AetherControl / FlexControl Dialog¶
The AetherControl dialog configures the FlexControl hardware controller and provides a virtual tuning wheel for the active slice. It includes wheel tuning, push-button action mapping, five auxiliary buttons with single- and double-tap actions, compact mode, and automatic reconnection for the physical device.
Opening the dialog¶
Open the AetherControl dialog: Settings > AetherControlβ¦
What each control does¶
| Control | Default | Valid range | Setting key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wheel (indicator) | β | β | β |
| Physical (indicator) | β | β | β |
| Compact (toggle button) | Off | β | FlexControlCompactMode |
| External Spin (toggle button) | Off | β | β |
| Reverse (toggle button) | Off | β | β |
| Push (action) (combo box) | β | β | FlexControlButtonAction_* |
| Double-tap (action) (combo box) | β | β | β |
| Wheel Tightness (slider) | 45 | 0β100 | FlexControlVirtualWheel (nested JSON, looseness field) |
| Mouse Sensitivity (slider) | 50 | 0β100 | FlexControlVirtualWheel (nested JSON, sensitivity field) |
| Aux buttons 1β5 (push button) | β | β | β |
| Aux single-tap combo (combo box) | β | β | β |
| Aux double-tap combo (combo box) | β | β | β |
Virtual wheel¶
- Wheel β Rotate with mouse or touch to tune the active slice. Shows the frequency and mode readout.
- Reverse β Click to reverse the wheel tuning direction.
- Wheel Tightness β Adjusts virtual wheel coasting drag; 0 = tight (fast stop), 100 = loose (long coast). Primarily affects trackpads; does not affect the physical FlexControl. The slider is labeled with Tight and Loose endpoints.
- Mouse Sensitivity β Adjusts how much captured mouse or trackpad movement turns the virtual wheel. Midpoint (50) yields 1.0x scale. The slider is labeled with Less and More endpoints. Pointer deltas are clamped to 15Β° (Ο/12) per event to avoid jitter, and the anchor re-centers when the pointer crosses the wheel's center dead-zone without computing a delta.
Physical FlexControl¶
- Physical β Shows the physical FlexControl connection state and port name. Use Detect and Close buttons to manage the physical device.
- The physical device reconnects automatically if it is unplugged and reinserted, or if the port becomes unavailable. Retry intervals start at 2 seconds and back off to a maximum of 30 seconds for persistent failures. The port is re-detected on each retry in case a USB re-enumeration assigned a different COM port.
Compact mode¶
- Click Compact to hide the auxiliary buttons and their action combo boxes, leaving only the wheel and frequency/mode readout.
- Click Compact again to restore the full view.
External spin¶
Click External Spin to enable spin-wheel tuning gestures from the panadapter. Dragging on the panadapter then triggers spin-wheel tuning.
Action mapping¶
- Push (action) β Assigns an action to pushing the wheel (single tap).
- Double-tap (action) β Assigns an action to double-tapping the wheel.
- Aux buttons 1β5 β Five configurable auxiliary buttons. Each has a single-tap and double-tap action combo box. The active button is indicated by an aux dot label.
Available wheel actions¶
The following actions can be assigned to wheel presses and auxiliary button taps:
| Action ID | Display Name |
|---|---|
| ModeCycle | Mode Cycle |
| StepZoom | Step Zoom |
| ZoomReset | Zoom Reset |
| BandUp | Band Up |
| BandDown | Band Down |
| 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) |
Note: The Slice Audio Volume action (WheelSliceAudio) adjusts the audio volume of the active slice independently from the master and headphone volumes.
Window sizing behavior (v26.7.4)¶
The AetherControl dialog uses a scrollable layout. When compact mode is off, the window ensures the full controller is available even on short or DPI-scaled screens. The content area scrolls vertically when its intrinsic height exceeds the available screen height. The minimum window width tracks the content's minimum width to prevent horizontal clipping.