Radio Setup - 1.38 Not Responding

Mike va3mw

6300 frozen and won't start - 

The other day, SmartSDR wouldn't start, so I power cycled, and rebooted.  No joy.  I decided to then uninstall all SmartSDR and did a fresh install of 1.38.  The install just hangs on Win 7 64 bit.

Rebooted, power cycled again, powered up the 6300 with the power button held in and tried again.   

Restarting SmartSDR, I get the update required screen, yet the screen hangs for hours.

Closing looking at my screen, I have a somewhat hidden screen that says "SmartSDR Alert Helper (Not Responding):




I can't find anything to click on that but a small mis-sized icon in the middle of the screen that I can't expand on no matter what I try.  If I click on it, I get 







After hours of playing (and I am normally pretty good at this), I have a bricked 6300 and can't get on the air.

Mike va3mw

Ernest - W4EG

Mike ,

Please check that DAX is communicating with Smart-CAT...

In the beginning I had the similar situation and I did what you are doing;until I learned that if there is no hand shake between SmartSDR, CAT and DAX there is no radio availability.

I am just a computer jockey not an expert on the subject.

Steve N4LQ

This may not be any help but if that happened to me I would grab one of our laptops, download 1.38 and connect it via a patch cable directly to the 6300. That would be my starting point. Hopefully it would tell me where the problem is. I've eliminated the computer and any network devices. Then I would proceed from there. Good luck finding it.

Steve W6SDM

And if I didn't have a laptop, I would complete eradicate SSDR from the computer.  Remove the DAX drivers and anything else that's remaining after install, including any empty or near empty Flex directories.  Clean any remaining entries out of the register with a register cleaner.  This should bring your computer back to the state it was before you installed SSDR.

I would delete my present copy of SSDR and download a new one from the Flex web site.  Cold boot the computer and re-install SSDR. Get it up and running and then start the radio.  Hopefully, you will succeed from here.

If it works, it sounds like somehow SSDR got installed the first time with some corrupt data.  If it doesn't work, try a whole new machine like Steve, N4LQ suggested.

Good luck!

Steve

JB

I might suggest a System restore of the PC (hopefully you have this turned on and it has a recent date available) from before the problem. Then I would make sure that all SmartSDR program elements, DAX, CAT, etc. are removed (if they are still there once the restore is completed).

I would then install a earlier version of SmartSDR, SmartCAT, DAX, etc. with the installer. V1.2.17 would be a good choice.

Before starting any software, do a reboot of the 6300 (hold the power button in) and after it comes up, shut it off. Then remove the DC feed to the 6300 for 10-15 seconds or so and plug it back in.

Now start the 6300 up and when the green light goes solid, start SmartSDR. The 6300 should show that it needs to be downgraded to the earlier version (V1.2.17). Go through that process. Once complete, see if the radio starts up normally. If all is well, then upgrade back to 1.3.8 using the normal process.

Most likely issues are corrupted drivers and/or Registry issues but the above should work around that.

My fix to avoid this type of issue (once bitten myself) is to image the entire HD after everything is working correctly and then again once a week at least. That way, you could always re-image the HD if necessary.

I use Acronis (Guy, G4DWV, and others prefer other imaging programs). Best to make your own choice.

Hopefully this helps. If not, I would get a HelpDesk ticket with Flex for further sleuthing.

Iain McLachlan

I had this problem last week. All was fine, then suddenly the SSDR froze. I had to fully un-install SSDR and reinstall to get working again.

