Re: [Hamlib-developer] FT-817

[Alexandru C. <al...@ph...>]

Quoting Stephane Fillod <f8...@fr...>:
[...]
> Toggling between VFO without knowing which one is which is still usefull 
> for split operation. In some backends, when the split mode is
> activated, the current VFO is receive, and the other one is transmit.
> To change any parameter of the transmit VFO, the Hamlib frontend toggle
> VFO's,
> change attributes, and then toggle back (cf src/rig.c).
> 
> As a generic rule, if a rig has some capability and provided the developer
> has
> time, it's always good to implement it. Who knows what the user will do of
> it?
> 

I see your point. So, the current implementation, which assumes that VFOA is
active when we initialise the backend will be replaced by RIG_OP_TOGGLE.

> > The same for several other commands. Therefore, I think it could
> > be interesting to create an "experimental" backend, which could support
> > some more commands (especially those, which are hidden behind the tiny
> > and inaccessible buttons ;-).
> 
> Maybe it's not needed to create a new ft817_dangerous backend, but
> simply add a conf paramater such that rig_set_conf(rig, "dangerous_mode", 1)
> enables the extra commands. This would make the riglist.h maintenance
> easier.
> 

That can be done, too. But in that case I have a question. Clearly, the FT-817
will in such case have two different caps, depending on which mode the backend
is in. So:

1. Is it safe to switch caps dynamically when this reconfiguration occurs? or
2. Would it be better to have one static caps listing everything but (in nominal
mode) the backend would return RIG_ENAVAIL for functions only available in
dangereous_mode?

I think number two is the way to go, since dynamic change of the caps sounds
like a bad idea.

By the way... Not only has the FT-817 a bunch of undocumented commands but it
also seems to have some undocumented features that simply can not be avoided.
Yesterday evening I discovered that when I have the narrow CW filter enabled,
the rig will return a different CW mode when asked via CAT:

             NARROW            WIDE
   CW:   xx xx xx xx 82   xx xx xx xx 02
   CWR:  xx xx xx xx 83   xx xx xx xx 03
   RTTY: xx xx xx xx 8A   xx xx xx xx 0A

Here, the xx are frequency data and only the numbers in the WIDE column are
listed in the very-mostly-absolutely official FT-817 operating manual. I will
try to get this confirmed, in the meantime, it would be interesting to know,
whether this is the same using SSB narrow filter and how it is on the other
rigs (FT-857 and FT897).


> Cheers,
> -- 
> Stephane - F8CFE


73
Alex OZ9AEC

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