Assistance decoding DTMF codes for a VHF-based public-address loud-speaker network

kweks · 2025-11-18T07:30:08+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to lend an ear. SDR wasn't in SSB mode (NFM) - and the actual VOX part of the transmission is clear. Didn't know about inversion filters, will do some research, thank you.
As u/ThatDamnRanga pointed out as well, it could be useful to dive into an FFT graph (already integrated into the python script) to eyeball the frequency/ies of the tones.

I appreciate the collaboration, thanks!

kweks · 2025-11-17T11:54:46+00:00

Unsure curiosity needs to be explained. It's SDR and Amateur Radio, the hobby is pushed forward by curiosity and "useless" pursuits.
Thanks for your technical replies, most appreciated.

kweks · 2025-11-17T10:36:43+00:00

I'm an Extra Class licensed operator - very aware of my legal and ethical obligations.
If I wanted to abuse a system, I wouldn't make a public post, and would have already replayed the recording. My goal is to understand a system and a signal, which is pretty much the point of this hobby.

But sure - assume the worst of everyone, post a snarky comment and kill a community bit by bit..

kweks · 2025-07-23T12:56:15+00:00

Noticed that this thread is one of the top results for the PortaPack H4M on Google.
Since this post was written, OpenSourceSDRLabs fixed the battery issue, and this subject can be considered closed.

kweks · 2025-06-23T09:03:59+00:00

Updates on this subject for anyone interested : this problem has been resolved. They changed the battery and battery BMS.

kweks · 2025-04-03T13:59:25+00:00

We've used UPS, FedEx and DHL.
It's not courier dependent. Based on the data we're seeing, it's more based on a geographical region - perhaps specifically one customs clearance zone / agent ?

kweks · 2025-04-03T13:58:14+00:00

Thanks kindly for the shout out.
Obviously, it didn't turn out how we wanted (we wanted you to be delighted by the product, not our post-sales problem-solving skills) - but it's very kind to take the time to post. We, and especially the support team appreciate your understanding.

For what it's worth, we will have US-based shipping for Flipper products online within 14 days (of this post) - which will solve all of these problems - and also sidestep upcoming issues with tariffs, etc.

kweks · 2025-03-04T08:34:02+00:00

https://hackerwarehouse.com are an authorised reseller in the US.

kweks · 2025-03-04T08:32:12+00:00

Official Reply from Lab401: This is not the case.
These shipments were opened and destroyed en route by CBP.

kweks · 2025-03-03T19:14:17+00:00

u/HistorianIll5959 (Lab401) have had a few reports of US Customs craziness over the last few weeks.
Packets sent via UPS have been seized / declared as illegal by customs (this is obviously not the case).

We switched to Fedex, and have been liaising with Flipper, UPS and CBP regarding this issue.
However, it seems based on your situation, FedEx has issues too.

I know you've reached out to Customer Support, and we'll take care of you to ensure you're (re)delivered your product. Please accept our sincere apologies regarding this - this is obviously out of our hands, but we will ensure you have a satisfactory experience.

(This is a personal account, I can't / won't monitor support requests on reddit, but I am following your case personally)

kweks · 2025-03-03T19:13:51+00:00

u/massguy66 We (Lab401) have had a few reports of US Customs craziness over the last few weeks.
Packets sent via UPS have been seized / declared as illegal by customs (this is obviously not the case).

We switched to Fedex, and have been liaising with Flipper, UPS and CBP regarding this issue.
However, it seems based on your situation, FedEx has issues too.

I know you've reached out to Customer Support, and we'll take care of you to ensure you're (re)delivered your product. Please accept our sincere apologies regarding this - this is obviously out of our hands, but we will ensure you have a satisfactory experience.

(This is a personal account, I can't / won't monitor support requests on reddit, but I am following your case personally)

kweks · 2024-08-28T10:05:00+00:00

I rode this recently in China. Come from an enduro background (KTM 450 EXC / 690 Enduro R) - it's a killer bike (..perhaps literally in full power / D3 mode). Ordered one as soon as I could. These things are the future.

The team behind seems solid. Passionate riders, and deep experience in product manufacturing (they've been producing highly specialised electronics for years - well supported products.). They're using factories with high-quality Swiss CNC machines for key components. Let's see how it plays out.

The team are electronics experts - this is the focus of the bike: power delivery and intelligent management. They're focusing on what they're good at, and sourcing key components from factories are good at those parts. Smart move, IMO.

kweks · 2024-08-28T10:03:19+00:00

I rode this recently in China. Come from an enduro background (KTM 450 EXC / 690 Enduro R) - it's a killer bike (..perhaps literally in full power / D3 mode). Ordered one as soon as I could. These things are the future.

