SmartSDR v3.8.19 and the SmartSDR v3.8.19 Release Notes | SmartSDR v2.12.1 and the SmartSDR v2.12.1 Release Notes
SmartSDR v1.12.1 and the SmartSDR v1.12.1 Release Notes
Power Genius XL Utility v3.8.8 and the Power Genius XL Release Notes v3.8.8
Tuner Genius XL Utility v1.2.11 and the Tuner Genius XL Release Notes v1.2.11
Antenna Genius Utility v4.1.8
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Bugs That Bugs You the Most
Comments
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While I work from home over last month I had this issue 2-3 times.
Here is the typical scenario:
i work in the late evening FT8 just fine.
Radio and PC stays ON all the night.
Coming to the radio in the morning and start FT8, if I do not pay attention, my signal look like very wide and unusual shape and I find myself in the past that i can TX like that for a while. Here is a video captured today:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Dwh4P8azyMQfcnnFSyYmCCyTJze6qww8
I restart SSDR and it is normal again.
I cannot find a correlation to anything yet as most of the time it is not happening.
Sergey, KN7K
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After watching Maestro crash every couple hours on the same WiFi I use for hours of Zoom and FaceTime streaming every day, I ordered an Ethernet cable and the Maestro is much happier with a wired connection.
Now I'm thinking the Maestro barfs when the WiFi link resets, and I don't have any control over that. Using Ubiquiti SME-grade WiFi because they have a reasonable management console for multiple APs. Would be nice if Flex generated error logs or issued any kind of reporting to help troubleshoot. My typical Maestro latencies are in the 120ms range; about double my ping latencies.0 -
Similar problem when I run WSPR so I toggle the DAX off/on than it runs normal until next time rather than restarting everything. Receives ok all the time.
6600 3.1.8 with Win 70 -
Must be nice having a BUG free station !0
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I have the same SW ver3.1.8, Windows 10 with all latest updates.
The strange thing is that I observe it sometimes only after my radio and PC are idle for a night...
KN7K0 -
Joe,
Interesting idea but I'm not sure the radio data presented would catch the problem.
IE the FlexAPI does broadcast some power info but the rate at which it comes may not keep up with 30 wpm dit/dahs.
I will do some more investigating though.
I've had local hams complain that I sometimes have keyclicks. Usually when I get this report I have found my CW delay has been set to zero. For some reason my amp doesn't like extremely rapid TX enable/disable during high speed CW.
So I just increase the delay slightly, even to like 10ms and the reports of the keyclicks seem to disappear.
I know that one big contributor to clicks is CW rise time but I see how way on the flex or in the API to adjust this.
When I look at my CW wave form on the LP-700 I can see that it has a pretty nice envelope shape with reasonable looking rise and fall times.
This capture from the LP-700 does show the CW rise time to be about 5ms:
I am wondering now if I can use the LP-700 to help catch the TX power loss event. I will have to do some investigating0 -
Well I'm running 3.1.8 here. I plugged in my straight key so I could play around and set my LP-700 to the fastest setting.
I've been sending dits out for about 15 minutes on 40m and I am not seeing the issue. I have CW delay set to 0 so the radio is instantly switching back to receive but each dit is giving me the desired power output.
I wonder, are you guys that are having the issue using the internal radio tuner? I am not.0 -
Mark,
I'm using the 6600 without the internal atu, ethernet connect to pc running Smart SDR 2.6.1. Not full fsk, about 300ms delay. TX dropout both with the bug connected to rear key socket or running CWX.
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What would happen if you connect directly to the radio, bypassing the network? as a test.0
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Mark,
We don't have a ton of theory of operation info, but presumably the CW waveform is generated by one of the DSPs that may or may not have an RTOS or thread manager. Even if TX uses different cores than RX, it's conceivable they contend on memory buses or other I/O channels.
Might be interesting to see if the CW waveform correlates to RX DSP load. Turn on every pan, slice, TNF, NB, etc.0 -
May I suggest to increase the hang-time. Each time the radio go back to receive it seems to reset something.... Not sure I have seen the drop-out on the first dit or dash. Try have 2-300 ms delay. Past weekend I did some simple tests as I had a hunch that it may be an interaction with my logging program polling. Once that was shut down I had no issues for hours, then out of the blue it started to show. So its a real tricky one... BTW keying is done directly at the radio0
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I've posted on Flex's "bug problem" so much already I don't want to repeat it all yet again since it's clear that Flex Executive Management simply isn't capable of "getting it" anyway. The promises have kept coming for years now yet the necessary resources are never actually committed. Somehow they think MORE promises that they will never keep are an appropriate way to handle things. Flex is a SOFTWARE defined radio and yet Flex Radio is a poor software company as evidenced, among other things, by their huge bug list. A Flex employee once said the list of actual bugs (not improvement requests) far exceeds 1000 and that was some time ago. You read about the endless variety here constantly.
