SDSRemoteDisplay Android App

[W1SPG]

In an effort to learn Kotlin and Android programming, I made an Android app I call SDSRemoteDisplay to work as an external display for SDS100/200 and maybe BCD436/536 scanners. It will also send GPS data from the phone to the scanner for location based scanning.

I made it mainly for me to use while driving. My eyesight isn't that good and I have trouble reading the SDS100 screen.

It requires a USB serial connection between the phone and scanner, with an Android on-the-go USB cable to the same USB port used by Sentinel.

This is a display only, not a remote head. It just displays data useful while scanning. It is not Wifi and it does not do audio.

It works on every phone/tablet I have tried and works with an SDS100, 200 and BCD536. It may also work on a 436, but I do not have one to try it with.

I am curious if anyone else would find this useful, and if it works for everyone.

I am attaching a few screenshots. If you are interested in trying it out and know how to sideload apps, here is a link to a Bitwarden send link for the .apk:

Bitwarden Send
This link will expire in 7 days

 

[hazrat8990]

I might just have to give it a try. I have an old tablet that is collecting dust, so it would be a perfect candidate.

 

[W1SPG]

I might just have to give it a try. I have an old tablet that is collecting dust, so it would be a perfect candidate.

It may not work with an extremely old device. I think it will work with android 7.0 or later

 

[hazrat8990]

I can't get it to run on my tablet, so I installed it on my phone and tried connecting it to my 436HP. The app connected perfectly, but I immediately got the "nothing to scan" message. GPS shows up on the scanner display, so I know it's talking to the phone. I've never had a GPS connected to this scanner before, so I don't know what baud rate to go with, or whatever else needs to be set up on the scanner side of things. Also, my phone was sending all zeros for location. I'm sure I don't have all of the permissions and location sharing set up correctly, but I will need to wait a few for it to charge before messing with it.

Any suggestions on where to start?

 

[hazrat8990]

It may not work with an extremely old device. I think it will work with android 7.0 or later

Yep!! Found that out already

I was able to get the GPS stuff configured, and it seems to be working perfectly now!! Also, the Vol & SQ buttons on the screen are pretty handy. It would really be awesome if it could display the UID's since I have a pile of them saved.

Thank you for sharing!

 

[kruser]

Yep!! Found that out already

I was able to get the GPS stuff configured, and it seems to be working perfectly now!! Also, the Vol & SQ buttons on the screen are pretty handy. It would really be awesome if it could display the UID's since I have a pile of them saved.

Thank you for sharing!

What did you do to get GPS working?

 

[W1SPG]

I can't get it to run on my tablet, so I installed it on my phone and tried connecting it to my 436HP. The app connected perfectly, but I immediately got the "nothing to scan" message. GPS shows up on the scanner display, so I know it's talking to the phone. I've never had a GPS connected to this scanner before, so I don't know what baud rate to go with, or whatever else needs to be set up on the scanner side of things. Also, my phone was sending all zeros for location. I'm sure I don't have all of the permissions and location sharing set up correctly, but I will need to wait a few for it to charge before messing with it.

Any suggestions on where to start?

I don't have 436, so I couldn't verify it works correctly. The baud rate for GPS is 9600 (but it doesn't seem to matter in my tests) and format is DEG: DD.dddddd
I have no idea why it could possibly cause a nothing to scan error. Are you trying to scan based on location or a favorite list?
Edit: I see you got it working. My posts are still being moderated before they show up.

 

[W1SPG]

A couple of usage notes:

You have to plug in the USB after the app is running for it to discover the scanner.

The System, Department, and channel texts are buttons that behave the same as the hold buttons on the scanner, but the display is not yet being updated to reflect that.

If you do not see the latitude and longitude on the display, your phone is not sending GPS data to the scanner. Could be due to you didn't give it permission, or you device does not has GPS capability

I will post more as I think of them

 

[hazrat8990]

What did you do to get GPS working?

My phone was freaking out about the app since it didn't come directly from lord Google. I had to turn off all of the nanny BS in order for it to work. Also, having only 7% battery on my phone didn't help matters. After I charged it for a few minutes, everything just started working.

I don't have 436, so I couldn't verify it works correctly. The baud rate for GPS is 9600 (but it doesn't seem to matter in my tests) and format is DEG: DD.dddddd
I have no idea why it could possibly cause a nothing to scan error. Are you trying to scan based on location or a favorite list?
Edit: I see you got it working. My posts are still being moderated before they show up.

The "nothing to scan" issue was caused by my phone sending lat:0.00000 long:0.00000 Everything seems to have straightened itself out now.

 

[W1SPG]

What did you do to get GPS working?

Did you get it working?

 

[kruser]

Did you get it working?

I've not had the time to play with it again. Hopefully later today!

 

[W1SPG]

So, it shows it has been downloaded 35 times. Any feedback?

