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CW skimmer with DAX IQ

W5UN_Dave
W5UN_Dave Member ✭✭
edited February 2019 in FLEX Series (Legacy) Radios
Does anyone have this working?  I selected WDM,  DAX IQ RX 1 for signal I/O, and Soft Rock IF, but I get no waterfall display. Can someone help?

Answers

  • Tim - W4TME
    Tim - W4TME Administrator, FlexRadio Employee admin
    edited March 2017
    Did you assign the DAX IQ channel 1 to the Panadapter by clicking on the DAX option in the Panadapter menu and selecting the proper channel? 

    This is like selecting the real (non IQ) DAX channel for a slice receiver.

    Also for wide band operation, in CWSkimmer, you can use the SoftRock setting by setting the LO frequency to the frequency readout in the DAX Control panel beside the DAX IQ channel when it is operational.

    And....

    Make sure to set the sampling rate for the DAX IQ channel to the same value in CWSkimmer.

  • Al_NN4ZZ
    Al_NN4ZZ Member ✭✭✭
    edited March 2017
    Tim,
    Can you point me to the TELNET documentation to address the Slice/Panadapter tuning issue.  I didn't see it in the release notes or users guide but may have missed it.  

    I noticed that unless I keep the panadapter center frequency and the slice frequency exactly the same the decoding doesn't work and the and frequency scale in CWS is off.   I think this is the issue you described so looking tor and easy way to have CWS track the slice.

    Regards, Al / NN4ZZ

    image

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  • Tim - W4TME
    Tim - W4TME Administrator, FlexRadio Employee admin
    edited March 2017
    Setting the LO via telnet a CWSkimmer feature; it is documented there.  Look in the CWSkimmer Help->Telnet Server->Telnet Commands to see how to set the LO frequency.

    "I noticed that unless I keep the panadapter center frequency and the slice frequency exactly the same the decoding doesn't work and the and frequency scale in CWS is off." 

    Yes, that is one of the "two degrees of tuning freedom" issue I referenced above.  As of now, there is no convenient way for CWSkimmer to track the panadapter and tune the slice (these are two separate functions) .

    We have contacted Alex about working on a better integration solution.  We now have 8 receiver radios which never existed before. I in-vision the ability to have CWSkimmer open 4 independent instances, communicating with the radio using FlexLib via Ethernet  to track each panadapter and keep track of the TX slice so that you can operate 4 bands at the same time seamlessly.  Now that would really be cool.

    Hopefully we can achieve that level of integration.  Time will tell....
  • Al_NN4ZZ
    Al_NN4ZZ Member ✭✭✭
    edited February 2019
    Tim,
    Thanks, the telnet process seems a bit cumbersome.  Maybe I'm missing something.   Anyway I found another way that seems to work.  I'm using  SoftRock-IF setting and the CAT commands.  

    To sync the slice and panadapter frequencies, I press the the one of the zoom controls ( - or + ).   Pressing either the plus or minus will center the slice.  CWS is happy.  I use the  a "plus, minus, plus" sequence to center the slice in the panadapter and return to the original zoom level.  

    Not perfect but pretty fast.   If you retune the slice from the radio side (mouse or flexcontrol) or by clicking in CWS, you have to do the "minus, plus, minus" sequence to re-sync.  

    Potential Solution - Another option to consider would be to offer a slice tuning option that moved the panadapter display under the slice line keeping them in sync.  In other words, the slice would stay centered in the panadapter and the background would move.  Some  knob radios (e.g. FTDX9000) offer this tuning option.  I think that would fix CWS without a code change at least as a temporary solution.  Some folks may actually like the "keep slice centered" tuning option.     Hope I explained it okay....thoughts?

