My approach to improvements / changes in Expert Controller Plus is that incremental change is better than ‘big-bang’ change. So, I’m making v1.0.2 available; it contains one minor improvement to the Connection settings window and performance improvements to communications with SPE Expert amplifiers.

The TCP/IP port number used by a network/serial adapter and/or Modbus relay can now be specified directly by entering its value. The ability to adjust an existing value using the ‘spinner’ / up/down arrow control has also been retained. This approach simplifies TCP port number entry and is better aligned with approach’s used by other Apps.

This new design is illustrated in the image below.

The second change is not visible in the user interface directly. It improves the performance of communications, whether that be using a USB, RS-232 or Network interface, with SPE Expert amplifiers. This has increased robustness of communication and, on low latency interfaces, speedier update of the user interface, notably the virtual LCD display.

The Support site has been updated with a revised User Guide and Release Note.

Andy

The next Beta test version of Expert Controller Plus is V0.8.0 and it contains new features, some usability improvements and a bug fix to its database/persistent storage.

The User Guide has been updated to incorporate the changes identified in this post.

As the Beta test phase is near conclusion, future updates may contain bug fixes and, perhaps, some minor usability improvements only. V0.8.0 is now, essentially, what will become V1.0.0 in August 2026. Thanks to everyone who has provided feedback over the last few months.

New Features

Power combiner support

Expert Controller Plus now supports the pairing amplifiers for use with an RF power combiner such as the SPE CO1-2. This has been achieved by extending the existing Groups feature to enable specification as an ‘RF Combiner’ group.

When a group is configured as an ‘RF Combiner’, Expert Controller Plus opens a new window that enables the following functions to be performed simultaneously: Tune, Operate/Standby, RF Power selection and Display.

Expert 1K-Taurus support

The recently announced Expert 1K-Taurus has been added to the list of supported amplifiers. It will be listed as an option automatically when Expert Controller is first installed or the ‘Restore amplifiers’ button is selected (Settings… | Amplifiers menu option)

Improvements

The following improvements have been incorporated:

• Many Expert amplifiers contain a single PA heat-sink. The temperature gauges presented in the Expert Controller Plus Gauges window can now be selected when defining an Amplifier.
• When defining an amplifier the number of RF power bands can now be selected. e.g. Low, Mid, Max or Half/Full. This tidies the amplifier settings window by removing unused properties.
• The amplifier-view windows have been moved from the ‘File | New’ menu option to just the ‘File’ option to improve discoverability and ease of use.

Bug Fixes

• A possible corruption in the database / persistent storage has been identified and is thought to impact only those using older Beta test versions. If present, this is identified by Expert Controller Plus when started. Unfortunately the most reliable fix is to restore the database to a fresh install state, thus loosing all existing configuration. If this is necessary, a pop-up message informs the user.
• When a setting such as amplifier name was changed, it did not always immediately update elsewhere in Expert Controller Plus. This has now been resolved.

Andy

Beta testing has recently identified a couple of issues, one of which impacted Expert 1K-FA amplifier operation. Both of these have now been resolved and are available in the latest Beta – Version 0.7.3 Build 1005. The issues are further described below.

DTR Support

Expert Controller and Expert Controller Plus both include support for wake and sleep of amplifier’s using the serial interface RTS signal. DTR support has now also been added to Expert Controller Plus. Either or both can now be enabled / disabled when defining an amplifier Connection.

Expert 1K-FA Interface Specifications

Beta testing also identified that, for the Expert 1K-FA only, the SET | ANTENNA configuration did not respond to navigation using the left/right arrow controls and SET button correctly. (Thanks to VK2NP for helping identify this). The issue was tracked down to a difference between the SPE Rev 2.0 interface specification and Expert 1K-FA firmware implementation.

To resolve the issue Expert Controller Plus now supports the following three interface protocols:

• SPE Expert Default
• SPE Expert 1K-FA (Rev 2.0)
• SPE Expert 1K-FA (Rev 2.0) Variant 1.

SPE are very poor at publishing and updating programming guides. The Programmers Guide for their current amplifier range was issued in 2015 and has not been updated to include later models currently supported such as the 1.5K-Taurus.

The Expert 1K-FA is a discontinued product; it’s unknown whether the Rev 2.0 specification was ever implemented in firmware and if so, in which versions. The only firm data-points are that a variant of Rev 2.0 is implemented in Series III firmware 21-12-09H and in the currently available SPE Windows software for both the Series II and Series III.

Andy

Tomorrow, I expect to release V0.5.0 of Expert Controller Plus as testing against simulated Expert 1K-FA and Expert 1.3K-FA amplifiers has gone well. It’s also seen hours of continuous, live, testing on my 2020 iMac, macOS 26.4.1 and with my Expert 1.3K-FA in the last couple of days as I’ve finally got myself back on the HF bands and am making SSB contacts around the world.

This version has refinements to the ‘Button panel’ window. I’ve now added information just above each button to identify its current state and a ‘Transmit’ / ‘Receive’ message that reflects the Tx/Rx state of a connected amplifier.

These updates make ‘Button panel’ windows much more informative and usable as an LCD or LED window is not also needed to monitor amplifier state. The ‘Button panel’ window occupies less screen space than other view windows and is ideal for those with more constrained screen real-estate.

The new ‘Button panel’ window is shown below:

The LCD panel only window has also been updated so that it can be resized from very small to very large! Drag to your preferred size!

And the last change in this release is a cosmetic one to the LCD and Buttons window. It now has a small grey rectangle surrounding the buttons to match the styling of changes made to the Buttons only window.

These last few days I’ve been hunting a bug in the communications code that caused the App to become sluggish when used on TCP/IP networks with levels of jitter higher than anticipated. I believe, it finally got squashed today, fingers-crossed!

It was pretty hard to find and impacted all amplifiers with the exception of the Expert 1K-FA. Over the last few days I’ve improved the code in this area and made a couple of releases (V0.4.1 and V0.4.2). This bug is squashed in version 0.4.3 Build 682 and can be download from the Downloads page or the App should detect this later version and offer it’s download and installation.

Andy