jks

Alright, something has come up and I'm not going to have time to work on the problems with aperture auto mode for a while. So in today's update I've added an "initial aperture" setting to the admin page config tab:

v1.409  October 3, 2020
    Added "Initial aperture" setting to admin page config tab. This setting determines
    which waterfall colormap aperture mode, manual or auto, is used as the default for
    "first time" visitors to your Kiwi. More precisely, for any connection to your Kiwi
    where the "last aperture set" cookie has not been previously set ("first time"
    visitors are a subset of that definition).    

Alright, something has come up and I'm not going to have time to work on the problems with aperture auto mode for a while. So in today's update I've added an "initial aperture" setting to the admin page config tab:

v1.409  October 3, 2020
    Added "Initial aperture" setting to admin page config tab. This setting determines
    which waterfall colormap aperture mode, manual or auto, is used as the default for
    "first time" visitors to your Kiwi. More precisely, for any connection to your Kiwi
    where the "last aperture set" cookie has not been previously set ("first time"
    visitors are a subset of that definition).    

@Jimo: Not so simple. Not because of the actual code issues, but because of the validation and deployment issues (as usual). Can you imagine the disruption? Especially if something goes wrong?

This is probably best handled when there is the eventual need to open a second proxy server (we're getting close and it will probably be in the EU). That way the migration can be done in a controlled way.

It has a --zoom (-z) option which defaults to zero meaning zoomed all the way out (0 - 30MHz). Setting the frequency only matters when you are zoomed further in (values 1-14). These zoom values match the zoom values seen on the Kiwi user interface (i.e. number 'n' after "WFn" tab on main control panel).

An example of the new DRM schedule format is attached below. This condensed/overlapped view with larger font should benefit small-screen devices. You can click/tap on the green/pink timelines even if covered by the station name. Also don't forget the new schedule database selection menu at bottom left of the control panel. Our friends at drmrx.org have been working to improve their format.

v1.407  September 22, 2020
    Keyboard shortcuts:
        Space bar now mutes in addition to existing 'm' key.
        '!' toggles the waterfall aperture manual/auto menu.
        'b' 'B' scrolls through the "select band" menu. The frequency update is immediate.
        'e' 'E' scrolls through the "extension" menu. The extension open is delayed
            slightly so you can scroll through the menu to the desired entry.
            These keys can be used while an extension is open to select a new extension.
            As always hit the escape key to close the open extension.

v1.404,405,406  September 20, 2020
    DRM extension:
        Condense schedule format:
            Station name now overlaps timeline.
            Links are now info buttons.
    
    Aperture auto mode no longer disturbs manual mode WF max/min settings.
    Expand range of SdrDx colormap a little.
    In stat tab status message replace sdr.hu with rx.kiwisdr.com

Yes! Right-click on your mouse to bring up the Kiwi utility menu. This is an often overlooked feature. If you have a laptop like a Mac there are different ways to configure the track pad for right-click in addition to the usual left-click (I use the two-finger tap method). One of the menu entries is "save waterfall as JPG". This feature was contributed by Peter, VE3SUN.

But this is a manual operation. You're probably interested in automatic waterfall recording.

The kiwiclient waterfall code is currently only for gathering statistics and not saving the waterfall image. But with some code changes it could probably be made to do that.

To be more precise about the kiwiclient waterfall tools. There are three facilities:

• The --wf option of kiwirecorder (note not kiwiwfrecorder) prints statistics.
  
• Kiwiwfrecorder (note not kiwirecorder) is a specialty program Christoph wrote that saves waterfall data together with GPS timestamps as Python Numpy array format file (.npy) which with some code changes could probably be an image file as well.
  
• microkiwi_waterfall.py is a simplified version of kiwirecorder --wf that Marco wrote. A version of which runs his Dynamic SNR Map website http://sibamanna.duckdns.org/sdr_map.html
  

Should be fixed now.

The new DRM schedule database from drmrx.org is preliminary. Chris and I working on reorganizing the entries.
DRM tip: while listening to R. Kuwait 15110 I got left-ear-only audio (while using headphones). You can duplicate the left channel audio on the right via the pan control on the audio tab (e.g. set it to "50 R").

The new "SdrDx" colormap from the project by the same name is worth trying.

The new aperture auto mode is now the default and will hopefully lead to better looking waterfalls in people's Twitter posts and YouTube videos.

The "colormap designer" is more of a toy for now. It needs more features to be really useful. Screenshot at the end of this post.

