Flex 6600 Start up issues

Paul Ewing

I have a Flex 6600 that I bought second hand about a year ago. The previous owner said he “didn’t like it” I don't know the history of this rig.

Since day one of my ownership, this 6600 has some issues when powering it up. Boot up time is very slow. Once I try to start Smart SDR 3.3.33, the radio goes into a cycle where SDR/CAT/DAX try to start. On SDR, I see frequent pauses in the waterfall. Oftentimes, Smart SDR opens without a slice and there is no way to start a slice. SDR then disconnects and restarts, then opens without a slice, crashes and re-starts. It usually takes 2-3 powercycles and about 30 minutes of effort to get the 6600 working properly. Once it is running, it will run properly for weeks until the next power cycle starts this crazy start up process all over again.

I told my Flex guru about this problem and it was suggested that I replace the Micro SD card, which I obtained from Flex and have done, but this did not resolve the issue. I also have a Flex 6500 which is using the same Smart SDR 3.3.33 without any issues (not at the same time as the 6600)

Any suggestions on how to get this 6600 starting properly?

The PC is a very powerful machine with 16GB of memory. 

Trucker

I would suggest you contact Flex Radio's Help Desk and get them to help you with this problem. At first it sounded like an SD card starting to fail. But, since you have changed that, it may be something more serious. Contact them and they can help pinpoint the problem.

James

WD5GWY

KP4IP

@Paul Ewing - if you run a continuous ping to the radio IP, do you see timeouts (packet loss)?

https://www.ionos.com/digitalguide/server/tools/continuous-ping/

Paul Ewing

I tried ping -t and it ran fine, no timeouts. The 6600 only acts up at start up. Once it is up and running, sometimes after 20-30 minutes, it works fine until shut down and re-started.