BCD436HP/BCD536HP Firmware Upgrade Wish List

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signal500

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I have noticed different threads discussing features that they would like to see changed or added, so I started this thread to discuss needed and/or wanted firmware upgrades. I will start with a few:

LED alert light on for the duration of the entire transmission.
To have the option to record per system, department, or channel.
Backlight to correctly display during digital transmissions.
To display GPS data displayed, i.e.; elevation, speed, location.
DAT indicator to display when receiving any type of trunked system.
 

Hit_Factor

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In another thread I recommended a default action and timout when usb cable is attached.

Such as choose mass storage mode/serial mode if no input from user after X seconds.

Same thing for charging.
 

BenScan

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I agree. Sometimes I just want to plug the thing in, and have it charge. If I forget to tell it to charge, and come back several hours later, it's annoying that no charging happened. Likewise, if I plug the USB into a printer at work, just as a power source, I don't want to have to choose what mode, to use, I just want to suck the power from the printer, not necessarily be in mass storage or serial mode.

On a similar note, it would be nice if it would charge while I'm using it. Maybe I'm missing something, but why should I have to turn the radio off to charge it?

In another thread I recommended a default action and timout when usb cable is attached.

Such as choose mass storage mode/serial mode if no input from user after X seconds.

Same thing for charging.
 

BenScan

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Again, maybe I'm missing it, but it would be nice to see a time stamp when playing back audio on the scanners, instead the current date and time are displayed during playback. That's a little confusing, and not really helpful.
 

Gilligan

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Again, maybe I'm missing it, but it would be nice to see a time stamp when playing back audio on the scanners, instead the current date and time are displayed during playback. That's a little confusing, and not really helpful.
Agreed.
 

AA6IO

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The ability to display control channel information, CC freq, and voice freq, as mentioned before.
Some type of CC output. Eagerly waiting for the analysis features to be activated, and I hope that includes "raw data output" as on the HP1-E.

If you read this UpMan (Paul), as the late great James Brown sang:
Please, Please, Please.

Steve AA6IO
 

Glockorola

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In trunking mode when stopped on a Talk Group, also display the Frequency in use at that particular moment in time.
 

JamesO

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Only had the scanner 1 day, so list is very short.

Back Light - off delay. If the backlight is squelch controlled, stays on for entire transmission, then have a user adjustable delay of up to maybe 2-3 seconds. This is helpful to see if the transmission is over and the scanner is back actually scanning.

LED alert, ability to offered many colors and blinking options and the LED Alert should stay on for the entire transmission.

Have not even checked to see if the x36 have colored backlighting like the x96 units. I hope so, and I hope you can keep the back light color on for the entire transmission, or at least flash the backlight color every 5 seconds.

Record/Playback - Date and timestamp of the recording with channel/system/TGID info Ability to record specific TGID's, times of day, locations.

Networking - Ability to have a wired network interface/adapter/dongle, web interface, be able to configure static IP addressing.

Audio - Ability to avoid or resume from both encrypted and scrambled audio. It seems the until will pause on the encrypted channels, but not resume after a user configured time and there does not appear to be any way to mute/resume scrambled audio.

Seems that the headphone audio and external audio are very different in level. This may be addressed when the headphone repair is performed? It apears that the volume has to be turned way up when using headphones, and down quite a bit when using a non amplified external speaker.

Do something with the recovered P25 audio, it is quite muffled, lacks high frequency content and is very hard to hear clearly compared to analog broadcasts. Note my 536HP needs the headphone repair so I have no idea if there is a problem with high frequency audio roll off due to this? My 396/996xt sound far better on recovered P25 audio. Maybe offer audio filter/EQ options in the firmware if possible?

AGC, offer an Auto AGC option. Maybe the info is buried in the manuals, but it is very unclear how to set up the AGC properly with regard to Response Time, Reference Gain and Gain Range. Again, nice features, have not had a chance to play with these or read up on them.

Trunking - Ability to configure P25 baseline decoding on a per trunked system rather than globally.

Display - Make some things disappear when stopped on a Freq/Channel/TG. Some info takes up screen real estate and may no be needed when stopped on active communications. Again, only had the 546HP 1 day, so need to play and reflect on what is being provided.