From the CHANGE_LOG file:

v1.403  September 17, 2020
    DRM extension:
        Added schedule database selection menu. Includes database from drmrx.org
    
    Waterfall/spectrum/colormap improvements:
        New terminology, colormap "aperture" (what the WF max/min controls really define).
            A colormap spectrum bar now appears above the WF sliders.
            It is similar to the bar that appear on the right of the spectrum display.
            It changes as you adjust WF max/min in manual aperture mode or automatically
            in auto aperture mode (see next). Markers appear at the WF max/min points
            whereas the bar itself covers a fixed -140 to -25 dBm.

        Added aperture auto mode to existing manual and one-shot (auto-scale button) modes.
            On the main control panel WF tab there is a new menu "aperture".
            *** Auto mode is the new default, but the choice is saved across page reloads.
                This is designed to help always keep the waterfall dynamic range optimal
                for folks who never get around to learning how to use the WF max/min
                sliders or even the "auto-scale" button.

            In auto mode the WF max/min sliders become WF ceil(ceiling)/floor.
                This is the amount of "headroom" to create above and below the
                automatically calculated WF max/min values.

        Added colormap control extension consisting of two parts:
            1) Aperture auto mode controls.
                The averaging algorithm/parameter choices are the same as for the
                waterfall and spectrum averaging (on the WF tab of main control panel).
                When in auto mode the calculated max/min values are shown, those that are
                computed plus the selected floor/ceiling headroom.
                In auto mode the "auto scale" button on the main control panel lights up
                to remind you that auto mode is in effect.
                When auto mode averaging is turned off the max/min values are only
                recalculated when the waterfall zoom, pan or center frequency changes.

            2) A "colormap designer" for creating custom colormaps.
                A work-in-progress. The details of this will probably change.
        
        Added new colormap from the SdrDx project.
        
    Admin interface:
        Disallow public listing unless at least one password-less channel is available.
        Warn about creating URL redirect cycles.
        Display UTC/local time on admin status page.

    Use string hashing for faster API command decoding.
    Many other bug fixes. As usual see the Github commit log.

The new DRM schedule database from drmrx.org is preliminary. Chris and I working on reorganizing the entries.
DRM tip: while listening to R. Kuwait 15110 I got left-ear-only audio (while using headphones). You can duplicate the left channel audio on the right via the pan control on the audio tab (e.g. set it to "50 R").

The new "SdrDx" colormap from the project by the same name is worth trying.

The new aperture auto mode is now the default and will hopefully lead to better looking waterfalls in people's Twitter posts and YouTube videos.

The "colormap designer" is more of a toy for now. It needs more features to be really useful. Screenshot at the end of this post.

From the CHANGE_LOG file:

v1.403  September 17, 2020
    DRM extension:
        Added schedule database selection menu. Includes database from drmrx.org
    
    Waterfall/spectrum/colormap improvements:
        New terminology, colormap "aperture" (what the WF max/min controls really define).
            A colormap spectrum bar now appears above the WF sliders.
            It is similar to the bar that appear on the right of the spectrum display.
            It changes as you adjust WF max/min in manual aperture mode or automatically
            in auto aperture mode (see next). Markers appear at the WF max/min points
            whereas the bar itself covers a fixed -140 to -25 dBm.

        Added aperture auto mode to existing manual and one-shot (auto-scale button) modes.
            On the main control panel WF tab there is a new menu "aperture".
            *** Auto mode is the new default, but the choice is saved across page reloads.
                This is designed to help always keep the waterfall dynamic range optimal
                for folks who never get around to learning how to use the WF max/min
                sliders or even the "auto-scale" button.

            In auto mode the WF max/min sliders become WF ceil(ceiling)/floor.
                This is the amount of "headroom" to create above and below the
                automatically calculated WF max/min values.

        Added colormap control extension consisting of two parts:
            1) Aperture auto mode controls.
                The averaging algorithm/parameter choices are the same as for the
                waterfall and spectrum averaging (on the WF tab of main control panel).
                When in auto mode the calculated max/min values are shown, those that are
                computed plus the selected floor/ceiling headroom.
                In auto mode the "auto scale" button on the main control panel lights up
                to remind you that auto mode is in effect.
                When auto mode averaging is turned off the max/min values are only
                recalculated when the waterfall zoom, pan or center frequency changes.

            2) A "colormap designer" for creating custom colormaps.
                A work-in-progress. The details of this will probably change.
        
        Added new colormap from the SdrDx project.
        
    Admin interface:
        Disallow public listing unless at least one password-less channel is available.
        Warn about creating URL redirect cycles.
        Display UTC/local time on admin status page.

    Use string hashing for faster API command decoding.
    Many other bug fixes. As usual see the Github commit log.