RT-880 1st Draft Demo of new Menu System
Added 2025-07-25 07:19:05 +0000 UTCDidn't mention in the video, but all menu colors and fonts will be user definable.
Comments
So far, although you cannot see it yet, th base code includes 30 Character channel names maximum (actual depends on font size used) 26 Groups (zones) 12 Character Group names (just can't fit 14 in the default skin) There are too many squelch related settings to make them per channel/group. Squelch on nicFW is primarily noise based, which tends to even things out response wise across bands. Remember that I did say this is a complete recode.
Marcus Dudley
2025-07-25 19:00:25 +0000 UTCLoving everything I'm seeing so far
Douglas Morse
2025-07-25 16:19:30 +0000 UTCLooking good! Since you asked, just thought I would list a bunch of things I've been using on the RT-880G over the last month (where I've been using it for a couple hours every day). Some could def be things your other firmwares (TD-H3/RT-900) have and I assume will carry over to the 880, but there's some really good added functionality the 880 has in stock form that the other radios you've worked on don't have (and I would hate for those time-savers/quality-of-life features to not make it over!). I know this is WAY jumping the gun... but had some time today and thought I would type some things (wish list items) out: • Long Press Key Define (which I saw you just mentioned above - awesome!) - but I hope this is going to be on the radio itself (instead of only via the programming software). There are SO many features of this radio that I have all ten 0-9 keys + the PTT's + alarm key set for LP functions, AND commonly have to edit on the radio to change them to something else which there is no unused key left to program it to. Many of these commonly used things do NOT have a trigger/menu-item on the menu itself, or it's buried in menus and would take 10+ key presses to turn something on/off. These are life-savers time and efficiency wise! • 16 CHARACTERS for the Channel names is invaluable (and looks like the stock layout can actually fit 18-19)! The TD-H3 and RT-900 have a mere 11... it is SUPER hard to fit the city name + department (fire, police, etc) + shorthand you use to identify if it's a repeater, if you're reached it before (I use "!" to make it as an active channel; "!/R" if it's an active repeater; "!S/R" if it's an active repeater I need to turn squench to 0 to be able to hear it, etc etc), and/or put in how many miles away it is like I use, into even 16 characters, let alone 11. I have names truncated/shortened so badly I can't even tell what the heck they are with so few characters! I literally returned my TD-H8 because of the ~8 character limit... could NOT put anything meaningful in that. Please please please keep it to at least 16 characters! (and 18-19 would be even better!) • Squelch levels you have PERFECT on your firmware for the TD-H3/RT-900!!! The stock 880's is horrendous - literally S5/S6+ signals will NOT come through on the 880 with the squelch set to its lowest of "1". I've been using the Temporary Tuning feature on the 880 to compensate for this, but it's literally THIRTEEN key presses to turn that on, and there's NO ability to set that function to a Long Press Key Define (and it resets to "off" after every off/on of the radio). I'm really hoping you make squelch as perfect as the other radios have it on the 880! • Sidenote: the ability to set custom RSSI/Noise squelch settings on a per-channel basis (or a per Zone basis) would be incredible. It seems to be a fact that things like scanning Air Band and CB (which is AM for the USA) requires a MUCH finer squelch (more open) setting (compared to normal PD/FD/FirstResponder type VHF/UHF frequencies) or you can NOT hear anything out there! (even when I'm using higher-end Diamond, Smiley, Signal Stick, Nagoya, Comet antennas supposedly tuned to those frequencies). • Zones, zones, ZONES!!!!!! I have 900 channels saved - which I'm sure to most seems like an obscene amount... but that is literally ONLY the 2m/1.25m/70cm in the 4 counties around my home (+ one county near our shore house). And nothing is further than 30 miles out (which I've hit repeaters up to 36 miles away so far!). If people programmed in ALL the bands this radio can do, they would literally have quadruple that, easy! The ONLY way to keep these organized is by using the Zones (which I'm currently using 20 different Zones). The stock CPS is REALLY clunky at how to set these up (like if I add a couple new channels I found, and it shifts all the rows in my spreadsheet down, I then have to redo ALL 20 ZONES all over again since they don't organically re-do themselves correctly...), but hey, at least it's there and is something to keep it organized. There's also 14 characters for the Zone names btw - the 4/5 limit of NicSure firmwares (for banks/groups) will simply not cut it for these (just not enough to name things so you know what they are).
Dochartaigh
2025-07-25 15:10:58 +0000 UTC
