Use the virtual wheel to tune the active slice¶
Use the on-screen virtual tuning wheel in the AetherControl dialog to change the frequency of the currently active slice with mouse or trackpad gestures, simulating the feel of a physical rotary controller.
Before you start¶
- Open the AetherControl dialog:
Settings > AetherControl...
Steps¶
- In the AetherControl dialog, locate the Wheel control at the top. It shows the current slice frequency and mode.
- Double-click the wheel to capture mouse input for circular tuning. The wheel becomes active for tuning gestures.
- Drag in a circular motion around the wheel to tune. Drag clockwise to increase frequency, counter-clockwise to decrease.
- To release the mouse capture, double-click the wheel again. Press Escape as a secondary release path.
- (Optional) To reverse the tuning direction, click Reverse.
- (Optional) To enable panadapter-based tuning, click External Spin. When enabled, dragging on the panadapter also triggers spin-wheel tuning.
What each control does¶
| Control | Default | Range | Setting key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wheel | β | β | None (renders current slice) |
| Physical | β | β | None (shows connection state) |
| Compact | Off | On/Off | None |
| External Spin | Off | On/Off | FlexControlVirtualExternalSpin |
| Reverse | Off | On/Off | FlexControlInvertDir |
| Push (action) | β | β | FlexControlButtonAction_* |
| Double-tap (action) | β | β | None |
| Wheel Tightness | 45 | 0β100 (0 = tight, 100 = loose) | FlexControlVirtualWheel (nested JSON looseness field) |
| Mouse Sensitivity | 50 | 0β100 (0 = less, 100 = more) | FlexControlVirtualWheel (nested JSON sensitivity field) |
| Aux buttons 1β5 | β | 5 buttons | None |
Wheel action options¶
The following actions are available for wheel-based controls (Push, Double-tap, and aux button combos):
| Action ID | Description |
|---|---|
WheelRit |
RIT (Receive Incremental Tuning) |
WheelXit |
XIT (Transmit Incremental Tuning) |
WheelVolume |
Master Volume |
WheelSliceAudio |
Slice Audio Volume |
WheelHeadphoneVolume |
Headphone Volume |
WheelAgcT |
AGCT (Automatic Gain Control Threshold) |
WheelApf |
APF (Audio Peaking Filter) |
Auxiliary buttons¶
The dialog provides five configurable auxiliary buttons (labeled with aux dots to indicate active selection). Each button has:
- Aux single-tap combo: Assigns an action to single-tapping the selected aux button.
- Aux double-tap combo: Assigns an action to double-tapping the selected aux button.
These settings are stored per aux button.
Tips¶
- Mouse capture has been simplified to a single double-click toggle: double-click to capture, double-click again to release. This replaces the previous click-to-capture, Escape-to-release behavior for a cleaner user experience.
- The virtual wheel responds to circular mouse or trackpad drags. Single-event pointer deltas are clamped to 15Β° (Ο/12 radians) per event to reduce jitter.
- When your pointer crosses through the center dead zone, the anchor resets. The next movement starts a new tuning gesture without computing a delta.
- Wheel Tightness and Mouse Sensitivity are stored together in a single JSON object under
FlexControlVirtualWheel. In earlier versions, Wheel Tightness was stored separately asFlexControlVirtualWheelLooseness; this is auto-migrated on first read. - The wheel shows the slice frequency in Hz and the current mode (e.g., USB, CW, AM).
- Click Compact to toggle compact mode, which hides auxiliary buttons and shows only the wheel and frequency for a minimal UI.
- The Physical indicator shows physical FlexControl connection state and port name. Use the Detect/Close buttons to manage the physical device.