[chirp_devel] General inquiry on adding "settings"

[chirp.cordless at xoxy.net]

As Tom requested, I'm moving this discussion here from chirp_users.
I've registered to receive mail (digest form) on this list.

Thanks for the response, it was what I was hoping for.
I've looked over the FT-60 MEM_FORMAT structure you pointed
me at, and it looks like something I can definitely handle, maybe
with a little experimentation and poking around the code to resolve
things like bit ordering etc.

I've seen the chirp developers tools option to view and diff the raw data.
I think I'm probably self-contained as far as what I need to know
to do this, but I'll ask if I get stumped.

I don't want to set expectations that I'm committing to do this until I
get into it and size up just how much work is involved, but my sense
is it's a reasonably finite task for one radio, and I'll get started
on it for the FT-60. Don't open a feature bug on this, plenty of time
to do that when I have an extended MEM_FORMAT struct ready
to merge. A couple of months?

My only request now is that if someone is already working on
adding FT-60 settings, stop me now so I don't waste my time.


However, I do have one issue that needs to be corrected
that I noticed in looking over the referenced ft60.py
The power levels described in lines 154-156 are incorrect.
The FT-60 is 5w2w/0.5w, not 5w/2.5w/1w.
See user's manual pages 15 and 79.

I haven't looked to see what the values are used for,
if anything, but they're currently wrong except for high.

Thanks,

-dan


> Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2014 15:20:00 -0800
> From: Tom Hayward <esarfl at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [chirp_users] General inquiry on adding "settings"
> 
> On Feb 2, 2014 1:05 PM, <chirp.cordless at xoxy.net> wrote:
>> I haven't seen this kind of development meta-discussion, so here goes:
> 
> This kind of discussion usually happens on the chirp_devel mailling list:
> http://intrepid.danplanet.com/mailman/listinfo/chirp_devel
> 
>> I guess the process would be to change a setting via the radio's buttons,
>> read into chirp. and record what changed in the data stream. Rinse and
>> repeat. If someone (me, for example) were to do that and provide the map,
>> would that likely be enough to have someone else pick it up and code it
> into Chirp?
> 
> Yep, you've got the process figured out.
> 
>> And if so, what form should the 'map' take? Several hundred complete
>> radio images seems less than optimal to me, for several reasons,
>> most obviously that it still needs interpretation to code from.
>> I could probably do a Python const data structure or equivalent
>> if pointed to an example.
> 
> I think the best option would be for you to learn the syntax for the Chirp
> bitwise memory format. It takes its inspiration from c structs, so it
> should be very familiar to you. It is not Python, but a syntax Dan created
> to represent radio memory structures. It suits Chirp very well. You can
> find examples in every radio driver, usually at the top of the file in a
> string called MEM_FORMAT:
> http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/repository/entry/chirp/ft60.py#L108
> 
> If you can define the radio's memory layout in that format, and document
> the associated values (e.g., APO: 0: off, 1: 30m, 2: 1h, 3: 2h, etc.), then
> another Chirp dev should be able to pick up your work and add the GUI
> elements.
> 
> Please send your reply to the chirp_devel list so the right audience sees
> it.
> 
> Tom KD7LXL