Offer different silk screened face plates and keypads so the 536HP can be turned upside down. This would also give people an option to have the main control knob on the right side again as well as be able to read the buttons.

Remote trigger turn on. For mobile installs, this also goes for the 996 units as well. Short of a master switch or relay and it appears the 536HP needs to write to the SD card on shut down, so just removing the power is not good. At least a remote shut down trigger would be good for the 536HP.

Might add more things when I have had a chance to play around a bit more.
 
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whsbuss

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Only had the scanner 1 day, so list is very short.

Back Light - off delay. If the backlight is squelch controlled, stays on for entire transmission, then have a user adjustable delay of up to maybe 2-3 seconds. This is helpful to see if the transmission is over and the scanner is back actually scanning.

LED alert, ability to

Have not even checked to see if the x36 have colored backlighting like the x96 units. I hope so, and I hope you can keep the back light color on for the entire transmission, or at least flash the backlight color every 5 seconds.

Record/Playback - Date and timestamp of the recording with channel/system/TGID info Ability to record specific TGID's, times of day, locations.

Networking - Ability to have a wired network interface/adapter/dongle, web interface, be able to configure static IP addressing.

Audio - Ability to avoid or resume from both encrypted and scrambled audio. It seems the until will pause on the encrypted channels, but not resume after a user configured time and there does not appear to be any way to mute/resume scrambled audio.

Seems that the headphone audio and external audio are very different in level. This may be addressed when the headphone repair is performed? It apears that the volume has to be turned way up when using headphones, and down quite a bit when using a non amplified external speaker.

Do something with the recovered P25 audio, it is quite muffled, lacks high frequency content and is very hard to hear clearly compared to analog broadcasts. Note my 536HP needs the headphone repair so I have no idea if there is a problem with high frequency audio roll off due to this? My 396/996xt sound far better on recovered P25 audio. Maybe offer audio filter/EQ options in the firmware if possible?

AGC, offer an Auto AGC option. Maybe the info is buried in the manuals, but it is very unclear how to set up the AGC properly with regard to Response Time, Reference Gain and Gain Range. Again, nice features, have not had a chance to play with these or read up on them.

Trunking - Ability to configure P25 baseline decoding on a per trunked system rather than globally.

Display - Make some things disappear when stopped on a Freq/Channel/TG. Some info takes up screen real estate and may no be needed when stopped on active communications. Again, only had the 546HP 1 day, so need to play and reflect on what is being provided.

Offer different silk screened face plates and keypads so the 536HP can be turned upside down. This would also give people an option to have the main control knob on the right side again as well as be able to read the buttons.

Remote trigger turn on. For mobile installs, this also goes for the 996 units as well. Short of a master switch or relay and it appears the 536HP needs to write to the SD card on shut down, so just removing the power is not good. At least a remote shut down trigger would be good for the 536HP.

Might add more things when I have had a chance to play around a bit more.

Just two comments
1. The display cannot change color like previous models.
2. The 536HP has a display option to change the display orientation to upside down - its in the manual
 

theaton

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The ability to display control channel information, CC freq, and voice freq, as mentioned before.
Some type of CC output. Eagerly waiting for the analysis features to be activated, and I hope that includes "raw data output" as on the HP1-E.

Agreed. Also the ability to:
1) Turn on ID Search for the Full Database
2) Put Custom Search bands on Quick keys
3) Time out scan on a freq/TG after a set number of seconds

Sentinel could also be improved in many ways:
1) Stop listing National & State groups under every county (list Statewide among counties)
2) Allow a whole state or county to be copied to a Favorites category
3) Allow settings such as ID Search to be changed for an entire Favorites category
4) Provide import/export to a text-readable format
5) Allow copying and pasting of lists such as Avoid frequencies
 

SquierStrat

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wasn't there an issue with lag when buttons are being pressed? I suggest that gets worked on before any features are added..
 

JamesO

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Just two comments
1. The display cannot change color like previous models.
2. The 536HP has a display option to change the display orientation to upside down - its in the manual

#1, I was afraid of this, a very nice feature that is sad to see gone. I was HOPEFUL this was possible and the firmware just did not support this feature yet. If this feature has been removed, the Alert light needs to be far more flexible and take the place of the colored display feature.

