CubicSDR: The Manual

[cjcliffe]

Not the actual manual, but you may learn something :) This is the roadmap and progress for the CubicSDR manual, suggestions and contributions are welcome.

• Introduction
  • Quick overview of SDR and what CubicSDR does
  • Basic use cases
  • Example / tutorial / video links around the web
• "Getting Started" with installation / build links.
  • Current status and description/credit for CubicSDR's dependencies
  • SoapySDR introduction
• SDR Device selection
  • Device properties
  • Starting device, sample rate control
• Main Application Window - functionality and usage
  • Annotated image, main window layout description, general overview
  • Explain hover tips and how to disable when no longer needed
  • Quick "cheat-sheet" table of available functions / keyboard commands with descriptions
    • Printable PDF download version
  • Menus
    • File
    • Settings
    • Sample Rate
    • Audio Sample Rate
    • Recording
    • Color Scheme
    • Rig Control
    • Display
  • Main spectrum
    • General
    • Mouse commands
      • Drag to change frequency
      • Right-Drag to change "visual gain" scale
      • Right-Click to reset "visual gain" scale
      • Peak Hold button (or press 'P')
      • Average speed control
      • SHIFT + up / down arrow to change "visual gain"
  • Modulation type selection
    • Explain modulation types and their usage
      • FM
      • FMS
      • AM
      • LSB
      • USB
      • DSB
      • I/Q
  • Waterfall
    • General information (what is it / what does it do)
    • Zoom Functionality
      • Basic overview of Zoom in CubicSDR
      • Explain what's going on, limitations and expectations
    • Mouse Commands
      • Lines-per-second rate control
      • Clicking to add a modem (should the term be VFO?)
      • Drag a modem
      • Dragging modem bandwidth
      • Mouse wheel to zoom
      • Right drag to zoom
    • Keyboard commands
      • Holding SHIFT to add multiple modem instances
        • Explain duplication of active modem properties
      • Holding ALT to drag a range to create modem + set bandwidth
      • Hovering and pressing 'M' to toggle mute
      • Press 'S' to toggle solo mode
      • Hovering and pressing 'D' to delete
      • Hovering and pressing 'E' to edit label
      • Left/Right arrow to tune on waterfall
        • Hold shift to tune quickly
      • Up/Down arrow to zoom on waterfall
      • Shift + Up/Down arrow to change "visual gain" scale
      • Center on hovered frequency or modem by pressing 'C'.
      • Nudge modem by the snap frequency using '[' and ']'
        • Hold SHIFT to nudge at half the snap frequency
  • Tuning bar
    • General
    • Frequency
    • Bandwidth
    • Center
    • Mouse commands
      • Click upper/lower area to tune
      • Drag digit left/right for variable tuning
      • Mouse wheel to step digit
    • Keyboard commands
      • Hover and space to set frequency, bandwidth or center
      • Holding shift to disable click-to-tune carry operation
  • Demodulator controls and visuals
    • General, explain how it's the active modem view
    • Explain controls similar to waterfall/spectrum
    • Clicking the active demodulator in the upper left will bring it into view in the main waterfall
    • Squelch
    • Gain
    • Mute button
    • Solo mode button
    • Delta lock button -- lock modem relative to center frequency (V)
    • Scope / Visuals
      • Scope
      • Spectrum
  • Color Themes
  • Sessions
  • Audio controls
• Advanced / specific use case features
  • Misc. features, tips, tricks
  • Using Manual Gain control
  • Using Rig control
  • Using SoapyAudio
  • Using SoapyRemote
  • Piping audio to other applications (VBCable, Soundflower, etc.)
    • Using JACK Audio for piping
    • Using PulseAudio routing / dummy input tools

[Dantali0n]

Do you want to use the github wiki as manual or did you have other ideas such as a external wiki maybe on the cubicsdr site?

[cjcliffe]

@Dantali0n hadn't decided yet; I was thinking of using the wiki as "development" mode to do it in markdown and possibly export the "stable" versions of each manual to the main website site in static format.

[NN4F]

Any Help you need to the manual let me know if I can help....

[cjcliffe]

@NN4F thanks! I'll hopefully start to fill in some content in the Wiki for the first 'alpha' and it would be great if you could help translate my developer speak and terminology to the amateur radio community terms as well to make sure everyone will understand (and vice-versa for me ;-) Expanding upon content and giving user experience examples once we get started would be welcome as well.

[NN4F]

Sure, count me in Charles....even though I'm a new user to Cubic and learning more day by day... :)

[vsboost]

Ill contribute for sure.

[cjcliffe]

@NN4F @vsboost thanks! I'll probably be working on the outline for a few iterations; feel free to comment or suggest any changes as I go.

[henrybehmann]

Hi Charles,

Please ignore my previous message.I have found the offset setting. All I was seeing in the menu selection was offset tune. I didn't see the first item in the menu. Sorry about that. I am getting olda nd this is what happens. I am looking forward to the manual so I can make use of all the features you have in this program. Now I will try for HF and see what I can catch.

I very much appreciate all the effort and dedication that went into CubicSDR. I like it better than the other SDR software I have tried. I look forward to saving frequencies from a list so I don't have to enter that every time I monitor a different station.

Thanks and cheers, Henry

[ghost]

There is a Hover Tips setting now which helps you finding the right keys in the right situation.

[cjcliffe]

Aye, added to the list -- 0.2.0 milestone is shrinking so I'll need to get a first draft ready for release soon :)

[theforcedk]

I like Read The docs for writing documentation (supports markdown) because it's very flexiable (and free).. you probably know it, but check out a Ruby doc page here: http://gallium.readthedocs.org/en/latest/ - more "inspiration" here: https://readthedocs.org/

[neilwillgettoit]

@cjcliffe so do you mind if I start making github wiki pages ?

[cjcliffe]

@neilwillgettoit that'd be ok with me -- I'm not 100% sure on the layout or format yet though; that's what #348 is going to help decide.

[Dantali0n]

I really like readthedocs and the way it looks, especially the way codeigniter did it https://www.codeigniter.com/user_guide/

[cjcliffe]

Yeah I think ReadTheDocs is looking like a good option; I'm going to start listing the choices over in #348