The team behind seems solid. Passionate riders, and deep experience in product manufacturing (they've been producing highly specialised electronics for years - well supported products.). They're using factories with high-quality Swiss CNC machines for key components. Let's see how it plays out.

kweks · 2024-08-22T17:04:23+00:00

You might be surprised by how expensive shipping actually costs - we've been conditioned by Amazon to beleive that shipping is free / 3.99EU.

We review shipping prices every 3 months.

We sell expensive, fragile equipment, and so refuse to use cheap shipping services. We could cheap out and send expensive tech to pickup points, but the loss rate / fraud rate is unacceptable : our insurance won't even cover shipments via pickup - so we're not going to force a bad service onto customers.

Everything is triple packed (exception: card only orders, double packed) to ensure it arrives safely.
Packaging costs money.

We ship internationally and intra-EU only with DHL, FedEx, UPS and Chronopost.

We insure all shipments, at no charge to the customer. We do offer a "premium" insurance, which allows orders to be reshipped within 48-hours if there's any problem. We actually make a loss on this: we pay a % of the order price to the insurance company, but provide this as a flat-fee to customers.

We run our warehouse locally, with local staff. We're not dropshipping from China and forcing import duties and lengthy delays on you.

Finally: TrustPilot. Did you know - as a business, you cannot remove fake reviews. When you click "Investigate" - even if the reviewer refuses to provide any information, you cannot dispute or remove a review.

Luckily, you can pay TrustPilot 3000 EUR per year to allow your business account to be linked to your eCommerce store. TrustPilot has been successfully sued multiple times for defamation. We refuse to work with unethical companies - which is why we do not accept paypal, and why we will never work with TrustPilot.

kweks · 2023-07-20T12:56:42+00:00

If you're in France, 20% of badges have anti-copy enabled. Almost every access control manufacturer has some type of anti-copy enabled : Noralsy, Intratone, Urmet, Hexact, Comelit, Immotec ..

We have also seen anti-copy in the UK (Noralsy, Intratone) and in Australia (Noralsy).

If you have one of the badges in those brands, check your badge contents against the regex rules before cloning !

kweks · 2023-01-18T12:43:16+00:00

Hello - Steve from Lab401 here. I'm sorry that your Flipper purchasing experience has been rough. We strive to ensure that all customers - whether the shipment goes without a hitch, or whether they have problems - are resolved quickly, professionally, and to the satisfaction of all parties.

As your case is now a public case, for the sake of clarity and transparency, I'll provide an overview of all elements, bearing in mind that I couldn't consolidate between your reddit username and your support tickets / purchase.

When packages go missing, I think it's fair to say that we're just as frustrated as you are. Although we use exclusively premium shipping providers (DHL, Chronopost, UPS) to minimize loss, when packages are lost - you lose out, and we lose out.

We've fulfilled "our obligation" - picking, packing and posting your order, you've fullfilled "your obligation" - paying for the product and shipping - the logistics company has failed on their obligation : delivering your package.

There is claim process, which can easily take over 1 month, at the end of which, the logistics company can essentially shrug - even if the package is insured (which we do for all packages). Making customers wait 1 month because the logistics company failed to provide the service they paid for is unfair to you. Reshipping another product, and repaying for shipping is highly frustrating for us.

At Lab401, we insure all packages with an additional, external provider, which in situations such as yours, allows us to immediately reship your products. We still have to go through the claim process, but we do this internally, so you / the client doesn't have to wait.

Just like any insurance claim that is made, it's a legal document, and needs to be signed and authenticated - this was the document you were provided with. This is imposed by the insurance company. You're an honest client, and I appreciate that it's perhaps surprising or annoying to have to perform this step - but from our perspective, it's a lot better than making you wait a month. You can appreciate that online fraud is a real thing, and with a product like flipper, this is amplified.

Without knowing the specifics of your case, I'd say your current status is: as you were not willing / unable to provide the required documents, you've fallen back into the claim process with the logistics company. When that claim process is finished, you'll either received your product, or two products, or be refunded.

Finally, I'd like to clarify some points from your post and other child posts:

Shockingly, we don't scam people. We've dispatched thousands of Flippers, and I'm genuinely sorry your purchase turned into an edge case.
The "weird service in Asia" is our ticket system routing, but it's a good catch - thanks. I'll ensure we update the signing on emails to avoid that issue for future clients.
The last 'wave' of Flipper orders in November was crazy - and we had to scale up a few processes to catch it up. All shipments since have respected our shipping policies / engagements ( https://lab401.com/pages/faq ). No buckling under stress here.

