6600M front panel not always loading

Gary NC3Z

Having an issue with the 6600M front panel. It all started today after weeks of doing the last V3 update. I am also submitting a HD ticket, but since this is a holiday I am posting it to the forum in case someone knows a solution.

About 50% of the time now when I power the 6600M up the front panel does not fully populate. 

And if I touch something on the screen I get this error message.

When I hit the power button to shut down, it will go through it’s shutdown process and appear to turn off but the buttons stay back lit.

I have done the cold start with a long press of the power button a few times. Removed power for a fair bit of time, etc.

When the 6600M is in this mode I can still use SSDR without an issue.

Paul Bradbeer

I'm watching this with great interest Gary. My 6400M does it occasionally. A cold reboot fixes it, but it is really annoying when it happens. I'm on latest v3 release. Hope you get an answer or explanation Gary. 73 Paul M0CVX

Bill -VA3WTB

Just a thought, did you do the full factory rest, not just a cold reset?

Mike-VA3MW

The most common cause is due to network packet loss. Can you do a test where you plug a lan cable directly from the maestro into the radio and see if it works. I suspect something in your network for the Wi-Fi is blocking the Vita49 packets. Mike

K3SF

I am running v 2.4.9 on a 6600m

i also have had this issue and had submitted help desk ticket..all we did was factory reset and all was better for a while.  Never found any root cause.

it has happened a few times since the help desk ticket but now i am more aware of what i may have been doing prior to the incident.

one case was i was using my ipad to run four slices on the 6600m, This disconnects the internal screen as the control. I turned off the 6600m before returning control to the internal tablet of the 6600m.

Another case i was running DPSDR also running multiple slices. There i was bit more careful first to shut down DPSDR and have the internal tables of the 6600m resume control.

Other than those two cases i have not  been able to duplicate a sequence of events that seem to cause it to happen.

Paul K3SF

Gary NC3Z

Michael, this is a 6600M not a Maestro.

Gary NC3Z

Please explain the "full factory reset" vs the cold reset. As noted in my post I did the reset that is noted in the manual, "With the radio powered off, press and hold down the power button for approximately 5 seconds until the Power LED flashes white, then release the power button".

Gary NC3Z

Paul, what is the "cold reboot"? I am doing the reset procedure as noted in the manual.

Gary NC3Z

When this happened I was not using any other clients other than what was built into the 6600M. I had been running MultiFlex yesterday, the last time I ran this.

But this has happened a dozen times today and no remote clients were being used.

K3SF

Hi gary

Since it occurs quite frequently well worth initiating a help ticket

side notes

1.There have been some issues with the SD memory cards in the radio. I just dont remember the symptoms.

2. The only other time this occurred for me was when a new update was seemed to have been pushed to the radio.
You can see the updates available on the "Radio Versions Tab" .

IF you get a good answer/resolution from Flex to resolve this issue please post it here as i as well as others would be very interested.

thanks


Paul K3SF

Gary NC3Z

Paul, as noted I was also opening a HD ticket at the same time, but since this is July 4th I was not expecting a quick answer, hence why I posted in the community in case I was overlooking something.

I am running 3.0.27 since the day it came out a couple of weeks ago. No other changes since then.

Warren-K6WKW

I've had this happen almost daily for many months. I usually shut down, then restart and it comes up OK. On rare occasions I've had to do this 3 or 4 times. Previous discussion with Flex suggested the IP address was changing, but I've eliminated that possibility now by reserving the IP addresses for the radio and front panel and it still happens. I've experienced it with 2.3.9, 2.4.9 and now with 2.5.1.
Warren - K6WKW

Gary NC3Z

Weird. For months this has been fine until today. I can confirm that my IP's are not changing.

Mike-VA3MW

I'm sorry, I missed that as I was on my phone.  

I would be good to open a support case then and we can get it solved for you.

Mike

Gary NC3Z

Case is open.

Paul Bradbeer

Turnoff 6400M on front panel button. Unplug DC. Plug DC back in, turn on 6400M front panel button. Works for me...but I'd love to know what is going on..

Gary NC3Z

This happened dozens of times yesterday. Now this AM I have booted many times and not a single issue. Aaaaaargh!

