Slice Master 6000 v0.9.0 beta release

DH2ID

Don, thank you for v0.9.11. CW Skimmer starts now, but terminates with an "Access violation" error and slice master shows: CW Skimmer process killed. Changing launch between "CW only" and "never" does not help. I think there still is a problem with the telnet connection. --Alex - DH2ID

K1DBO

Well, it was worth a try ...can you send me an email with a zip file containing all of the log files from

C:/Users/<your logon>/AppData/local/K1DBO/slice-master

It will give me a better idea of what's going on.  I am working on another report of an access violation on Win10.  Which OS are you running?

Thanks

DH2ID

I've sent the mail to your QRZ.com mail address, Don. My OS is Windows 7 64bit HE.
Got to sleep a bit now (it's 0351 local here) :-)

K1DBO

Thanks Alex, got 'em.  The problem, as it turns out, is your configuration (I think)!

If you go into SmartSDR's main menu under Settings/Radio Setup...  There's place for a Nickname and a Callsign.  It looks like your Callsign is set to DH2ID-ALEX.  Try changing that to just DH2ID then see if Slice Master works correctly.

K1DBO

Slice Master 6000 v0.9.12 is now available at https://github.com/K1DBO/slice-master-6000 

SmartSDR's Radio Setup dialog lets you choose a callsign to assign to your radio.  This callsign is used by the telnet server in Slice Master when reporting the spots received from CW Skimmer.  

This version of Slice Master fixes problems related to starting CW Skimmer when a badly formed callsign is stored in the radio.

...this time for sure.

--Don

DH2ID

That did it, Don! SliceMaster works here! That badly formed callsign (DH2ID-ALEX) was in my Flex-6500 when I got it :-) I never would have thought that it would be the cause of the whole problem! Thank you very much, Don!
Vy 73, Alex - DH2ID 

K1DBO

You're welcome! 

Andy F5VAI

Hi Don,

Flex announced a new SmartSDR upgrade today.  This I have done, but now Slice Master V0.9.13 is totally empty apart from the Telnet Port tab.  It says no connection.  I have gone back to V0.9.12 and this works.   

73 Andy F5VAI  (G3HCU)

K1DBO

Hi Andy,

I'm sorry to hear that.  I havent done the SmartSDR upgrade yet but it sounds like I should get on it.  Your's is the first report of this problem.  The v0.9.13 release was to fix the long standing issue that caused CW Skimmer to crash when closed by it's 'X' button.  I cant think of any changes that would make it fail and but not cause v0.9.12 to fail too.  I'll do the upgrade and try to reproduce the problem.  But if you dont mind, please try a reboot and give v0.9.13 another chance.

Thanks.

--Don

Andy F5VAI

Yes I have done a reboot.  It could be my end as after new SmartSDR, on run it crashed and I had to reinstall it again.  All seems to be fine now though.  This was the first time I have ever had a failure with SmartSDR in 3 years.  

73 Andy F5VAI  (G3HCU)

Andy F5VAI

Sorry badly written, I meant SmartSDR now working OK, your Slice Manager V0.9.13 not but V0.912 OK. 

73 Andy F5VAI  (G3HCU) 

K1DBO

Thanks for the update.

In case others are having the same trouble, I've put v0.9.12 back in the download area.

DH2ID

No problem here with SSDR 2.1.30 and SM 0.9.13. I always uninstall SSDR, keeping DX and CAT, then clean up the PC and then install the new version. I have never had any problems that way. And I run Windows 7 64bit, of course.

K1DBO

Slice Master 6000 v0.9.14 is now available at https://github.com/K1DBO/slice-master-6000 

With luck this one will fix the start up issues some were having.  I've fixed a couple of bugs and extended the start up delay to help prevent CW Skimmer from tripping over itself.  

Thanks to all of you for sticking with me during these rapid updates.

  --Don

Andy F5VAI

Don, I had a bit of time last night to investigate why V0.913 was not working.  Found the problem - BitDefender antivirus had blocked the new version, but allowing previous version to work.  All OK now.

73 Andy F5VAI 

K1DBO

Andy,

Thanks for tracking that down.  

It might also be worth noting here that while working with Rich, we discovered that OmniRig can get in the way of starting CW Skimmer.  Killing it's process and letting it restart on its own seems to clear things up.

EduardoCarvalho

Don,

Thank you for releasing your software free of charge. I have been experimenting with it and so far I like it. 

I would like to know if you have ever tried to use your program with the Aggregator from RBN? I have tried to connect the aggregator to the telnet port on Slice Master and have not been successful, the aggregator continues to try to connect endlessly.

Regards,

Eduardo Carvalho, KC8R

DH2ID

I think that the RBN aggregator, which connects to CW Skimmer via it's telnet port, is capable to connect to one slice only. It connects without any problems to SDR Bridge, which follows one slice only.  

K1DBO

Eduardo,

I just tried connecting the RBN Aggregator to Slice Master's aggregation server and it appears to work fine.  There is a catch however.  The RBN Aggregator needs a different configuration when connecting to another aggregation server rather than directly to a CW Skimmer instance.  

In RBN Aggregator, select the 'Combined Skimmers' tab and fill out all of the fields and enable the check box at the top.  When connecting to a CW Skimmer instance the RBN Aggregator pulls most of this information from the login handshake.  Since Slice Master doesnt provide this information in the handshake it's necessary to add it manually.

Thanks for asking the question... I've been meaning to get around to testing it.