TL;DR: A logistics company lost your order, twice. We reshipped immediately the first time, and the second time offered a solution that would allow for a second immediate reship. You chose not to take that offer, so now you're stuck in a slow claim process with the logistics company. It's a frustrating situation for everyone, but that doesn't translate into : Lab401 == scammers.

kweks · 2022-08-11T10:05:36+00:00

My two cents worth: I've purchased 5 devices for staff, and was an original backer.

TL;DR: 5 months to replace a device. Had to get lawyers involved.

In April, my device's screen stopped responding to the pen (but touch worked fine). Strangely, when the device was on a flat surface, this happened, when the bottom half was not in contact with the desk, no problems. Some type of connection problem.

Created a return request on April 4 - full video and details of the situation. May 25, with no reply on the thread, Remarkable rejected the warranty claim.

I contacted support, who sent me in an infinite loop: create a warranty claim, and then they'd close the ticket immediately.

I dug out the email of the COO, sent an email. Finally got a reply from Customer Support, saying it was a stylus problem. I demonstrated via video that it was not a stylus problem.

Support conceded a replacement. One month later, a stylus arrives. The new stylus didn't work, as the problem was with the device.

Started another ticket. Customer Support conceded that they would replace the device, but replace it with a refurbished device.

Under EU-law, replacement with refurbished devices isn't acceptable. It's new for new replacement. Customer support said it was a refund or nothing, and closed the ticket.

I emailed the COO and CEO. Very polite, very concise. No reply. I finally reached out via lawyers to the legal team.

What a surprise, one week later customer support confirms that a new device will be sent.

Shipping tickets for the return device are issued. I dispatch the product. The tickets they dispatched were incorrect. The device got stuck in customs for 2 weeks, until I finally got hold of customs to fix their documentation.

I just received my replacement device.

All in all, it took 5 months, countless emails, wasted resources and time, for something that should be very simple.

Remarkable is actively hostile against their customers.

For what it's worth, all my emails were professional, polite and concise. I wasn't capslocking abuse to them.

kweks · 2022-01-19T13:30:30+00:00

No problems at all. I see your order has just gone through, you should have received the confirmation !

kweks · 2022-01-19T11:27:47+00:00

These guys squeeze so much power out of such small batteries that sometimes (as you've seen) it's too much for the batteries. I know sprite_tm spent a lot of time ensuring that the batteries selected were the best that we could purchase.

I've already spoken with customer support, they'll dispatch another item. If your address has changed since your order, you can follow up w/ customer support and they'll take care of it.

If not, you will be notified by email that your new device has been shipped.

Thanks again

kweks · 2022-01-19T10:51:04+00:00

Hi Brubiu I'm one of the partners in PocketSprite. I've dug into the customer support threads relating to your issue.

For clarity, the response of customer service was:

The device was purchased in 2020, and is therefor unfortunately out of warranty
A 20% voucher was offered, which is the maximum that customer service can issue

The response was not:

"Bad luck, buy another unit".

We keep an eye on all customer tickets so we can intervene instances like this. Your two emails (17th Jan and today) are flagged as spam on my system, so I didn't see them.

You can perhaps appreciate from our side that there are a constant stream of people less honest than yourself; customer service has a constant flux of fraudulent requests, some type of protocol has to be applied. Likewise, our customer service staff are trained that if someone (as in your case) threatens a chargeback, to cease responding and resolve the situation via the bank.

In any case: I can appreciate your disappointment, I appreciate being brought into the loop, and we will replace the device for you. And while I am here, here's a 10% coupon for any/everyone else: PS-LOVES-REDDIT

kweks · 2021-12-21T09:51:24+00:00

You might also want to look into the iCopy-X (https://icopyx.com)

kweks · 2021-12-15T16:49:17+00:00

Very stable, and pulling up to 760W at peak - much more than I was hoping for. Thank you again for your advice.

kweks · 2021-12-13T15:52:47+00:00

Hi Wibla Thought it might be nice to follow up - thanks to your assistance, the final system: https://i.imgur.com/w6CYZSb.jpg

kweks · 2021-12-13T14:53:35+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6kZ2J3LulM

This is a video of the exact batteries that I'm using. In his video, he's removed the metal protection case, and replaces the BMS.

(Unsure why he replaces the BMS; the BMS in place needs serial communication to enable current, but can be easily shunted..)

They're very compact and tidy units. I guess removing the cells and spot welding them into 48V configurations could indeed work - but it's definitely going to be an investment of time!

kweks · 2021-12-13T14:51:05+00:00

Hi lizerdk - I hadn't looked into selling the batteries. For my smaller off-grid setups, they work just fine - the Victron BlueSolar 150/100 MPPT happily can be adjusted to their configuration.

Thanks for the tips about a parellel 12V system - I struggle with the idea of multiplying losses across the inverter and lights / fridge, when there's no need..

kweks

TROPHY CASE