TwoToneDetect Beta

[aaknitt]

I've put together a program for detecting two tone pages and upon detection, recording 30 seconds of audio and sending it to a specified email address as a .WAV file. I wrote this for my own use, but am making it available for others who might find it helpful. It's not very polished at this point, but it does what I need it to do. Requests for new features may or may not be acted on, depending on complexity and the time I have available.

Features include:

• Audio frequency counter for finding tone frequencies with PC sound card
• Decodes up to 5 two-tone pairs and 3 long tones
• Upon detecting a valid tone set, records 30 seconds of audio and emails it to a specified address as a .wav file attachment
• Provides limited serial port control of BCD396T and similar scanners to provide fire tone out functionality on multiple frequencies at the same time by skipping transmissions that are not valid tones

Installation is somewhat of a pain in the neck because of the large runtime engines that have to be downloaded in order to make the program run. I wrote it in LabView because that made it easy. I'm starting to play around with C# programming, and if I figure that out, I may make a version in that language that should be much easier to install.

Install instructions, basic instructions, and a rudimentary download are at http://radioetcetera.googlepages.com/twotoneprogram

Feedback through this thread is welcome.

Regards,

Andy

 

[relliott]

I am having a similar issue, when on the internet, pages freeze for a few seconds then respond(like on this sight if you are using the scroll wheel). have to exit twotone to stop this from happening. Don

What do you mean "respond(like on this if you are using the scroll wheel)"?? I have noticed during the sending mail phase the program does seem to freeze the system, probably consuming a lot of CPU for just a few seconds. Other than that I have had the program running on two computers for at least a week at a time with no difficulties. I usually reboot the systems every week or 10 days just to keep the system fresh, I do this with the 4 computers that run continuously. It seems to prevent the mysterious memory leaks and system crashes. I frequently check for updates to all of the software and especially the drivers, I install over 95% of the recommended updates that windows update finds.

Good Luck,
Rich

 

[carpetman]

What do you mean "respond(like on this if you are using the scroll wheel)"?? I have noticed during the sending mail phase the program does seem to freeze the system, probably consuming a lot of CPU for just a few seconds. Other than that I have had the program running on two computers for at least a week at a time with no difficulties. I usually reboot the systems every week or 10 days just to keep the system fresh, I do this with the 4 computers that run continuously. It seems to prevent the mysterious memory leaks and system crashes. I frequently check for updates to all of the software and especially the drivers, I install over 95% of the recommended updates that windows update finds.

Good Luck,
Rich

If you are using the scroll wheel to read thru the posts on this sight, the page freezes for a few seconds then starts up again, I agree it appears to be a menory issue. if I close(exit) two tone I then have no freezing issues.

 

[relliott]

You might want to check to see if there is updates for your Sound Card, the Direct X drivers and possibly the .NET framework software. What is the specs on the machine it is running on? Maybe open the windows task manager and watch the performance tab to see if anything is maxing out.....


Good Luck,
Rich

 

[dgoodson]

Hello all,

First let me add my praise for this program. I thoroughly enjoy using it and having the area pages sent to my blackberry!

I am running Win XP and TwoToneDetect V23, and experience the situtation where every so often my entire computer "freezes", requireing a hard reboot. I have even kept notes to try and correlate the freeze with any other event or circumstance, but as far as I can tell, it seems to be "random". The computer is generally idle except for this program, Oddcast, and a webcam running - so much so that I actually keep the monitor turned off. Of course there is virus protection and other windows "stuff" running. I do see in "Processes" that Oddcast is hogging 15-25% of CPU, which seems high, but any of the other incidental processes and services seem minimal. I find the thing freezes every two or three days... I doubt it has ever gone four days without an issue, but on the other hand, within the past couple of weeks I have had two freezes within 12 hours of a reboot. (I now have the computer set to reboot/restart automatically at 4am... but that isn't foolproof- if it happens to freeze up before that event, it can't respond to itself. I even considered putting an old fashioned "appliance timer" on the power cord to turn off/on power overnight so if I am out of town it will reset itself- but something inside me tells me that might not be too good for the system.)

The only thing that has even hinted at a correlation is that I thought it might be related to when Windows has downloaded an "automatic update". I have that now set to check for and download updates, but not install them, but I still get the issue, so I am not sure that is related.

I know this thread has sporadically had other reports, and I get the sense that the issue only occurs on systems running XP (i.e. not vista), and of course, I am curious is anyone has had any breakthrough on further clues or ideas?

Dave

 

[dsheli]

I had to stop using the program because it would freeze the computer after 3 days, your not the only one.

 

[APXguru1]

aaknitt I have a question,

Can you explain the command line executed upon tone detection input for the program?

I can't find anything about it, and I sounds like something neat. Thanks!!

 

[aaknitt]

aaknitt I have a question,

Can you explain the command line executed upon tone detection input for the program?

I can't find anything about it, and I sounds like something neat. Thanks!!

Whatever you type in that line will act just like you typed it at a command prompt in DOS. So if you want to run "dosomething.exe" which is in the root C directory you'd type "C:\dosomething.exe"

You can use this to copy files to different directories, run programs, etc.

 

[mikewazowski]

Very cool program.

Unfortunately, it's not working reliably for me.

It will detect the tones fine.

It will send an email using gmail fine.

What it won't do is record a wav or mp3 file reliably.

At first I was using an iMic USB audio device which detected the tones fine but wouldn't record any audio.

I then switched to the mic in jack (and rebooted) and managed to record two pageouts but then nothing after that.

