New UniTrunker release

[jlanfn]

Go back to the active site window. Click the History tab. Click on a talkgroup or radio id there. You should see some activity in that item's history tab. If you pick a group or user at random - it may not have had any recent activity (at least not for the current decoding session).

OK, now it works! I guess I was accessing it the wrong way. Great feature!

 

[stmills]

Does the History file start over each time Unitrunker shut down and re starts or is this an ongoing history?

 

[DiGiTaLD]

Editing Unitrunker.xml File

I've been doing mass edits of labels and colors by editing the Unitrunker.xml file and using the Replace function in WordPad, since I wanted some different colors and longer radio ID labels, and needed to update mass numbers of talkgroups and radios with the same information. So far, every time I have done this, I've taken the precaution of stopping the receiver and closing Unitrunker so as to avoid any data corruption or having my changes overwritten.

Is it safe to modify and save the Unitrunker.xml file while the program is running without data loss, or will my changes be overwritten by Unitrunker when it updates the file itself when the program is closed?

Now that I've played with it some, I love the new interface. I do wish it had an auto-save function like the old versions did, mainly because of the possibility of power loss (my dedicated Unitrunker box is not on a UPS), and I kind of miss the Finder function that the old versions had. I can live without both, however, and given the time and effort you have put into this, Rick, I have absolutely no grounds to complain. Thanks for the great program!

 

[BVince]

Unitrunker on a Toshiba Satelite and PSR500

Rick,

I have downloaded the new copy of Unitrunker. I have a GRE PSR500. The USB driver for the interface cable was assigned port 10 when I installed that software. Unitrunker does not see port 10. It gives me a choice of port 3 or port 13. Neither of these work of course.

This appears to be the same type of problem I was having with the older version of Unitrunker.

The demo software from GRE recognizes port 10 and works fine as does Win500 and PSRedit. The system device manager shows the serial to USB cable to be port 10. Everything recognizes port 10 EXCEPT Unitrunker!

Any ideas?

Vince

 

[MattSR]

*smacks forehead*

I left the "delegate" field out. Sorry folks. If you import previous generation Unitrunker data files that use the delegate feature - you won't need to do this. It will "just work". To delegate one system to another - they must be of the same type.

Peeking inside the XML, you'll see a <System ... > XML tag for each system. Inside the System tag, add an XML attribute named "delegate" so the result resembles this ...

<System type="Motorola" id="1234" delegate="ABCD" .... >

This example assumes you have another system in your XML data with a system ID of ABCD.

You can delegate many to one eg. delegate systems A, B and C to D. Do not chain delegations eg. system A delegates to B which delegates to C. Don't do that! Your parents will disown you. Your neighbors will ostracize you. Your own children will mock you.

Hi Rick,

This doesn't appear to be working... I'l explain exactly what i'm doing..

On the system I monitor, the root system id is 3A0D - this is the system that has all the radio ID and group ID information tagged and setup for it in the XML.

The secondary site that I am listening to is part of "zone 2" or System 5D0D. I have opened the XML file and added delegate="5D0D' to the 3A0D system. The line looks like this:-

<System id="3A0D" type="Motorola" first="20071021115328" last="20080601014733" delegate="5D0D">

None of the info has come across..

Cheers,
Matt

 

[jlanfn]

Rick,

I have downloaded the new copy of Unitrunker. I have a GRE PSR500. The USB driver for the interface cable was assigned port 10 when I installed that software. Unitrunker does not see port 10. It gives me a choice of port 3 or port 13. Neither of these work of course.

This appears to be the same type of problem I was having with the older version of Unitrunker.

The demo software from GRE recognizes port 10 and works fine as does Win500 and PSRedit. The system device manager shows the serial to USB cable to be port 10. Everything recognizes port 10 EXCEPT Unitrunker!

Any ideas?

Vince

For a little while I was having the same port 3 and 13 problem with my PSR-500/Satellite setup. I found that as soon as there was actually a signal being sent from the scanner to the computer, unitrunker recognized the port. Double check that you are tuned to an active control channel with "CCDump" turned on before you open up the "edit receivers" window in UniTrunker. Good luck...

 

[SCPD]

Does the History file start over each time Unitrunker shut down and re starts or is this an ongoing history?

The history file (eg. the event log) continues to grow. However, the history grids start out empty each time the program is run. The grids are also limited to the last 8 hours (otherwise they'd eventually consume all memory bringing your system to its knees). I haven't had time to write the code to back-fill the history grids with the event logs from previous sessions. The other missing piece here is the ability to browse the event log files to see activity beyond 8 hours - eg. yesterday, a week ago, etc.

I've been doing mass edits of labels and colors by editing the Unitrunker.xml file and using the Replace function in WordPad, since I wanted some different colors and longer radio ID labels, and needed to update mass numbers of talkgroups and radios with the same information.

You can stop using Wordpad or Notepad. You've got a real GUI. Use the multi-select feature. To select multiple items in a grid, hold down the control key while selecting (usually with mouse clicks). Select however many talkgroups or radio IDs, click the magnifying glass (on the toolbar). A new editing window will appear. Set the color (and other settings). Close the group or radio id window when you're done.

Is it safe to modify and save the Unitrunker.xml file while the program is running without data loss, or will my changes be overwritten by Unitrunker when it updates the file itself when the program is closed?

A new Unitrunker.xml file is created each time (a) the program exits or (b) the user clicks the save icon.

The existing Unitrunker.xml file is renamed (a new revision number is assigned at this time) and the current system data is written as a fresh new Unitrunker.xml file.

