Update? Siren app (beta)

[Jake68111]

i viewed the latest demo on you tube of the siren app, and first thing said was to "enter the scanners ip address" how do you find the scanners ip address?

Menu > Wifi Setup > Show Wifi Information

 

[DSC45]

Menu > Wifi Setup > Show Wifi Information

Thank you!

 

[Voyager]

One last question for the evening. I have two BCD536HP that will be connected to my router. My router will issues each one an internal IP, 192.168.xxx.xxx. If I want to use the Uniden App, it will require my ISP external IP to connect sine 192.168 mean nothing to external connections. How will I be able to tell the App which scanner to connect too? Will the app have that capability or will I be limited to one scanner connected to my wifi? I'm guessing I would have to configure each scanner to use a different port in the router so I can use port numbers ":" in the IP.

If it's like any other streaming, you would have to set up a port forward in your router to direct the app to the scanner using your external IP.

 

[garys]

This isn't really a concern since I plan to buy an inexpensive tablet with WiFi and use it as the control head. At least that is the current plan.

I'm a bit confused from reading some of the posts here. Is it correct that the scanner can be connected directly to a device via WiFi or can be connected via a router?

Will being connected to the scanners local wifi (AP) effect the other wifi required phone apps? Reason I asked is, while connected to the 536 AP in my car, I am unable to retrieve email until I disable the phones wifi and it displays LTE on the phone. I haven't tried other apps yet like maps, waze, etc but I'm afraid the phone will think it's connected to a wifi network without Internet access. This is probably why vehicle communication devices use Bluetooth.

UPDATE: Just went out to my car and connected to my 536AP. I was unable to get any wifi related apps to work until I turned off the phones wifi. So in ordered to get things like iMessages, Google Maps, Push Notifications, which runs in the background or or any wifi app to work you have to disable wifi on the phone or scanner. So I will have to either use an old phone as a remote head or cycle between WiFi/LTE. I'm sure most peoples hopes were to be able to run the Uniden App while mobile but still get important notifications.

 

[wise871]

This isn't really a concern since I plan to buy an inexpensive tablet with WiFi and use it as the control head. At least that is the current plan.

I'm a bit confused from reading some of the posts here. Is it correct that the scanner can be connected directly to a device via WiFi or can be connected via a router?

Both.
Access Point Mode = Direct, use as remote head.
Infrastructure Mode = Router, control and listen to scanner from any where.

 

[garys]

Both.
Access Point Mode = Direct, use as remote head.
Infrastructure Mode = Router, control and listen to scanner from any where.

Thanks. That's what I thought, but the confirmation is nice.

Now to find a nice gently used Android tablet.

 

[durangoGreg]

garys,

If you want to start using the Siren App as soon as it comes out you will need an iPhone or an iPad.

Android will come later.

 

[garys]

I know. I'll let the Apple heads :twisted: work out the bugs and then I'll get the Android version.

garys,

If you want to start using the Siren App as soon as it comes out you will need an iPhone or an iPad.

Android will come later.

 

[wise871]

Will being connected to the scanners local wifi (AP) effect the other wifi required phone apps? Reason I asked is, while connected to the 536 AP in my car, I am unable to retrieve email until I disable the phones wifi and it displays LTE on the phone. I haven't tried other apps yet like maps, waze, etc but I'm afraid the phone will think it's connected to a wifi network without Internet access. This is probably why vehicle communication devices use Bluetooth.

UPDATE: Just went out to my car and connected to my 536AP. I was unable to get any wifi related apps to work until I turned off the phones wifi. So in ordered to get things like iMessages, Google Maps, Push Notifications, which runs in the background or or any wifi app to work you have to disable wifi on the phone or scanner. So I will have to either use an old phone as a remote head or cycle between WiFi/LTE. I'm sure most peoples hopes were to be able to run the Uniden App while mobile but still get important notifications.

I figured this won't get and answer. My guess is I will need to run a second device if I want to use my phones LTE features.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jaydigga]

I figured this won't get and answer. My guess is I will need to run a second device if I want to use my phones LTE features.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just tried it and everything seemed to work normal for me

 

[wise871]

Just tried it and everything seemed to work normal for me

So your showing a wifi icon on your device and it's connected to the BCD536HP? Maps, Mail, etc is working while connected?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[crazzycatman]

Please remember that Paul UPMAN uses android and he is eager to have the android version as many of you are Stop bashing him.
Thanks for all your efforts to date and in the future Paul. I for one appreciate it.
Chris

 

[Jay911]

For what it's worth, despite the current market share, I think there's a lot more "professional" app developers for iOS than there is for Android platforms, and certainly more for either of them than Windows Phone by a long shot. I suspect the reason the iOS platform being developed first is because of this and also because iOS, even with the number of different phones and tablets in the Apple stable, is a much more standardized playing field. With the exceptions of the revisions between generations of phones, there isn't a difference in resolutions, chipsets, etc., like there is in the Android world.

I say all this having owned one iPhone 3G and two iPads in my distant past, and having gone Android several years ago with no intention of switching again.

 

[Boatanchor]

It is just an expensive and wasteful gimmick

The whole wifi gimmick has well and truly worn off for me.

If past experience tells us anything, it is that the handheld version of any radio scanner outsells the base/mobile version at a ratio of probably at least two or three to one. So, even if/when Uniden gets the silly wifi dongle/function working, I guarantee that it will only ever be used by a relatively small proportion of x36HP owners.

