is there a low power or preferred shut down of a client?

mnewbill

I always shut down in the prescribed order of client first, then the radio, and finally the power supply after a minute or so.

that being said, I noticed when I shut down my client, the radio is still active it seems, and the cat signal going to my amplifier is still live. I cant tell what is happening under the hood so to speak, but since the cat is still sending the last known band to the amplifier, does that mean the unit is still doing work receiving with no client? if so, is there a command to shut the rx down until another user connects?

just curious.

thanks,

MN

VE7ATJ_Don

hi MN… it's helpful to remember that the Flex central unit is acting as a radio 'server', so shutting down a client doesn't have any effect on the central server. It continues to monitor the radio spectrum, looking/waiting for clients to connect.

The server only shuts down when you physically (or otherwise) power it down.

BTW, there's really no actual 'need' to shut down the radio. I, and a number of others, leave the server on 24x7.

KD0RC

The radio is a server and SmartSDR, CAT, DAX, Maestro, M model front panel, FRStack, ACLog, etc etc are all clients. Generally speaking, the clients talk to the server and not to each other.

SmartSDR, Maestros and M model front panels are all GUI clients, meaning they get UDP data (audio, pan, waterfall) data from the radio. They can open and close slices and panadapters.

When all of the GUI clients are closed, there are no more active slices or panadapters. So while the radio is still on, it is not receiving (from a practical standpoint). So if CAT, DAX or other non-GUI clients are still connected, not much is happening. They are idling waiting for a GUI client to connect.

So to answer your last question, there is nothing to shut down as there are no open slices.

I hope that long-winded explanation helps.

mnewbill

Thanks for the explanation. that brings me to a related question:

that being said that the server keeps happily running along, I was cautioned by the techs at flex support to be sure NOT to turn off the computer until you turn off the program itself, (I could have misunderstood), but is there anything with just shutting down the pc normally while the program is running? (the pc will force close the program before shutting down)

I ask because I have a handy batch file that will first close all the programs with no prompts, then check for updates to the PC, and then power down the pc normally. its a handy bug out button where I wouldn't have to babysit the shutdown process.

it wo

mnewbill

ha, now I recall why I asked this originally,

I wanted to know how to turn the antennas all "off" on my cat controlled antenna switch to better protect the receiver from nearby transmissions on other radios. that is probably a dumb question since there probably is no cat command to "turn off" it will just sit on the last known band anyway. I guess the closest thing I can do is dial to a band with no antenna in use (open port) and then shut down the client.

VE7ATJ_Don

Hmmmm, I wonder if just shutting down SmartSDR CAT would do the trick? This is done automagically when you shut down SmartSDR.

As per shutting down SmartSDR before powering down the computer, yes, that generally considered a better modus operandi, since then it allows the program to orderly shut off all it's services, etc. instead from just having the power 'rug' pulled from under it.

mnewbill

VE7ATJ_Don

hi, I dont think that one will help in my case, because I am not using smartSDR CAT, I am plugging into the USB on the radio itself for cat control.