How about a TCI interface

Rob_K8YV

How about adding a TCI interface.

The stuff that supports it.

Rob K8YV

Erik Carling EI4KF

If only Rob. No more DAX problems, no more going through Windows audio stack. It is the one asset of ESDR2/3 that I miss since changing to Flex.

LA9AKA Hans Chr.

That would be absolutely fantastic! TCI is great😍

73 Hans Christian LA9AAKA

Rob_K8YV

I would even do the software interface.

Been a while but it will come back. lol

Goca

I'm mostly Sunsdr user and now Flex... Adding TCI protocol to SmartSDR would be awesome... They could forget about using DAX and CAT.

David Decoons, wo2x

The radio has an open API. Anyone willing to do the work is welcome to write a utility to talk to the radio’s API and serve up TCI formatted info.

There are quite a few developers writing their software to talk direct to the radio API. Flex engineering provides support to developers.

Any takers?

73

Dave wo2x

KD0RC

Sooo... If I was TCI, what would I be? I tried looking it up and it is an acronym for a bunch of things, none of which looked radio-oriented.

John KB4DU

Transceiver Control Interface

KD0RC

Ah, I see. This is basically the Expert Electronics SUNSDR API. I guess I don't understand what it brings to the table that the Flex API doesn't have. I also don't get why you would replace a native API with that of another brand radio.

Erik Carling EI4KF

TCI was designed by EE but is open source. GitHub - maksimus1210/TCI: Transceiver Control Interface

It is a transport system for audio, IQ, CAT. Unlike DAX it does not use the Windows audio stack. No matter what the capabilities of the computer and demands being put upon it by software, it operates smoothly. With an EE radio I never saw any glitch of (for example) FT8 TX and RX. There is no need to create CAT ports. Many logging software, digital mode software and other miscellaneous applications have a TCI interface.

It is the one asset of the EE ESDR2/3 SDR program that I missed after changing to Flex.

Unfortunately, the natural resistance to change or even investiture in time to properly research and verify these claims will probably deny Flex users of this resource.

However, to redress the balance: TCI is the only asset of ESDR2/3 that worthy of note. Also, with the latest versions of SmartSDR with its former DAX failings largely or even totally squashed, the difference in performance compared to TCI is I suspect minimal.

David Decoons, wo2x

Hi Erik

First, a thank you to Yuri and yourself for his work on SDC and your support of it. Fantastic!

That is a prime example of the advantages of writing to the Flex API and the flex lib library. It is openly available for developers to have their programs communicate to the radio. Marcus has done just that with SmartSDR for MAC and IOS.

I agree on the sound system performance improvements in 3.4.23. Annalise and the team have made very good improvements.

Until the YaeKenComs come around and support a new standard such as TCI, I believe the adoption of new standards will be minimal by application developers. Any developer can write a TCI middleware to the radio directly. Look at xDAX and xCAT from Mario as an example.

These are my personal views as a ham using the Flex ecosystem. For me it would be a minimal improvement to have TCI support built in as my radio, amp, tuner, and antenna switch all communicate via LAN which provides interlock control.

73 and pass along my regards to Yuri. I do not know if he is a member here.

Dave wo2x

Erik Carling EI4KF

Hello Dave,

Yuri will undoubtedly read of your regards, but I will pass them on anyway. All thanks must go to Yuri, I have nothing to do with his fine work (conducted under exceptionally difficult circumstances as you will know) and I merely promote his work with SDC as a way of helping him get the word out and take some of the queries as he does not have the time to deal with a large quanity of them.

Other that, you pretty much mirror my comments and TCI would now make a minimal improvement. This was not the case when I first had my Flex in 2021. The loss of TCI and the substitution of it by flakey DAX was a shock to say the least. However, to their credit, Flex have found a way to overcome those issues.

As for the "Flex ecosystem": this leaves everything else in its wake. Totally awesome (in its literal sense). Just the vision behind it, especially considering that vision occurred many years ago, is worthy of the highest commendation.

Erik EI4KF / G0CGL

Salvatore

Good day to all,
i'm having problem with the SDC installation to be used with Flex-6400. Unfortunately once the software is installed , it shows at starting the error 'UNABLE TO START THE SERVER. NOT FOUND TCI CLIENT'
the SDC version in use is the last one (v 17.090). I'll appreciate if someone can give me some tips on how to sort out this problem .
thanks
iC8SQS

Martin_G4ENZ

You don't want TCI - you want SmartSDR API