Sound Interface Question

KF4HR

I'm a new Flex 6700 owner (3 days), and all the functions on the Flex seem to be working fine. 

The PC that I run my Flex on (Intel i7-2600, Windows 7) I also have connected to a Yaesu Wires-X HRI-200 Interface via an USB connection.  I noticed after I loaded SmartSDR I lost my outgoing audio my Wires-X interface (the incoming audio is still working).  I have made sure the Wires-X Mic Audio entry is set to DEFAULT, but this doesn't help.

My question is two fold.  Are any of you Flex owners also Wires-X users, and if so did you notice any sound problems after you loaded your SmartSDR software?

Also I was surprised to see the SmartSDR software added 82 different sound card entries (Recordings and Playback).  Are all these sound entries normal? 


Recording

ICON

Mic               DAX AUDIO RX 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
RCA Plugs    DAX AUDIO RX 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Flex Box       DAX AUDIO RX 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Mic              DAX IQ RX 1, 2, 3, 4
RCA Plugs   DAX IQ RX 1, 2, 3, 4
Flex Box      DAX IQ RX 1, 2, 3, 4
Mic              DAX Reserved Audio TX 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
RCA Plugs   DAX Reserved Audio TX 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Flex Box      DAX Reserved Audio TX 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Playback

ICON

Flex Box     Digital Audio (S/PDIF) Hi-Def Audio Device - Ready
Flex Box     Digital Audio (S/PDIF) Hi-Def Audio Device - Ready
RCA Plugs  DAX Reserved Audio RX 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
RCA Plugs  DAX Reserved IQ RX 1, 2, 3, 4
RCA Plugs  DAX Audio TX 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

KF4HR

Lewis Cheek

Yes, to your question about audio devices. Depending on what software ( logging, as I know YOU don't contest ) you may find a need to disable some devices ( sound ) due to limits on number program will address, i.e 8 etc.. Somewhere along the way I needed to do so, but don't recall which software.

73's
Lew
N4CO

Tim - W4TME

This is not the best advice for a 6700 user because it will break DAX if a channel is selected that has been manually disabled.  If the software cannot enumerate all of the sound devices on the PC, a bug report should be entered so the developers of the third-party software can modify their software.

Tim - W4TME

KF4HR - there are not 82 sound devices for DAX.  There are only 40.  Since there are 8 available slices for a FLEX-6700 and each slice can have both a RX and TX DAX audio channel, this equates to 16.  DAX channels are really like audio "tunnels", so each DAX channel has two endpoints (16x2=32 sound devices).  In addition to the DAX channels, you have 4 DAXIQ channels, each with two end points for 8 more sound devices bringing to total to 40 (32+8).

So yes, it is normal to have 40 DAX sound devices.

Now it starts to get a little complicated.  Windows has various sound APIs that are used to interface to the Windows sound system.  SmartSDR supports two of them.  MME for compatibility with older programs  and Direct Sound for new programs.  Depending on how the third-party application enumerates (sees) the Windows sound devices, it is possible that the third-party application will enumerate the sound devices for both APIs.  If it does, then your application will enumerate 80 different sound devices but may only decide to show a fixed number.  I suspect this is what is happening in the case of the Wires-X application.  Technically it is poor programming practice to limit what the users sees if the number of devices exceeds what it enumerates which is why I referenced a bug report should be entered for the third-party program.

Lewis Cheek

Tim, thanks for info. Somewhere down road I may run into trouble as I needed to disable some of mine. Seems like channels showed up that was outside of range 3rd party software was looking for. At time I was concerned with getting software to function .

73's
Lew
N4CO

Tim - W4TME

I get it.  You gotta do whacha gotta do. My primary intent was to make sure it is known that disabling the DAX devices is not a "silver bullet" solution and there are ramifications.

Bob K8RC

There you have it. The official company line is we will continue to clutter your system with the capability of conducting 8 full-duplex RTTY QSOs simultaneously and if it breaks something else running on your system, too bad.

Inflexible.

KF4HR

Tim, since I'm seeing 82 DAX Sound Card entries and not 40 would you suggest I deinstall SmartSDR and reinstall it?  (I did get a couple of hiccups during my SmartSDR install. )

Lew - Long time no hear!  I hope retirement is treating you well.  Nope, no contesting here.  Us common folk can't compete with you Big Gun guys! hi  
 
Butch  KF4HR

Tim - W4TME

Butch - where are you seeing them?  Can you post a screen shot?

Roy Laufer

All third party software developers are, unfortunately, not the same. I have had programmers download SSDR to test things (as best they could) for themselves, with great success. I have others parrot "it ain't our software's faults, it's the other guy's software's fault". Still others just never respond back and smother the problem with their indifference...

KF4HR

Hi Tim - You're putting some overtime in tonight!  Thanks for the late reply.  I'm not sure how to do a screen shot, but where I'm seeing these 82 sound entries is when I right click on the speaker icon (lower right on taskbar), then left click on either Recording Devices or Playback Devices.  In both cases I get a total  of 82 separate Sound Entries as noted in my first post above.

By the way, reference N4CO's post above.  Is it absolutely necessary to have all DAX TX and RX entries enabled if they are not being used by other programs?  My thought being, when I get ready to map a DAX to a program, what if I enable every DAX, then after the SmartSDR maps the DAX to the program, I disable the other unused DAX's.  Or will this throw a monkey wrench into the works?

KF4HR

Tim - W4TME

I really need to see what your system is enumerating so a screen shot is important.  There are numerous ways to do a screen capture http://www.wikihow.com/Take-a-Screenshot-in-Microsoft-Windows

All of the sound devices are being used by DAX.  You can disable them manually, but it will throw an error in the DAX control panel.


KF4HR

Tim - Thank you for the information capturing a screen shot.  I can capture a screen but unfortunately in this case it won't show you much.  There is no way I can capture all the sound devices being shown because the Sound Window only shows a few of the devices at a time.  To see them all I have to scroll down through a long list, which of course doesn't fit on a single screen to capture it.   Is there any way you can log onto my PC remotely to see what I'm seeing?

Butch KF4HR
kf4hr3@yahoo.com

Tim - W4TME

capture the bottom of the list.  That should show me what I am looking for.

KF4HR

Tim - Ok I captured the bottom of the list and sent it to your Flex email address.

KF4HR

KF4HR

Hi Tim - I emailed you with an update on my Sound Interface issue.  Please take a look.  Thanks.