    Regards, Al / NN4ZZ






  • Tim - W4TME
    Tim - W4TME Administrator, FlexRadio Employee admin
    edited December 2016
    This is an idea, not an answer to the topic problem Please reference the new topic here: Idea for CWSkimmer integration with SmartSDR
  • W5UN_Dave
    W5UN_Dave Member ✭✭
    edited November 2016
    Al, this will work for me if I can figure out where to set Audio-IF Hz in the skimmer radio setting.. Any suggestions?
  • Tim - W4TME
    Tim - W4TME Administrator, FlexRadio Employee admin
    edited March 2017
    BTW, the reason to use the Softrock setup configuration rather than Softrock-IF is that the later can only decode 24 kHz of bandwidth were the Softrock mode can decode the entire bandwidth streamed from the radio (48, 96 or 192k)
  • Greg
    Greg Member ✭✭
    edited March 2017
    When using skimmer server with the qs1r you won't even have a normal skimmer display. As is, I would set up a couple pan adapters strictly for skimming and use telnet to send the skimmed spots to your spot collector software. Anyone know if you can run two instances of cw skimmer?
  • Tim - W4TME
    Tim - W4TME Administrator, FlexRadio Employee admin
    edited December 2016
    "Anyone know if you can run two instances of cw skimmer?"

    Yes.  It is in the CWSkimmer doc. Search for "multiple copies"  Each instance needs it's own .ini file
  • Al_NN4ZZ
    Al_NN4ZZ Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2016
    Dave,
    I posted my setup here.    Hope it helps.  

    https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/cw_skimmer_with_v1_1_using_the_softrock_if_hardware...

    Regards, Al / NN4ZZ

  • Greg
    Greg Member ✭✭
    edited February 2014
    Where is this doc? I searched the downloads are on the frs site but came up empty.
  • Ed - W2RF
    Ed - W2RF Member ✭✭
    edited February 2017


    Here's a screen shot of my 6700 connected to 4 instances of Skimmer.
  • Greg
    Greg Member ✭✭
    edited February 2017
    Thanks Ed. That is what I was working on yesterday. I created four installs of CWS. I have not looked at the ini files mentioned by Tim. Are they in each separate folder or is it in an appdata folder? During a contest I would open two more pan adapters for VFOs A and B slices.
  • Greg
    Greg Member ✭✭
    edited February 2014
    It would be nice if you could minimize the pan adapters used for the skimmers.
  • Ed - W2RF
    Ed - W2RF Member ✭✭
    edited December 2016
    They go in the Skimmer program folder. The default CWSkimmer.ini is there.

    The procedure is to first start Skimmer with the ini="MyIQConfig.ini" option. Next configure your settings. Then exit the program.

    It doesn't work to just copy the default ini file to a new name.
  • Ed - W2RF
    Ed - W2RF Member ✭✭
    edited February 2017
    Would also save considerable CPU resources by not having to draw the panadapters.

  • Greg
    Greg Member ✭✭
    edited February 2014
    Ed.  Where do I make those ini option settings.  This is where I found the only skimmer ini config file:
    C:UsersGregAppDataRoamingAfreetProductsCwSkimmer

    There are no ini files in the program folders.



  • Greg
    Greg Member ✭✭
    edited February 2014
    Is there something that I add to the target file path to set the myIQconfig setting?

    "D:ham programsCwSkimmer_1CwSkimmer.exe"


  • Greg
    Greg Member ✭✭
    edited February 2014
    When I select Data folder in Help all three instances go to the same folder:

    C:UsersGregAppDataRoamingAfreetProductsCwSkimmer

  • Ed - W2RF
    Ed - W2RF Member ✭✭
    edited February 2017
    Where ini files is operating system dependent. So I think wherever you found the default ini file should be where other ini files are located. On my system they are in the program directory. It appears that on your system they should go in AppDataRoaming....
  • Greg
    Greg Member ✭✭
    edited February 2014
    But that means all instances will use the same ini file.  The data folder for each one points to the same folder where the ini file is.  Are you running XP?  I am trying to do this on Win7.



  • Ed - W2RF
    Ed - W2RF Member ✭✭
    edited February 2017
    All the ini files are in the same folder, and have different names. Mine are IQ1.ini, IQ2.ini, IQ3.ini, and IQ4.ini. Then on the shortcut that starts Skimmer put

    "C:Program Files (x86)AfreetCwSkimmerCwSkimmer.exe" ini=.IQ1.ini

    or whatever path is appropriate for your computer as the target.

  • Greg
    Greg Member ✭✭
    edited February 2014
    OK I think I have it going.  Now I have to shake off the cobwebs and remember how to configure WinTelex to tie them all together.

    Tnx a bunch Ed.

    73
    Greg

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