Commander Online Help Contents
Increasingly, modern radios provide for computer control beyond VFO, mode, and filter selection. To provide access to these capabilities, Commander lets you specify
To enable the use of Command Sequences and/or Command-generating Sliders, check the Enabled box in the User-defined Controls panel on the General tab of Commander's Configuration window; a panel containing 8 buttons and 4 horizontal slider controls will appear at the bottom of Commander's main window.
A Command Sequence specifies 32 commands, where each command can accomplish one of several things:
convey an instruction to your transceiver (CAT)
terminates execution of the sequence
conditionally or unconditionally change the flow of control within the sequence
do nothing
update the caption shown on the button used to activate the sequence
update the contents of the explanatory popup window that appears when the mouse cursor hovers over the button used to activate the sequence
Command Sequences are organized as two banks of eight sequences. Eight buttons are used to activate the sequences in the current bank; you can also activate sequences in the current bank by striking the F5 through F12 function keys. The ALT checkbox located between the sequence buttons determines which bank is current. To switch banks, check or uncheck the ALT checkbox. Depressing the ALT key while clicking a sequence button or striking one of F5 through F12 activates a sequence in the second bank. You can save a Command Sequence to a file, and load a Command Sequence from a file.
Commander's Command Sequences can be invoked from WinWarbler (version 2.2.0 and later) macros, permitting transceiver control to be automated along with PSK31, PSK63, RTTY, CW, and Phone functions.
To associated a Command Sequence with one of these buttons, depress the CTRL key while clicking on the button or while striking it's associated function key (F5 through F12, as designated above each button); you can also simply right-click the button. To edit Command Sequence in the second bank, check the ALT box or depress both the ALT and CTRL keys while clicking on a button or while striking its associated function key. Commander will display a window that enables you to name and document a sequence of up to 32 radio commands to be sent to your transceiver when the associated Command Sequence button is clicked (or its associated function key is struck)"
Name | specifies the
name of the sequence; this name serves as the caption on the associated
User-defined Command Sequence button, so choose a name of
appropriately-short length
Note: if you wish to include the ampersand character in the name, use a pair of back-to-back ampersands, e.g. R&&B. |
Function | describes the function of the Command Sequence; this information will appear in a popup control explanation when the mouse cursor lingers above the associated Command Sequence button if the display of control explanations is enabled. |
Note (1-32) | optional information used to document the associated command; this information is not sent to your radio |
Command (1-32) | a sequence of commands to be executed, beginning with Command 1 |
Valid commands are enumerated in the following table:
Command | Function |
an even number of
hexadecimal characters, e.g.
FEFE26E00700FD |
radio
instruction -- characters are sent to your
radio,
two per byte (useful for Icom, TenTec, and Yaesu radios)
|
a sequence of ascii characters preceded by a
single apostrophe, e.g.
'AN1; |
radio
instruction -- each character following the apostrophe will be
sent to your radio (useful for Kenwood radios)
|
<Goto N> | unconditional
branch
|
<End> | termination
|
<IfName name, N> | conditional
branch based on the Command Sequence's current button caption
|
<Name text> | sets the Command Sequence's button caption to text |
<Tooltip text> | sets the Command Sequence's button popup explanation to text |
<Wait> | pauses for the duration indicated in the Command Interval textbox after executing the previous command in the sequence before executing the next command in the sequence. |
The conditional branch and sequence button naming commands make it possible to create sequences that toggle a sequence button's function, as shown in this simple example for the Icom 756:
One can set the AF gain of a Kenwood TS-2000 by sending it the ASCII command AG0NNN; where NNN is a 3-digit decimal number between 0 and 255 that specifies the desired gain. One can set the AF gain of an Icom 756 Pro III by sending it the hexadecimal command FEFE6EE01402XXXXFD when XXXX is a 4-digit decimal number between 0 and 255. A Command-generating Slider lets you "fill in" the NNN or XXXX with an appropriate value determined by the handle position of a horizontal slider control in Commander's User-defined Commands panel. To control a TS-2000's AF gain with a slider control, one must at minimum configure the slider with
This information is captured by the slider's Configuration window, which can be made to appear by double-clicking the label beneath the slider control:
|
As in Command Sequences, an ASCII command is distinguished from a hexadecimal command by a leading single apostrophe.
The insertion of a slider's value into a template instruction is specified via a substitution command of the form <SFN>, where
Thus in the example show in the screenshot of Commander User Slider 4's Configuration window above, the ASCII command AG0000; will be generated when slider 4's handle is moved to the extreme left, the ASCII command AG0255; will be generated when slider 4's handle is moved to the extreme right, and the ASCII command AG0128; will be generated when slider 4's handle is centered.
Note that while the CI-V commands used to control Icom transceivers are expressed in hexadecimal, variable settings must often be expressed in decimal. For example, the template used to control an Icom 756 Pro III's AF gain with slider #2 is FEFE6EE01401<2D4>FD (with a lower bound of 0 and an upper bound of 255) . In contrast, using slider #5 to select a Yaesu FT-1000MP's mode would be accomplished with 000000<5H>0C (with a lower bound of 0 and an upper bound of 11).
Only the signed decimal and hexadecimal formats should be used with sliders that can take on negative values. For example, the FlexRadio template 'ZZWB<1S4> will generate commands like ZZWB+028 or ZZWB-014 .
Commander's 8 sliders are organized into two banks of 4. The same ALT checkbox that switches between banks of Command Sequences also switches between banks of sliders.