The first proposal is to allow users to change key bindings according to their needs. This would give the user more control over the radio and allow you to customize the keys to your preferences and capabilities. We suggest adding a key binding function in the application settings, which would allow for full personalization of the controls.
The second proposal is to add the ability to connect the Arduino device as a joystick. Such a solution could provide users with greater freedom and more intuitive control of the radio, similar to using a real two-way radio. Integration with Arduino devices would allow for even greater control customization, which would contribute to increasing the user’s satisfaction with the application. Users would be able to program the Arduino according to their own preferences, using sliders and potentiometers, which would allow for even better control of the device. Such a solution would also increase the user’s sense of immersion when using the application, as he would have the impression that he is working with a real radio. In addition, integration with Arduino devices could attract more attention and interest from radio amateurs, which could contribute to the increase in the popularity of the application among this group of users.
We hope that these suggestions will contribute to the further development of the WFview application.
At some point we will implement a keystroke picker tool. I found some open source code that did this and it looked promising. Right now the keystrokes are hard coded in.
As for arduino, wfview supports many HID types, and there is nothing stopping you from building an arduino up which identifies as a supported type. This is how Phil tested Icom RC-28 compatibility before he actually purchased an RC-28 – he built an emulated RC-28 using an arduino.
wfview supports the following controllers:
Icom RC-28 ($150)
XBox USB controllers, possibly inexpensive clones as well. ($20-50)
You could definitely emulate one of these devices using an arduino. I imagine the XBox USB controller would be the simplest and there is probably code out there somewhere that already does it. If you look at the source code for wfview, you can pretty easily see the identifiers that we are using. We’re just using libhid to do all this, without any specific drivers for any of these controllers. All you need to do is implement an HID device in arduino, which I believe is commonly done by others – have a look on github.
Alternatively, we also have a built-in rigctld-compatible server. You can very easily connect to it using python (or any other language) and bridge devices together. For example, a generic joystick could be read and rigctl commands sent to wfview. You would be limited to what commands we have written code for in rigctld though. The rigctld server supports multiple concurrent connections.