Mike va3mw

Before I do the radical things, what is more important is to figure out what caused it in the first place. The only thing I did different was that I powered off the 6300 with SSDR running. Other than that, nothing else on the computer changed. No windows update, no new programs installed, etc., I have done all the basic items as in un-install, re-installed, reboot, etc., but before I do a roll back, I need Flex involved to understand the root cause so it doesn't happen to others in the future. I haven't walked through the registry yet or done anything that the average computer user may do. The funny thing is the reason I was trying to get on was that I was testing some powerline LAN extenders for some customers and I wanted to see just how much of the HF spectrum they affected. Mike

Steve N4LQ

There are some hidden files that can cause problems. One is ssdr.settings 
I was getting errors and told to delete that file. It gets recreated. Cured my problem

As for doing a hard drive image...I use and recommend the ClickFree C6. 
You can totally loose your hard drive, install a new one and reimage it with one of these.
http://www.clickfree.com/product_attribute_selector/show/id/C6D
Steve N4LQ

Mike va3mw

Thanks Steve, I will look at the ssdr file and see if it is still there or not. I don't want to disturb the environment at this time just in case Eric and the guys want to understand the mechanics of the failure. Their installer should have been able to clean this up. As an aside, I used to store critical files on google drive, but I have since moved to a pair of transporters. Very cool stuff. http://www.filetransporter.com/. The drobo stuff just works. No geek required.

Steve N4LQ

As far as I know that file doesn't get deleted during uninstall. You can move it to another folder for storage then let ssdr recreate it. 

Storing files is fine but it won't re-image a drive. The C6 backs up the entire OS and drive image. The 2TB model stores all of our computer images. 

Mike va3mw

The problems continue.  What is key is the the Radio shows an IP address of 169.254.157.65 and you can see it 'not responding'.  I'm not sure why the DHCP it isn't get an valid IP address, but I suspect that this is part of the issue.


 

Attempting to ping the device results in 100% packet loss of course.

C:UsersMike>ping 169.254.157.65
Pinging 169.254.157.65 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.113.111: Destination host unreachable.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 169.254.157.65:
   

We know that the 169.254.... range is used at a default address, at least in Windows, but we must be communicating with it at some point in order to be able to at least query the radio for its serial number, etc.

The minute I assigned an ip address in the same subnet, the update took off and now it looks like it will complete.

The real question is why didn't the radio get a valid DHCP assignment?

Mike va3mw

Mike va3mw

***Problem is fixed***

I had to add a 2nd IP address to my computer NIC card of 169.254.157.10 and the update finished.  Once it finished,  the radio showed up with a valid IP address for my subnet.

Mike va3mw

Steve W6SDM

You may want to research how to set a fixed IP for the radio in your router.  I had to do that to avoid problems as well.  Prior to that, if I turned the radio on before the computer, all sorts of strange things happened, mostly not being able to connect.

Mike va3mw

I can do that simply enough, however the question I have is why was it a problem now? This radio has been in use since May.

Steve W6SDM

Therein lies the question.  I think a lot of it is due to the fact that we're using software that's in development.  While it's not beta, it's not been out long enough for every single bug to surface.  It was like that in the early PowerSDR days too.  Some operators find it frustrating, as I do sometimes, but it's also exciting to be part finding them and presenting them to the Flex team.

When you look at the number of variables caused by the different operating systems, configurations, peripherals, other software, I am surprised we don't have more anomalies.

By the way, what are you shooting with?  I am still using my Canon 50D.

Mike va3mw

Steve, I work in this type of software industry, and this type of failure should be well vetted out by now as it is the heart of the communication. This IP type of communication is not the same as the firewire driver issues of Gen 1 flex radios. This is a simple IP stack failure. I have packaged up the mechanics of the failure and sent it to Eric at Flex. The good news is that I can recreate this at will, and if you can do that, then the odds are that an engineering team can fix it. Adding the 'default' IP address was a work around that at least got me on the air last night from the Flex. Work arounds should be considered temporary at best until the actual problem is solved. Thanks for your help so far and we can consider this problem closed.

DrTeeth

Getting an IP in the range 169.x.x.x just means that a device has not got a correct IP from the network's DNS server, usually the router in a domestic setup.

I'd second setting a fixed IP for the radio.

Iain McLachlan

It's that the network device hasn't received an IP at all from a DHCP server. But it's a moot point. ;o)

Mike va3mw

Correct.. that is the problem and the 6300 did not get the correct address, yet the setup software did correctly hear it (see the screen shots). This is not a bug in my network and is an issue with the radio's IP stack.