RDS and volume-related V3 Alpha firmware issue.

I've been doing hobby electronic assembly since valves were the norm. Despite having correctly assembled, tested, verified and reverified the soldering in my replacement PCATS tuner I still cannot get the auto frequency part of RDS to work. The tuner stubbornly sticks to one frequency even when it fades right out and there's a much stronger alternative of the same broadcast available. I seem to recall it worked properly with the original tuner but it's been so long I can't remember.

I made the move from V2.01 to V3 alpha 11 firmware to get the retune button functionality back, thinking this might also have an effect on RDS. It didn't but at least I can now easily change to a working signal again.

But V3 seems to have introduced another nasty problem not mentioned in the release notes. Often when turning the volume down it instead goes up - and keeps going up all the way to the end stop - even when the control is no longer being turned.

Usually that's a problem with the hardware, particularly the rotary encoder. Can you verify it's not a hardware problem?

It may be. And a coincidence that it only started to give trouble when I switched firmware versions possibly.

FAQ entry for this (filling in for Tony

http://www.riocar.org/modules.php?op=mod...;faqent=263#263

There is code in the firmware, and also hijack to try and deal with how the rotary encoders degrade over time, termed "debounce". If you don't have hijack installed (and stock upgrades will wipe it out), may be worth putting it on to see if it helps before going with the hardware replacement.

Thanks for the pointer to Hijack. I was aware of it but didn't think it was installed. But as I bought 2nd hand it's quite possible the previous owner out it on there. Don't believe it's compatible with V3.0 firmware but will double and either apply, or downgrade to V2 then apply.

GeoffT.

It is. Hijack is a replacement Linux kernel for the Linux kernel contained in the firmware. The player software for V3.0 runs on top of it just fine.