I switched back to the iMic and I'm still getting nothing. Rebooted again but still not working.

The program must be seeing the audio fine. It's detecting the tones and the audio level is above the threshold level.

I have tried with and without the lame encoder.

Any suggestions?

 

[keithjjo]

This is a great program. I wish I would have found it sooner.

My only problem is that I have two departments that share the same tones but with the A and B tones reversed:
Station 1: A:582.1 B:384.6
Station 2: A:384.6 B:582.1

TwoToneDetect is set to trigger for Station 1 but it triggers for both Station 1 and Station 2 identifying the trigger as Station 1. Anyone else have this problem?

KJ

 

[relliott]

This is a great program. I wish I would have found it sooner.

My only problem is that I have two departments that share the same tones but with the A and B tones reversed:
Station 1: A:582.1 B:384.6
Station 2: A:384.6 B:582.1

TwoToneDetect is set to trigger for Station 1 but it triggers for both Station 1 and Station 2 identifying the trigger as Station 1. Anyone else have this problem?

KJ

Our fire & EMS is the same 346.7/384.6 and 384.6/346.7 working flawless.... maybe send your tones.txt file and somebody might see a problem.

Are you saying when tone detect heards both the high to low tone and the low to high tone it ID's as Station1? Hummmm....

Rich

 

[K5RYA]

Hey Andy, quick question, I could not find any reference in the help file, but is it possible to put multiple email address in the box to send the alerts to?

Thanks!


EDIT: N/M Andy

I found the answer to my own question:

I just uploaded a new version that has two minor improvements:

1) Allows multiple "To" email addresses for each tone set. Simply separate the addresses with a comma (no spaces)
2) Audio files are now stored in a "\data\Audio" directory instead of "\data". Note that lame.exe still needs to reside in "\data". The new Audio directory should be automatically created by the installer.

I still haven't fixed the bug that holds the audio files open...still trying to figure it out.

Also, just as a general FYI, I eventually plan on migrating to a text file (tab delimited) for tone setup in place of the input boxes, although the main screen will show what has been read in from the text file.

Andy

 

[keithjjo]

Our fire & EMS is the same 346.7/384.6 and 384.6/346.7 working flawless.... maybe send your tones.txt file and somebody might see a problem.

Are you saying when tone detect heards both the high to low tone and the low to high tone it ID's as Station1? Hummmm....

Rich

Yes, when I get the e-mail it is identified as Station 1. I do not have Station 2 setup in TTD because it is not a station in my area that I want to be notified of. I found it odd when I first got the page and the audio IDed as Station 2 until I looked at the tone pairs. I'm now more intrigued as it seems to work fine for you. I'll feed the tones in with a tone generator and see if I can duplicate the result.

73
KJ

 

[keithjjo]

Well, my testing shows my actual problem. Here is a case of jumping on what seems to be the problem without testing it out thoroughly and assuming the facts. In my case, I used a two tone generator to test the tone sequences. It didn't falsely trip. So I moved to actual recorded tone outs of the stations in question. My Station 2 that falsely trips does trip with recorded audio but not on the QCII two tones as I thought. This station uses QCII two tones along with QCI tones for dispatching. TTD actually trips on the QCI tones. I don't think there is a way around this as QCI tones are tone pairs unlike the single sets in QCII. I don't know if there is a decoder software available to accurately decode QCII and tell me the 4 frequencies.

Thanks for the help setting me straight,
KJ
Mid-Michigan Scanner Users Group
http://www.mm-sug.com

Yes, when I get the e-mail it is identified as Station 1. I do not have Station 2 setup in TTD because it is not a station in my area that I want to be notified of. I found it odd when I first got the page and the audio IDed as Station 2 until I looked at the tone pairs. I'm now more intrigued as it seems to work fine for you. I'll feed the tones in with a tone generator and see if I can duplicate the result.

73
KJ

 

[DaveNF2G]

You can decipher QCI tones with Audigy or its shareware equivalent, CoolEdit. Record the tone sets in question, then use the spectrum display option to see where the tones are, and use Analyze on the tones.

 

[exkalibur]

Just a thought (maybe it already does this?)...instead of displaying the most proinent frequency in each tone, have it show the closest *actual* tone frequency from a 2-tone frequency chart. This way a tone of say 330.5 might get decoded as 331 but the program would show 330.5 instead.

 

[DaveNF2G]

Within the margin of error there could be several "official" tones. You would need a way to tell the software which tone system to assume when making a conversion like that.

 

[tjacks34]

this program is awesome Andy you are the man! I found this program and showing pretty much every fd in monroe county and they are loving it. few bugs here and there but it is awesome thanks.

 

[whitesox4life]

Could someone tell me how to set up the email part of this program? I do not have Gmail (nor do I want it). I was planning on using my AIM email as the sending email address and my phones SMS email as the receiving.

 

[tjacks34]

Does anyone have a problem with sending an mp3 attachment to a cell phone as a text? Not really sure if this is doable, i have a blackberry so i can send an email but for other people i was wondering if they can get the attachment via text?

 

[dgoodson]

I am not sure this helps with your question, but I have Verizon, and on their system/my plan, "text" message are sent with the format xxxxxxxxxx@vtext.com, and media files (photos/mp3s) are sent with the format xxxxxxxxxx@vzwpix.com. (xxxxxxxxxx = the cell phone number). Assume the user has the proper service plan with Verizon, the @vzwpix.com format will take the mp3 files as attachments.