Still, there is one that has been mentioned here in various forms but nonetheless doesn't come up anywhere near as often as I would think it would. I wonder if other folks aren't seeing it as often as me? What happens is the values of nearly everything stored in profiles are, at least occasionally, unstable. The problem occurs for me in at least two forms. One involves the fact that I usually have my power amp running.
If I set the radio to 35W to get 800W from the amp, then switch bands, random power values in the TX table are often arbitrarily reset to 100W. Way too much for the amp input and resulting in over 1500W output. And if I don't notice it before transmitting, I will **** out a trap on my poor little vertical. This has happened FOUR times and I'm getting sick of buying replacements. I have to check the "TX Band Settings" table EVERY single time I change modes or bands to be sure something hasn't arbitrarily changed in there. Since I NEVER set the power to anything more than 40W - ever - it's not due to me accidentally altering a profile and not realizing it due to the awful "new profile scheme". The values just arbitrarily reset.
The other is, I often run my 6600 as two "stations" (as Flex defines them) at the same time - one from my Maestro, the other from SmartSDR on my PC. The PC is usually running JTAlert/WSJT-X while I'm scanning the bands on the Maestro operating CW or SSB. First, the Profile system doesn't remember settings properly between stations as described in the manual. Sometimes they get mixed up, sometimes they get lost. Also, PTT focus is supposed to follow the "MultiFlex" setting but it often doesn't. I often have to hit MOX on the Maestro, then in SSDR, then back to the Maestro to get it to switch between them. Sometimes I have to toggle "MultiFlex" back and forth to get the focus to switch and sometimes I have to do both. By that time, whoever I was trying to answer is often long gone.
Many of the settings are unstable. The values of EQ get lost, the TX and Mic profiles saved in a Global Profile get randomly reset and sometimes the settings in the TX and Mic profiles (like mic selection) themselves get reset too. Switching between "Stations" requires rechecking EVERYTHING, every time.
Before you tell me this is all because I don't understand the "new profile system" and am simply resetting these values myself without realizing it (which is certainly possible and what makes it such a horrible system), I've looked at this very carefully - it has nothing to do with changing a value and forgetting that in the new profile scheme, that saves it in the profile (something that is almost impossible to believe anyone would have deliberately designed it to do ????). The values are simply unstable and it shows up EVERYWHERE as I switch between "stations", modes and bands, though randomly and unpredictably and for some cases, infrequently.
Of all the CW remote timing bugs, the poor Profile design, even the fact that voice mode monitoring in the Maestro has been TURNED OFF by Flex rather than fix the echo bug it had (!), these instabilities are what drive me crazy the most.
I'm hoping Flex isn't hiding behind the COVID crisis to disguise the fact that they STILL haven't staffed the ham business software function as promised after all these years of making those promises. Software development could be and probably already was done mostly remotely anyway. And that Flex Executive Management isn't allocating all of their resources to the Raytheon contract instead of the ham business exactly as they promised they wouldn't. And the reason it's been so long since they updated the software is that they're FINALLY taking the bug problem seriously and FIXING them. Also, as I've said many many times, it is clear that none of this is the fault of Flex's excellent employees - including the s/w folks themselves. They can only do what they're being directed to do.
By the way, a similar set of comments apply to the long LONG promised PGXL firmware update. 4O3A is another company that's long on promises and short on making good on them.
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The lose of settings is not a common problem. I think you have a corrupted data base that needs to be reset. your radio should be remembering all settings, so this is not a bug but something local.0
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I have also experienced changed TX settings with my 6700. Sometimes I'll try to transmit but the amp is not getting keyed.
Every time this happens I see that a TX1 or TX2 check box in the band settings has become unchecked. This seems to happen after using the radio for a while.
It's a real pain in the **** when you're trying to chase down an ATNO and have to stop and reset the check box.
Regarding the ATU: I only use the ATU once in a while on 160. It can take 5 or more tries before it tunes. Not sure why that is because my LDG tunes up immediately.
