Spots studder when using DXLab with 6400 or 6600M

Chas

All spots are working with these radios and DXLab. However, about once a minute the callouts disappears off the panadapter for a split second, and the receive audio and waterfall stop working. All settings seem to be correct. Anyone else see this happening and if so is there a fix?

WX7Y

under task manager how much processor is being used by all the programs involved? 
Mine does this if I don't start SmartSDR in Higher then normal Priority because my little NUC computer Processor is topped out when running everything I want to run.

for a test from the CMD prompt try (including all the quotes)

C:WindowsSystem32cmd.exe /c start "" /High  "C:Program FilesFlexRadio SystemsSmartSDR v2.3.9SmartSDR.exe"

just a guess 
Bret
WX7Y

Jay Nation

Yes I've seen it too, even suffered audio dropouts when running DXLabs suite and FT8. It probably does have something to do with PC horsepower available. Oh well we just got Spots, we might need optimized spots, and optimized DXLabs Suite soon. While I wait for that I've discontinued using Spots features with Digi modes running. 

My system specs …
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home (x64)
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ (4.60GHz)
Memory: 16GiB installed, 15.4 GiB Total useable (10.8 GiB Free)

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Joe N3HEE

I have the same issue with spots while using SliceMaster6000 and DXLabs. Runnng Win10 Pro, i7 4GHZ CPU and 16 GB RAM. Lots of audio pops and drops. Also same issue with N1MM placing spots on the panadapter.

Mike_N1MD

I also have experienced the issue with spots in the panadapter while using DXLabs -- stuttering refreshes of the spots accompanied by pops in the audio and drops in CW generation using Winwarbler and an external Winkey when the spots refresh and stutter.

I have this problem with SSDR as well as Maestro. I have not tried spots with phone operation since I rarely use SSB. I do not use the spots feature when operating FT8 and really have no desire to do so.

The situation is such that I have abandoned the spots in DXLabs since the pops, stutters and CW drops are not worth the spots, in my opinion.

I have used N1MM+ in RTTY and CW contests with spots populating the panadapter in SSDR or Maestro and have NOT experienced, any of these problems noted above.

Mike, N1MD

Andy - KU7T

Same here. The good news is that my helpdesk tickets regarding these issues were being closed with the response "already fixed in next release". 73, Andy KU7T

Jay Nation

That is good news!

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Eric-KE5DTO

Give SmartSDR v2.4.9 a try and let us know if this is better.  We made some changes that should help with this.

Mike_N1MD

I tried 2.4.9 with DXLabs. I do NOT see ANY difference in the audio pops and dropouts ("stutters"). I also still note that CW using Winwarbler and an external Winkeyer engenders stutters and lost characters often. When I disable spots in DXLabs, all is well -- with both versions of the software. I also note the same behavior with Maestro with both versions of the software.

Mike N1MD

Mike_N1MD

BTW, my radio is a Signature 6700.
N1MD

Eric-KE5DTO

Sorry to hear it isn't better.  Can you open the Spots menu and tell me what it says for Total Spots?

mlstutler

Eric,

I see the same behavior as well.  On both Maestro and SmartSDR.  I looked at system performance on my pc and was only running about 25% utilization and had 6 meg of free memory.   It's not a resource issue.  

mlstutler

Running a test.  Have 75 total spots.  CPU at 27% utilization.  38% memory used.  I see the behavior about every 2 - 3 minutes.

mlstutler

When the stutter happens it appears that the all spots blank out and refresh.  

mlstutler

Forgot to add that Network only has 1ms of latency.  Dropped 2 out of 60400 packets. 

mlstutler

So playing with DX Commander Bandspread I can make it happen at will by altering the spot filter settings. It happens every time DX Spots does an update.  I hope this gives you something more to work with..

Mike_N1MD

Eric,

I just tested on 40 meters. The dropouts and stutters began with 22 total spots. As others have noted, the dropouts occur when all the spots blank out at the time of refresh.

With the previous version of SSDR I tried a number of different "spot lifetime" parameters in the Bandspread tab of DXLab Commander and found no real difference between long lifetimes and short lifetimes. When the spots refresh, they all refresh at once and the pops/stutters immediately follow. If I am sending CW via the Winwarbler application with external Winkeyer, I will get a loss of characters.

N1MD

Andy M5ZAP

Hi,
I had the same problems with DX Lab, I changed to using Slicemaster instead and the issue was resolved. I have had a large number of spots agrregated by slicemaster from telnet and simultaneously locally from skimmer or WSTJ-X
I also seem to remember that when the audio glitch occurred the network indicator would momentarily drop down, again this behaviour does not occur using slicemaster.

Eric-KE5DTO

I've opened a new issue for tracking this.  It is #6651 for reference.  Thanks for all of the input folks.  This will help us replicate the issue for quicker finding/fixing.

Dave AA6YQ

Any progress on this, Eric?