Anyone unable to get it working?
Is the GPS reporting your location correctly? (especially for anyone in eastern longitude and/or southern latitude)
Anything fields that should be added to the display (or removed)?

My next plans are:
- Get Sys, dept, chan hold status displaying correctly
- A notification of a disconnect
- Making it able to display a close call hit screen correctly
- Displaying search screen correctly

I would like to put it on google play for free, but google requires a $25 payment to set up a dev account. Kind of annoys me I have to pay money to give something away free.

 

[Enix316]

I messed with it shortly, seemed to work ok. I'm most interested in the GPS aspect but need to actually travel to investigate further.

Also, regarding Google play, look into alternative app stores, F-Droid comes to mind. You could also host it on github, I think, I'm sure someone will correct me.

 

[hazrat8990]

I really like it! It is certainly a wonderful alternative to the remote head that seems to be gaining so much interest. Actually, I think this is much better since it adds GPS capabilities for zero cost, and you also get to choose whichever size display you want. One thing I'd like to see is UID's displayed on the screen instead of the receiving mode.

Something like this, with the UID showing up in the blank space, would be cool.

 

[W1SPG]

I really like it! It is certainly a wonderful alternative to the remote head that seems to be gaining so much interest. Actually, I think this is much better since it adds GPS capabilities for zero cost, and you also get to choose whichever size display you want. One thing I'd like to see is UID's displayed on the screen instead of the receiving mode.

Something like this, with the UID showing up in the blank space, would be cool.
View attachment 163371View attachment 163372

I don't use UID's but I will look into it.
Are you using a 436? I noticed the quick key status info is not displayed at the top.

 

[hazrat8990]

It is a 436. As for the quick keys, they are all turned off since I never use them.

 

[simmsrep]

Hello @W1SPG, I have some feedback for you. I tried this on 3 different devices. A Samsung S9, S10, s23. The S9 is android 10, S10 is android 12, S23 is android 14. When I used it with my 436 it worked great across all 3 with no issues. When I tried to use it with my SDS100 it wouldn't work at all on the S9, it would start and run for maybe a minute on the S10 and then crash. After it crashed I would have to delete and then reinstall the app for it to work but would get the same results. It worked on my S23 but would crash after maybe 15 minutes but would restart if I unplugged and then replugged it in the scanner. It was also heavy on the battery using about 30% in an hour. So not sure what the differences are between the two scanners. I made sure the settings were the same between both and tried different settings on the SDS100 but this is what I got.
I will say that I absolutely love this app. Maybe there's something I missing as far as settings on the SDS100 but I hope with future development it will work with the 100 as good as the 436. Thank you for sharing this.

 

[W1SPG]

Hello @W1SPG, I have some feedback for you. I tried this on 3 different devices. A Samsung S9, S10, s23. The S9 is android 10, S10 is android 12, S23 is android 14. When I used it with my 436 it worked great across all 3 with no issues. When I tried to use it with my SDS100 it wouldn't work at all on the S9, it would start and run for maybe a minute on the S10 and then crash. After it crashed I would have to delete and then reinstall the app for it to work but would get the same results. It worked on my S23 but would crash after maybe 15 minutes but would restart if I unplugged and then replugged it in the scanner. It was also heavy on the battery using about 30% in an hour. So not sure what the differences are between the two scanners. I made sure the settings were the same between both and tried different settings on the SDS100 but this is what I got.
I will say that I absolutely love this app. Maybe there's something I missing as far as settings on the SDS100 but I hope with future development it will work with the 100 as good as the 436. Thank you for sharing this.

I developed it mainly using an SDS100, so I don't think it is the problem.
Are you using the same USB cable in all cases?
Is there any unusual data in the SDS100 programming compared to the 436?

 

[simmsrep]

I developed it mainly using an SDS100, so I don't think it is the problem.
Are you using the same USB cable in all cases?
Is there any unusual data in the SDS100 programming compared to the 436?

I do have some Favorite list that I programmed by hand. I turned them off and turned on some that I had programmed with Proscan and it seems to be working now. I tried it on the S9, S10 and it worked perfect. I did have to turn off the battery save on the 100 before it would connect though. It still has a heavy battery drain. I'm going to reset and program it with Proscan and see how it does.

 

[W1SPG]

I do have some Favorite list that I programmed by hand. I turned them off and turned on some that I had programmed with Proscan and it seems to be working now. I tried it on the S9, S10 and it worked perfect. I did have to turn off the battery save on the 100 before it would connect though. It still has a heavy battery drain. I'm going to reset and program it with Proscan and see how it does.

If you figure out what is causing it, please let me know.

For the power issue, there are OTG cables which allow you to charge while you are using the app. Just make sure you get a decent one. I have one that causes a low USB voltage error on the scanner.
I need to look into it more, but I have a feeling the scanner is actually running off the phone battery.