Slice Master 6000 v0.10.5 is now available

K1DBO

As many of you have already noticed, Slice Master 6000 now supports placing cluster spots into the SSDR panafall via the recently enhanced Flex API. While this feature has been available in previous "bug fix" releases it was never officially announced.  Slice Master 6000 v0.10.4 makes this official.

Users of Logger32 will be happy to find that Slice Master can accept colored spots from Logger32's new added spot broadcast feature.  The feature is very similar to N1MM+'s spot broadcast mechanism and uses a similar protocol. Please consult the Logger32 documentation for configuration information.

Users of Slice Master's bandmap overlay will notice a new 'Spot' button added to the overlay menu.





This can be used to manually add spots to Slice Master's local cluster.  These spots, will of course, show up in the panafall.  To add a spot, just press the button and look for the text entry field to appear.  Then enter a callsign followed by a comment.  The spot will use the frequency and mode of the currently selected slice.

A new start up option has been added for those who need more than four spot sources.  If you run Slice Master from a cmd Window or short cut, you can add

  --bandmap-max-source=MAX

to the command. Replace MAX with a number between four and ten.  This option is persistent so the command only needs to be issued once or if you'd like to change the number of available slots for spot sources.

This release also fixes a handful of bugs that have been the source of some start up issues.

Enjoy!

Wayne VK4ACN

Hi
Can you post the download link to slicemaster in your posts73Wayne

Larry _ NY8T

https://github.com/K1DBO/slice-master-6000/releases

Wayne VK4ACN

Thanks

K1DBO

Thanks Larry... In my haste to get the release out, I forgot the most important part of the post!

K1DBO

As usual the README for the latest release can be found at https://github.com/K1DBO/slice-master-6000  The Getting Started section has a link to the latest distribution.

Pat N6PAT

Can Slice Master send spots to all the open panadapters or just a limited number of them? And can I apply a different filter (state, country, etc)  to each of the different bands?

K1DBO

A limited amount of filtering is available directly from Slice Master.  It's all about how you configure the telnet spot source.  My recommendation though is to use a program that is designed for that task and have it send the filtered spots to Slice Master.  Logger32, DXLab's Spot Collector, and VE7CC's CC User program all work well with Slice Master.

Michael Coslo

Thank you Don! I love it!  Do you take donations?

Roger_W6VZV

I installed this program (Slicemaster), set it to launch WSJT-X, and in less than a couple of minutes I was getting spots on SDR.  Great program, very unobtrusive and easy.  Great job!
de Roger W6VZV

k0eoo

Hello Don,

Does your new release take care of the +0 that shows up after the DX spot times out?



Thanks for Slicemaster!

Dennis, k0eoo

K1DBO

Dennis, 

Sorry, no.  That's a bug in SSDR that Flex will have to fix.

--Don

Rick Hadley - W0FG

Downloaded v0.10.5 and it's working great.  I finally figured out how to get SliceMaster to control HRDLog and can now let DDUtil just handle the other duties I've assigned to it.  I am still getting the occasional "Access Error" when opening CW Skimmer, but it doesn't seem to affect the operation. Can you make it boost KH1/KH7Z's FT8 signal so I can see in in WSJT-X???....LOL.

Burch - K4QXX

Rick, do you get any slight audio drops using version the new .5 version?  After I have slice master running for about 5 minutes, every 10 seconds I get a slight audio drop from SSDR.  Reverting back to version .4c fixes the issue. I also get the Access Error on CW Skimmer but it doesn't seem to affect anything.

Burch

K4QXX

Rick Hadley - W0FG

Burch, I can sense it sometimes, but it's so slight I never noticed it until I read the other post here and started to look for it.  I don't seem to hear it on bands where spots are not being generated.  I just tried it on 10Mhz WWV and I can't hear any break in their audio.

Rick, W0FG

K1DBO

I just updated the release to v0.10.5a.  It seems to fix the audio break up issue.

Burch - K4QXX

Don, you are the man.  Just downloaded new version and all is good.  Thanks so much.
Burch
K4QXX

K1DBO

You're welcome.... glad to hear it helped.

Takeshi Yamada

It works fine with my Flex6500 and very pleased with this functionality - DXspot on panadapter.
Would you give me a pointer how I can use it with Logger32?   I cannot find any instruction about "new added spot broadcast feature".
Thank you in advance.73 de JI1BNUKen Yamada

K1DBO

Hi Ken,

First make sure you are using the lastest Logger32.  Then right click it's DX Spots window and select 'Enable UDP Broadcast of DX Spots'.  In the N1MM+ section of Slice Master's settings tab enable 'Listen for N1MM Logger+ broadcasts' and set the 'Listen port' to 12061.  Logger32 uses the nearly the same network protocol as N1MM+.

If you are using CW Skimmer or WSJT-X you'll probably also want Logger32 to received spots from Slice Master.  In that case, check the Telnet section of Slice Master's settings tab and 'Enable aggregation server'.  Then configure one of Logger32's spot sources to connect to it.