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Bill, it may not be common but it does happen once in a great while that one of my profiles changes..... and I am still at release V1.12.... a mystery.0
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James, yes it is, If I may make a suggestion? You should move up to at least V2. I think I understand why you would not want to. I myself are staying on V2 and not moving to V3 because I would not make good use of the new features as great as they are. But please think about it. You may not need everything that V2 offers but there have been hundreds of improvements and fixes that you will not see in V1. I believe many of the things you are having trouble with were worked on in V2.0
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That is obviously not correct. Reports of various versions of this problem by many different folks have been common for a long, long time. My comment wasn't that they aren't being reported its that I'd think they'd be reported even more often because they're so disruptive. It's clearly a bug. More likely, a LOT of different bugs. Inventing the issue away doesn't actually make it GO away. If it did, Flex Executive Management's policy of "All talk, no action" would be working. It isn't.0
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Russ, unless every customer has the same problem, then it is not a bug. If the cause is created in the software than everyone would have the same problems,,but we don't. Most people don't have the same set of problems you mentioned,,I don't, how come? So, not a bug. Many problems people have are local to their system caused by many things. It is a very good idea to move from V1 to V2 for the reasons I said before.0
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"there have been hundreds of improvements and fixes that you will not see in V1."
Such as what?0 -
Mike, have a look at the change logs for version 1 and Version 2. V1 support ended, none of the changes made in V2 were back ported into V 1. And many improvements and features, take a look.0
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Bill, wouldn't going to V2 cost the same as going to V3? The only reason I might upgrade to V2 and NOT V3 is because of the save on exit 'feature' for profiles on V3.
That does NOT sound desirable to me. I know this next issue might sound petty but at V2 the panadapter is filled in like other manufacturers do. I really don't want this to look like my TS 990. Thanks for the input and one of these days I may have to break down to get the bug fixes. I don't use the Flex remotely and have no plans to share it....that is why I have stayed with V1.0 -
Yes, I think your right James. If your going to upgrade, going to V3 makes sense. The point I'm really making is, even though V1 is working ok for you, there are tones of things that have been addressed In V2. And V3.0
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Thank you, Bill. I fully understand your point. It is not really expensive to upgrade but it irks me to have to do that just to get bug fixes when I really don't need the new features and some of them are undesirable like the save on exit 'feature'. I'd rather have paid for the V1 bug fixes but that is my problem. At some point I'll bite the bullet (byte the bullet?) and do the upgrade. Thanks again for your input. 73, Jim0
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First, who said I was using V1? I didn't. I'm on V3.1.8.
Second, I've seen variations of this problem through all three of the 6600's it took to get one that actually worked from Flex, starting at V2.3.9. That includes countless software updates, reloads and hard resets on each. Massive wasted time.
Obviously, people use their radios in different ways which brings out different aspects of the software. Every customer has to see and report - so that YOU can see it and understand it and choose to believe it - EVERY bug or it's not real? Seriously? Did you actually say that? This forum is FULL of software bugs people report that they are experiencing and/or concerned with more than others, depending on how they uniquely use their radios. That is always the case with everything software based from ham software to enterprise apps to operating systems and always has been. Your claim is utterly specious.
Further, many many people have been reporting versions of this problem because it is obviously a bug, or a collection of bugs. How dare you simply dismiss our actual physical experience because you think you can somehow literally disposition reality without even SEEING it; just off the top of your head. That what you need to believe is more real than what people are actually physically seeing happen. Posts on this forum are full of just how profoundly unqualified you are to make such judgements. Just because you don’t want to believe something for whatever personal reasons you have doesn't make them GO away in the actual real world out here. The issues are still happening whether you like it or not. Living in a "if it's Flex, by definition it's wonderful" hallucination is counterproductive because it hides the actual issues. And Flex Executive Management definitely doesn't need any help with that.
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Here's the comment I responded to above that seems to have been removed after I posted:
Russ, unless every customer has the same problem, then it is not a bug. If the cause is created in the software than everyone would have the same problems,,but we don't. Most people don't have the same set of problems you mentioned,,I don't, how come? So, not a bug. Many problems people have are local to their system caused by many things. It is a very good idea to move from V1 to V2 for the reasons I said before.
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Yes, totally agree. I'm ordering yet ANOTHER trap because my 6600 has randomly reset my 40M power to 100W - AGAIN - causing my amp to **** it up and this guy is telling me, despite not actually knowing anything, that it's not a bug. Absolutely AMAZING... He just knows that. By magic. And all of us who are reporting such bugs are simply idiots who require his correction. Problem solved. That fourth burned up trap on my antenna isn't really there.
Exactly as you say, a generic "it isn't true because I don't WANT it to be true" couldn't possibly be less constructive. Especailly when it comes to the interminable Flex Executive Management bug problem.1 -
James, the fill color for the panadapter is adjustable. You can make it almost any color you want. James WD5GWY0
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Thank you, James. That is encouraging. I may order it on that information alone. I know it sounds petty but it really is an issue for me. Now if they fixed the save on exit, I would buy the V3. Best 73, Jim1
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Just curious, how many "BETA TESTERS" are there ?1
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