Home Patrol Sentinel to Freescan

[NWI_Scanner_Guy]

HELP!!!

I've been sitting here for about an hour trying to figure out how to convert a conventional Sentinel favorite list so it can be loaded into Freescan. I found quite a few threads describing how to go from Freescan to Sentinel, but info about Sentinel to FS seemed to be lacking.

I'm going to be ordering a BCD325P2 in the next day or two, and I'd like to have the programming all ready to be uploaded into it when it gets here. About 90% of the programming I can do directly thru Freescan, but I have a couple of custom made favorites lists on my HP-2 that would take approx. three hours or so to recreate by hand. Copying from the HP would certainly be a time saver.

I'm sure I'm missing something so obvious that it will be a "D'oh!! I'm such an idiot" moment when the answer is given.

Any help / comments / tips and/or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Voyager]

I made a very simple EXCEL sheet that converts the formats, but FreeScan does not support the Windows clipboard, so there is no way to paste the data. If it supported it, it would be very trivial to copy to Excel, then copy the FreeScan data conversion, then paste into FreeScan.

The only way you can do it is to use the EZ-GRAB feature which will not capture all the fields.

 

[NWI_Scanner_Guy]

I made a very simple EXCEL sheet that converts the formats, but FreeScan does not support the Windows clipboard, so there is no way to paste the data. If it supported it, it would be very trivial to copy to Excel, then copy the FreeScan data conversion, then paste into FreeScan.

The only way you can do it is to use the EZ-GRAB feature which will not capture all the fields.

I tried playing around with EZ-Grab, but couldn't find any way to "capture" the info from the Sentinel file.

 

[Ronaldski]

I tried it here and it works.

In sentinel, from 'Edit favorite lists', then in the 'favorites list editor' click on the left side to have it open to show frequencies, talkgroups, etc. On the right side, highlight what ones you want with all be it analog frequencies, modulation, talkgroup numbers and display text.

Then in Freescan, use the Ezgrab option and use the 'copy from clipboard' and then you'll have to designate the columns for frequencies, name (display text), etc.
Then click import into freescan.

Then have to do the above again a second time to copy-paste any trunked system frequencies and any LTR numbers if your importing an LTR.

 

[Ronaldski]

but FreeScan does not support the Windows clipboard, so there is no way to paste the data. If it supported it, it would be very trivial to copy to Excel, then copy the FreeScan data conversion, then paste into FreeScan.

The only way you can do it is to use the EZ-GRAB feature which will not capture all the fields.

I have used the windows clipboard thousands of times with freescan, including if I have to display text for many of the same texts say for ...
County TAC 1, County TAC 2.., I would just right click copy the "County TAC " and paste that in the next new row and manually add in 2,3,4, etc.
works great!

In the Ezgrab windows, it says in step 1, "Copy from Clipboard" it refers to the windows clipboard, which comes in handy in this situation.
Far as "not grabbing all fields", one just has to highlight everything up to what is needed and in ezgrab, designate what columns say are talkgroups, name, frequencies, etc. and if generally there are some items that don't belong into freescan, you select Ignore.
Been doing it for years these ways and including excel as stated, for which can be done in my post above if one wanted say to remove unneeded columns etc.

 

[NWI_Scanner_Guy]

I tried it here and it works.

In sentinel, from 'Edit favorite lists', then in the 'favorites list editor' click on the left side to have it open to show frequencies, talkgroups, etc. On the right side, highlight what ones you want with all be it analog frequencies, modulation, talkgroup numbers and display text.

Then in Freescan, use the Ezgrab option and use the 'copy from clipboard' and then you'll have to designate the columns for frequencies, name (display text), etc.
Then click import into freescan.

Then have to do the above again a second time to copy-paste any trunked system frequencies and any LTR numbers if your importing an LTR.

SUCCESS!!!

I thought I had tried it that way before, but when I tried it earlier, I wasn't able to "copy" from Sentinel. This time however, the "copy" worked and then was able to paste into the EZ-Grab. Took a couple of times to get the column options set correctly, but now I'm good to go.

Thank you!! I definitely appreciate the help.

 

[Ronaldski]

No problem! Glad you were able to figure it out from my instructions too hehe.

 

[Voyager]

I have used the windows clipboard thousands of times with freescan, including if I have to display text for many of the same texts say for ...
County TAC 1, County TAC 2.., I would just right click copy the "County TAC " and paste that in the next new row and manually add in 2,3,4, etc.
works great!

That's using the FreeScan clipboard. It's not using Windows clipboard. Try copying something from Excel or Notepad and paste to FreeScan it won't work.

In the Ezgrab windows, it says in step 1, "Copy from Clipboard" it refers to the windows clipboard, which comes in handy in this situation.

