IOS SmartSDR vs K6TU

KC9NRN

I spent more time today with the horror show that is an Apple device that refuses to do an in-app purchase and figured finally if I install it on my failing iPad2 (it has to be reset several times to get working) so finally I was able to get on and install SmartSDR and then crossed my fingers and was able to purchase the app.

I opened SmartSDR on the new iPad Pro and clicked restore, BOOM, worked! I connect to the radio and I can hardly hear a thing, I crank the volume on the iPad and then crank up audio in the app to 100, still not very loud, say this isn't so guys!

I fired up K6TU and it gets easily twice as loud as SmartSDR, maybe I'm missing a setting, is there more than two places to modify volume?

Second item, it's much easier to tune in a signal on K6TU, I can go right to the exact frequency, on the iPad I'm trying to gently zero in and goes right by so I have to back track and miss it again.

I'm going to read the manual when I hit the sack shortly, hopefully there is something I missed because the Maestro volume is easily more than twice as loud as the iPad Pro 12.9 running SmartSDR.

K6OZY

On the SmartSDR IOS app, you need to turn up the slice volume and the IOS volume too.  Did you?

Also, for precise tuning, touch the black slice area in the Pan Adapter, and a popup window appears. At the bottom is a slider you move left and right for fine tuning based on your Step setting.

KC9NRN

Yeah I found the slice volume, it helps. Maybe I'm expecting too much, thanks for the tuning tip! I'm going to play with it at another location tomorrow so I can test it with the OpenVPN I configured.

Ken - NM9P

Here are the first snags I had when I started testing SSDR-IOS....'Doh!  (it happens to everyone sometime. )

1) Failing to un-mute the speaker on the top menu.

2) Failing to select the audio device in the left-hand slide out menu > Audio tab.

3) failing to select "speaker" rather than "phone" on the iPhone/iPad itself...(It was sending my audio to the headset like I was talking on the phone...nice, but hard to hear when you expect a speaker!)

4) failing to turn the volume all the way up on the device up/down volume buttons.

5) not adjusting the AGC-T correctly.

6) muting the slice accidentally or on purpose, and then forgetting about it.

7) failing to properly select the Mic in the Right-Hand slide out transmit menu.

8) failure to turn ON the +20 dB boost in the settings > phone menu when needed.

9) failure to turn down the waterfall rate and display FPS. (causes low bandwidth breakup)

10) When using Bluetooth headset...Failure to select the headset from the Apple pull-up menu

11) not turning up slice volume if it still isn't loud enough.

SSDR-ios is a very fine program, but there are a great many options and places to get lost if you have not gotten to know it yet.  Once you master it, it is wonderful.


K6TU is also a fine program that has many options that SSDR-ios does not yet implement.  for example....(not a comprehensive review, just a few off the top of my head)

The ability to customize receiver filter bandwidth, hi-cut & Lo-cut! - BIG feature!

A simpler interface, without all the bells and whistles.

seems to work a little better on low-bandwidth connections.

easier to "pinch" the screen and zoom/expand the display.

more standard audio gain.


I still use both of them, but currently am using SSDR-ios more often because it is new, and more like thee SSDR I am used to.  (No disrespect at all to Stu.  K6TU Control and K6TU Remote are a great programs that paved the way for a good deal of other programs.)   

Ken - NM9P

KC9NRN

Ken,

I have the sound working better now, I have duplicate many of the mistakes you have listed.  I also used OpenVPN on the iPad Pro remotely and it worked great!

Sorry the picture was so dark, I was at a clients office working and didn't have much time to mess with the camera settings. I worked on several systems while listening to QSO's for a few hours, it was awesome!

Ken - NM9P

Congratulations! 

What are the config parameters you are using for OpenVPN with the iPad?  (TAP/TUN, TCP/UDP  etc?)

I have not been able to use it with iPad, only my Windows machine.  
I HAVE gotten the iPad/iPhone working with PPTP VPN, and Softether w/L2TP/iPsec.

Ken - NM9P

Rick Hadley - W0FG

Yes, I'd also like to know how you set up OpenVPN.  My Netgear R6400 supports OpenVPN, but indicates it doesn't support iOS or Android.

KC9NRN

It's using TAP mode = TCP port 12974 as well as TUN mode = TCP port 12973, I got lucky in that the Netgear Nighthawk R7000 generates the files needed for Windows,  Smartphone and IOS. All I had to do was install OpenVPN connect on the iPad Pro, once I imported the files via iTunes the iPad saw the config, I fired up my MiFi at home and tested it and it worked great.

I also created an account for Dynamic DNS so when my Comcast IP changes it auto-updates.

KC9NRN

Rick,

I'm heading to work, job number two for today, I will look further into this when I'm off later today.