IMHO, Uniden erred big time by not incorporating Bluetooth connectivity into both the handheld and the mobile. If they had, none of these ridiculous connectivity issues would have occurred and the handheld owners, the majority of x36HP buyers, would also be able to stream their scanner's audio straight into their vehicle stereos, headsets, tablets, laptops & PC's.

And, for those who say well ''I just have to have a remote mount scanner for my vehicle'. Good luck with trying to use your Iphone and virtual controls whilst driving!! Personally, I will wait for the WS-1095, or some other 'real' hardware remote head scanner, with real volume and channel/scan controls.

While Uniden have been prioritizing the troubleshooting of the wifi functionality for a minority of users/owners, the majority of x36HP owners have been forced to wait over twelve months for their advertised features such as analyze to materialize.

Here's a newsflash Uniden.. It is fine to innovate, but make sure you do your market research first!
There are big risks associated in trying to reinvent the wheel, as you have found out.

Next time, if there is a next time, please keep these priorities in mind:

1/ RF performance. Including improved IF filtering for improved adjacent channel rejection in very busy trunking bands (including cascaded/4 pole 10.8Mhz crystal filters & appropriate NFM and FM 450Khz filtering). An additional, cascaded 10.8Mhz crystal filter will add only $2 to the unit price!

2/ Analogue and digital audio quality.

3/ Get rid of Wifi and go to Bluetooth. Yes the range will be less, but the low power consumption will permit it to be incorporated into the handheld as well as the base/mobile.

4/ Form factor - Don't make DIN sized mobile/base scanners! Nobody wants to try and install a DIN sized scanner into their vehicle nowadays! Smaller is better.. A compact, remote head, even a wired one, is good! If people want a bigger display for their base scanner, let them use the bluetooth connectivity and a control app.

4b Handheld scanners shouldn't be any bigger than a 396XT! Yes, we all like nice big displays, but most people don't want to carry around a brick on their belt.

5/ Ensure that the demodulator / digital processing has sufficient hardware resources to incorporate DMR and possibly Simulcast demodulation.

If you get the above hardware right the first time around, you will be able to concentrate on adding more software defined features and you will ensure that the basic hardware platform will be relatively future proof.

 

[fxdscon]

IMHO, Uniden erred big time by not incorporating Bluetooth connectivity into both the handheld and the mobile.

http://forums.radioreference.com/un...-speaker-mobile-use-bcd436hp.html#post2150557

.

 

[Jay911]

2/ Analogue and digital audio quality.

I posted two audio clips the other day in another thread, pulled directly off the recordings from the 436's microSD card.

This is from a Motorola Type II system (analog with P25 CAI), recorded while stationary, in a metal and cement building, with a Diamond SRH-789 antenna, about 5 miles from the site: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5YCINAy3aeMcHRwZ2FvTFBrWEU/view?usp=sharing

This is from a true Harris P25 system, recorded while mobile (about 70mph), with an external Austin Spectra vehicle-mounted antenna, about 15-20 miles from the site: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5YCINAy3aeMX3hNclNaZndQRHc/view?usp=sharing

Somebody tell me what's wrong with the audio quality.

4/ Form factor - Don't make DIN sized mobile/base scanners! Nobody wants to try and install a DIN sized scanner into their vehicle nowadays!

One of the bigger complaints about the original HomePatrol, as I recall, was that it was not built in the form factor of the 996 - a DIN radio.

4b Handheld scanners shouldn't be any bigger than a 396XT! Yes, we all like nice big displays, but most people don't want to carry around a brick on their belt.

The 436 is almost the same size as my Kenwood TK3180 two-way radio. Not a problem to carry, even on days when I'm carrying both radios.

 

[fmalloy]

Somebody tell me what's wrong with the audio quality.

It's my feeling that P25 digital audio sounds highly compressed, which gives a robotic/swirling/underwater sound to voices. It has a bit of a "computer voice" quality compared to digital. I'm not sure if this due to digital audio compression at the transmitter end, or on the Uniden receiver decoding end. Also not sure if the agency has any control over the compression.

I'll have more comments after my 436HP arrives. I'm interested to hear other P25 listeners' comments...

 

[wx5uif]

My 536 p25 audio sounds identical to my friends motorola. Granted it is phase 1, so I haven't heard the difference with P2.

 

[rwier]

I don't have one of the *36 Unidens, but with my other radios I subscribe more difference in sound quality to different speakers (humans) than to different radios. I believe that modern (young) US human speakers have acquired a syntax that is an amalgamation of Hip Hop, Jive, Drawl, and an unconscious "slurring" of words. English as a second language could also be a factor. Also, the speakers (human) need to experiment with different distances from the microphones.

I'm pretty sure Jay911 intended his examples to show quality broadcasts, but to me, when listened to at low volume, his examples are basically not understandable. I sleep with a HP-1 and a 996XT a few feet from my ears. I run them all night at fairly low volume. 95+% of the activity (to me) is not understandable. Then all of a sudden shazam! A transmission occurs that sounds like the speaker is live next to me and not from the radios and every word is clearly understood. It's nearly always a male, a PD Sargent (or higher), a FD Captain (or higher), enunciating each of their (his) words individually, with the individual syllables clearly heard, and with the individual words separated by a few milliseconds. I suspect that they (he) are also holding the microphone closer to 4 inches from the mouth, as opposed to 4 millimeters (lol).

 

[vortex360]

Very good history of product support, Voyager you are ridiculous. They have an F record with the BBB and they stuck most people with refurbished garbage when they had just bought new scanners and had to send them in. Stop being Paul's cheerleader.