Maestro Outputs

Simon Lewis

Simon Lewis

W7NGA

I thought Maestro and PC screen were mutually exclusive at this juncture. That is, you cannot run SSDR on a PC and use Maestro contemporaneously!

Ken K7YR

San Juan Dan,

I have nothing but grief with My Surface 3 pro I5. Originally, with 8.1 I tried using Blue Tooth for the headset as I did not have the correct headset connector,  Bummer, When accessing Bluetooth it disrupted the 2.4 GHz WIFI.  I then got a wired headset.  I always got **** echo audit reports.  I then found out the the RealTech audio drivers don't work correctly [no basic audio gain adjust in the second window below the mic gain adjustment] and both the internal microphone and the external microphone were connected and operating in paralell.  I said BS and upgraded to Windows 10.  More confusion.  Looked for updated hardware for RealTech Audio drivers.  The only thing I found was offers for upgrades for $$. 

Got really POed and reset the Surface 3 back to its **** state windows 8.1, and of course lost all of my installed software, some that cost a bundle.

The went through and installed all the updates.  Walla... now the Bluetooth headset worked fine, with little no interaction with WIFI, but still **** audio...... It all gets back to RealTech Drivers. 

Eventually for some reason the second gain control window began working for the RealTech internal microphone [It just appeared by itself one day].  I set it to +20 db to get enough audio drive.

Current procedure now is:
1) Open the Microphone driver window.  Select internal microphone as default.  Set the internal microphone gain to zero [If not done it still is an open mic]. Insure the window below is set to +20 db.

2) Reset the Bluetooth headset as default and adjust the microphone gain as necessary.

It finally works.  Nothing wrong with FLEX, just the **** audio driver program. Just a bunch of unnecessary **** to go through each to I decide to go remote.

I find the Pen works quite well for frequency setting.  

Ken Rau K7YR
Manson, WA

Boulder Dash..........................>
      

 

Walt - KZ1F

That's true Dan. There is talk/ rumor that may be lifted in the future. To say it doesn't work now is not actually true. What is true is currently you can't run two GUI apps simultaneously. You'll still need a pc for logging etc.

You could for example, run HRD on a PC and select dxcluster stations and it would change the frequency/band on Maestro.

Jay Nation

Simon

I'd like on screen controls for the wife too. One possible workaround I've used was to get a 16 cup coffee maker and a 1 gallon travel mug. Most often, once I've consumed the days 1st gallon of coffee, I feel a need to leave the shack for a nature break, and when I get there I find the 2nd gallon waiting there ready to go next to the bathroom sink. Which I refill the travel mug with, and then reload the coffee maker for the 3rd gallon. 3 gallons usually gets the job done, for me at least, but there's no reason this scheme wouldn't work for 4 or 5 gallons. It all depends on the planned length of your day.  You just need to clear enough shack desk space for the 1 gallon mug, or just set it on the floor. 

OOPS it's that time again BRB I gotta go get some more Coffee!

73, Jay - NO5J

Simon Lewis

Jay .. I think I found the answer to our problem

now I just need to talk to my builder about widening the door to the kitchen! And I need to talk to him about power / water for the coffee machine!

Jay Nation

Simon

I've been trying to locate a self propelled travel mug. When it's empty it's not that big of a problem, when it's filled it requires a little strength to lug it back to the shack. I hadn't even considered a trailer. I'll look into one, once I get the water, and garbage bills paid.

73, Jay - NO5J 

Mark_WS7M

Wait are you guys telling me that my maestro when it comes in cannot connect to and manage my Kurieg coffee brewer!?   Huh!?!?

Oh come on now... I want a button on the maestro touch screen to brew up another cup!!!

Jay Nation

Mark
I imagine, you can probably imagine one. Try also imagining that it works. 
Imaginary Coffee ... I hadn't really thought of that.
Is that the same coffee I drink in my dreams?
73, Jay - NO5J

Mark_WS7M

Jay, imaginary coffee just doesn't do it for me... I've tried it, recently when I got a crown put on they said nothing hot for 24 hours.  So being a coffee drinker I had to try and imagine it throughout the day.  It didn't work.  I was grumpy and messed up.

But these days mind over matter right?   If I have a maestro and an imaginary cup of coffee then I guess I'd better be happy!!!

-.-. --.- -.-. --- ..-. --.- . . ..--..  

M

Mark_WS7M

I like milk and sugar in my coffee.  With that cup I better buy a dairy and a sugar cane farm in Hawaii... Checking the yellow pages now...

Burt Fisher

Imagine if you put the money in spent on a Maestro and/or going from a 6300 to a 6700 to your antenna system what a real difference it would make in your station?

Steve K9ZW

Why?  Never have seen a "wireless & touchscreen antenna" Burt!

Know what you are pointing out, but that discussion isn't germane to what features people who may well have wonder-antennas desire out of their Maestro!

Or they likely very well understand the compromises in antenna they are living with.

Doubt they are NooBs who need to be talked down to though.

Your point is obvious, but enough of a Non Sequitur to be really far off the thread focus.

