Official Starrsoft WIN500 Software Thread

[YoShep69]

Thanks, yes, 10 seconds was my point. 25 seconds with manually programming.
Fixed in the next release, Thanks!

Greg

Win500 (erroneously) limits the value to a max of 100. That will be changed in the next release.

However, note that the value is not milliseconds. It's x100 mS. Win500's maximum of 100 actually represents 10 seconds.

 

[YoShep69]

search delay

Yeah, wrong terminology. 25 seconds was my point. I like an extended delay time when using
Spectrum Sweeper, especially when driving. Gives me more time to react.

Greg

No, you can't set it for 250 msec. That would require an entry of 2.5 and only integers can be entered. A setting of 250 is 250 x 0.1 second = 25 seconds. I don't think that's what you intended.

The GRE manual shows 100 as the maximum value and WIN500 has the same upper limit. However my radio allows values up to 250. Somewhere along the way this value was changed, maybe by a firmware update although none of the release notes list the change. WIN500 should be updated to agree with the radio's capability but I don't think most users want 25 seconds of delay for each search hit.

 

[eorange]

How to manage common settings across files?

I have nine Win500 files. Is there a technique for managing common fields across all files?

For example, I have my e-mail address in the startup screen. If I change my e-mail address, then I have to manually update all 9 files, because I like all my V folders to be consistent.

Is there a better way to do this? Ditto for backlight settings, LED colors, extended settings, etc. As the number of V folders grow over time, a feature that could imprint the common settings to one or more other files would be useful.

 

[SCPD]

For frequencies and talkgroups (objects) I just do a large cut and paste for all the scan lists I like to have in each V File. Cutting an pasting the welcome screen is a bit difficult due to the small size of that screen. I don't know any other way to do it. I include the revision date in my welcome screen and then have to rename each file to put the new date. This is a bit time consuming, but I'm not sure how to do it any other way. Maybe Don has a method that hasn't been easy for us to find.

 

[Utah_Viper]

Audio Recording

I think its great that Win500 has built in Recording. I am looking to get a GRE P500 soon, and the Win500 program. I have a question on the Audio Recording....

Can recording be set up to buffer a recording? What I mean is this. The scanner would always be recording, but only about a 30 min buffer. If a big event comes up you then start to Record and the buffer part is saved as well. This would make it so you never miss the first part of something major.

Is this available? or is there a way to implement it?

 

[AC2C]

I have not found a way to do what you're looking for and will defer to the experts for your question.

However, I have a question of my own regarding recording audio and want to confirm what I'm seeing or find out what I am doing wrong.

When I'm thinking of capturing some audio, I just select all the possible talkgroups and set them to "Record" and start the monitor. Then when something hot happens that I want to record, I "pause" on the talkgroup and let the audio accumulate.

What I have noticed is:
>> If I set the channel to "Manual" rather than "Pause", there is no audio recorded.
>> If I "Pause" the channel while there is active talk (not delayed), then the audio seems to record okay.
>> If I "Pause" the channel during the "delay" period, it usually does not record additional chatter on the talkgroup.

So... It seems to me, that the right way to capture audio is to have the talkgroups set to record, and then Pause on a channel when something happens.

Is that the recommended method or am I missing something ?

Ron, AC2C

 

[YoShep69]

How to manage common settings across files?

I have a Win500 file saved as BASE. That file has ALL the settings that I want to use. That is all settings
under the General Settings, Extended Settings, and the Welcome Screen, etc. When I start to build a new
file, that is the file I start with. After building the new file, I save it with the new file name.

Greg

I have nine Win500 files. Is there a technique for managing common fields across all files?

For example, I have my e-mail address in the startup screen. If I change my e-mail address, then I have to manually update all 9 files, because I like all my V folders to be consistent.

Is there a better way to do this? Ditto for backlight settings, LED colors, extended settings, etc. As the number of V folders grow over time, a feature that could imprint the common settings to one or more other files would be useful.

 

[DonS]

I think its great that Win500 has built in Recording. I am looking to get a GRE P500 soon, and the Win500 program. I have a question on the Audio Recording....

Can recording be set up to buffer a recording? What I mean is this. The scanner would always be recording, but only about a 30 min buffer. If a big event comes up you then start to Record and the buffer part is saved as well. This would make it so you never miss the first part of something major.

Is this available? or is there a way to implement it?

No, at present there's no such feature in Win500. It's fairly difficult to do, given how Win500 records (i.e. a separate audio file per object per transmission, tied to the log text file).

I'd have to either maintain separate 30-minute buffers for each object that's enabled for recording, or one 30-minute buffer with "tags" that indicate object/time at various points in the buffer.

I can look into it, but I'm not hopeful that it will happen soon.

 

[rdale]

On that note - how about a timer so Win500 records for xx minutes with the tags, saves that file, moves onto a new one and starts a xx minute recording and so on as long as the software is running. That eliminates the 'buffer' issue and the only downside is that you might need to string two audio files together to get an incident, but that's no big deal.

 

[DonS]

I have not found a way to do what you're looking for and will defer to the experts for your question.