Paul Bradbeer

Michael this is not a one-off problem...I bet there are more of us putting up with this. Is this anything to do with #7424 and #7428 in the V3 Changelog ? 73 Paul M0CVX

Paul Bradbeer

I know...intermittent here too..but it is a problem, I think it may be more widespread (people just putting up with it as a 'computer glitch', and it is definitely v annoying. Watching your HD ticket progress with great interest. 73 Paul M0CVX

Mike-VA3MW

Hi Paul

Yes, I am aware.  It is critical to open a support case for these for each user.

Mike 

Paul Bradbeer

Ok Mike. I'll submit one too . QSY to laptop...

Paul Bradbeer

HD ticket raised by me for the same symptoms.

Gary NC3Z

Tried many, many times today and no issue. My next experiment I was going to try was to disconnect the Ethernet connection and let the Flex and front panel assign their own IP vs a DHCP to see if that sheds any light.

Wish there was a way to assign a static IP to both devices.

Paul Bradbeer

Gary, are you any further forward? I opened a HD ticket and Tim got me to do a Factory Reset. It was fine for a few days but now back to the intermittent fault described above. Not sure if this is h/w or s/w but I need it fixed cos I can't live with it like this. Have you had any lasting success? 73 Paul M0CVX

Gary NC3Z

Tim replied but unfortunately after it doing it dozens of times on 4 July it has not done it once since, and no changes were made. Very intermittent.

K3SF

hi gary

yea..i went thru similar episode
but
is is very infrequent and random

based on it being so randomness and basic symptom for me

My best guess is there a race condition that happens when the radio server ends and when the display panel ends. When the radio server is late to the table, the display client goes "WHAT  ! ! ! "....

i have had experience here based on design real-time systems where such conditions happen...this happens in digital circuit based on gate delays or i analog circuit due to component degradation overtime or with environmental conditions.

Hard to trouble shoot without getting deep inside of things.
or
by doing detailed circuits analysis with parametric variations...

In distributed computing client/server system like this flex radio is, race conditions are bound to happen. Most of the time programmers are able to compensate for most condition when it may happen.

i know this doesnt make you feel any better.
but
hope it helps let to you know what might be happening under the hood.

Paul K3SF

Gary NC3Z

It seems that the front panel is not getting a DHCP IP (the radio does hence why I can still connect to it via SSDR). Next time Tim wants me to try booting it up with no Ethernet connect so that the front panel gets an internal IP assigned.

Wish there was a way to do static IPs. But for now I will continue with a Reserved DHCP assignment.

Paul Bradbeer

Hi Gary, hope your 6600M is still ok. My 6400M has had a few more failed start-ups and Tim has advised it is likely a hardware problem. It is now on its way to the European Service Centre in Germany. That's me completely QRT for a while :-(

Holger Hannemann

I get "Maestro is not responding" failure on my 6600M. Not funny in the middle of the WAE contest! Have rebooted a few times but it doesn't change anything. After reboot it is stuck with half a display showing and no response to any knobs or buttons.
When I start without Ethernet cable connection it starts just fine and lets me operate it stand alone. But the moment I attach the Ethernet cable it freezes again. 
73 Holger

Gary NC3Z

The only solution, since the Flex can not support static IP's like other SDR's, is to do a DHCP Reservation for both the M and the radio.

N8AUM

Shortly after getting my Maestro I switched from DSL to ATT&T fixed wireless service and the router has both 2.4G & 5G WI-FI. Anyways, I was constantly resetting my Maestro. On a good day it might run 1/2 hr before locking up and losing the screen like Gary's screen shows. I live out in the sticks so theirs very little WI-FI traffic from nearby neighbors. Signals on both bands are nice and strong. I even placed the Maestro 10ft. from router, no help. I was using 5G. So before chucking the Maestro in the lake I switched to 2.4G and now I only have the problem once in a while. I think it ran about 30 hrs without having to be reset ! Why does it go out to lunch and not come back if the WI-FI gets a little glitch ? I also disabled the "GUEST" feature on router to have less WI-FI signals bouncing around. None of my PC's or Laptops have any problems. I also did a long term site survey monitoring signal strengths and even tho the 5G is stronger the Maestro last much longer using 2.4G. Also it made no difference which version was loaded.