#2, Fully aware of this, I see this in the 996 and 536, but would be interesting to see a replacement keypad and front panel so when the unit is inverted the keys and faceplate match up as well as the keypad orientation change.
 

RF23

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I agree. Sometimes I just want to plug the thing in, and have it charge. If I forget to tell it to charge, and come back several hours later, it's annoying that no charging happened. Likewise, if I plug the USB into a printer at work, just as a power source, I don't want to have to choose what mode, to use, I just want to suck the power from the printer, not necessarily be in mass storage or serial mode.

On a similar note, it would be nice if it would charge while I'm using it. Maybe I'm missing something, but why should I have to turn the radio off to charge it?

My present understanding for the reason why the unit will not charge while listening to it is that most USB chargers do not produce enough power to run the radio and charge it at the same time. Of course, there are exceptions, some USB chargers can, like those for tablets and smart phones.

Since this is just a guess it may or may not be true and if it is true it still may not be the main reason why the scanner cannot be used and charged at the same time. For example, the power circuitry in the radio may not be able to do both at the same time as a cost saving measure. Uniden did bring us new technology and at the same price as the old technology and this would have required a lot of work and compromises.
 
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KA2ZEY

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Jan 16, 2004
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Brooklyn, NY
1) Ability to decode DMR, NXDN and LTR Passport.

2) Option to stay on ENC transmissions.

3) I suppose having raw data to use with SDR programs is beyond a firmware update?

4) Service search restored.

5) Multi color backlight. How could they take this away??
 

detroit780

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Sentinel Changes

Agreed. Also the ability to:
1) Turn on ID Search for the Full Database
2) Put Custom Search bands on Quick keys
3) Time out scan on a freq/TG after a set number of seconds

Sentinel could also be improved in many ways:
1) Stop listing National & State groups under every county (list Statewide among counties)
2) Allow a whole state or county to be copied to a Favorites category
3) Allow settings such as ID Search to be changed for an entire Favorites category
4) Provide import/export to a text-readable format
5) Allow copying and pasting of lists such as Avoid frequencies

Currently when you append the weekly update from a system to your favorite list
1.) If you renamed it it adds it again under the RR name
2.) If you renamed any TG's it adds them again with their RR name.

It would be nice if they could key the system to the SID that RR already uses.
It would also be nice based on the SID to compare TG's if the number exists, leave it alone if not add it.
That would make it easy to check updates. Just append it each week and look for any TG's you did not assign an LED color too so you can change it and then you know that system is updated.
 

detroit780

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Firmware wants

1) Ability to decode DMR, NXDN and LTR Passport.

2) Option to stay on ENC transmissions.

3) I suppose having raw data to use with SDR programs is beyond a firmware update?

4) Service search restored.

5) Multi color backlight. How could they take this away??

6.) Option to decode the radio ID in P25 Conventional without making it a P25 Single Channel trunked system.
 

SCPD

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Virginia
custom search

Custom Search with programmable limits and option for control channel automatically or manually then displaying the WACN data like it did on the 996XT .
Variable and fixed output via headphone or back of set option in scanner menu.
Add back service searches like in 996xt.
Add when you plug in USB auto charge on 436HP and a screen that lets you manually pick USB interface options on both.
Frequency counter mode like on 996xt but option in menu.
To have the option to record per system, department, or channel.<<<<BIG!
 
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mtindor

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1. Full trunked system analyzing

Must show Zone/RFSS / Site ID / Primary and alt CCs / Site neighbors.

2. The ability to do a simple conventional 'search' and, when it stops on a known control channel [P25, Type II, EDACS, LTR] it displays the relevant details of the trunked system.

The scanner is absolutely useless for anybody serious about the hobby [and anyone serious about actually finding new information to add to the database that Uniden relies so heavily upon].

Give us the damned tools. The GRE guts have been doing #2 for years.

3. Give us a CC dump [PC / IF] dump

At this point the scanners are out -- there isn't going to be any hardware changes. So one must make due with what they have. All of these types of features need to exist. Otherwise it's just a dumb device for people who only want to add what somebody else has already discovered / documented / submitted to the RRDB for inclusion.

Mike
 
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