I found this article and I'm sure your R6400 supports it, I just need to verify.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/other/security/security-howto/32542-setting-up-and-using-openvpn-on-n...

spopiela

I had SSDR iOS working at home on my iPad and also used open VPN while connecting through my cell phone Data while tethered to my iPhone hot spot. Today, I am remote from home and trying VPN. I could tunnel into the home network with open VPN and could run ssdr iOS on the iPad. The only problem is that I can't get a waterfall to display. Everything else works on the app, but the waterfall. I have just a dark screen below the spectral display. I have tried every imaginable setting on ssdr and the IPAD. I've got 50 MHz down and 10mhz up going through the tunnel. I have control over network routers on both ends and they are not showing any issues. I suspect the 6500 at home received a command to shut down the waterfall and I can't bring it back remotely. I'll have to investigate that possibility and also my VPN settings on the router. I used The Udp option vs the top/ip and that might be the culprit . If anyone has any ideas, I would appreciate suggestions. Thank you. Stan N1THL

Jay -- N0FB

SmartSDR for IOS has all the same volume controls as does its Windows counter-part.   Check the manual at 6.1.   It walks you through all sound settings that could be causing you issues.   These would be true on the windows or on the Mac.

ThisUserDoesNotExist

Even though it's difficult or almost impossible to support individual VPN setups, what I can tell you is, that if you can connect but don't see the waterfall, most likely the UDP Data on port 4991 is not passing through your VPN. This could be either because port 4991 is not open or your settings don't let UDP traffic pass through.
I hope this helps.
Vy 73, Marcus, DL8MRE

spopiela

Marcus, thank you for the comment. I'll check out the VPN setup later today when at home. I was going to try the K6TU remote app on receive at this remote QTH but could not find it on the App Store . If it would. work with a waterfall that would give me more insight into my problem. I'll post some more forensics later today. By the way, the IOS app is exceptional with the IPad. I could have saved myself the expense of a Windows laptop , if you had released it a bit sooner. ;<) Stan N1THL

Rick Hadley - W0FG

Thanks. I read the article, but it only appears to apply to Windows. Guess I should have bought the R7000 instead of the R6400.. Let me know if you see something I may have missed.

KC9NRN

Well, yesterday the SmartSDR IOS app froze on my new iPad and it no longer works over VPN, it shows the radio, you select it and it just goes back to the tap to select screen. I just got home I reset my R7000, the radio, I powered up the MiFi and ran a test connect, it shows the rado but you tap to select and nothing.

I go onto my home wireless and of course it works perfect so I got 1 full day of enjoyment using the iPad Pro remotely until it stopped working. I uninstalled OpenVPN and the config files, I'll create new files and I'll uninstall the SmartSDR app and re-install and report back.

I had hoped to show this off to family to get a few interested in Amateur Radio, so much for that this weekend.

Connecting via the same OpenVPN on my laptop works fine for SmartSDR on Windows so at least that still works. More testing via iPad Pro, nada, nothing has changed except for the app locking up yesterday on the iPad.

Hitting the sack and re-visiting when I get home tomorrow after work.

KC9NRN

I wrote the latest below, the SmartSDR app froze on my iPad and after rebooting it SmartSDR will no longer connect to the radio over VPN (it does list it however) so I have some troubleshooting to do, for the 24 hours it worked, I loved it.

spopiela

I couldn't get ssdr to show a waterfall working remotely on my Windows laptop. When I got home, I hooked up to the LAN and had the same problem with IOS app and Windows laptop. Unfortunately, I reset both my router with a new firmware update for a time and date issue and reloaded SSDR so I'm limited on explaining why everything worked perfectly on my laptop. My IOS app worked perfectly also. Sounds like router was messing up but issue was not limited to VPN. Stan N1THL

KC9NRN

I have the sound issues sorted out now, I think part of the issue was expectations that my new iPad Pro 12.9 would play louder than my old iPad 2. After the first response I was able to get it to a point where I could hear it clearly. I have since read some of the manual as well.

KC9NRN

Well, got to work early this morning to do some more testing, the iPad still refuses to connect to the radio. It sees it, but selecting the radio returns me to the "Tap here to connect" screen.

How can an app freezing up cause this to stop working like this? The radio shows up instantly. I just checked the K6TU app and it can't get to the radio either so something happened to my OpenVPN config on the iPad.

My Omen Windows 10 laptop still works perfectly over OpenVPN so it looks like I start from scratch tonight.

Ken - NM9P

I have occasionally had this happen. When it does, I need to power cycle the radio. Usually just a simple off and on. On occasion, I need to shut it down and remove power for about 30 seconds and power up again. Usually this clears it up. That is why I have the NEO WiFi switches. If that doesn't work, then I need to reboot my router, because something got confused between the rig and router and it needs to initialize again.

ThisUserDoesNotExist

Dear OM,

the issue is most likely with your VPN. The FlexRadio needs some additional settings and it is usually not enough when you can already use the VPN from your Windows PC.

For instance, the Radio uses a Discovery protocol that needs to have broadcast packets to pass through your VPN via UDP over port 4992. The Data (FFT, Audio, Meter etc.) will be send as well via UDP Port 4992 and the command interface uses TCP Port 4991.

