Mobile

OpenHPSDR Zeus Mobile

OpenHPSDR Zeus Mobile is the same web app you run on the desktop, just shaped for a phone screen. It is deliberately simple — the goal is "get on the air and have a chat", not full Thetis-on-glass.

If you want a full-feature Thetis experience on your phone, keep using the ON7OFF Thetis mobile app. OpenHPSDR Zeus Mobile is a different thing on purpose.

Goals

• Uncluttered. Spin the VFO, pick a band, key up. That's the loop we are optimising for.
• Quick to get on the air. No deep menus, no setup wizard on the phone — you do that bit on the desktop.
• Same backend, same radio. Mobile connects to the same Zeus.Server instance as the desktop UI. Any configuration change you make on the desktop (filters, AGC, band stacks, PA settings, DSP, etc.) applies immediately on the mobile view too. There is no separate mobile config to keep in sync.

Installing it

OpenHPSDR Zeus Mobile is a Progressive Web App. There is no app store entry and no separate download:

1. On your phone (or your desktop), open the OpenHPSDR Zeus web UI in Chrome, Edge, or Safari 17+ — typically http://<host>:6060 where <host> is the machine running Zeus.Server.
2. Look for the Install option in the browser's address bar (Chrome / Edge) or Share → Add to Home Screen (Safari on iOS).
3. OpenHPSDR Zeus Mobile now lives on your home screen / dock as its own app, with no browser chrome.

The same install flow works on desktop and pins it as a windowed app there too.

See Installation for the full PWA notes — the same mechanics apply on mobile.

A note on HTTPS and mic access

If the mobile UI loads but the mic doesn't work — or your browser refuses to even ask for mic permission — you are almost certainly talking to OpenHPSDR Zeus over plain HTTP on a LAN IP. Browsers require a secure context (HTTPS, or localhost) before they hand over getUserMedia, and a LAN IP like 192.168.1.50 is neither.

The standalone Zeus.Server (the one you run on a headless box or Pi) automatically opens an HTTPS listener on :6443 with a self-signed LAN certificate exactly for this case. Connect from your phone using https://<host>:6443 instead of http://<host>:6060. Your phone will warn about the unknown certificate the first time; accept it once and the PWA install picks up the HTTPS origin.

The desktop app does not run an HTTPS listener — it serves the UI on loopback only, which is already a secure context. If you are running the desktop app on the same machine you want to use as a mobile backend, switch to running Zeus.Server standalone instead. See Developer Guide → Ports and HTTPS modes for the full breakdown.

How this differs from the ON7OFF Thetis mobile app

The ON7OFF app is a fully-featured Thetis-style mobile client. If that's what you want, use it — we are not trying to replicate it.

OpenHPSDR Zeus has a substantial chunk of TCI implemented on the server side, aiming at parity with ExpertSDR / Thetis. The hope is that ON7OFF's app will be able to connect to an OpenHPSDR Zeus server running on macOS, Linux, or Windows — giving you Thetis-grade mobile UI on top of an OpenHPSDR Zeus backend, on platforms Thetis itself doesn't run on. That work is in progress.

We are not in competition with the other Thetis ports. We talk with the other projects and wish them well — there is room for everyone in this corner of the hobby.

Known limitations / not yet on the roadmap

No mobile-specific profile

Right now OpenHPSDR Zeus has a single set of operating settings that mobile and desktop share. In practice mobile would benefit from its own profile — different mic gain, different TX audio shaping, different default mode — because a phone's built-in microphone is not the same instrument as your desk mic.

Profiles are not yet implemented, and they are not in the immediate roadmap. When they land, switching from "desk" to "phone" will swap mic levels, TX audio, and similar inputs automatically. Until then, if you flip between desktop and mobile a lot, expect to adjust mic gain manually.

Active development

OpenHPSDR Zeus is under heavy active development. Expect a few warts on the mobile path specifically — phone browsers, getUserMedia, and varying screen sizes are a moving target. Bug reports against the mobile view are very welcome on the issue tracker.

See also

• Installation — full PWA install notes (desktop + mobile)
• Getting Started
• Troubleshooting