As I said, EZ-GRAB works, but has limited fields. You cannot paste the Windows clipboard into FreeScan. Assaf has confirmed this, so I don't know why you are trying to prove it does something the author admits it does not do.

Far as "not grabbing all fields", one just has to highlight everything up to what is needed and in ezgrab, designate what columns say are talkgroups, name, frequencies, etc. and if generally there are some items that don't belong into freescan, you select Ignore.
Been doing it for years these ways and including excel as stated, for which can be done in my post above if one wanted say to remove unneeded columns etc.

And which column do you select for the alert light colors, alert light pattern, number tags, Priority, Alert Tone, etc?

It would be so much easier if you could simply copy the data from Excel which is all in the proper FreeScan data format, and paste it into Freescan.

Again, Assaf has confirmed that this will not work, and apparently he has to plans to add the capability to paste the Windows Clipboard into Freescan EXCEPT when using EZ-Grab.

 

[Ronaldski]

I was afraid you were going to post something voyager as the OP says my method has worked for him and you are digressing away from the thread question the OP asked and said he is satisfied with the resolution procedure I gave.

The method used that the OP said works for him is indeed using the windows clipboard.
Far as copying a text as I mentioned about the TAC channels examples, I can take text and directly apply it into the display column from the windows clipboard, you can and I have done so for years!
Granted you cant take a whole section of info that includes TG's, text, any further settings and put 'directly into' a freescan system, EZGrab allows us to do it with the ezgrab step 1 "Copy From Clipboard" into it while setting ignores to each column not applicable.

Your not understanding how we are doing this windows clipboard idea into freescan it appears, it does clearly work. I also do as you mentioned use copy and paste into said Excel and remove unneeded text rows and/or columns as well is another method, but in my resolution, excel isn't needed. In the resolution we're utilizing the windows clipboard and paste it into ezbgrab and select the column headers to properly set each for text, frequency, TG or ignore appropriately.

Try it, take a small piece of text, use windows copy and in freescan under the Display column in an open box, right click paste... voila! the text from windows clipboard does indeed appear.
Same goes for one TG and right click paste into a TGID freescan column box.
Now, no you cant take a section of more than one frequency, TG, etc. at a time and paste 'directly into' freescan, but one at a time with windows clipboard works perfectly!

For years I have had to juggle several setups using copy-paste methods to transfer appropriate info into and out of ARC96, PRSEDIT500 and freescan. No not all settings or columns work in each program, so I don't paste the unneeded into the software and at times use excel when needed.

In summary I really have been using windows clipboard for many years to copy-paste into freescan using ezgrab.

 

[Voyager]

I was afraid you were going to post something voyager as the OP says my method has worked for him and you are digressing away from the thread question the OP asked and said he is satisfied with the resolution procedure I gave.

That's fine. But I have the exact same issue, and your solution doesn't work for me even though you say it should. I tried to post the Excel sheet here for you to prove me wrong, but it won't post. Yes, I zipped it first. I get an error about the site having a missing token or something.

Granted you cant take a whole section of info that includes TG's, text, any further settings and put 'directly into' a freescan system,

That's exactly what I was saying. The only way to paste into FreeScan from the Windows clipboard is by using EZ-Grab. But, that will not import all the data.

EZGrab allows us to do it with the ezgrab step 1 "Copy From Clipboard" into it while setting ignores to each column not applicable.

So answer my question about how I import the settings I mentioned (alert light colors, alert light pattern, number tags, Priority, Alert Tone, etc). You just admitted above that you can't, and now you're saying you can via the EZ-Grab feature. But, as far as I can tell, none of those fields are supported by EZ-Grab.

Your not understanding how we are doing this windows clipboard idea into freescan it appears, it does clearly work. I also do as you mentioned use copy and paste into said Excel and remove unneeded text rows and/or columns as well is another method, but in my resolution, excel isn't needed. In the resolution we're utilizing the windows clipboard and paste it into ezbgrab and select the column headers to properly set each for text, frequency, TG or ignore appropriately.

And you're not understanding that the conversion is done in Excel as a whole set of Department data. You copy from Sentinel, paste into Excel, it does the translation into FreeScan format, and you then copy those cells and paste into FreeScan. The problem is, the paste doesn't happen because Freescan will not paste from the Windows clipboard, as FreeScan's author confirmed.

Try it, take a small piece of text, use windows copy and in freescan under the Display column in an open box, right click paste... voila! the text from windows clipboard does indeed appear.

I have tried it. It won't paste. Assaf confirmed that FreeScan does not support the Windows clipboard EXCEPT through EZ-Grab.

If it did support it, the example above would paste the data and the copy from Sentinel would be finished.

You're talking about individual cells. I'm talking about several channels with complete data. One copy-n-paste and all your channels are there.