Most likely, if you can "see" the Radio but can't connect or can connect but don't see the Waterfall then UDP Data through port 4992 is nor passing through.

It is very hard to say, which part of your VPN configuration broke. It could even be an issue with the OpenVPN implementation on your router. Strange that they said that they don't support iOS because there is a client for OpenVPN for iOS which works well - at least with a standard OpenVPN Server installation. Drawback of this App is that you sometimes have to start the App and re-connect in order to get the VPN running. iOS comes with it's own VPN client so no App is needed (like on Windows 10) but the App makes the configuration a bit easier.

By the way, either way whether or not you are using an App on iOS for the VPN, you should always see the a [VPN] Icon in the navigation bar of your device. If that's not there, you are not running on a VPN.

So if you like to stick with the VPN of your router, I would also suggest to start the configuration from scratch and try to consider what I wrote before.

A working alternative is to use a RaspberryPi along with SoftEther which is easy to setup and several OM did provide instructions here in the Community forum and other websites. This setup has also the advantage, that no App is needed on the iPad/iPhone and the RaspberryPi is easy to backup and restore in case of issues or messed up configurations.

Hope this helps a bit

vy 73,
Marcus, DL8MRE

Walt - KZ1F

Marcus, isn't that 4991? TCP command and response on 4992?

KC9NRN

I believe I found it, looking at attached devices on the R7000 when my laptop and iPad are logged onto OpenVPN the laptop gets a 192.168.1.26 address but the iPad now gets 192.168.254.1 address, just ****?

I found where the connection log is on the IOS OpenVPN app and I see the log states that "Error parsing IPv4 route: tun_prop_error: route is not canonical then DHCP assigns the .254.1 address.

This is not how it was working on Saturday.

UGH.

KC9NRN

When this worked, waterfall and other functions worked fine, K6TU doesn't see the radio either and I believe the log points me to the answer, what I don't get is why it's now giving 192.168.254.1 when that's not in the config, this is some strange IOS OpenVPN thing that I have to wrangle with.

Unfortunately it also requires iTunes to upload the files to the iPad where Andriod isn't as closed so I could do it on any laptop.

Thanks Apple.

ThisUserDoesNotExist

Walt, yes, thanks you are right:

- Commands: TCP via port 4992
- Data (FFT, Audio etc.): UDP 4991
- Discovery: UDP 4992 (via broadcast)

Thanks again.

Walt - KZ1F

Correction: by default, however, as more clients connect with the radio from the same IP, they take different UDP ports as the 'endpoint' is IP:port and two apps can't bind to the same endpoint.

KC9NRN

Well, apparently OpenVPN assigns smartphones/iPads the IP subnet .254.x and handles the routing which is why discovery works but for some reason connecting to the radio no longer works. I just got my Note 5 onto OpenVPN and it gets assigned .254.2.

So, SmartSDR for IOS finds the radio but tapping to select does nothing, where on Saturday all day up until the app froze, it worked apparently with these current settings.

I have an old iPad 2 at home that I am going to reset to factory spec if it lets me (it has some issues) and we'll see how OpenVPN works on that, I know it won't work for a hill of beans if it does connect but all I care about right now is the app connecting to the radio.

Walt - KZ1F

Are they getting assigned the same ip, i.e. x.x.254.2? If that's the case it won't work if you have two apps connecting simultaneously. What happens is this. It opens a return port for UDP packets for the spectrum, waterfall, meters etc and when it connects to the radio object it gets passed what port number to use for the radio to act like a client to your app passing the vita packets. as I recall the radio.connect() passes back a true/false. This is what flexlib and xpslib do, cannot guarantee this is what Marcus does. But make sure your iPhone and iPad are both not running Macrus's code simultaneously. It may be inadvertantly thereby keeping the connection and port 'taken'.  "small steps Ellie, small steps".

On a smartphone/tablet your idea of not running is not the OS's idea of not running.

KC9NRN

I only have one device that I connect at a time and always make sure a device that was being used is disconnected before trying another.

The iPad worked great on Saturday until SmartSDR froze, I had to power cycle the iPad, once it came up, SmartSDR has not connected to the radio since, even though it sees it.

I have removed OpenVPN and will re-install when I get home since I need iTunes to upload the OpenVPN files.

KC9NRN

I forgot to address this one, Quote - "On a smartphone/tablet your idea of not running is not the OS's idea of not running."

If I disconnect the device from the VPN, not running is exactly that, not running. It doesn't matter if somebody forgets to close SmartSDR or if the OS has it open in the background, if you disconnect the device from the network, there is no way for it to cause a problem for another device.

KC9NRN

I removed OpenVPN from my iPad Pro, deleted the config files and then created new config files with the R7000 and tried to connect to the radio after connecting via OpenVPN, no dice, it sees the radio but does not connect, something happened to this device after SmartSDR froze on it and it will not connect to the radio anymore.

My 4 year old iPad 2 connected to the radio fine via the VPN, it was choppy but worked. So it looks like I'll be restoring the iPad Pro to factory settings and starting over when I have the time.