[chirp_devel] [PATCH 3 of 8] [ft4] Automatic duplex value selection not working. Fixes #7605

[Bernhard Hailer]

On 06-Feb-20 07:59, Dan Smith via chirp_devel wrote:
> FYI, I didn't apply this patch yet because all the others applied cleanly without it and I thought it might be worth some discussion.
I noticed there was one missing :-)
> So, first off, we have the chirp/bandplan* modules, which might be better to leverage if you're going to do this.
Ah, ok. I'm still finding my way through all the things Chirp provides. 
I'll look into it.
> However, I also wonder if we should add "auto" to the list of duplexes? I know other Yaesu models support this, and while I'm totally unsure what the point of this "feature" is in the radio (given that the channel is what it is and the radio isn't going to pick a different duplex ever), I wonder if it would be less confusing to just add support for it?
I tend to say "no", and my reasoning for this statement is this:

"Auto" is a convenience default the radio offers when you use VFO. It 
kicks in when you scroll through frequencies which are reserved for 
repeater use: by default, it automatically picks positive or negative 
offset so that the user doesn't have to set it. It's unfortunate that it 
saves the duplex setting as "auto" when you add it to a memory channel, 
and not as the value it actually picks for it ("+" or "-"). The user can 
always override the default by selecting a different value than the one 
picked by "auto". BTW, the radio does show "+" or "-", not "auto", on 
its display.Even worse, this changes by region; it's different between 
US and EU models (and my patch doesn't do this correctly yet: it uses 
USA defaults, and I need to make it region dependent).

I think it creates less headache for the user if we apply the exact same 
"guessing" the radio does, and convert "auto" (5) to "+" (0) or "-" (2).
> The problem comes in when you go to import or copy a memory from this radio to another radio that doesn't support auto duplex.
Exactly my point. "Auto" is not really any useful value.
> We would need to calculate/guess the duplex at that point, like you are doing that here, which while more general, doesn't excite me (at all).
Although I'm totally agreeing with you about the level of excitement, I 
think it's probably still the path to least grief. I trust in Yaesu not 
changing things all the time, i.e. that the automatic picks don't change 
either.

I'm open to alternatives, and I will leave the final decision to you.


73,
Bernhard
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