Freescan: FreeSCAN Open Source Project - Developers Wanted!

[K7MFC]

FreeSCAN is a popular free application for programming the Uniden SC230, BC246T, UBC3500XLT, BR330T, BCD396T, BC346XT(C), BCD396XT, BCT15X, BCD996XT, BCT15 and BCD996T, and BCD996P2 scanners. The original author, Assaf Shool/Sixpot Software, has decided to open source the project, stating he "didn't have time to maintain it anymore and feel the community could do a better job." FreeSCAN was released under the GNU General Public License, which allows anyone the freedom to run, study, share and modify the software. I have forked the original source code, and hosted it here:

GitHub - mfcallahan/FreeSCAN: FreeSCAN is free and open source software for programming Uniden DMA scanners.

FreeSCAN is free and open source software for programming Uniden DMA scanners. - GitHub - mfcallahan/FreeSCAN: FreeSCAN is free and open source software for programming Uniden DMA scanners.

github.com

As a happy user of FreeSCAN and proponent of free and open source software, I would like to help keep this project alive so I'm hosting the source code in a new public repository on GitHub in order to properly track issues and progress. I would like to invite any fellow .NET developers to participate in this open source project along with myself. As of this time there are no plans to add any new features, fix any bugs, or add support for additional scanners/communication modes. The first steps are purely exploratory - learning the code base and determining the viability of continuing down this road. I have a full-time software development job that takes most of my coding time, so this would be something purely done in my free time. Feel free to leave any feedback here, or if you are a developer, clone the repo and poke around!

 

[ka3jjz]

Not to worry, Matt. It's not a small job you've undertaken, and we all have other lives to lead...

I found another instance of an import bug that I will write up in the Bugs and Issues wiki...see this entry

Hillsborough County, Florida (FL) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

www.radioreference.com

There's an entry for 14282, in the 20 meter band, on AM. The only radio that could handle this is the BR330 - none of the others would. Suggest this could be programmed, but locked out. The user can then unlock it if s/he was using that radio.

Mike

 

[GTR8000]

Those of you working on FreeSCAN, you should give serious consideration to rewriting the RRDB import routine. Specifically, to have it take Categories into account when returning results for county conventional listings. Currently the software only displays the Subcategories, which can lead to some very vague results in large counties such as Los Angeles.

LONG BEACH not importing in to free scan

i have noticed in the la county that long beach does not import in to free scan. not even the name will pop up unless i have to copy and paste it in to free scan. is it a db issue or my end. and if in the wrong area sorry in advance!

forums.radioreference.com

 

[GTR8000]

Note that this is not an issue in software such as ProScan, which takes the top level Categories into account...

 

[ka3jjz]

Not to dredge up an old thread, but - has there been any progress on this front? Mike

 

[K7MFC]

Nothing published publicly, but I have been working on the application. Mostly just stuff to assist with my own development, small big fixes, etc. My day job has taken up most of my development time, unfortunately. I'll post here when any significant progress is made..

 

[ka3jjz]

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Thanks...Mike

 

[WD6ABC]

Love that program, and I used to program in VB. I had asked him a few years back on getting it to connect via IP, so maybe now there's a chance to do that!

WD6ABC
www.remscan.com

John

 

[Ronaldski]

FYI added a couple items in the wiki for Canadian SAME codes link and an added feature for sort capabilities. Freescan Bugs and Issues - The RadioReference Wiki

 

[nick0909]

I'm interested in tracking this project... I created the RemoteFS app for Android that uses the freescan server for remote control by reverse engineering the communications protocol, but if we are upgrading things maybe we can do it better. There's also a bit of a bug in the authentication used that I'll try to create an item for in git to track.

 

[Ronaldski]

Anything happening, any work being done? Not seeing any updates, hoping this still being worked on.

the noaa same link needs to be changed to County Coverage By State
I also put it in the wiki.

 

[K7MFC]

Unfortunately no. My (paying) full time software job has left me with little time for side programming projects like this. A few people expressed some interest, but ultimately nobody requested to be made a contributor. I'll still keep the source code repository hosted and will eventually add some of what was discussed in this thread as issues to GitHub but I don't see myself having any appreciable time to work on FreeSCAN in the near future.

 

[INDY72]

*Plays Taps* As happens so much in the software dev world, whether its scanner software, or making games for RPGMaker, or other formats.... Paying jobs and getting the bills paid MUST be the priority, and thus side projects like this.. RIP.

 

[K7MFC]

Aside from lack of time, the fact that this application is written in a language that I haven't used in 10 years, and is not written in the most organized fashion makes this project difficult. Working with legacy code is one of the biggest challenges in software development, and FreeSCAN is certainly a challenge on this regard. Ideally, I would rewrite the entire app in C# and implement better patterns and OOP fundamentals, but that is a massive understanding.

For now I will leave the GitHub repo and website up in the hopes others will find it and maybe want to contribute. I may still find some time for this in the future, as it's still an area of interest for me as far as programming side projects.

 

[eorange]

In addition to the drudgery of maintaining legacy code...it's also not appealing that it's written in VB (at least for me).

 

[K7MFC]

Being written in VB is probably the biggest deterrent in attracting contributors. I personally find the syntax not very readable, and it makes working with legacy code all that much more difficult.

 

[K7MFC]

Ideally, I would rewrite the entire app in C# and implement better patterns and OOP fundamentals, but that is a massive u̶n̶d̶e̶r̶s̶t̶a̶n̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ undertaking

typo.

 

[ProScan]

Excuse me but I see some misinformation here. I just want to set the record straight in case others are thinking about programming in VB .Net and possibly program and improve Freescan.

VB .Net language is not legacy by any means. It's supported 100% by MS. Perhaps the word "legacy" was the wrong wording. It's also 100% OOP language . VB and C# converts to the same common intermediate language.

If the source should be in C# to encourage developers then there's many websites and programs that will converts files and projects, VB from/to C#. It shouldn't take more than 20 hours to do by an experienced programmer.

 

[eorange]

I don't think anyone meant to say VB is not capable or supported. But speaking for myself as a longtime C# (and other modern languages) developer...I have no motivation or incentive to adapt my efforts to VB. It's just not in my personal or professional interests. I think @K7MFC used "legacy" to describe the design of the software.

 

[ProScan]

I don't think anyone meant to say VB is not capable or supported. But speaking for myself as a longtime C# (and other modern languages) developer...I have no motivation or incentive to adapt my efforts to VB. It's just not in my personal or professional interests. I think @K7MFC used "legacy" to describe the design of the software.

Fair enough

 

[K7MFC]

VB .Net language is not legacy by any means. It's supported 100% by MS. Perhaps the word "legacy" was the wrong wording. It's also 100% OOP language . VB and C# converts to the same common intermediate language.

I never claimed VB.NET is legacy - the project itself is. FreeSCAN is legacy code in the sense that it is no longer supported by its original author. My personal preference is also not to use VB.

If the source should be in C# to encourage developers then there's many websites and programs that will converts files and projects, VB from/to C#. It shouldn't take more than 20 hours to do by an experienced programmer.

The issue is not just converting the VB code to C#, the complexity lies in the need to refactor and re-architect the entire application.