Maestro Locks Up: Pan Adapter and Waterfall Disapear one day before live TV interview

Kari Gustafsson SM0HRP

Suddenly from two different Maestros at different locations we get the same phenomena. After som 20-30 min of operating each of the Maestros they both will lock up and we have to shut them down. This has not happened before and seems as something new. 




When this happens the area where the pan adapter and water fall goes blank.  The A and B slice information with the s meter is still on the screen. 

We are going live on Swedish national TV tomorrow due to "the Amateur Radio Day"  and now we are getting scared this will happen during the live interview.

Any clues what is can be? 

Each Maestro has a rock solid ethernet cabel connection. Running SDR windows instead of the Maestros does not produce the problem as we can see.  We use latest software. Run windows 7 on one of the PCs. 

Mike-VA3MW

Hi Kari

When I see this happen, I can relate it to a Network failure each time.   Since I run a Softether VPN connection to my remote station, it is not uncommon to see a network glitch that can take down the link.  

I see you said it was on an Ethernet connection, which is good.  Was this on a Gigabit switch?  Can you test it again on a 100mb/sec switch?  

If both Maestro's failed near the same time, then you may want to consider looking at the radio end as well.

You did saw that the ethernet connect was rock solid, but I am curious if you have tested it?  

I have used LanSpeed Test to shake out some flakey connections.  You might want to do some testing and see if that shows anything that might help diagnose the issue..  https://totusoft.com/lanspeed

Here is what a test on LAN Speed Test looks like on my VPN link which is consistent with my VPN upload speeds on both ends.  Anyway, the reason I posted this was for a reference.

Mike

Jean Drolet

Dont panic .. it's normal .. yes yes it's normal it's been 6 months I say, I have problems with the waterfall of my Maestro and each time told me that there are no problems.

Now that I know that my problems are normal with my Maestro. Well, I have more problems.

Steven WA8Y

Yes, today is actually the first day that my Maestro has worked on a battery. ( just sitting in the kitchen.) Earlier today I was using the 6600 radio and controlling it from the PC in my shack (SmartSDR, FHM-2, powered speakers plugged in to back of radio) It was my intention to test the Maestro again (today) and this time I tried using it on battery via WiFi (Cisco Lynksys E1500) . Next I'm going to remote into my Shack PC to control my logger and rotor. Then I'm going to try using it in the car with the cars Wi-Fi. I have a flex virtual club meeting coming up (May 3) and I too am a bit nervous.

Kari Gustafsson SM0HRP

Hi Michael,
Thanks for the inputs. Yes I hope you are right that the cause is the internet or ethernet chain. Well at the remote site I have a 4G uplink and behind that a Gigabit router by Dlink onto which the 6700 is on.
I installed your LAN speed test program and that have not detected any glitches in the local LAN where one of the Maestros reside.  
I beleive a major added value feature for Maestro that should be added is some kind of enhanced LAN quality monitor so one can follow the ethernet quality. Now you just do not know and have to put lots of efforts in trying to pin point where the problem is.
BTW the Maestros did not fail the same time but I guess with a couple of hours intervall. 
With previous software crasches with v.1.9 one is still a little bit afraid that one might end up in a similar situation. Hopefully that is now history.
With a Mestro lock up like mine now how "bad" has the link to be? Any way of specifying this? 

Kari Gustafsson SM0HRP

Is it not often "a coincidence" that when you least expect things to happen they do actually happen. I hope not on May 2 for you though

Mike-VA3MW

Is the RF path also including a 4G connection?  

Michael Coslo

Ahhh! I see the problem - there is a man inside your Maestro!  8^)

Kari Gustafsson SM0HRP

Maestro>>>LAN>>>fiber>>>4G access>>>remote LAN>>>6700

Tim - W4TME

Kari,

When this happens, if the audio stops and the Panadapter/waterfall display freeze and then approximately 15 seconds later, the screen goes blank as you have shown above, this is a classic behavior of the Maestro no longer getting data from the radio.  If the data stream is recovered quickly enough, the screen will repopulate the slice info and the spectrum displays.  If the disconnect is longer than 30 seconds, the Maestro will reboot.

As Michael indicated above, this is probably a problem with the 4G link interrupting the SmartLink connection (both the encrypted TCP control channel and the UDP VITA-49 data channel).  This is something that all SmartLink users are at the mercy of - the Internet and the quality of the throughput provided by the multiple ISPs and carriers that make up the Internet infrastructure.