Mini-Radio Control GUI

[Kabuse]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to briefly introduce a new project I've been working on: a Mini-Radio Control GUI built with Python.

This GUI allows you to easily control your ESP32-based SI4732 radio receiver via a serial connection, eliminating the need for manual command entry. It also provides real-time visualization of the radio's status (frequency, mode, RSSI, etc.).

The goal is to make the SI4732 even more accessible to operate. It leverages the common serial commands and status output formats found in many of the firmware variants within this project.

I'd be thrilled if you could take a look and offer any feedback. All the details, including features, installation, and how it works, are available in the project's README:

my Mini-Radio Control GUI project

Perhaps this GUI can spark some ideas for future firmware enhancements or improvements that could make the interaction with such interfaces even more seamless!

Best regards, and thanks for your excellent work on the firmware!

[max-arnold]

Cool! Is anything missing in terms of available serial commands that will make the GUI even better?

[GrzegorzZajac000]

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough... Let me rephrase the question: what additional serial commands I should consider implementing, so you can use them in your project?

Sorry for interfering with someone else's topic, but I'm creating a similar tool.

Is there any way to optimize screenshots? I wanted to add a live preview to the project, but each screenshot is taken 3-4 seconds :( Maybe some compression could be done on the ATS?
I also see that some messages are short, maybe it could be packed into one message, or at least send more data at once?
I also noticed that there are no differences in speed regardless of what baud rate I choose.

[Kabuse]

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough... Let me rephrase the question: what additional serial commands I should consider implementing, so you can use them in your project?

Ahh, now I understand. Seek down/up and browsing through the memory channels like previous/next for sure would be a cool option for using with a GUI in my opinion.

[reppr]

Would be cool if the same code could be used for other sources of input. We are on ESP32, so there is also bluetooth serial and touch inputs can be used for morse input (with minimal hardware modification like a resistor connecting from a touch enabled pin to the outside of the case). I have used this method on other esp32 boards and plan to try a much simplified version of it on the mini receiver too.

[max-arnold]

@reppr Exactly! Ideally I want to have:

• CAT control over USB-serial (anyone knows whether CAT over Bluetooth LE exists?)
• CLI command set to configure the receiver (via USB-serial and BLE using Nordic UART)
• Remote control via USB-serial hotkeys (exists right now)
• Remote control via Bluefruit Connect mobile app
• Built-in web interface over Wi-Fi

But it is a long road :)

[Kabuse]

• CAT control over USB-serial (anyone knows whether CAT over Bluetooth LE exists?)

Hamlib would be a good approach here, I think.

[Kabuse]

Hello everyone,

I'm excited to announce a significantly improved version of my Mini-Radio Control GUI! This Python application makes controlling your ESP32-based SI4732 radio receiver via a serial connection much easier and more intuitive.

What's New?
This update brings a more user-friendly interface, smarter serial port management with auto-detection, comprehensive radio control functions, and a real-time status display including frequency, mode, and signal strength. It also features configurable cyclic status reading, a dark theme, and numerous user experience enhancements.

Best regards, and thanks for your excellent work on the firmware!

[Kabuse]

Sneak Preview: The New Spectrum Analyzer for the Mini-Radio Control Project!

Hello Radio Enthusiasts,

Exciting news from the development workshop! I've been working hard to enhance the Mini-Radio Control tool with a powerful new feature: an integrated Spectrum Analyzer!

With the new analyzer, you'll soon be able to:

• Visually display the frequency spectrum of your selected band.
• Track signal strengths (RSSI) across the frequency range in real-time.
• Identify peaks and interesting signals at a glance – optionally with automatic marking of the peaks, which you can toggle on and off!
• All of this is, of course, presented in the familiar dark theme and integrates seamlessly into the user interface. Whether you're scanning the VHF band for FM stations or searching for DX signals on the shortwave bands, the Spectrum Analyzer will be an invaluable tool.

Development is in full swing, and I can't wait to present you with the final version soon.

Stay tuned!

[Hamberthm]

This is great! I was ready to implement this myself once I get the radio (I'm still waiting for it...).

You beat me to it, congrats :)

How much time does it take to sweep the band? I calculated between 50 to 60 ms for each frequency depending on the real word tuning performance of the chip (that still I can't test grrr)

[Kabuse]

Hey Hamberthm,

Thanks for the kind words and your enthusiasm! I'm really glad you like the new spectrum analyzer feature. It's great to see you're already thinking about the technical details even before your radio arrives!

Regarding the sweep time: You've hit on an interesting point. The radio chip itself is indeed capable of tuning very quickly, and your calculation of 50-60 ms per frequency step for the chip's internal performance is likely quite accurate for a direct hardware operation.

