Macros

V1.0.9.9 adds a simple Macro function. The "Macros" button (bottom centre of main screen) opens the Macros Window. This is divided into a 5x5 matrix of buttons that can be programmed to perform user defined tasks. A button is programmed by right clicking on it and selecting "Edit" from the context menu that pops up. In the dialogue box, give the macro a title, enter background and foreground colours for it and give it a definition. Currently, you specify colours as text strings - "Yellow", "Red", "LightBlue" etc. Windows recognises a wide range of colours by name - experiment! If you enter a colour that Windows does not recognise, you will get an error message when you try to save the definition. At some point in the future, I'll put in the effort to change these to combo-boxes in order to simplify the data entry.

The macro definition is currently a string containing one or more CAT commands. For example, the string "FA007074000;MD0C;" will prepare you to run 40m FT8 by tuning to 7.074MHz and switching to DUSB mode. Note that each CAT command must be terminated with a semicolon. You can compose the definition string with reference to the FTdx101 CAT command manual. Alternatively, the Trace Window (opened with the TW button) can help - the right hand list pane displays the commands that are sent to the radio. Perform the functions that you want to program onto the macro button via the 101Cats main window while observing the Trace Window (but do note that there will be other traffic displayed as well, so don't copy commands blindly, check them back to the CAT command manual if necessary.

Be careful with the commands you send to the radio - particularly if you are not familiar with driving a radio via CAT commands. It should not be possible to physically damage the radio, but you could get it into a strange state that might require a factory reset!

Starting with V1.2.0.0, the number of macros is user configurable. Currently, this can only be configured by manually editing the macro definition file, Macros.xml. The top-level element of this file now optionally takes the number of rows and columns in the macros matrix as attributes e.g.

        <Macros rows="6" cols="8">
            .....
        </Macros>
    

For backwards compatibility, these two attributes are optional and default to 5 and 5. If you start 101Cats with an old style macros file and save it, the new attributes will be added. You can manually edit the macros.xml file to change the number of rows and columns, but you will also have to edit any macro definitions in it to make them consistent with the new dimensions of the macros table.

With the latest releases of Windows, the Documents directory can be slightly ill-defined and it may be difficult to locate the Macros.xml file for manual editing. This is particularly true on PCs that have OneDrive configured according to Microsoft's recommendations. If you are unable to find Macros.xml, or have apparently found it but 101Cats seems to be ignoring your edits, then try the following.

Open an instance of Windows PowerShell (it must be PowerShell, Command will not work) and enter the following command :

Get-ChildItem ([environment]::getfolderpath(“personal”)+ "/G8FXC/101Cats")

That should display a directory listing (including "Macros.xml") and precede it with the path to that directory. On my PC, it is showing :

This is the copy of Macros.xml that you need to edit. If you want to take a backup, this is also the file.

Starting with V1.2.0.1, it is possible to insert user definable delays into the macro definition. Insert a string of one or more hash characters (#) into the definition. The delay string must be terminated with a semi-colon in much the same way as any other macro command. Each hash character in the definition string equates to a delay of 50mS.

          <Macro Row="0" Column="3" Background="Black" Foreground="Yellow" Title="usb dxp"
                    Definition="MD02;EX030117+05;##;AB;BI1;ML0001;ML1040;###;ST2;FR00;RF02;RF12;SS0550000;SS0670000;"/>
    

Rick (I2BRT) has created a macro file that you may find useful. It can be downloaded via this link. He has supplied the following documentation for it:

DIM LCD

            DA00000000;EX04010400;
        DA00000000; - TFT and LED Brightness level to zero
        EX04010400; TFT Contrast to zero

NORMAL LCD

     DA00001510;EX04010410;
    DA00001510; - TFT level to 15 and LED Brightness level to 10
    EX04010410; TFT Contrast to 10   

USB DX PEDITION

        MD02; - Set mode USB
    EX030117+05; - Preset split +5
    AB; - Copy VfoA to VfoB
    BI1; - Set Break-in On
    ML0001; - Set Monitor On
    ML1040; - Set Monitor level 40
    ST2; - Split on +5
    FR00; - Set VfoB Rx On
    RF02; - Set VfoA roofing filter 3 KHz
    RF12; - Set VfoB roofing filter 3 KHz
    SS0550000; - Set Main Spectrum Scope Span 50 KHz
    SS0670000; - Set Main Spectrum Scope Mode to Waterfall Cursor normal size
    

CW DX PEDITION

    MD03; - Set mode CW
    EX030117+01; - Preset split +1
    AB; - Copy VfoA to VfoB
    BI1; - Set Break-in On
    ML0001; - Set Monitor On
    ML1020; - Set Monitor level 20
    ST2; - Split on +1
    FR00; - Set VfoB Rx On
    CO020001; - Set VfoA APF On
    CO020001; - Set VfoB APF Off
    RF05; - Set VfoA roofing filter 300 Hz
    RF12; - Set VfoB roofing filter 3 KHz
    SS0520000; - Set Main Spectrum Scope Span 10 KHz
    SS0670000; - Set Main Spectrum Scope Mode to Waterfall Cursor normal size
    

SET SPAN to 1

S0500000;

SPAN to 5

SS0520000;

SET SPAN to 10

S0530000;

SET SPAN to 20

SS0540000;

SET SPAN to 50

SS0550000;

SET SPAN to 100

SS0560000;

SET SPAN to 200

SS0570000;

SET SPAN to 500

SS0580000;

SET WATERFALL TO FIXED

SS06A0000;

SET WATERFALL TO CURSOR

SS0670000;

SET WATERFALL TO CENTER

SS0640000;

SET WATERFALL LEVEL TO +5

SS04+05.0;

SET WATERFALL LEVEL TO +10

SS04+10.0;

SET MAX POWER OUT TO 50W

PC050;

SET MAX POWER OUT TO 100W

PC100;

SET MAX POWER OUT TO 200W

PC200;

Last modified: 06 February 2025