Good luck!

--Don

Takeshi Yamada

Thank you Don.

I could make it quite easily!

de JI1BNU

Ken Yamada

Pat N6PAT

I tried Slice Master for the first time and ran into a number of issues. These were probably caused by my inexperience with the software but some just didn't make sense at all

Somehow it started displaying the same spots on both 20 and 40 meters at the same time. Different slices, different panadapters, different IQ channels but exactly the same spots on both panadapters.

Also, when CW Skimmer is launched each skimmer is set with passwords which Spot Collector doesn't know so I cannot use Spot Collector to filter what I want to see. I'm not sure why a password is set each time. When I uncheck Password Required it still cannot be read by Spot Collector.

In addition, it seems that Slice Master will only display spots on panadapters that are undocked and that is a problem for me as I usually keep most if not all of the panadapters docked.


The spot overlay is ok but if you open another window on top of the panadapter the spots are displayed on top of the new window. I will often open a logging program or QRZ on top of an active panadapter for a few minutes.


As a software developer I can certainly appreciate all the work it took to create this package but it has a few issues that need to be ironed out. Again, these may just be due to my inexperience with the package.

DXLabs works fine for me with one major limitation. Commander will only display spots on either VFO A or VFO B which defeats the purpose of being able to display 8 panadapters at the same time. Hopefully it will be changed to handle up to 8 VFO's at the same time

K1DBO

Hi Pat,

Slice Master sets the password on the skimmers to discourage direct connections to them.  To get at those spots, and any others that Slice Master pulls from the programs that it launches, use Slice Master's aggregation server instead.  Just check the settings tab under the Telnet section and make sure it's enabled and using an available port.  

The spot overlays on popped-out panafalls was Slice Master's way of doing the impossible.  Now that Flex has added API support for spots, you have two choices for how to look at them.  To see them in via the Flex API, make sure that you have spot enabled in SSDR.  Under the SSDR Settings menu there is a dialog for controlling the spot display.  Make sure you have it enabled.  Then, if you use popped-out panafalls, you'll probably want to disable Slice Master's overlays... otherwise you'll really be seeing spots!

I dont know what to say about the same spots showing up in both 20m and 40m but since you were using the overlays, and yes they can be quirky, you might have had two overlays on top of the same panafall.  But let's ignore that one for a bit and see if we can get these other things straightened out.

As far as the DXLabs issues are concerned, you'll have to take that up with them. But, Slice Master is able to get spots along with their "needed" status and colors directly from Spot Collector and display them on the panafall.

Give it another spin and let me know how it goes.

--Don

Tom N5MOA

I also us DXLabs, but gave slice master v0.10.5 (already have 10.4c) a go.
Downloaded, installed, get a "system not configured" something or other and the program closes.
Went back to 10.4c

K1DBO

Hi Tom,

We're up to v0.10.5b at this point.  I cant think of any reason for .4c to work and .5 not to.  If you could send a screen shot it might help me to spare others the same trouble.  Feel free to drop it in an email if you like.

The other thing that helps me a lot with diagnosing problems like this is a zip of your Slice Master config folder.  It can be found at

  C:Users<your name here>AppDataLocalK1DBOslice-master

Just right click to create the zip file then attach that to an email.  I'd be happy to take a look.

Thanks.

--Don

Pat N6PAT

OK... It's now sending spots to different panadapters while they are still docked and without the overlay.  That works fine

However, the filtering I use in Spot Collertor is not being applied. If I filter for only 80 meters and then clear all spots in Spot Collector and SSDR new spots are still being displayed on 20 and 40.

Is it ignoring the Spot Collector filters? I realize these filters are only controlling the spots that Spot Collector displays and not the spots it reports because as soon as I remove the filter all the other older spots appear.

How can I get Slice Master to only display the spots that I filter for?

Tom N5MOA

Here is a screen shot




I'm not finding
C:Users<your name here>AppDataLocalK1DBOslice-master
10.4c seems to work.

Pat N6PAT

OK. I figured it out.

To get the filter I use in Spot Collector applied to SSDR I need to have Commander open in addition to Slice Master

When Slice Master is running the spots send via Commander are not limited to just Commander's VFO A and B anymore.


It's now working perfectly. I can have spots sent to all panadapters and use the filtering from Spot Collector

Thanks for all the help. It's a great package. Add me to the satisfied user list.
73

K1DBO

Thanks for posting that.  The best I can tell is that error message is associated with Microsoft Office.  What happens to Slice Master when you dismiss the error message?  

Pat N6PAT

I spoke too soon. The Spot Collector filters are not always being applied. I just filtered for 30 meter spots for slice B and spots for 40 meters for slice C on a different panadapter started showing up as well.

I'll have to keep trying

Tom N5MOA

It won't "x" off, keeps popping back up. Closing slice master, it is still on the screen

Have to close it in task manager.