User-defined Controls

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 

• up to 33 Command Sequences, each containing up to 64 transceiver commands

• up to 16 Command-generating Sliders

To enable access to all Command Sequences and Command-generating Sliders, check the Show by expanding Main window box in the User-defined Controls panel on the General tab of Commander's Configuration window; Commander's Main window will be expanded in height to display a panel containing two rows of eight buttons and two rows of four horizontal slider controls; if you don't need all four rows of buttons and sliders, you can adjust the bottom border of Commander's Main window upward by dragging it with the left mouse button depressed. Alternatively, you can check the Show within Main window box, which will

• display a User-defined Controls panel containing 8 buttons and 4 sliders that can be used to invoke and edit User-defined Controls - setting Commander's Main window to its standard height

• disable all three Frequency-dependent device panels

Each Command Sequence can optionally display a "LED-like display" beneath its button, and specify this LED's color.

If you specify Command Sequences or Command-generating Sliders, and are controlling more than one transceiver, you must specify a User-defined Control Set for each transceiver.

Command Sequences

A Command Sequence specifies 64 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

• specify the text font color, text font bold property, and surface color of the button used to activate the sequence

• specify the color displayed by an LED 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  numbered 1 through 32, and organized as two banks of sixteen sequences. Two rows of 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 for the bank's first row of eight sequences, and SH-F5 through SH-F12 function keys for the bank's second row eight sequences (depress this SHIFT key while striking a function key between F5 and F12). 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 first row of the second bank;  depressing the ALT key while clicking a sequence button or depressing both the ALT and SHIFT keys while striking one of F5 through F12 activates a sequence in the second row of the second bank 

An Initial Command Sequence can be optionally executed when Commander starts, or when a new radio Model  is selected. To define, edit, or test this sequence, click the Edit button in the Initial Command Sequence Panel on the Config window's General tab.

A specified Command Sequence can be executed when you change bands by clicking a button in the Band panel at the bottom of Commander's Bandspread window.

A specified Command Sequence can be executed when you activate a memory by click a Sel button in the Memory Bank panel on Commander's Main window.

To define, edit, or test a Command Sequence for a button in the User-defined Controls panel, right-click the button; you can also depress the CTRL key while clicking that button or while striking it's associated function key (F5 through F12, as designated above each button). To define a Command Sequence in the second bank, check the ALT box and then right-click the appropriate button, or depress both the ALT and CTRL keys while clicking on the 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, when its associated function key is struck, or when a directive is received from another application (e.g. WinWarbler). Each Command Sequence is composed by a list of 32 Commands and Notes, a Name, and a Function:

Valid commands are enumerated in the following table:

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 IC-756:

Using LED color to display the state of a controlled element, in this case an Icom IC-7700's Twin Peak Filter:

The Save and Load buttons enable you to save a Command Sequence to a specified file, and load a Command Sequence from a specified file.

Do not attempt to modify a Command Sequence by editing a file created by clicking the Save button. To edit the Command Sequence associated with a button in the User-defined Controls panel, right-click that button.

If you are controlling multiple primary transceivers, you can define a user-defined control set that specifies the Command Sequences to be loaded when you switch among primary transceivers.

Substitution strings 

Substitution strings let you insert the value of a command-generating slider, CI-V address, or ascii character into a specified position within a radio command.

The insertion of a slider's value into a template instruction is specified via a substitution string of the form <SFN>, where

• S is an optional* integer between 1 and 16 that specifies one of the 16 command-generating Sliders
• F is a single letter indicating the Format of the inserted value
  • D means "decimal digits" with leading zeros
  • E means "decimal digits" without leading zeros
  • F means "decimal digits" without leading zeros, with the value divided by 1000 before being inserted into the command
  • R means "6 signed decimal digits in the scrambled format employed by Icom "set RIT" and "set delta-TX" commands; note: N must be set to 6.
  • S means "signed decimal digits"
  • H means "hexadecimal bytes"
  • B means "unsigned binary bytes"
• N is an optional digit indicating the Number of decimal digits (including the sign in a signed decimal format) or hexadecimal bytes to insert; when not present, a single decimal digit or hexadecimal byte or binary byte is inserted. For unsigned binary bytes, N is limited to the values 1 or 2. 

For example, the command FEFE6EE01401<2D4>FD will use the current value of slider 2 to set an Icom 756 Pro III's AF gain. The S is only optional when the substitution string appears in the Command of a command-generating slider's Configuration window; in this case, the slider's own value is used, as shown in the screenshot in the section below.

The substitution string <CIV> is replaced hexadecimal radio commands by the current transceiver's specified CI-V address. Thus, the command FEFE<CIV>E01401<2D4>FD will be executed by the transceiver whose CI-V address is specified in the Radio panel on the Configuration window's General tab.

When controlling a Flex Signature transceiver, the substitution string <FlexSigPanStream> is replaced by the hexadecimal ID of VFO A's panadapter. This ID is required by some of the commands used to control a Flex Signature transceiver.

The substitution string  <n> (where n is an integer between 0 and 127) is replaced in ASCII radio commands by a single character whose ascii value is n; for example, <13> will be replaced by the "carriage return" character.

Command-generating Sliders

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

• a lower bound
• an upper bound
• a specification of where and how the slider's value will be inserted into the command

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:

A slider's value is changed by 

• dragging it's handle left or right, 

• clicking its left-arrow or right-arrow

• clicking the space to the left or right of its handle

• executing a <slider> command in a Command Sequence

• a frequency-dependent device control configured to drive the slider

• receiving a directive from another application (e.g. WinWarbler).

In the example shown in the above screenshot of Commander User Slider 4's  Configuration window, 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 16 sliders are numbered 1 through 16 and organized into two banks of 8, which each bank containing two rows of 4 sliders. The same ALT checkbox that switches between banks of Command Sequences also switches between banks of sliders.

When clicked, the Save button saves the slider definition to a file you specify; the slider definition includes the slider's current value. The Load button loads the slider definition from a file you specify and sets the slider to the value saved in the file.

If you are controlling multiple primary transceivers, you can define a user-defined control set that specifies the Command-generating Sliders to be loaded when you switch among primary transceivers.