Need better recovery

DrTeeth

I decided to send some files from my 'Flex' PC to another on the network. That caused SSDR to lockup, my 5-bar network connection to drop to 1 bar and my 6300 to be shown as in use after closing SSDR and reloading it. A quick push on the power button and it took > 60 secs for a shutdown. On restarting the rig, there was no slice receiver, it was on a mode I do not use (and have only briefly visited) and not on the band I was last on.
Is it not possible to have a more elegant recovery from this scenario?

K6OZY

Press and hold the power button for a quick forced shutdown.  No need to wait for 60 seconds if it's wedged.    If it froze, you can't expect a stateful recovery as nothing was saved.  I would recommend often saving a global profile, which I call "Temp" to save state in case something happens.   After a restart, pick that profile and you are immediately back in business.

John n0snx

are you saying you exported your profiles from one computer and imported them to another computer?????

K6OZY

Profiles are saved in the radio, not the client.   That would not be required.

DrTeeth

The slow shutdown was not unusual in 1.3.8 without any crashing/freezing. Holding down the power button to force a shutdown resulted in some strange behaviour (and some LED colours that were not detailed in the manual) so I have learnt to wait. I'll have a go at saving a global profile as you suggest, but it would be a good idea for SSDR to do this automatically and be made to automatically load it - that would go some way towards a smoother recovery.

John n0snx

I agree... I see no reason to send any files to another computer... I didn't understand exactly what he was trying to attempt

K6OZY

As a tester,  I can't tell you how many times I force my radios down, restart them inappropriately, and do full DB resets.   The system has always recovered.   It sucks when the radio freaks out, but I guess it's the price of bleeding edge!  I have used the Temp Profile method to aid that pain.   Profiles are amazing!

The best way to shake gremlins out of the system is to export all your profiles, do a full DB reset, and test for a bit.  If it's stable, import your profiles and see if the instability returns.

John n0snx

There is no way FRS can add a fix for human error for everyone.... It just isn't possible.... When we do that human error thing. It's our own fault and sometimes we have to start over again.. We all have to do it... TO ERROR IS HUMAN.. Make a mistake and if you learn from that mistake then that mistake was worth making...

Richard G7EIX

I read it as he was using his network to send files, unrelated to SSDR. The load caused SSDR to crash. No?

Simon Lewis

windows PC's are multi tasking ... surely you can still 'do' other stuff if the smartsdr window is minimised for example ... i quite often do multiple things on the same pc - I am guessing Richard's thought is what happened .. I guess on a low power PC it might cause issues and buffering /data loss ... on a top spec PC you should be able to run plenty other things while smartsdr is running - or am I missing something ... quite interested as a newbie to the 6500

Richard G7EIX

Indeed, I transfer very large files and work on Illustrator and Photoshop while monitoring my 6500 now with 1.4 - over a wired network, not WiFi- and not a single blip since installing 1.4.   In fact, I don't think I have even power cycled the radio more than once since that wonderful day!

Suspect it may have been a saturation issue?  I am sure Guy will fill us in on the working conditions.

Tim - W4TME

Methinks this is also the case.  I would like to hear more. 

On this note, a lot of consumer grade Ethernet switches (including the one in routers) have very limited buffering ( one reason why they are low cost).  You start overrunning the inbound packet buffer and start dropping the keep-alive packets, then the radio will disconnect.

DrTeeth

I was just transferring some files (3 x 350Mb) from my SSDR PC to another. As I mentioned in my OP, the network indicator (normally 5 bars <1ms latency dropped to 1 bar and 62ms latency.
@ Tim - happy to run any tests if you want further specific info.
Router is an Asus N66U. There was no other network traffic other than SSDR and the file transfer.

Tim - W4TME

I don't think any further test are warranted.  The network indicator  shows that the latency increase when you put your network under load is insufficient to sustain connectivity with the radio.

In order for you to get a disconnect, the  keep-alive packets (ICMP) sent between the PC and the radio have to be dropped for 15 seconds.  So either your switch or the PC NIC interface is not handling this level of data throughput without dropping or delaying packets, probably due to lack of packet buffers.