DSDPlus User-friendly UI for DSDplus/FMP24 scanner - please answer if it already exists

[scriptguru]

DSD team never get back, so, that is what happens. But that is their choice. I am sure they listen. But with lots of silly questions from begginers (I bet), they wouldn't have the time to answer back.

I guess it depends on the content of a message.
They surely replied to my email where I offered GUI development to them, they thought it was a good idea. They also said that TETRA support was something they intended to add in the future.

It would be cool to have a GUI that talks via TCP to FMP24 and DSD+ though.

That might be my next step but it would require support from their side. For now it looks like I can get away with the keystrokes they already support and AutoIt function that sends keystrokes to a window.

Tip: There is a plugin for SDR# that works with DSD (via virtual cable)...

SDR# uses way more resources than FMP24/DSD+ combination. It's perfectly usable on a normal laptop, but not so usable on a tablet, especially a small and weaker one. The goal of this project is to produce something comparable to handheld radio scanner so I'm using a cheap Windows tablet as a computer running DSD+.
I've tried using it with SDRuno (software working with SDRplay radio receiver) and DSD+ and it kind of worked, but the UI wasn't very usable on a small touchscreen and CPU usage was a bit high. IMO it's also an overkill to use a full blown SDR software to just perform a function of a radio scanner.

User interface is fine as it is. It is friendly enough a dummy like me can get it going

It is fine for some people, just not for most people. Most people don't want to learn to use software unless they really really need to.
To use FMP24 easily one has to remember the command line switches AND all the keyboard shortcuts. Is it possible to learn them all? Yes. Should everyone do that? Not sure, probably no.
In the modern world GUI is the most popular way to interact with computers (including mobile phones, tablets, etc) and there are good reasons for it.

 

[air-scan]

DSDPlus has the same UI for years. Had new improvements added to it. They keep it maintained. DO NOT FIX WHAT ISN'T BROKEN! Make your own decoder from scratch @scriptguru ! Many people enjoy it as is! You get on my nerves with this bologna that DSDPlus Fastlane isn't friendly when it always has been. People just need continual guidance in its operation! I find it insulting of you to even be so bold!

 

[scriptguru]

@air-scan Do you even realize that I'm not going to change the existing UI and behavior of the DSD+ or FMP24 in any way?
I'm developing an entirely separate application that can control FMP24 and DSD+ if you download it, put it in the right folder and run it.
I don't think my UI is ever going to be included into a DSD+ package, it's just a Github repository with the sources and compiled binaries available for anyone who wants to use them.

 

[hamradionl]

@scriptguru
Go FWD with your development, see how it go be sure there are many people in world who will appreciate your effort

 

[TheButcher]

"SDR# uses way more resources than FMP24/DSD+ combination. It's perfectly usable on a normal laptop, but not so usable on a tablet, especially a small and weaker one. "


"Most people don't want to learn to use software unless they really really need to."



Oh fully agreed...


Oh and it would be cool if DSD+ was in just one window. Having 6 or so windows open is a PITA. Just a rear template / backdrop / confined task (for lack of better term) would be cool and a large set up from status quo, IMHO.

 

[thewraith2008]

Just need to obtain the TCP list of commands from the DSD+ team (or hack it) (...or whatever / however it works).

The TCP link for DSD+ and FMPx it seems, is either compressed or encrypted.

Packets sizes seen with 4 byte header:

Size - Header      -> datapayload(size)
---------------------
1035 - 00 CF FB 54 -> datapayload(1031)
  23 - 00 E2 FE 55 -> datapayload(19)
  63 - 00 C5 F4 55 -> datapayload(59)
 155 - 00 F8 DF 55 -> datapayload(151)


Packet direction and purpose: (a guess)

1035: [FMP > DSD] - IQ DATA(samplerate) ???. Always sent.

  23: [DSD > FMP] - FMP control back channel ??? - Always sent (less intervals than above).

  67: [FMP > DSD] - DSD ???. Seen when call activity

 155: [FMP > DSD] - DSD ???. Seen when call activity

Oh and it would be cool if DSD+ was in just one window. Having 6 or so windows open is a PITA. Just a rear template / backdrop / confined task (for lack of better term) would be cool and a large set up from status quo, IMHO.

You can minimize the windows you don't need via the option '-_<num>' in the batch files. The '<num>' is a bitmap of the 4 DSD+ windows.

    Bit value:
     0 = Window normal
     1 = Window minimized

    Bit Allocation:
     7 = 0  N/A
     6 = 0  N/A
     5 = 0  N/A
     4 = 0  N/A 
     3 = Event Log window
     2 = Channel activity window
     1 = Source Audio window
     0 = Console window

 

[mancow]

DSDPlus has the same UI for years. Had new improvements added to it. They keep it maintained. DO NOT FIX WHAT ISN'T BROKEN! Make your own decoder from scratch @scriptguru ! Many people enjoy it as is! You get on my nerves with this bologna that DSDPlus Fastlane isn't friendly when it always has been. People just need continual guidance in its operation! I find it insulting of you to even be so bold!

Lol wtf. Don't stand in the way of progress. I for one rarely use it just because I'm lazy and I would like a nice point and shoot easy to use interface instead of recalling a bunch of initialization items.

 

[asgard]

following, for me dsd was pain to use it and avoided just be cose of ui.

