X36 "huge, tremendous, fantastic feature addition"?

[SOFA_KING]

I agree. With all the "real estate" on the 436, there should be NO PROBLEM reading anything, BUT THERE IS. Even though I want to, I can't read the smaller items like Unit ID or NAC. I can't even see ENC or P25/PT0/PT1 when I'm looking for it. Part of this is being too small, and another issue is where they put these items. It's just bad design. I won't even go into the dim LED problem. I DO believe this could be fixed with a firmware update giving us other display options, but I don't want to sacrifice any of the information I need to see by doing so. As for the 536, it doesn't have the real estate. Not a big issue for me being close to my eyes in the shack, but not at all usable to me in my vehicle. Someone should be shot for the poor display decisions they made. What were they thinking? Were they thinking???

Phil

 

[mitbr]

I also would be interested in a font size improvement on the 436 should an easy thing to due via firmware.
My 2 cents.
Tim

 

[Jay911]

I also would be interested in a font size improvement on the 436 should an easy thing to due via firmware.
My 2 cents.
Tim

With all due respect, what some people consider "an easy thing" is often incredibly difficult.

If you're enlarging one part of the display, you now have to shrink another part. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that the size of each line of the display is decided in the overall display routines and not in the code for each item that is displayed. In other words, the radio-ID line doesn't say "display this at size xx at such-and-such a position", it says "display this on line 6A", and the overall display routines mandate what size of a line 6A is, what font is used, etc. I'd wager that the display routines are defined so that line 1 is a certain size, line 2 is another certain size, line 3 is another size, etc. If you wanted the RID line to be larger, all the display routines would have to be revised, and all the lines would have to be resized - because you've only got so much space to work with. Making one line bigger means one other line (or all other lines) have to be made smaller.

I just about guarantee it wouldn't be as simple as people think. Now, if you wanted to change where it was displayed, like IIRC was done on the HP1 - where the smaller of the "third section" was switched so it showed the TG, and the larger part showed the RID - that might be more easily done.

 

[troymail]

Just providing some user option (at least 1) to display LESS on the screen would provide some improvement/relief in that other things could be displayed with larger fonts. They were able to do this on the 536 on day 1 - not sure why it wasn't considered for the 436. I guess they felt with a screen that large, there wasn't a need -- but that seems a bit short sighted (pun?) since they didn't consider people who can't see print that small (and I'm sure they didn't plan on the backlighting issues).

Another (co-) option might be to do what some other electronics vendors have done by offering some alternating display options (with timers to allow users to decide how quickly to alternate the information).

 

[Voyager]

Not me. That's pretty much what the HP2 is, and it's very readable.

The HP is a much larger form factor. But yes, I would have loved to see a HP-x type display on the 436. What I would not have loved is the resulting battery life...

Anybody that can not read a 436 or 536 display from 4 feet SHOULD NOT BE DRIVING or needs new glasses I can read my 436 in the cup holder in my Navigator driving down the road and I am 57 years old with 2 year old glasses.

There are more people like that on the road than you think. They think they can see fine. It's always "the road signs are too small to read", "the license plates are too small to read" and "the x36 type is too small to read".

The fact is that save the HP-x the x36 font for channel tags is as large as any previous scanner. It hasn't gotten smaller. They simply added more info in a smaller font. That's information people didn't have access to with previous models.

But, the actual information shown has grown from 16 characters to something that is actually usable when you read it. "NTH ANYTWN PD T1" is now "NORTH ANYTOWN POLICE TAC-1" which is much more readable.

 

[phask]

It'll never happen, but my 10+ year old Garmin Handheld GPS60 has many display options as to what fields one may have on selected "pages". It also has a large font selection that limits to 3 fields and very large.

Not perfect - but a very usable interface.

Just providing some user option (at least 1) to display LESS on the screen would provide some improvement/relief in that other things could be displayed with larger fonts. They were able to do this on the 536 on day 1 - not sure why it wasn't considered for the 436. I guess they felt with a screen that large, there wasn't a need -- but that seems a bit short sighted (pun?) since they didn't consider people who can't see print that small (and I'm sure they didn't plan on the backlighting issues).

Another (co-) option might be to do what some other electronics vendors have done by offering some alternating display options (with timers to allow users to decide how quickly to alternate the information).

 

[mitbr]

With all due respect, what some people consider "an easy thing" is often incredibly difficult.

If you're enlarging one part of the display, you now have to shrink another part. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that the size of each line of the display is decided in the overall display routines and not in the code for each item that is displayed. In other words, the radio-ID line doesn't say "display this at size xx at such-and-such a position", it says "display this on line 6A", and the overall display routines mandate what size of a line 6A is, what font is used, etc. I'd wager that the display routines are defined so that line 1 is a certain size, line 2 is another certain size, line 3 is another size, etc. If you wanted the RID line to be larger, all the display routines would have to be revised, and all the lines would have to be resized - because you've only got so much space to work with. Making one line bigger means one other line (or all other lines) have to be made smaller.

I just about guarantee it wouldn't be as simple as people think. Now, if you wanted to change where it was displayed, like IIRC was done on the HP1 - where the smaller of the "third section" was switched so it showed the TG, and the larger part showed the RID - that might be more easily done.

