Syncing cw skimmer and SDR

Terry K8EET

Since upgrading to 1.4 I have not been able to sync my 6500 and CW Skimmer. I have updated both the SDR Bridge and CW Skimmer to the newest versions. The skimmer decodes calls fine, but nothing I have tried.works (Including shaking the 6500's pan adapter.) Has anyone else had this problem"

MikeMeeks

That is why it would be great to have CWSkimmer and FLDIGI imbedded in FlexRadio SmartSDR code. Mike

W9OY

can you grab a screen shot of bridge including slice and stream?

DH2ID

Terry, I can start CW Skimmer with your setup, but it takes 1-3 trials until it runs smoothly.
I'll send a screenshot. You will notice that I have set DAX IQ to 48k, as it tends to forget the 96k setting, a wellknown bug.
You of course can use 96k also, but I need only 48k for the CW bands.
Workflow:
1. Set CW Skimmer to 48k also and start SDRBridge first.
2. Put a tick into IQ1 Skim and it starts CW Skimmer with a stream from 7 to
    7047.8 MHz.
3. Toggle lock on/off with my CMD micro commander or on the screen and jog
    the wheel.
4. CW Skimmer runs with 48kHz sampling rate.
5. Start CW Skimmer Aggregator to send spots to the net.



You can see my spots on http://www.reversebeacon.net/nodes/detail.php
showing that CW Skimmer works.


IMHO it is essential to start SDRBridge without a tick in IQ Skim and close CW Skimmer first, then tick out IQ Skim, then close SDRBridge.
You are right, of course, that getting CW Skimmer to run is a bit tricky ;-)

BTW please look at http://www.qrv.com/sdrbridge.html and especially at
the new quickstart and troubleshooting guide by Al NN4ZZ!

73, Alex DH2ID

My station: VAIO i7 QuadCore notebook, Win7prof 64bit, 8GB memory, 1TB SSD, dual screen, Behringer CMD micro controller and Flex-6500.

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Terry,
Have you looked at the QuickStart guide on Ed's web page?  

http://www.qrv.com/sdrbridge.html

I've got some trouble shooting tips that sound a little like what you are seeing related to the Telnet setup.  Let us know what you find and I'll add it for the next revision if its something else.

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com

DH2ID

Al, can you start the CW Skimmer-SDRBridge combination and it runs
at once? I have the above mentioned "problems" starting it and they
seem to stem from the telnet connection. After 2 to 3 trials CW Skimmer
runs. I haven't tried that on more than one slice yet.

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Alex,
I'm running Win7 and have the radio programs I use "pinned" to the task bar.
- SSDR
- SmartCat
- DAX control panel 
- DDUtil
- SDR-Bridge
- CW Skimmer

The PC is left up running 24x7 except for the occasional reboot every few weeks.  I keep many of the FLEX related radio programs running all the time, just minimized on the taskbar.   I don't stop and restart SDR-Bridge and CW Skimmer very often but don't remember having any problems.   Usually when starting SDR-Bridge,  "skim" is set and it brings up CW Skimmer.  

Here is my start up procedure for the radio
- power supply on
- radio on 
- start up SSDR and re-select DAX IQ1  (persistence issue in V1.4.3) 
- bring up CW Skimmer (it was running just minimized)
- bring up DAX control panel  (it was running just minimized) and reset the rate to 96K (persistence issue in V1.4.3)
- bring up SDR-Bridge (if needed, it was running just minimized)
- bring up DDUtil (if needed, it was running just minimized)
- SmartCat is running minimized ( I rarely bring it up, just leave it running)

Here is my shut down procedure when I'm done using SSDR.
- stop SSDR
- minimize CW Skimmer (don't stop it)
- minimize SDR-Bridge (if it wasn't already running minimized)
- minimize DDUtil (if it wasn't already running minimized)
- SmartCat is still running minimized ( I rarely bring it up, just leave it running)
- power off the radio from the front panel, wait for the speaker pop to let me know it's cycled off.
- turn off the power supply (to the radio and other shack boxes)

On occasion, there may be an issue and then I will just stop and restart all the radio programs.   But generally the process above works fine.   I'm a "CW only" OP and don't run other modes or any other programs that interface to the radio so that may be a factor also. 

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com


   

DH2ID

Al, thanks for the info. I work about 90% digital modes, mostly JT65/9,
and the rest is 9% CW and 1% SSB. I run HRD and WSJT-X normally
and a lot of other programs like firefox and thunderbird.
None of these programs should interfere with telnet or CW Skimmer.
Well - it works here, and I need CW Skimmer during contests or when
for monitoring purposes only.
Regards,
Alex DH2ID

Tim - W4TME

Make sure you are using the latest version of SDR-Bridge.

Terry K8EET

Thanks to everyone who has commented on this issue. Special thanks to Ed W2RF who exchanged several emails with me to find my particular issue. My problem was the skimmer Telnet panel port was set to 7300 instead of 7310.  

As other individuals  have mentioned the sequence  in which you load the programs is the key.  This is the sequence that has worked for me (several times in a row) :

1. Start Smart SDR
2. Start SDR Bridge (This should bring up CW Skimmer)
3. Click the  "Start Radio" button on CW Skimmer. (If not already engaged)
4. Set the DAX Channel to  Channel 1.

You will need to have the latest version of SDR-Bridge and probably the latest version of CW Skimmer.

Thanks for all your suggestions.  I believe this forum is one of the best reasons for choosing to go with FLEX.

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Terry,
Glad you got it working.....BTW the telnet port match is noted in the "quick start" notes on page 5.   

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com

Terry K8EET

I plead guilty to not looking at that. I had it working previously and I thought since skimmer was sending call signs,  Telnet must have been working. I now know that's not the case.

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Terry,
No problem, I'm trying to keep the notes up with any issue that's reported.   So just wanted to let you know that its in there.  

I believe the decoding is driven from the DAX IQ data and the frequency info comes from the telnet stream.  And that is why you can have one without the other.  

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com