Mouse wheel to tune the frequency? [added in v1.694]

PSO

Hi John,

Yesterday I put up an OpenWebRX with RasPi 3B and Airspy HF+ Discovery and to my big surprise tuning the frequency is made by mouse wheel. As KiwiSDR is based on OpenWebRX I am asking that is it possible to implement such a feature also to KiwiSDR. It has been the "biggest dissappointment" 😁 to me that you can not tune it with mouse wheel. Not meaning to start flames, just asking a humble question. I respect you and your work, John, very very much. Without you there would not be us. That goes for the whole community too. Best KiwiSDR knowledge lies here within.

Pekka

Holger

Hello Pekka,

i use Openwebrx (plus) in parallel to my KiwiSDR2 and like the tuning via the Mouse Wheel very usefull. Have you find out how to use the Mousewheel with the KiwiSDR to?

73s Holger, DF6DBF

G8JNJ

When using OpenWebRX, the user can define if they wish the mouse wheel to tune or zoom by default, and the opposite action is achieved by holding down the mouse wheel.

I must admit that I find being able to swap between the two becomes intuitive pretty quickly.

However, the tuning step size has to be defined, and in most cases 500Hz per step is OK for SSB. But I wish it sped up, to say 10 times the channel step size, when the mouse wheel was rotated more quickly.

Regards,

Martin

jks

Just to clarify: We might be "based on" OpenWebRX (back in 2016), but we certainly did not track the (much later) improvements made with the spin-off versions.

..by holding down the mouse wheel

Do you really mean by clicking the mouse wheel to change the mode? Or simultaneously holding down the shift key with the other hand? Because click-holding the mouse wheel button while trying to spin the wheel would be very difficult I would think. Maybe I'm just not understanding.

Sure, we could do something to tie frequency tuning to the wheel. Right now of course it's tied to zooming (and pinch in/out on the waterfall on mobile to zoom).

Yogicat

I think the mouse wheel should only be for zooming in and out of the waterfall, and using it for tuning is rather unnecessary. In my use case, I just develop the habit of accurate button mushing / holding.

G8JNJ

I should have clarified the way it works a bit better.

Pushing the mouse wheel down whilst rotating it enables the opposite mode to the default that has been chosen. in OpenWebRX.

Having the possibility to tune using the mouse opens up other possibilities such as making your own VFO knob, using the optical encoder recovered from a scrap mouse, or buying one of the more expensive ready-made commercial items.

If it could be implemented in a way similar to that of OpenWebRX , then it would still retain the mouse wheel zoom option for those who prefer it, but offer an alternative for folks who would like to use mouse wheel tuning.

Try it and see for yourself.

http://wessex.hopto.org:8060

If you open up the settings pane in the control panel, you should see the "Hold mouse wheel down to tune" tick box. Also set the tuning step size in the controls section, 500Hz or 1kHz is useful for SSB, as most folks use 'rounded up' frequencies.

I'm not specifically requesting this feature, as I don't wish to add to John's already massive workload of much more important issues, but I can understand the appeal of it.

Regards,

Martin

Holger

Tuning the frequency using the mouse wheel is, in my humble opinion, much easier. Implementing it by simply reprogramming inexpensive USB volume controls is very easy, as in the example here in this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sxHZujkXbg

Also my favorite for operating Simon's SDR console and other SDR software.

73s Holger, DF6DBF

ZL4FOX

I would like to second this.

I also would REALLY REALLY like to be able to tune over the frequencies with the mouse wheel. It should not be that difficult to implement this? Please?

Bart ZL4FOX

nitroengine

I'd like to see the ability to tune via mouse wheel. Perhaps allow it to be toggled from the right-click menu, so those who are used to it being used for zooming can use it as such. There are many guys who are used to using a mouse wheel with other SDR packages. It's one of the things I hear about it often from a friend who uses my Kiwi and other public Kiwis.

In addition, one could easily repurpose a mouse wheel as a tuning knob for those who like to twist knobs with their receivers.