"Waiting on hardware initialization" every time I try to run off battery

minorsecond

I just got a Maestro today. It works fine when plugged in, but when I try to run it off battery, I get the "waiting on hardware initialization" window that never seems to go away. It looks like it's trying to install an update that was already installed (when on power), and is at step 3/4. The latest time I tried it, I also got an error saying "MaestroStartup has stopped working."


It goes away if I force it to power off, plug it in, and restart it. But I want to be able to use the Maestro away from the desk. How can I resolve this?

Mike-VA3MW

I opened a support ticket for you

David Decoons, wo2x

Are you using the Ethernet connection when you get the error? The Ethernet port will only work when external power is plugged in.

The WiFi will work if you use a USB battery pack. The internal battery in the Maestro is only for the tablet and not for the interface of I/O board electronics.

Dave wo2x

minorsecond

I've been using WiFi during this. I haven't tried Ethernet.

On a whim, I went into SmartControl and then back out. Many of the firmware options disappeared, and it worked. I've powered off and on a few times since and it seems to be good now. I'm not sure what SmartControl did, as I didn't do anything in there.

Side question: the Maestro seemed to not like my unplugging AC power while it was connected to the radio. Is that a bad thing to do?

Mike-VA3MW

SmartControl allows you to use the knobs for controlling the radio while using SmartSDR on the PC for your visuals.

No, the Maestro does not like pulling power.

BTW, WiFi is brutally bad for read time communications like we do. While streaming works well since it is well buffered so we don't care if the movie lags by 30 seconds but we do care if our CW qso lags by 500ms.

73

minorsecond

It all seems to be ok now. Must have just got into some sort of bad state and entering SmartControl got it out somehow.

I haven't had a CW QSO with it yet, but RBN seems to recognize my CQs so that's good. I'll see if I can set up a sked with someone today, or maybe I'll have better luck this weekend. My latency is typically below 5 ms on WiFi so it'll be interesting to see how CW works with that.