73

Steve K9ZW

KY6LA_Howard

Some of us already spent the money on the Antennas. The rest of us live in tower restricted. HOA which I recall you vociferously opposed changing restrictions.

Mark_WS7M

Always been a believer in the saying "the hardware outside is worth at least 2x the hardware inside...".

I wish I could invest in a really superb ant system but I chose to live in an HOA and until I can break my agreement with the HOA under the parity act I can't put up the 500 foot tower I have ready to order!  :-)

Jim Gilliam

Get a little shack by a railroad track, put up that tower and remote!

Burt Fisher

Steve my comment was off the thread focus? I should have talked about coffee?

Ken - NM9P

I am hoping that eventually they will get a driver for stuff like my E.R.S. rotor control (USB on one end and 6 pin DIN on the other that plugs into my Yaesu G-800DXA rotor control box.  That way I could use an app on my ipad (or on a Maestro) into the VPN or directly to the 6500 when v.2.0 is released and control my antenna without need for my shack computer to be powered up.

I can do it right now with Parallels Access and PSTRotator (which is a really slick program)  but I would like to be able to bypass the computer entirely someday when I am out on remote and use only my ipad or a Maestro.

Ken - NM9P

Jim Gilliam

You voice my feelings, however I am not sure it is the purpose of the Flex 6000 to perform control functions other than for the radio itself. If I were the chief engineer of Flex I would come out with another piece of interfacing hardware that would talk to the radio and perform all the auxiliary functions we need to make our operations complete. Actually I am there by using a dedicated small fan-less PC and using third party software. I think this will give us much more overall flexibility in the future rather than waiting for Flex to effect our desires. I think there hands are full enough by reaching the promised features along with WAN. Which by the way is really not needed with a good PC and VPN like Softether.

W7NGA

All Flex has to do is provide a specification for an I2C data stream out of the ACC port. Once defined, the world at large could do whatever they want from band switching, antenna selection, mode control. It seems obvious to me, that they have already done so, as it is needed to support their SO2R box. Define it ... let the world know what it is. Done!

An Arduino could munch the data and do most anything ...

Jim Gilliam

You are making my argument but much more specificly. From that point on, we could use anything to "crunch" the data and perform the I/O.

KY6LA_Howard

I don't believe I2C will gain much traction However the communications mode of the future really is TCP/IP I suspect you will see a t]lot of TCP/IP enabled peripherals in the future Already all of the new 4O3A devices are TCP/IP

W7NGA

I'm talking of the 'spirit of Amateur Radio' not some commercial venture. I2C is easily consumed and enterprising hams can have a field day with the possibilities. TCP/IP .. not so much.

Howard, I am confident that we have two polar views of what amateur radio is all about. You want to work the world and hang shingles on your wall ... I want amateur radio to be about personal discovery, cultural exploration, and a bridge to bring us all together.

W7NGA  dan
San Juan Island, Wa.

Jim Gilliam

I am not a "grand stander" and all of my remote functions except for rotor control are via TCP/IP using a PC to do the talking. I think Howard speaks correctly.

Jay Nation

Mark
I've already received my imaginary Maestro. I may sell it later when the real Maestro arrives, I'm hoping to raise some imaginary cash, to pay for an imaginary  tower.
BTW I just looked and this Maestro does indeed have an extra button labeled +Coffee, on it.
You see, Flexradio listens!
And they can make things happen.
73, Jay - NO5J 

KY6LA_Howard

@W7NGA

First. You are likely dreaming if you really think I2C will gain any traction except possibly with a very tiny fringe experimenters group. TCP/IP. is the communications system of the modern world...parts are cheap, software is plentiful. Even the Legacy Japanese are starting to recognize that they need to go TCP/IP

Second I have long ago given up hanging shingles on the wal except for first places in contests. There is no room left on my walls.

Third. I travel extensively all over the world (we are in Paris now) where I am regularly asked to speak about ham radio. I have visited ham friends at their homes in well over 100 countries. We regularly entertain international ham friends at our home in LaJolla., many of home have stayed with us. My current quest is to work remote from 100 counties...I am at 27 so far.

Bottom line: Don't assume what you do not know.

W7NGA

> You are likely dreaming if you really think I2C will gain any traction except possibly with a very tiny fringe experimenters group. 

I am talking experimentation in the true amateur radio sense. The port is there, the data will be there, and hams can do with it what they want for the cost of an Arduino or equivalent. I am not speaking of adoption of a new standard.

It's the difference of winding your own coils, soldering, writing your own software, versus buying and plugging something in. That is all I am saying, and I am sure both perspectives will survive. My interests are to have I2C data available.

I have been an engineer for 2000 years and invented the internet, doncha know.

KY6LA_Howard

If you get your i2c port stuff working I would love to try it.

Steve-N5AC

Steve, does your PC-on-a-stick have 2GB or 4GB of RAM?  We were looking at those the other day and wondering how they would run SmartSDR and I figured 4GB would probably be required but the ones we saw only had 2GB.