Read signal history as a scrolling 3D surface¶
Enable the 3D FFT spectrum view to see signal history rendered as a forward-scrolling 3D surface instead of the traditional 2D waterfall. The surface shows elevation shadows from slice flags and resynchronizes its floor after bandwidth zoom.
Before you start¶
- Your AetherSDR must be connected to a FLEX-8600 radio (see [Radio Setup...] in the Settings menu).
- A panadapter must be visible in the main window showing spectrum and waterfall data.
Steps¶
- Locate the 3D FFT view toggle button on the panadapter — it is labeled with the 3D FFT icon and sits with the other spectrum controls in the SpectrumWidget area.
- Click the 3D FFT view toggle button once to enable the 3D surface view. The spectrum display switches from the flat 2D waterfall to a scrolling 3D surface.
- To return to the standard 2D view, click the same 3D FFT view toggle button again to disable it.
What each control does¶
| Control | Default | Behavior | Setting key |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3D FFT view toggle | Disabled | Enables/disables the 3D FFT spectrum view showing signal history as a forward-scrolling surface with elevation shadows and smooth-scroll boundaries. | None |
| Slice title | Slice A | Shows which slice is bound to this panadapter (Slice A..Slice H). | None |
| ⬈ / ↩ (pop-out/dock) | — | Pops the panadapter out into a floating window or docks it back. Hidden in single-pan mode; always available when the panadapter is hosted on the workspace canvas. | None |
| □ (maximize) | — | Maximizes this panadapter in a multi-pan layout. Hidden in single-pan mode. | None |
| × (close) | — | Closes this panadapter. Hidden in single-pan mode. | None |
| Spectrum / waterfall | — | Click activates the panadapter; drag to tune, scroll to zoom. | None |
| CW stats label | — | Shows detected CW pitch and speed as <hz> Hz <wpm> WPM. |
None |
| Sens | 30 | Filters low-confidence decodes; higher = stricter. Maps 0-100 to cost threshold 1.0-0.1. | CwDecoderSensitivity |
| 🔒P (Lock Pitch) | — | Locks the CW decoder pitch to the current tuned frequency. | None |
| 🔒S (Lock Speed) | — | Locks the CW decoder speed to the current WPM. | None |
| Lo (pitch min) | 500 | Minimum pitch the CW decoder searches; clamped ≤ Hi. Range 300-1200 Hz. | None |
| Hi (pitch max) | 700 | Maximum pitch the CW decoder searches; clamped ≥ Lo. Range 300-1200 Hz. | None |
| CPY ALL | — | Copies the full decoded text to the clipboard. | None |
| CPY VIS | — | Copies only the text currently visible in the scroll area. | None |
| CLR | — | Clears the CW decode buffer. | None |
| ✕ (close CW) | — | Hides the CW decode panel. | None |
| CW decode text | — | Read-only rolling display of decoded CW coloured by confidence (green <0.15, yellow <0.35, orange <0.60, red ≥0.60). | None |
Waterfall freeze and reconnect behavior¶
- The waterfall freezes whenever any client (including a second FlexRadio client) transmits, and resumes when transmission ends. This is driven by the radio's interlock TRANSMITTING state, eliminating the 10-23 s TX-trail artifact after unkeying.
- On radio reconnect, the desired panadapter FPS and waterfall line duration are reasserted automatically, preventing silently dropping to the radio's 10 Hz default.
- Secondary panadapters (Slices B-H) have their dBm range primed on reconnect so the noise-floor auto-adjust starts from the correct baseline rather than the default [-50, +50] range that caused flat spectrum on reconnect.
Tips¶
- Slice flags cast cached elevation shadows on the 3D surface, making active slice positions easier to identify at a glance.
- The 3D surface floor resynchronizes automatically after you change the bandwidth zoom level, preventing a flat or misaligned baseline.
- The 3D FFT view shares the same panadapter freeze behavior as the 2D waterfall — during transmit (from any client), the display freezes and resumes when transmission ends.
Canvas hosting¶
When the panadapter is hosted as an item on the workspace canvas (rather than in the standard stack layout):
- The title strip streams a live-move gesture you can drag to reposition the panadapter on the canvas.
- A 6 px drag threshold separates a click (which activates the panadapter) from a drag.
- The pop-out button remains available even in single-pan mode while on the canvas, so you can always float a canvas-hosted panadapter.