After V 2.0 Purchase, Resetting Does Nothing

N1UW

I bought and installed V 2.0 and got email confirmation from my credit card and Flex sales receipt.  Clicking "Reset"  apparently sends the software to the mother ship but the license is not installing.  The User Guide says it might take a minute after the sale but 30 minutes has gone by and no luck. Re-clicking the "Reset" button fails to move things along.

Am I doing something wrong?

NX6D Dave

Make sure your radio can access the internet. if you run SmartSDR on a computer (not on Maestro), the computer clearly has access since you downloaded and installed the software. The radio may not. If it doesn't, it won't be able to fetch and install the license.

N1UW

Thank-you for your reply, Dave..  Yes the computer obviously is connected to the internet and the radio is connected to the computer directly with an Ethernet cable.

How can one determine if the radio has access to the internet?  Playing the devil's advocate, why would it need to?  I would think that SmartSDR is trying to fetch the license then would install it in the radio in the same way it downloaded the firmware and installed it in the radio.

I'm guessing I will have to try to fall asleep and wait until the office opens tomorrow morning. No big deal.

Frank

ctate243

"is connected to the computer directly with an Ethernet cable"

Frank Can you explain this setup a bit more for me and I may be able to help.. you have 2 network cards, or Wifi and hard wired, with 1 network connected to the Internet, and the Flex direct connected to the second?

the radio indeed needs to check in with the Mother Ship to activate.  Try plugging the radio into a switch or one of the internal router ports, rather than a direct cable connect to the computer then make a LAN connection to the transceiver...

Hope this gets you qrv tonight.. and support is always there to help in the am..

NX6D Dave

The Version 2 software in the radio finds and installs the license.  If the radio is isolated from the internet, the system will get stuck as you have described.

Connecting the radio directly to the computer with an Ethernet wire creates a "link-local" network connection between the two.  This is not a connection the radio can use to get to the internet.

There are two ways to solve this problem:

1 - Connect the radio to your home router so it becomes part of your home Local Area Network (LAN) and so it can go out on the net and find the license.

2 - Bridge the two Ethernet connections in the computer (probably a WiFi and wired connection) so that the radio, on the wired connection will see the internet.

The FRS tech support people can give you the details if this is unfamiliar to you.

N1UW

The computer uses a Wi Fi dongle to connect to the router (in the living room on another floor) and the 6500 is connected to the computer via the ethernet connector.

The 6500 and the linear Astron power supply aren't going to get carried up stairs tonight so we'll just sit tight until tomorrow. :-)

If you are right, I don't know how the User Guide instructions can be so far off.

Sweet Dreams.  If the answer doesn't show up on this thread I will let you know what Tim and company say.

Frank

NX6D Dave

Since the computer/radio is separated from the router, and connected via WiFi, you'll need to bridge the radio, through the computer to the router.  This is not difficult to do and is reliable.  As is often true in networking there is another solution, to attach the radio to the network via its own WiFi bridge, but the first solution is probably the better one.

N1UW

Oops, I meant "Thanks, Chris!"

N1UW

Dave, I am old and easily confused.  You say, "The Version 2 software in the radio finds and installs the license."

Are you saying it is the firmware inside the radio that gets the license...not the Version 2 software on the computer?

NX6D Dave

Yes, exactly. This is done this way for security reasons.

Tim - W4TME

This is an easy fix (assuming your PC hardware supports it).

In order for the radio to validate the SmartSDR v2 license, it must be able to communicate with the Internet.  If your radio is directly connected to your PC, then this is the most likely problem.  You will need to connect the radio to your LAN switch or router for the radio to validate the new license.  This only needs to occur once.  

If you cannot connect the radio to your LAN/router, then you may be able to bridge it using the information in this article:

https://helpdesk.flexradio.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003741486-Enabling-Network-Bridging-for-Link-Loc...