 

[air-scan]

I suppose I can think of this as what happened in the Linux world to get more users they ended up making desktop GUI for the OS. Which was a wise decision because it made things easier to work with. Still a bit tough on certain job functions in Linux. Same with DSD. If it needs to have a more cut and dry GUI FROM THE DEVELOPERS without 3rd party it would be a bit like Unitrunker. Nothing wrong with Unitrunker. I think they want to stay unique from other programs. Problem is that it needs TCP or virtual cables to decode. I don't know of any other way to do digital voice. That's probably why the way it is.

 

[scriptguru]

In fact it's not very uncommon in the Linux world to have command line applications and 3rd party GUIs for them. Nothing wrong with it - GUI doesn't make the command line app less usable, it rather makes it usable for people who couldn't or didn't want to use it previously.

Unitrunker is a good piece of software but still after using a handheld radio scanner many people see that radio scanning can be an easy and relaxing hobby so many people are looking for the same kind of simplicity when using their RTL-SDR, SDRplay, AirSpy and other SDRs for the same purpose (radio scanning).

 

[hamradionl]

@scriptguru
Please, make your DSD GUI and see what users think of it

 

[Annunaki]

Deffo continue with this as I for one would love a better GUI than the supplied but don't forget that there are different FMP versions for different devices that use different key bindings, I have moved from FMP24 (RTL-SDR) to FMPA (Airspy) and also DSD+ itself has its own key bindings.

Good luck I will be following this.

Thank you!

 

[Annunaki]

I created an update to this plug-in that updated options to DSD+ v2.212 and fixed the working folder issue among other things.
I never bothered releasing it because no-one seemed interested in it. Probably still not.
It can't implement all the new things because of the newer TCP requirement for these features.
But it made it better than it was.

I would be interested in this as I also find using SDR# better for general scanning for digital frequencies to be used later in FMPx.

 

[TheButcher]

"The TCP link for DSD+ and FMPx it seems, is either compressed or encrypted. "

Good work! Although, shame about the conclusion...


Cheers for the table of commands for windows. I made a screenshot of it for reference.

 

[scriptguru]

Deffo continue with this as I for one would love a better GUI than the supplied but don't forget that there are different FMP versions for different devices that use different key bindings, I have moved from FMP24 (RTL-SDR) to FMPA (Airspy) and also DSD+ itself has its own key bindings.

Most of the key bindings are the same for FMP24/FMPA/FMPP and those are the commands I'm going to use. For now I'm going to keep things as simple as possible.

I'd like to ask everyone to feel free to make suggestions regarding what they think must be included into the GUI as I might be missing something. But keep in mind that we want to have a GUI that is as simple as possible and that is not specialized just for your use case. If you want a GUI made just for you that has all the buttons you want, you'll likely be able to implement it yourself using the existing GUI as an example and just making some edits.

At the moment I'm planning to support the following functions in the first version:

• display the current frequency for both control and voice channels
• set frequency for the control channel
• select frequency step size
• step forward/backwards in frequency
• fine tuning (step forward/backwards in frequency by 250 Hz)
• enable/disable scan mode
• select RF bandpass filter
• increase/decrease RF gain
• toggle mute
• perhaps search forward/backwards (similar to scan but doesn't require a scan list - just step through frequencies until something is found)

 

[hamradionl]

@scriptguru,
is there any news ?

 

[scriptguru]

Nothing to talk about - for now I've only went through AutoIt/DSD+/FMP24/FMPP/FMPA docs and identified functions, parameters and keyboard shortcuts that are going to be useful in development. Also planned how to implement a resizable UI (so that you can set any size of the window and all the buttons and text fields would stretch accordingly).
Even though a first version/prototype can be done in a few hours, like many people here I have a full time job and family so I don't have much time for my hobbies, especially at the end of the year. However I'm not forgetting about the project and the first working UI is likely to be publicly available in January.

 

[jerry01]

Nothing to talk about - for now I've only went through AutoIt/DSD+/FMP24/FMPP/FMPA docs and identified functions, parameters and keyboard shortcuts that are going to be useful in development. Also planned how to implement a resizable UI (so that you can set any size of the window and all the buttons and text fields would stretch accordingly).
Even though a first version/prototype can be done in a few hours, like many people here I have a full time job and family so I don't have much time for my hobbies, especially at the end of the year. However I'm not forgetting about the project and the first working UI is likely to be publicly available in January.

Can't wait to see it in January.

 

[LimaZulu]

Nothing to talk about - for now I've only went through AutoIt/DSD+/FMP24/FMPP/FMPA docs and identified functions, parameters and keyboard shortcuts that are going to be useful in development. Also planned how to implement a resizable UI (so that you can set any size of the window and all the buttons and text fields would stretch accordingly).
Even though a first version/prototype can be done in a few hours, like many people here I have a full time job and family so I don't have much time for my hobbies, especially at the end of the year. However I'm not forgetting about the project and the first working UI is likely to be publicly available in January.

I would love to see a UI also. Have this thing in my mind for a very long time but unfortunately, as you say - family, full time job..... If you think this can help you in some way, I can provide you a simple, but huge batch script that I wrote to control my dongles.
Other than that, don't know what kind of programming language you plan to use, but if it's a C++ I can help you, if you need some help of course

 

[Annunaki]

I've been working on a UI written in Delphi works pretty well. Has a few basic buttons like launch and quit DSD/FMP, change time slots, adjust gains, open site loader etc. Never been into coding applications but having lots of fun doing this.