However, I have a question of my own regarding recording audio and want to confirm what I'm seeing or find out what I am doing wrong.

When I'm thinking of capturing some audio, I just select all the possible talkgroups and set them to "Record" and start the monitor. Then when something hot happens that I want to record, I "pause" on the talkgroup and let the audio accumulate.

What I have noticed is:
>> If I set the channel to "Manual" rather than "Pause", there is no audio recorded.
>> If I "Pause" the channel while there is active talk (not delayed), then the audio seems to record okay.
>> If I "Pause" the channel during the "delay" period, it usually does not record additional chatter on the talkgroup.

So... It seems to me, that the right way to capture audio is to have the talkgroups set to record, and then Pause on a channel when something happens.

Is that the recommended method or am I missing something ?

That's the recommended method.

As you've discovered, recording only works in a "Scanning" mode (including while "Paused") - not in "Manual" mode. This is because the information required to generate accurate logs and filenames is only sent by the scanner while "Scanning".

However, if you "Pause" the object during the delay time (e.g. on a TGRP, while it's showing "ID: xxxx" on line 2 of the LCD), Win500 should continue to record that object as long as you're paused - including silence between transmissions. I just verified that it does that here... I hit PSE on Win500 after the initial transmission ended but before the scanner returned to "Scanning", then waited a few minutes until the next transmission on that TGRP. Win500 recorded the initial transmission, a few minutes of silence, then the second transmission, all in the same WAV file.

 

[DonS]

On that note - how about a timer so Win500 records for xx minutes with the tags, saves that file, moves onto a new one and starts a xx minute recording and so on as long as the software is running. That eliminates the 'buffer' issue and the only downside is that you might need to string two audio files together to get an incident, but that's no big deal.

You wouldn't get the tags for each individual transmission (i.e. each TGRP or CONV) within the "xx minutes" file. They're WAV files, and don't contain tag information.

 

[eorange]

I have nine Win500 files. Is there a technique for managing common fields across all files?

For example, I have my e-mail address in the startup screen. If I change my e-mail address, then I have to manually update all 9 files, because I like all my V folders to be consistent.

Is there a better way to do this? Ditto for backlight settings, LED colors, extended settings, etc. As the number of V folders grow over time, a feature that could imprint the common settings to one or more other files would be useful.

Any suggestions?

 

[smokeyjones666]

I have nine Win500 files. Is there a technique for managing common fields across all files?

For example, I have my e-mail address in the startup screen. If I change my e-mail address, then I have to manually update all 9 files, because I like all my V folders to be consistent.

Is there a better way to do this? Ditto for backlight settings, LED colors, extended settings, etc. As the number of V folders grow over time, a feature that could imprint the common settings to one or more other files would be useful.

This is a feature I would love to see as well, I'm up to 7 Win500 files myself and I would love to be able to retain certain common fields and settings across all the v-folders. Every once in a while, I'll decide to change one of the general or extended settings and I'll have to replicate it across all 7 files.

Perhaps a solution would be to have a field in the V-Scanner menu to select a particular Win500 to import the common fields from, one per V-Scanner file? It could be an extra field added to the V-Scanner config file, in case someone had different general and extended settings that they wanted to import for different reasons. If left empty, then the settings could be imported from the regular Win500 file like it normally does.

Seems kind of kludgy and inelegant, but I bet it'd be (relatively) quick to implement and I'm sure it'd satisfy all of our needs for the time being.

 

[DonS]

This is a feature I would love to see as well, I'm up to 7 Win500 files myself and I would love to be able to retain certain common fields and settings across all the v-folders. Every once in a while, I'll decide to change one of the general or extended settings and I'll have to replicate it across all 7 files.

Perhaps a solution would be to have a field in the V-Scanner menu to select a particular Win500 to import the common fields from, one per V-Scanner file? It could be an extra field added to the V-Scanner config file, in case someone had different general and extended settings that they wanted to import for different reasons. If left empty, then the settings could be imported from the regular Win500 file like it normally does.

Seems kind of kludgy and inelegant, but I bet it'd be (relatively) quick to implement and I'm sure it'd satisfy all of our needs for the time being.

See version 1.69, especially the new item on the "File" menu. You can merge the "global" settings from one P500 file into another.

 

[eorange]

v1.69, you mean the version that was just released 30 minutes ago? Now that's what I call service!

Thanks, will check it out!

 

[jerk]

1.69 error/crash web import

I go to web import
US Ohio Statewide or any county
MARCS
click on site and get access error

Previous version before this, virtual folders, write goes to .txt no option for .p500 or .bin
I added this since I posted the above error, did not check any other states.
I can read fine from scanner and delete, just cannot add/upload anything.

 

[eorange]

1.69 Crash

I get the same access violation error when importing MARCS; it happened as soon as I tried to select a site:

 

[fmon]

Way to go Don!!!

 

[DonS]

Way to go Don!!!

Which new feature? The "merge globals" or "crash when clicking on any frequency in a multi-site web import"?

 

[DonS]

I get the same access violation error when importing MARCS; it happened as soon as I tried to select a site:

Fixed in 1.70. (Was due to some experimental code - thank goodness for source control and "diff").