I do wish it had an auto-save function like the old versions did, mainly because of the possibility of power loss

With the new "journaled" archive system, I've purposely left this out. I was concerned that creating a new snapshot every 15 minutes or so would quickly consume too much disk space. We can come back to this later. Perhaps it isn't necessary to create a new snapshot - the program could create new "current" snapshot and auto-save to that. A manual save would create a new revision.

The other thought is - provided the user enabled event logging - it is possible to reconstruct the data from the event logs.

I kind of miss the Finder function that the old versions had.

A finder is a must-have. The earlier prototype had this but it didn't survive the spring re-write. Look for an edit box in the various toolbars in a future release.

the root system id is 3A0D - this is the system that has all the radio ID and group ID information

*snip*

The line looks like this:-

<System id="3A0D" type="Motorola" first="20071021115328" last="20080601014733" delegate="5D0D">

That's backwards. You want system 5D0D to delegate the responsibility of storing talkgroups and radio IDs to system 3D0D. Remove the "delegate=" attribute above, locate the <System> tag for 5D0D and add delegate="3D0D".

Unitrunker does not see port 10. It gives me a choice of port 3 or port 13. Neither of these work of course.

This is a bug. Your system likely does not have a port 13. This same bug prevents the program from correctly recognizing port 10 (ports other than 1 through 9). For folks with a low numbered COM port, make sure the USB cable is plugged in before starting the program. The radio need not be plugged-in or powered-on but the USB cable must be present (this isn't the way it should be - just the way it is for now).

 

[rdale]

Is there a way around my EDACS bug - or does that require waiting for the next release?

 

[tactcom42]

What is the svc colum for? mine just shows a dot.motorola type 2 system.


THANKS

 

[Forts]

Anyone try it on VHF P25 Trunking yet? I have not had a chance to give it a try yet.

I can get it to decode and track, but I can't seem to enter the bandplan. Clicking on the boxes to enter step, offset etc has no effect.

 

[MattSR]

That's backwards. You want system 5D0D to delegate the responsibility of storing talkgroups and radio IDs to system 3D0D. Remove the "delegate=" attribute above, locate the <System> tag for 5D0D and add delegate="3D0D".

I tried that also - which didnt seem to work.. Do I need to remove the old RID and GID entires for the 5D0D system too? I'll give this another go when I am at home.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[DiGiTaLD]

&quot;Svc&quot; Column

What is the svc colum for? mine just shows a dot.motorola type 2 system.

It will show "-" for analog voice calls, "Dig" for P25 digital voice calls, "enc" for encrypted voice calls, "MS" for analog voice console multiselects, and "DMS" for P25 digital voice console multiselects. Those are the only ones I've seen so far.

 

[tactcom42]

It will show "-" for analog voice calls, "Dig" for P25 digital voice calls, "enc" for encrypted voice calls, "MS" for analog voice console multiselects, and "DMS" for P25 digital voice console multiselects. Those are the only ones I've seen so far.

THANKS FOR THAT INFO.

 

[Airdorn]

The old Unitrunker, when it detects a CC, would immediately spit-out all the frequencies on the system.

This one doesn't seem to. They creep onto the list slowly. Is there a way to change this?

 

[DiGiTaLD]

The old Unitrunker, when it detects a CC, would immediately spit-out all the frequencies on the system.

This one doesn't seem to. They creep onto the list slowly. Is there a way to change this?

Mine behaves the same way the older version did. Once it figures out which site it's listening to, the site is identified and all the voice channels appear.

 

[Airdorn]

If I run the old one and the new one side by side and then tune a control channel, the old Unitrunker immediately shows all the freqs on the system.

The new Unitrunker shows the control channel and maybe an alt control channel, and it seems like the voice channels show up when they get some activity. But sometimes, they just sorta pop-up anyway, over time.

Why is that?

 

[MattSR]

Hi Rick,

I added the line into the XML as discussed and starting unitrunker on System 5D0D. The line in the XML was as follows:-

"<System id="5D0D" type="Motorola" first="20060612013024" last="20080602091623" delegate="3A0D"

None of the 3A0D Talkgroups or Radio Ids appeared - the data was blank as Uni was discovering it for the first time. When I shut down Uni and checked the XML file, The line had reverted to this:

<System id="5D0D" type="Motorola" first="20060612013024" last="20080602091623" delegate="0">

I have tried this 3 or 4 times and have made sure my XML syntax is 100% polite, however it doesn't work..

Cheers,
Matt

 

[bneilson]

Feature Request

Can I just say how much I am loving this version...

It however would be helpful for me if when I open a group window the title was read in from the XML file. So instead of showing "Group 26144" in my example below, it would show "Group 26144 - South Jordan/Draper Police CH. 1".

 

[jlanfn]

If I run the old one and the new one side by side and then tune a control channel, the old Unitrunker immediately shows all the freqs on the system.

The new Unitrunker shows the control channel and maybe an alt control channel, and it seems like the voice channels show up when they get some activity. But sometimes, they just sorta pop-up anyway, over time.

Why is that?

I think that's because the old Unitrunker is working off of saved files for that radio system that are on your computer, but no such files exist for the new Unitrunker yet. If you import the system from the RR database or manually enter the information into the new Unitrunker and then save, the new Unitrunker files will be created. It should then immediately load all of the voice channels as soon as it recognizes the system id. Even the old versions of Unitrunker had the "slowly growing list" of voice channels on startup until you told it how many voice channels there were and what the frequencies.

My understanding is that there is no way for Unitrunker to determine from the control channel exactly how many voice channels there are on a system and which frequencies they are.

 

[mikea7531]

Rick,

Fantastic job with the latest release of UniTrunker! I've been playing around with it on my laptop the past few days and love the interface and the customization! I can't wait until you get it to work on Win2K and get the voice scanners functional, because i'll be moving over to this version! A+++++