found that you can make multiple selections using left click and shift right click to choose a contigiuos list of objects to make the changes. However, I have not been able to select multiple objects that are scattered through out the list. Normally a "control right click" would be the windows standard way of doing this. Am I missing something?

Vince

The CTRL button to select items is not supported in the grid control, for the other points see the email I sent you.

Gommert
www.butelsoftware.com

 

[mikebennett]

I have a problem with the squelch mode in CONV items randomly changing for some reason from P25 to CTSS or DCS on certain lines. When I go back and correct it and then SAVE it reverts back to the improper mode again.

 

[Butelsoftware]

I have a problem with the squelch mode in CONV items randomly changing for some reason from P25 to CTSS or DCS on certain lines. When I go back and correct it and then SAVE it reverts back to the improper mode again.

I sent you an email, did you send us the gr5 file yet?

Gommert
www.butelsoftware.com

 

[mikebennett]

I didn't get the email.

 

[etnad2]

PSR-600 crashes after uploading

I just installed and registered the software. I entered in about 10 conventional channels and uploaded them. I started the radio scanning. When I press "manual" when scanning, I get a "heap error" and the scanner crashes. If I power off and on the radio, it will scan again, but crash if I press manual again, it crashes again.

I performed a memory reset (0,1 after powering up) and entered the same channels in manually using the keypad and the radio does not crash.

Level - V0.90 Build 3 - Full version
Using Windows Vista Ultimate

Am I doing something wrong?

 

[etnad2]

Virtual front panel suggestions

I know at some point I will memorize the keystrokes for the front panel to enter in alpha tags. Until then, it would be nice to mimic the control panel and have the alpha characters above the numbers on virtual front panel. I ended up using the GRE sample application to manually enter channels because it has the alpha characters.

When programming a new object, there is no cursor. I end up having to look over at the radio's display to find out what line I am on.

I know after I start using the software I'll memorize the pattern to program a new channel manually, but it'd be nice to have these two features as a beginner.

I apologize if there is a way to do this that I'm not aware of.

 

[Butelsoftware]

I also sent you a PM but can you send us a copy of your .gr5 file so we can try to duplicate the error?

I will add the alpha characters to VC, thanks for the suggestion.

Gommert
www.butelsoftware.com

 

[fmon]

Arapahoe County DTRS Import error

Gommert,

This zip has three files for the Colorado Statewide DTRS system, specifically for Arapahoe County.
1. an Incorrect import gr5 which imports 47 talkgroups instead of the 114 available. The talkgroups are mostly from neighboring Douglas County. Importing Douglas County to Scanlist 2 will add three additional talkgroups instead of the 64 available.

2. an attached Correct file downloaded from scanner with all 114 listed.

3. a Gif which indicates the problem.

This incorrect import applies to any imports within this system but a sample of other statewide systems (Alaska, Kansas and Virginia) appears to import correctly.

 

[Butelsoftware]

Thanks Frank,
There are a few systems that show this problem and will be fixed in the build coming next week.

Gommert

 

[swcscott]

Loading Muliple Systems

I purchased the full version of the ARC500 and entered the registration codes to complete the registration process but I can only enter one system into the scanner. Every time I try to load a second system it overwrites the first one I entered. Shouldn't I be able to enter more than one system with the full version of the software? When I check under the help menu it verifies that I have the full version. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mark01]

I just purchased ARC500.The flexstep does not seem to work,anyone else have this problem.If I enter 142.905 the software does not accept it but rounds it to the bandplan at 142.875.I also have the flexstep checked in the expert menu.

TIA

 

[Mark01]

The flexstep does not seem to work,anyone else have this problem

Well I can answer my own question.the flexstep bug will be fixed in the next build of the
software .I did not get to check the Yahoo ARC500 group until today as my membership was pending,but sure enough it states this at the Yahoo group.

 

[Butelsoftware]

Every time I try to load a second system it overwrites the first one I entered. Shouldn't I be able to enter more than one system with the full version of the software? When I check under the help menu it verifies that I have the full version. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

You can't 'add' systems, you first need to download from the scanner into ARC500, make the changes and then upload back to the scanner. This is the way the GRE programming interface works.

Gommert
www.butelsoftware.com