Now, no you cant take a section of more than one frequency, TG, etc. at a time and paste 'directly into' freescan, but one at a time with windows clipboard works perfectly!

WHY do you keep waffling? You just admitted again what I'm saying does not work.

In summary I really have been using windows clipboard for many years to copy-paste into freescan using ezgrab.

Yes, and the data in Excel is a complete set of channel info FORMATTED exactly as Freescan wants to see it. You can copy that into Windows, as proven by pasting it into Wordpad or Notepad or a text file. BUT, when you try to paste it into FreeScan, NADA. Assaf says that is because FreeScan does not support the Windows clipboard for pasting - only for copying.

EZ-Grab is not a solution since it ignores many of the fields. Again, they are not supported.

IF FreeScan supported the Windows Clipboard, the data would paste one time and all the channels would be there with all the data intact.

I know this is not possible. Assaf knows this is not possible. I have no idea why you can't admit that it's not possible. Oh wait - you did admit it TWICE above, but then you go on to say you do that all the time.

Back directly on topic, there is no way to paste the Sentinel data into FreeScan en masse. I have an Excel conversion sheet I made which automatically converts the data to FreeScan format, but it will not paste into FreeScan because FreeScan does not support the paste function of the Windows clipboard for the channel data converted and copied.

I suppose if you wanted to copy the data cell-by-cell, you could, and my conversion sheet would help in that aspect, but in every program that supports the Windows Clipboard you can paste all the data in one action.

It works going from FreeScan to Sentinel, but not Sentinel to FreeScan.

And NWI, if you want a copy of the conversion sheet, shoot me an email. You simply copy the Sentinel data into the green section of the sheet, and scroll to the right and the yellow section of the sheet is formatted exactly as FreeScan wants to see it. This works on every field except the step size field (which is converted to AUTO for all channels).

 

[Ronaldski]

Obviously your not understanding at all voyager and there is no need to continue on replying to you since I explained it in my procedure comment #4, then I explained further in #5 and much more so in #9.
I am confident if I try to fully explain more and I don't know how much I can as I did so in #9 you still will reply that it doesn't work even though it very clearly does. I do use the windows clipboard all the time and NWI scanner Guy has said it works and that's all that counts!

Here is the gist of it all over again, I use the windows clipboard all the time with freescan ezgrab including to-from other software. No you cant import everything directly, but TG#, Text, frequencies work perfectly to import!

I feel confident besides the OP that others also have found this and used it successfully and further confident others in the future will as well.

I'm surprised a forum admin hasn't stepped in as yet as I just don't know why you keep jumping in when the OP has clearly stated his question was taken care of and is using the windows clipboard to copy-paste from sentinel favorites into freescan using ezgrab.

I see absolutely no reason to reply again in this thread to your comments, but if anyone else needs help I will gladly offer it.:wink:

 

[Voyager]

No you cant import everything directly, but TG#, Text, frequencies work perfectly to import!

You keep saying I don't understand, but then you keep confirming the point I'm making. So, I believe the lack of understanding is not on my end.

I wish I could send you the Excel file so you can see what I'm trying to do that won't work in FreeScan. I AM trying to paste everything at once which is not possible using EZ-Grab, as it does not support all the fields involved. I named those twice, but you keep avoiding the answer how to do that using your method. I also cannot paste directly, as the paste simply does not work - period. Assaf confirmed that it won't. So did you, but then you say it will.

BTW, it will work in any other SW I've tried that supports the Windows Clipboard.

 

[mikewazowski]

Hopefully I can put this to rest but I'm sure you'll continue to argue.

Freescan does support the Windows clipboard through it's EZ-Grab function. I've been able to copy a line from OpenOffice Calc to the Windows Clipboard and then use the EZ-Grab function to import it. I've also been able to paste the copied info into other programs such as Notepad.

I was even able to copy information from Sentinel using Ronaldski's method and copy it to Notepad. I was also able to import it into Freescan using EZ-Grab as well.

Heck, I even made up a simple two line frequency list in Notepad with two fields. One field contained the frequency and the other contained the user. I was able to copy that and use EZ-Grab to import it into Freescan.

I don't have Excel installed on this computer so I'm unable to verify your claims but every other program I've used works with EZ-Grab using the Windows clipboard.

If you want to send me your Excel file I'll see if OpenOffice supports it and see if EZ-Grab can import it.

 

[Voyager]

Mike, do you understand what I'm saying about the fact EZ-GRAB does not support all the fields such as alert light colors, alert light pattern, number tags, Priority, Alert Tone, etc?

I need the paste function to work in the Channel Edit area, as EZ-GRAB does not support those fields.

I tried to email you the Excel file, but I don't see how to attach a file to it. I know I can paste it to EZ-GRAB, but the field selections don't exist for half of the fields. That's why I need to be able to paste into the channel edit areas, and that is what does not work.