cocoaModem


What’s New in cocoaModem 2.0 v0.21 and v0.22 

Kok Chen, W7AY [w7ay@arrl.net]
Last updated: Mar 5, 2006




What has changed in v0.21 ?

This release of cocoaModem is mainly a Universal Binary release, together with the co-release of a helper app for controlling hardware PTT, a new “NetAudio” interface and some bug fixes.


Universal Binary



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cocoaModem 2.0 v0.21 is now built as a Universal Binary. The cocoaModem executable should now run natively on either PowerPC or Intel based Macintoshes.


cocoaPTT

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I have written a small standalone application called
cocoaPTT to control the RTS and DTR lines on a serial port.

cocoaModem 2.0 v0.21 has internal script files to control cocoaPTT, which runs as a separate application from cocoaModem.

cocoaPTT is small enough to be easily modified to suit your own needs (certainly much easier to modify than modifying cocoaModem itself) if the functionality of cocoaPTT is insufficient to meet your needs.

Read both the cocoaPTT manual and Section 2.0 (
Sending AppleScript Messages to Other Applications) in the cocoaModem AppleScripting manual if you want to make cocoaModem use cocoaPTT.


NetAudio

I have implemented an alternate path for audio samples to get into cocoaModem in addtion to the usual path through A/D converters and CoreAudio. The new path, which I am calling NetAudio, is done through a Zeroconf (“Bonjour”) network port that allows “front-end” processors to feed audio samples to cocoaModem.

NetAudio will later be used as a path to fetch data from software definable radios and applications such as HF Channel simulators. These “front-ends” can be applications that run on the same machine as cocoaModem or an application that runs on a different machine on the same local network (either wired or wireless Macintoshes).

To cocoaModem’s modems, these devices appear as if they are regular input devices. See Section 2.4.5 (
NetAudio Devices) of the cocoaModem User's Manual for details.


Modems tab in Preference panel

You can now remove modems that you don’t commonly use from cocoaModem’s main window. This should free up some memory usage and also reduce the clutter in the tab (not a big deal for now, but when more modems are added, the tab might get busy). (Requires a relaunch to take effect.)

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(No, the MFSK tab does not do anything yet :-)


PSK Mode bug fix

Version 0.20 introduced a bug where only BPSK31 is accessible. I have reconnected the PSK mode menus to QPSK31, BPSK63 and QPSK63 modes.


Slashed-zero checkbox

On version 0.20 and earlier, Dual RTTY and Wideband RTTY required a relaunch of cocoaModem for the slashed-zero checkbox in the cocoaModem Preferences to take effect. This has been fixed.


Refreshing contest macro buttons

Contest macro button captions did not get updated as you changed interface between PSK, RTTY, Dual RTTY and Wideband RTTY. This has not been a problem if you had stuck to just a single interface during a contest. v0.21 allows you to change interface at any time during a contest and get any contest macro changes you have made in a different interface.


Tooltips were left on

Tooltips (the irritating yellow information texts that pop up when you linger too long on a Cocoa control) were popping up even if you had disabled them in the preferences.