Thanks for the clarification Jay... I guess its easy for me to say that since I don't code or right firmware.
Tim

 

[Voyager]

I would agree with Jay except for the fact they have the code in the HP-x. So, it may be a matter of using most of it in the x36 firmware. Granted, the display is different, and it may not be translatable, but it's possible it is.

 

[budevans]

Create a Screen Display Form in Sentinel

With all due respect, what some people consider "an easy thing" is often incredibly difficult.

I'd wager that the display routines are defined so that line 1 is a certain size, line 2 is another certain size, line 3 is another size, etc.

Now, if you wanted to change where it was displayed, like IIRC was done on the HP1 - where the smaller of the "third section" was switched so it showed the TG, and the larger part showed the RID - that might be more easily done.

Jay911,

I cherry picked your quote because you essentially said what I think a lot of people would like to see done. In essence provide a Screen Display Form in Sentinel that allows the user to select from a drop down menu or list, the field they'd like to see displayed on that line(s).

The third and fourth lines in your quote above, hit the nail on the head. Being able to easily see a TG#, Radio ID or a Control Channel Freq can be extremely useful information.

 

[marksmith]

That's a pretty strong statement that is, well, just flat wrong.

I am closer than 4 feet to my 436 but between the font sizes, backlight issues (the light is nearly none-existent), and glare at times, the display is just not readable.

My 50+ year old eyes have gone downhill over the past 5 years for up close reading (I blame both age and sitting in front of computer monitors for the last 30+ years). I do need over the counter reading glasses to read small text, etc. However, I do not need glasses nor do I have problems seeing in general and/or while driving.

On the other hand - seeing the text on my GRE/Whistler radios has NEVER been a problem - even today - without reading glasses.

Ditto. 20/20 in driving test, and can see road signs just fine. But if that is somehow supposed to translate to the 436 and 536 should also be easy for me to read then somebody is smoking something funny. The analogy does not work.

Mark
WS1095/536/436/996P2/HP1e/HP2e/996XT/325P2/396XT/PRO668/PSR800/PRO652

 

[Voyager]

Ditto. 20/20 in driving test, and can see road signs just fine. But if that is somehow supposed to translate to the 436 and 536 should also be easy for me to read then somebody is smoking something funny. The analogy does not work.

Really? You can see letters of "size X" on a black-on-green street sign, but you can't see them on a black-on-white display? Granted, the street sign is using a larger font by a factor of 10, but the 436 should be much more than 10 times closer, too.

I could see if this were the black-on-blue of the XT, but black on white is a much higher contrast than black on green.

 

[seth21w]

Really people are complaining about font size of a scanner, on a computer screen or mobile phone screen lmao either yall have one of those magnifier computer screen thingys or have your screen zoomed all the way up, or your going blind from staring at the computer all day. My font on the 436 is way bigger than my phone. And my computer. I see the scanner fine.

 

[brucewarming]

Font

Holding the phone to your face, I expect. I'm interested in a better display being 61 and glasses. I don't want to walk around like an idiot with a scanner to my face.

 

[MStep]

Since we are reading boxes, somewhere on the box or in the manual, it must also say something to the effect that Uniden reserves that right to make modifications during production runs to improve the operation of the unit without obligation to previous purchasers.

We're all grown up here---- we know how the system works and that this happens all the time, not just with scanners, but with practically every piece of electronic equipment being produced. The difference here is that Uniden is calling back units for repair that they are likely not obligated to repair under those terms in an attempt to do, what most of us would call, "the right thing".

With regard to font size, I'll admit sometimes I have to grab a pair of reading glasses to make things a bit easier when I am home, and a pair of bifocal reading glasses when I am on the road. Unless you want a portable scanner that's four times the size of the 436, I think we are pretty much in step with what current technology allows.

 

[etnad2]

It'd be nice if they used the same display technology that the Amazon Kindle uses (if it's not going to be a color display).

 

[Boatanchor]

Pass the popcorn!

This is going to be fascinating to watch

My odds:

25% chance that Uniden pulls this off, with generally favorable reception, with all and sundry forgiving Uniden for developing a major new feature without first completing existing advertised functions.

or

75% chance that the "huge, tremendous, fantastic feature addition" disappoints and simply pours gas on a smouldering fire.

 

[Anderegg]

"We have not fixed the prematurely exploding airbags in our new 2015 model cars, but we have increased the sensitivity of the airbag deployment sensors in the bumpers, and added 20hp to the engine!"

Paul

 

[wise871]

There are only 4 workable days for this release. 23-25 and 30. I don't see the 30 being a player since it's a Monday. But than again Uniden Japan does not observe the Thanksgiving Holiday.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SOFA_KING]

Tic tok tic tok...

 

[sfd119]

Hey, can we all keep this on subject? I'm looking forward to this release myself and subscribed to this thread for some updates. I don't monitor the Uniden forums anymore because of how all the threads derail.

But I don't care to scroll through a bunch of posts on how you've got your radios mounted or whether states should have better eye sight exams.