Keyboard

Keyboard

OrcSDR supports the M5Stack Tab5 Keyboard: you can type Wi-Fi passwords and frequencies, move between controls with the arrow keys, and press them with Enter, without touching the screen.

Version note: keyboard support was added after the published v0.3.0-beta.1 and is in the main source (merged in pull request 132, with the Airband scope following in 144). If you run the beta.1 release it is not there yet. Run your own build or wait for the next release.

Connect it

1. Plug the keyboard into the Tab5 Ext. Port 1 (the expansion connector on the bottom edge). OrcSDR talks to it over I2C at address 0x6D.
2. Nothing needs configuring. It is detected when plugged in, and re-detected within about two seconds if you unplug and replug it.
3. To check it from a serial console, send RTL_KEYBOARD STATUS. present=1 means it is attached; bus_errors should stay at 0. See the Serial Command Reference.

Typing text

Wherever OrcSDR asks for text, such as a Wi-Fi password or a location, you can type on the keyboard.

Key	What it does
Letters, digits, punctuation	Add to the field
Backspace or Del	Remove the last character
Ctrl + U	Clear the whole line
Enter	Accept
Esc	Cancel
Tab	Show or hide a masked field (a password)

Moving around with the arrow keys

On Home, Settings, and the dashboards, a yellow ring shows which control is focused.

Key	What it does
Arrow keys	Move the ring to the nearest control in that direction
Enter	Press the focused control, exactly like tapping it. Hold or repeat it to keep pressing, for example to step a frequency
Esc	Hide the ring, or go back to Home

The ring follows the screen: it rebuilds when you change screen, tab, or open a popup (for example the Home GAIN and FILTER popups), so you move around whatever is currently showing.

Number pad (frequency entry)

When the frequency keypad is open (FM, AM and Shortwave), the keyboard drives it directly:

Key	What it does
0 to 9 and .	Type the frequency
Backspace	Delete the last digit
Enter	Tune
Esc	Cancel
Arrow keys	Move around the keypad buttons if you prefer to press them

Radio shortcuts

On the radio dashboards (FM, AM, Shortwave, CB), the keys work like a typical SDR program:

Key	What it does
Left / Right	Step the frequency down or up by one step
Down / Up	Step by ten steps
0 to 9	Open frequency entry with that digit already typed (FM, AM, Shortwave)
M	Mute or unmute
+ / -	Volume up or down
Space	Scan (FM presets, AM, CB)
Tab	Switch between these shortcuts and arrow-key focus navigation
Esc	Go to Home

Press Tab to move the ring over the on-screen controls on these screens; press it again to return to the shortcuts.

Home controls

The Home screen's controls (span, tune, step size, filter, gain, palette and speed) can all be reached with the arrow keys and pressed with Enter. Opening the FILTER box shows a popup of standard widths for the band you are on, a STANDARD button, and an EDGES button that shows or hides the two filter lines on the spectrum.

Troubleshooting

• Nothing happens when I type: run RTL_KEYBOARD STATUS. If present=0, reseat the keyboard in Ext. Port 1 and check it is powered. If bus_errors is climbing, check the connection.
• Keys appear in the wrong place: make sure the keyboard is in character mode; the status line shows mode=2 when it is.
• Test without the keyboard: an authenticated serial session can send keys with RTL_KEYBOARD KEY <name>. See the Serial Command Reference.

What is not covered yet

The keyboard shortcuts above were designed for the radio dashboards. The Airband dashboard's controls are focusable with the arrow keys and Enter, but it does not have its own letter shortcuts.