However, in my current implementation of the spectrum analyzer, the sweep speed is primarily limited by a few factors related to how the PC application communicates with the radio via the serial interface and processes the data:

1. Serial Communication Overhead: For each frequency point in the spectrum, the PC sends a command to the radio (e.g., "tune one step up"). The radio then tunes, takes an RSSI measurement, and sends this information back to the PC as a text string over the serial port. This round-trip communication takes some time.
2. Data Polling and Processing: The PC application periodically checks for new data from the serial port (our check_serial_data runs every 200ms). Once data is received, it's parsed, and the plot is updated.
3. Deliberate Pacing: To ensure the application remains responsive, allows the GUI to update smoothly, and doesn't overwhelm the radio or the serial communication channel, there's a programmed delay after processing each data point before the next frequency step is requested.
4. Taking these into account, the time per frequency step in the current spectrum analyzer is roughly in the range of 300-450 milliseconds (the 250ms delay plus the polling interval for serial data are the main contributors).

So, for example, sweeping the VHF band (64 MHz to 108 MHz) with our typical FM step size of 100 kHz would mean about (108000 - 64000) / 100 = 440 steps. At an average of, say, 350ms per step, this would take approximately 440 * 0.35s ≈ 154 seconds, or about 2.5 minutes. This is, of course, an estimate and can vary. For other bands with smaller step sizes (e.g., 5 kHz on SW), the sweep will naturally take longer for a given frequency span.

The serial communication is the main bottleneck here compared to what the chip could do in a standalone hardware sweep mode (if it had a function to dump a whole spectrum block at once, for instance).

While it's not as fast as a dedicated hardware spectrum analyzer, I find it's still a very useful tool for visualizing band activity and identifying signals with the current setup.

Thanks again for your insightful comment and your interest in the project! I hope your radio arrives soon and you can start experimenting.

Stay tuned!

[Kabuse]

Hey everyone,

Great news! The MiniRadio Control GUI is now updated on GitHub and ready for some testing by all you fellow radio enthusiasts!

I'm particularly excited to hear your feedback on the new peak detection algorithm in the Spectrum Analyzer. Let me know how it performs for you!

And as a little bonus, the Memory Viewer has also made its way into this version, so you can now easily check out your stored radio memories.

Looking forward to your thoughts and any bug reports! Happy testing!

Best regards, Kabuse!

[uzmanelektronik]

Where can I download the compiled control program?? How will those who do not know compile the program??

[Kabuse]

Hi uzmanelektronik,

thanks for your interest! Currently, I don't provide a pre-compiled version of the program for direct download. The project is written in Python and requires a Python installation to run.

I've described in the ReadMe on GitHub how you can convert the program into an executable yourself using PyInstaller, if that's something you'd like to do. It's a relatively straightforward process.

I did previously have a pre-compiled Linux executable on GitHub, but the latest version unfortunately exceeds GitHub's 25MB limit for individual files, which is why I had to remove it.

I understand that this can be a hurdle for users without programming knowledge. I'll consider if and how I can offer a pre-compiled version in the future, should there be sufficient demand and if it's technically feasible.

Best regards,
Kabuse

[uzmanelektronik]

Thank you for the quick response. It is very difficult to compile for those who do not have any programming knowledge.

[Kabuse]

Hey everyone,

I've put together a short video showcasing how you can use my Mini-Radio Control Suite to get a quick overview of a radio band, then easily tune into a station and adjust parameters like volume.

Check it out here: https://www.reddit.com/r/shortwave/comments/1l1pj32/i_built_a_control_suite_for_the_si4732_miniradio/

Thought this might be interesting for those using the Si4732 and looking for a convenient way to control it from their PC.

Best regards,
Kabuse

[dustinsterk]

Great work! I forked and created a single file executable which uses uv and PEP here (you only need to install uv and change the permissions on the file to allow it to run): https://github.com/dustinsterk/Mini-Radio-Control

On my 14" macbook pro, the UI was too large and did not fit on screen so I also updated the colors and spacing a bit as the dark did not look correct for some reason. I recently also included the ability to SET the memory frequencies (a little crude but it works).

I would love the ability to enter frequencies directly via the UI but it seems the firmware does not support that as of yet (ill make a request). In any case, love the work!

[Kabuse]

The current GUI now supports set operations for memory slots:

You can manually set the band, frequency (in Hz, kHz, or MHz, e.g. 102.3M, 7100k, 3500000), and mode for each slot.
The write button sends all 32 slots to the radio in the format #NN,Band,Freq,Mode, as described in the documentation.
If you set the frequency to 0, the slot will be cleared on the next write (Freq=0).
Band selection is manual, so you have full control (including MW bands, etc.).
If you have further requests or something does not work as expected, feel free to let me know!

Best regards and have fun testing!

[Kabuse]

Updated to support 99 memory slots read and write.

[dustinsterk]

Awesome, thanks!

[ymienert]

What think you about an extension to load/store all the config data incl. the memory slots from/to a file? So we're would be able to rescue our settings over to a new firmware release or could easy make a clone on a second device. It's seems to be, that all the data allready be in access by your fine application.
Thank you for your effort.

[max-arnold]

That is exactly what I plan to do! It will be possible to backup/restore the receiver settings even without an app by using just a terminal

[ymienert]

That sounds great! For my opinion is this the last needed step to make this device handle for a wide range of users. (May be only some techies are satisfied to restore the settings after every firmware release) I saw a web tool already exists to store/load the memory slots https://esp32-si4732.github.io/ats-mini/memory.html But your idea would be much more comfortable and touches all chosen settings?