[ARDF] Looking ahead to ARDF apps (in 2012)

[Charles Scharlau]

I limited myself to 10 features in my list, and whoopee mode didn't make
the cut :-)

The app has every whoopee mode imaginable. You can even separate whoopee
and volume behaviors between angle and range. Does that blow your mind?
Here's what I mean:

You can have the pitch change as you rotate the phone; say have the pitch
go higher as you point the phone more toward the transmitter. At the same
time, you can have only the volume increase as you get closer to the
transmitter, with the pitch staying just the same for the same degrees of
pointing error.

Don't like that? Then the app will let you reverse it. Have the pitch
remain constant as you rotate the phone but the signal volume will increase
as you point toward the transmitter. And as you get closer to the
transmitter the pitch will increase, though the volume will remain constant
so long as you keep the same degrees of pointing error.

Don't like that? You can reverse high pitch and low pitch sense. That is,
you can select lower pitch to indicate tronger signal, and higher pitch
weaker. There's also the purist modes: volume for both angle and range, or
pitch for both angle and range.

It is interesting to imagine such varied "whoopee features" in an actual
radio receiver, say one created from a smart phone containing a gyro and
running a future version of the iSDR app!

Ain't software wonderful?

There is still tweaking to do with whoopee modes. That's one of the many
areas I'm hoping to get feedback on from the beta testers.

Audio tones don't seem to hog much power. But battery life will be an issue
for iPhone - mostly due to GPS being a power hog. For the iPhone 3GS I
think the app will be able to manage up to 2 hours of battery life with GPS
enabled There is tweaking to be done to achieve the 2-hour goal. Battery
life can be extended by turning off Wifi, disabling cellular and/or
removing the SIM card. Also, it is possible to add external battery
extenders to iPhones, for those who want more time for nailing foxes. I
need feedback from beta testers on the battery life they experience with
the app.

Battery life on the iPad is another story. I've used an iPad 2 with the app
for a 90-minute orienteering event (~17 controls I think), and still had
70% of the battery left. That was with Wifi and everything else left on.
BTW - the iPad provides a very nice orienteering experience, and displays a
map that is almost the size of a regular paper map. I did have some qualms
about crossing creeks while carrying the device. I think a zip-lock bag
would be advisable.

73,
Charles
NZ0I

Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:33:07 +1100
> From: Tony Langdon <vk3jed at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [ARDF] Looking ahead to ARDF apps (in 2012)
> To: Charles Scharlau <charles.scharlau at gmail.com>,ardf at kkn.net
> Message-ID: <4f0268ec.059dec0a.2cbd.ffffb802 at mx.google.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
> At 09:37 AM 1/3/2012, Charles Scharlau wrote:
>
> >7. M&C provides an audio tone indication of how accurately your mobile
> >device is pointed at a control. If you point your iPhone toward a control,
> >the volume of the audio tone increases, and as you point your iPhone away
> >from the control the audio tone volume decreases. Think of it as an "audio
> >compass" that steers you always in the direction of your target control.
>
> Any chance of a "whoopee mode"?  i.e. where the frequency of the
> audio tone varies, rather than the volume.  Not sure if that'd break
> the processor budget or not.  You might also need to check what the
> battery life is, I suspect this app will drain a device's battery
> rather quickly. :)
>
> 73 de VK3JED / VK3IRL
> http://vkradio.com
>
>
>