Help with Green signal strength triangle drops reply

W5AP

Thanks for all the replies.

Unfortunately connecting my Maestro to my LAN (with cat V cables to the router and switch/radio)  only works to an extent.   After the all green signal strength goes to red, the connection drops and I can't listen or transmit until it goes yellow or returns more green bars.  Yes - I do show some dropped packets. I'm using V 2.4.9 (but 2.3.7 was the same)

So how do I connect directly to my 6600M?  I'm afraid that I'm finding that my Maestro has no value.  unless I can have uninterrupted communication between it and the rig. And I doubt that I'll have any success with remote ops over the internet.

Interesting is that I never have any trouble with Team Viewer over the same setup LAN OR WAN.  So I'm wondering what communication protocol Team Viewer uses? Team Viewer WORKS.

NX6D Dave

This may sound unlikely, but similar problems have been tracked down to poor ethernet cables and poor quality routers and switches.  The radio system is putting a real-time load on your LAN that most other LAN applications don't.  Your LAN may handle "ordinary" traffic well enough, but not the real-time radio workload.

Try swapping out wires first.  If your current wires are Cat 5 (not Cat 5E), try putting some good quality Cat 5E in their place.

And, some home use routers and switches will drop packets at a rate that will cause a connection to break down.

And we may as well say a few words about Wi-Fi.  Wi-Fi systems are all over the map in terms of their ability to carry this load.  You'll find lots of references to Wi-Fi systems that can't run the radio reliably.  Often times people expect distance to be the factor that causes the LAN to break down, but it is often other factors such as local RF noise, poor access point firmware, etc. that is really at fault.

Mike-VA3MW

I agree with Dave. Also, as a test, what happens if you connect the Maestro directly to the 6600m just as a test?

W5AP

I'll connect directly today. And if that works, Then purchase a good quality Cat 5E to replace what I have in place

What make or source of 4 port or 8 port ethernet switches would you recommend?

Thanks

John W9KXQ

Jim,

A few months back, I had some similar issues with Ethernet connections, it was the best recommendation from Flex that I purchase a separated Ethernet Switch, dedicate it to the Flex only traffic.  I have a Maestro & 6500.  The Flex, Maestro, and logging computer each have a Good Cat 5E cable running from each to a Netgear 5 Port Network Switch, this switch is then connected direct back to my router.  I have had no connectivity issues since I installed this separate Network Switch.

I hope that this helps you track down your issues.

73

John
W9KXQ

Michael Coslo

Also, never miss a chance to install toroids. One of the bugaboos of computerized radio is that RF gets everywhere. This isn't necessarily that issue, but In my shack, all the cables have toroids, including the ethernet. 

Andy - KU7T

Michael, 
I am coming to the same realization, but ferrites and the theory around them is still a little new to me.  I am starting to read the K9YC bible at http://audiosystemsgroup.com/RFI-Ham.pdf. 

But, in general, when you say "everywhere", do you mean just all connected wires in the radio or all connected wires on the computer or both?  Or even other devices like rotors, etc....?

Thanks and 73
Andy
KU7T

Mark WS7M

I may have something to add to this.

I just got a Maestro after having a number of Flex radios and using them all via hardwired connection and sometimes to my laptop via WiFi.

During use with my laptop over WiFi, in my home, I have noted that the 2.4Ghz WiFi band is horrible.  I regularly see the behavior that you see where it can start green, go yellow, then drop connection only to work fine again for a while when reconnected.

I see much better WiFi operation when using the 5.0Ghz band.

Enter my new (but used) Maestro.  The very first thing I did was to connect it to WiFi and I used it that morning on my 5.0Ghz WiFi without issue.

The very next day I received a new WiFi router I had purchased that would eventually go into the remote kit that the Maestro was to be apart of.  I did not realize when I purchased it, that it only had the 2.4Ghz band.

I connected to this new router using my Maestro and started to get the behavior you mention.  At times restarting the Maestro ended up with a display of the meters but no pan or waterfall.

I began to think my new (used) Maestro had an issue.   Then I noticed the signal was yellow to read.   So I went and got a LAN cable and plugged the Maestro, hardwired, into the LAN.

I got much the same behavior and was about to post a help request both here and on the help desk.  But what I realized before posting it was that even though the Maestro no had a good hardwire connection to the LAN it seems to prefer WiFi.

This for me was the key discovery.  I cannot guarantee this is true and I don't have my Maestro sitting in front of me to check it but it did seem to want to connect to that sad 2.4Ghz router.  It gave very erratic results even though there was a hardwire LAN connection.