K1DBO

Slice Master 6000 v0.9.16 is now available at https://github.com/K1DBO/slice-master-6000 

This release is mostly about internal changes that were needed to support adding new programs to the launch tab.  First up is GRITTY.  This would have been much more fun if I could have managed to release it a couple of days ago.  On the other hand, the WPX RTTY contest gave me an opportunity do some testing of the changes as well as some testing of the other kind.



GRITTY is great at decoding RTTY but doesnt offer a lot for controlling the slice.  Call signs that it finds calling CQ will be added to the aggregation server as spots.  Because GRITTY decodes only one signal at a time it's not as useful as you might hope.  You can, however, point Bandmaster at the aggregation server and then watch as it updates the DX Atlas display.  Alex (VE3NEA) writes some really nice software.

For the WPX contest I tried a new screen layout that made use of the sync features in Slice Master.




At the top you can see the entire 20m band with slice C following slice A and slice D following slice B.  I do a lot of search and pounce so this helps me to visualize where each of my two working slices are in the big picture.  I dont see the need to display the user interfaces from the RTTY decoders.  N1MM Logger+ does a good job of putting the decoded signals where I can read them and the panafall offers all the precision needed for tuning.  It's a bit much but here I am running a copy of 2Tone, MMTTY, GRITTY, and MMVARI for each slice.  

Slice Master lets me tune by clicking on a signal in the smaller slice A/B windows or by moving around the C/D slices in the larger window.  Either way, the linked slices follow each other.  The zoom factor and scale are coordinated here too.  Auto centering is usually on for the smaller panafalls but it looks like I took the screen grab while it was off.

My upper monitor was busy displaying the less important information.



It was great fun putting some of these features to use.  Though working on the software during the contest put a large dent in my score!

  --Don

DH2ID

Don, I just tried SliceMaster with GRITTY. Great! Looking forward to try this during a contest.
Vy 73, Alex - DH2ID

P.S: The RBN aggregator also works following your instructions above. Thanks!

Chris DL5NAM

Don, looks great. Will it be possible also that you can add 2-Tone Rtty ?
It's more used RTTY engine after MMTTY

73 Chris

K1DBO

I'm playing with both MMTTY and 2-Tone.   MMTTY has the interface for sending RTTY, but when enabled it doesnt allow remote control.  2-Tone, I think, can send through remote control too but doesnt seem to have a user interface for it (but I just started looking into it).  They both use the XMMT.ocx control.  My development version of Slice Master has support for XMMT.ocx but since it's receive only it's not all that useful.  Neither does anything to identify call signs or post spots.  So for a first pass at read-only RTTY support GRITTY was the clear winner.

fldigi is another option. I currently have it mocked up with Slice Master but requires VOX for TX.  It seems to work but I would prefer more direct TX control.  Since the source is available I was able to build a custom version of fldigi for a different project.  I could go that route here too. I also like that fldigi can decode multiple signals at once.

The alternative to all of this is to write a separate program that acts like the DI window in N1MM Logger+ and have Slice Master launch that.  That would mean writing code to deal with macro buttons, interface to loggers, etc.  Does the world really need another way of sending macros out as RTTY messages?  Maybe

I'd like Slice Master to be able to launch one or more programs that are able to send RTTY as well as decode it and do it all with no or very minimal configuration from the user.  Of course making PSK and other digimodes available is also desirable. I'm not seeing this as a real contesting solution but more of a tool for chasing DX or for just cruising the bands with easy access to any mode at any time.

Andy F5VAI

Don,

With latest version I get "slice_master returned -1"  Not antivirus problem this time!  Any ideas?  Otherwise previous versions have been working superbly.

73 Andy F5VAI  

Rich McCabe

Andy, make sure you already do not have slicemaster running. I think you can get that error if you try to start it twice.

Rich

Andy F5VAI

Thanks Rich, but no I didn't have slicemaster running already.  I deleted the 2 cwskimmer files A and B  in users and rebooted.  This did the trick.  So all working OK now. 

73 Andy F5VAI  

K1DBO

Slice Master 6000 v0.9.17 is now available at https://github.com/K1DBO/slice-master-6000 

This release adds an HRD TCP listener option to the sync tab for each slice. 



Instead of running HRD Rig Control you can point your HRD clients at Slice Master.  Slice Master lets you choose which slice to use and also provides a few more control options than the HRD TCP listeners in DDutil or MiniDeluxe.  It's lightly tested at this point but might be worth checking out.

I struggled a bit with the user interface and the inclusion of some advanced features.  So, I'm getting the basic functionality out now but expect to make some changes in how things tie together, how ports are chosen, etc.  I'd like to get some feedback here too from folks who are using HRD clients without the Rig Control component. On a related topic, I've started another thread asking for information about running multiple instances of DM780.  The HRD TCP Listener is a key part to getting this to work with our radios but DM780 still hides many mysteries.

A minor change was made to the GRITTY and CW Skimmer settings.  There is now a way to control which spots make it to the aggregation server.



The DX Lab suite was mentioned in a different thread so I checked for compatibility between its Spot Collector and the Slice Master aggregation server.  v0.9.16 worked but had a minor login issue that has now been fixed.

--Don

Tim - W4TME

KB1DO - if I may make a recommendation.  If you have a new version, post a new topic with that version number in it.  The reason is that you end up getting "scope creep" and when a post becomes really long it is difficult for customers to digest the entire post to find information on a specific version.  I think this idea will help disseminate your information more efficiently and effectively.

K1DBO

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the suggestion.  The next version will be the topic of a new post.

Tim - W4TME

:-D