A Modest Proposal???

Roy Laufer

Hello,

I understand that many people are anxiously awaiting 2.0 with its remote authorization WAN remote capability, and that any diversion from this road to 6000 Series Nirvana is practically heresy, but...

I think it would be really nice if more than one instance of SSDR could successfully run  on my local LAN for one 6700. I wouldn't mind if there was a "primary" application allowed with "secondary" versions that were effectively asleep, on other PC's that could be made "primary" on command.

I just think that it would be great if I didn't have to quit one instance on one PC before being able to launch it on another. I assume that it would not require extensive code development for a "This application is already running on another PC on your LAN - Would you like to place it in "Sleep Mode"  and run it in "Primary Mode"on this PC?

I have three PCs with SSDR installed on them... it would be great if I could easily switch controls from one to another without playing musical PCs...

Okay, give me a minute to find some cover... Okay, let the stoning begin <HI HI>.

Vy 73,
Roy ACGS

Mark_WS7M

Well no shots fired by me Roy... I have 3 computers as well.  Luckily I can use RDP to login and quit SSDR on the main PC but I completely agree.  It would be great to have say upto 5 SSDRs and have some way to select that the one you are currently on is the ACTIVE one.  Maybe the others don't sleep but since they are not active they don't do much.

I hope something like this does come to pass!  Thanks for the idea!

Walt - KZ1F

Roy, you can run multiple ssdr instances on your network but only one GUI per radio. WAN makes that more problematic. Could I, for instance, gain access to your radio? Could I, or someone else wrestle the transmit function away from you? Could I, once in your network take over your PC?. Flex could say, ya know what Roy? That is your problem. My understanding is they want to mitigate the attack vectors.

Simon Lewis

gets my vote ,, I have 2 x 6500's and 3 op positions .. be great to be able to jump round these .. ie suddenly take over the VHF-SHF EME station from the HF place etc

or use position 3 to control either ...

yes .. def like it, been discussed and gets my tick

Roy Laufer

Authorization should NOT be a problem while still basically running on my local LAN. What I am suggesting is a "quick and dirty" way of initiating a SSDR GUI on another PC without manually quitting the SSDR GUI on the other PC.

Can I use all manner of remote software kludges? Yes (and I do)! But a simpler solution would be a little bit more native intelligence in SSDR, similar to trying to run the same application multiple times on the same PC can produce a "do you really want another instance of this program to run right now"?

I just think it would not be to difficult, but it would be extremely useful for many of us...

User Benefit >>> Resource Requirements

Just a suggestion.

Roy Laufer

The usual way that I and others have broached this, is for multiple GUI's on different PCs to have simultaneous access, or access to a unique subset of available slices.

What I am now proposing is more like the method that Microsoft and Apple "faked" multitasking by allowing tasks to be shut down or put to sleep with the activation of another window running.

I don't recall this particular "wrinkle" suggested, but I might have missed it.

Steve K9ZW

I too have several computers on the same LAN I'd like to be able to more easily switch between.

I am wondering if I missed something, as I personal haven't found the way to "quit" SmartSDR back to the radio chooser.  Is there a way?  I didn't spot it in the manual.

While not a perfect solution it would get me part way to quick switch.

I'd like to add to Roy's suggestion a request that instances of SmartSDR on the same LAN could idle each other.  In other words if I forget to turn of SmartSDR on my main shack computer, that I could it off from an instance of SmartSDR in my study rather than having to run back down to the shack.

I don't know unless password protected if this would be a good idea on a WAN, but if the instances are all on the same subnet it should be safe enough.

73

Steve

K9ZW

David

As simple as this seems conceptually it most likely is not. Some people may not have or see an issue with security and stability but to implement this properly those issues have to be addressed by Flex. As you acknowledge they are focused to the coding of 2.0 secure WAN internet access the major feature as well wrapping up the 1.6 release. This type of functionality would have to take the WAN design into consideration. For now it is best to use your work around with RDP, VNC, Teamviewer, etc. Another option might be to make script using psexec, pslist, pskill or Powershell to remotely end the SSDR task.

What I hope to see and believe they are working on, just not sure for what release, is the ability to run SSDR on multiple PC's with select slices. This way one PC could be doing data with Slice A and B while another has an operator on slice C and another with a different operator on Slice D, etc.

Walt - KZ1F

One app I've been toying with writing is a ssdr proxy which to the radio would be a single graphical app but would host multiple satellite apps. There is nothing special about me writing it, many people on here are capable of that. If a third party writes it the onus of its use or abuse is up to the owner. If FRS allows it, as the vendor, the may feel they have additional responsibilities... which they do, as its their software/radio.

Roy Laufer

My guess is that with more than one GUI effectively active and passing commands, someone will have to deal with collision detection in some manner or just hope the whole thing doesn't crash.

Either suspending a daughter task or quitting it entirely requires a lot less error handling. Just "tweak" the quit application event handler and the already present detection algorithm that the GUI is running on another machine.

When the programmers have more free time, they can always go back to it and make it shinier - like MS and Apple did when they finally wrote true multitasking OS's.

It's easy to say something is difficult. It's even easier to say that it's impossible.

Walt - KZ1F

The remote ssdr would only see a slice only if it were not previously claimed. I cannot speak to FRS, obviously, but if Flex does it they support that. If another user gains a slice and broadcasts, FRS had no liability. I don't see this as a technical issue, its not. It's a product direction and liability issue. Who knows, it may be high on their release backlog.

Mark_WS7M

Well Walt I personally would love to see your proxy in action.  It is a cool idea.

From what I've learned so far from the API provided many of the things we discuss are possible if someone wants to write the software to do it.  I don't thing flex will provide everything we desire or might want due to their concerns of liability and control.

But in the API as it sits today you can get a slice, get a pan, get a waterfall and once that data starts coming your direction you can kind of do what you want with it.  To me this kind of opens the door for having programs (eventually) that do what this thread is about.  IE a program that can be started in different places and run at the same time accessing data from the radio.

Personally I have had a pretty good time with a Win10 laptop using RDP to shutdown SSDR and start it up on the laptop.  The other night I carried on a nice CW conversation from bed.  (sigh... that's sad I know...)   I even managed PSK while watching the football game.   All this is on my local LAN and it works great.

I have used VPN to connect in but the one time I was away the bandwidth in the hotel was so lousy that even with the VPN connected SSDR just couldn't function.

Frankly, one of the reasons I upped my radio to the 6500 is the hope of all of these wonderful remote access ideas coming to pass.  I can't wait to see what the future holds.

Walt - KZ1F

I haven't written it Mark, I just know how I would. Roy, that's what proxies do. Roy, tasks aren't daughters or sons. One could have child processes but that is not what I am talking about. I believe I discussed this elsewhere, perhaps in an email. To the radio, the proxy is the GUI, to the multiple ssdr clients, the proxy is the radio.