I have not yet figured out how to basically turn off the Maestro Wifi and force it to use just the LAN hardwire.   But I did realize it was trying to use my crummy 2.4Ghz router.  So I reconnected the Maestro Wifi to one of my 5.0Ghz access points and suddenly it was very happy.

So for the poster with the issue:

1) See if you can try 5.0Ghz instead of 2.4 or vice-versa.  If you only have 2.4 you might want to get a router or add an access point that can do 5.0.   2.4 is in use by so many devices I believe it just has poor performance, at least in my area.

2) For all, if there is a way turn off the WiFi in the Maestro and force it to use the LAN cable can you tell me how to do it?

Thanks!

Michael Coslo

I put ferrites on wired mouse and keyboard, and on my CAT cable. The mouse and Keyboard use 2 inch, as does the USB cable to the hub,   the audio out , mic cable in (I use a studio mic with an adapter) and the foot switch. and for the CAT cable, I use one of the 3 inch ferrites that come with a balun kit. The power in gets that treatment as well.

This is probably a bit of overkill, but I've assembled a lot of different stations, and it's nice to have them work from the get-go.

At one time, I had the radio lose ethernet connectivity only when transmitting on certain 40 meter frequencies. Turned out the router had some 7 MHZ frequencies running around in it, and as soon as I keyed up, the reouter would reset.

Everywhere else it was fine. After the big toroid was introduced, the problem went away.

If running a laptop with a wired mouse - that is the most critical place to put a toroid. RF will jam the pointer to the far right, and take a couple minutes for the computer to get control of it again -  or in worst cases - crash the laptop. 

Michael Coslo

Exactly! 5 GHz is less crowded, and faster to begin with. 

Mike-VA3MW

Just remember, the green health indicator is not about signal strength but about network health and packets being dropped.  I routinely live in the yellow on my remote and I don't hear any degredation.

Dave Spencer

I've experienced this issue. I've found a work around for my situation, but your mileage may vary.

I use my router to issue static IP addresses to my network devices. I have an address allocated for my Maestros mac addresses, both wireless and wired. However, I don't rely on the DHCP setting on the Maestro for the connection. Instead, i remove *all* settings from the wireless network setup, and fill in the address, subnet and gateway on the ethernet network page on the Maestro. Boom. It remains solid green from start up.
I haven't tried this the other way around, but it seems the Maestro may be running into a conflict between the ethernet IP and the wireless IP. It'd be nice if there was an easy way to turn off the interfaces individually and easily to stop this if it is the issue, even so far as logically interlocking the two, so only one can be used at a time in the Maestro software.

It'd be interesting if others tried this and fed the results back - it's worth a shot before replacing other hardware!

NX6D Dave

Several of the alpha testers (I'm an alpha tester) have had problems like this.  If you ask that group what sort of ethernet hardware to use, the response is usually focused on commercial grade equipment.  I'm using a D-Link DGS-1100-16 16 port switch.  I'm also using a commercial grade Wi-Fi access point centrally located in my house.  Others use mesh nets of access points in bigger places.

W5AP

I had a D-Link 4 port ethernet switch between my router and connected to the Maestro and Laptop computer.

I removed the switch and then had a cat 5 cable directly from the Maestro to the Netgear router.

So far I've had a solid Network Health indicator and over ten million packets with 0 drops. So I think I've found the problem. I do have a 8 port "tp-link" gigabit switch between the router (hardwired) and the 6600M as well as a shack computer and other devices. But it seems not to introduce any problems. And I'll leave the existing CAT 5 cable in place - should I need a direct connect radio to Maestro in the future

I've ordered a CAT 7 cable to replace the CAT 5 between the router and 8 port tp-link gigabit switch. 150 ft. Mainly because its better shielded and has direct burial.

W5AP

I had a D-Link 4 port ethernet switch between my router and connected to the Maestro and Laptop computer.

I removed the switch and then had a cat 5 cable directly from the Maestro to the Netgear router.

So far I've had a solid Network Health indicator and over ten million packets with 0 drops. So I think I've found the problem. I do have a 8 port "tp-link" gigabit switch between the router (hardwired) and the 6600M as well as a shack computer and other devices. But it seems not to introduce any problems. And I'll leave the existing CAT 5 cable in place - should I need a direct connect radio to Maestro in the future

I've ordered a CAT 7 cable to replace the CAT 5 between the router and 8 port tp-link gigabit switch. 150 ft. Mainly because its better shielded and has direct burial.

Thanks all for the replies and help

W5AP

I found with my Maestro, that if I went to Network and set the WiFi ports to empty and selected static. Then set in the ethernet cable connection also to static with the proper ports - that I think it no longer connects via WiFi but stays in just the ethernet hard wire option.