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smart sdr version 3

1246

Answers

  • Pat N6PAT
    Pat N6PAT Member ✭✭
    edited December 2018

    I'm not going to continue this discussion any longer.

    Until Flex extends me the courtesy of answering my very simple question I will not buy any more releases.

    It's very sad because I am probably the most vocal supporter of Flex on QRZ.
  • DonS
    DonS Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2018
    Well said - Bravo.

    Don -  kx9q
  • Ernest
    Ernest Member ✭✭
    edited December 2018
    I could not say it better than  Mike - VE3CKO
    Just one question? Are the "Limited Edition" originally purchased and register, are they entitle to received upgrade v3.x.x. If NOT; let us know if you are accepting payment for the upgrade to v3 at this time.
    The "SmartSDR Technology Roadmap" published in January 2014 shows only up to v2.x (WAN Remote)
  • DonS
    DonS Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2018
    I have a "Limited Edition" and that was only covered to an upgrade to V2.  I am guessing Flex will not take pre-orders for software but I may be wrong.

    Don
  • VK7WH Winston
    VK7WH Winston Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2018
    Well said Mike. Winston
  • Don Stefanik
    Don Stefanik Member
    edited December 2018
    iF i CAN AFFORD IT i DO IT.
  • Burt Fisher
    Burt Fisher Member ✭✭
    edited April 2019
    Version 3 if there ever is one ought not be the spending of $200 to fix the problems  with version 2.
    It ought to be about new features.
  • Burt Fisher
    Burt Fisher Member ✭✭
    edited December 2018
    EA4GLI et.al. can the Flex operate on a WAN with reasonable latency?
  • EA4GLI
    EA4GLI Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2018
    Frs might be in a better position to answer that. I don't feel like critical opinions will be well received any longer in this forum so I refrain from answering anything beyond my personal experience in "my own little world", in which latency is an issue with remote operation through Smartlink.
  • Lasse Moell
    Lasse Moell Member ✭✭
    edited December 2018
    I would happily pay 200 bucks if they fixed the AGC  when using narrow filters. Listening on a CW station having  hard keying and using a narrow filter on the FLEX is almost painful. Turning on my Perseus SDR receiver, it shows it can and have  been done years ago by others.  The difference is simply stunning.
  • Bill -VA3WTB
    Bill -VA3WTB Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2018
    Salvador, if a person wishes to speak criticaly it is best to relate things from personal experience, instesd of, I heard this or that,,so that is what my opinion is also. And it is good to make sure we have as much information as we can before commenting?

    Perhaps mixing in some praise with a critical comment? If a person was to look back over the year at their own comments and record them, what would the average be. More critical, or praise?

    Burt, I use remote sometimes and i find it very good, this is an area Flex is a leader in. Many use remote only. But then again it depends on your connection with the network.
  • Greg SP7QJF
    Greg SP7QJF Member ✭✭
    edited April 2020
    V1.11.12 no software repair for a year. Dax sql bugs and others are all the time.
    The only thing we hear is that the error is registered at number. I will never buy a flexradio again
  • Bill -VA3WTB
    Bill -VA3WTB Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2018
    How can that be done Burt? If there are over a 1000 bugs spread out over 4 updates? What you are asking for is that they freez all  feature work for a year and complete none critical bugs.
  • Bill -VA3WTB
    Bill -VA3WTB Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2018
    V1 one is feature frozon, but they still fix critical bugs.
  • Burt Fisher
    Burt Fisher Member ✭✭
    edited December 2018
    I no longer can hear my recordings on air if I record a CQ after the last update. I should have to pay to get it back.
  • Burt Fisher
    Burt Fisher Member ✭✭
    edited December 2018
    You shouldn't have to pay for a fix.
  • Mike-VA3MW
    Mike-VA3MW Administrator, FlexRadio Employee, Community Manager, Super Elmer, Moderator admin
    edited December 2018
    Salvador

    I thought I would share some latency readings on my end on 2.4.9.  My remote has some pretty normal internet, but the best upload I can do on the radio end is just over 1 mb/sec.  That does allow me to run contests with an average of 80msec round trip, but I do have to dial back the FPS and the Rate on the waterfall.   90% of the time I can connected from a Maestro A Alpha unit.  This is one of the first units.

    Neither you or I can control what goes one between your 2 routers (here and there units), so it is a bit of a **** shoot.  

    I also ran a TS480 and Remote Rig for a long time,  maybe 6 or more years.  RemoteRig does use much less bandwidth and the TX and RX audio is pretty light, except for the audio artifact is produced when the bandwidth got constricted.  I was happy to hear more due to the lower noise floor, but the TS480 had an average receiver at best that fell apart during any HF big contest.  AGC pumping, front end overload, etc.  

    While your experience with SmartLink has not been very good, I'm not sure you can blame this on Flex.  You are talking about the symptom not the actual problem.  With out in depth network analysis, it is pretty hard to fix the symptom you are seeing.

    I can talk about a lot of things that can cause your symptoms, in fact, I did do a presentation at Dayton that discussed just these points.  All you and I can do is fix the parts we own (inside our routers).

    Personally, I am not aware of your network topology and I am sure you have done significant work on your latency issues.  I can honestly say as a ham (not a biased employee :) ), that your situation is likely not related to FRS remote technology but impacted by the data carrier in some way.

    We have some great network talent on the Flex Community.  If you want to work through it on a different thread, I am sure there are  many that will help to diagnose what you are experiencing.

    Mike va3mw
  • EA4GLI
    EA4GLI Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2018
    Thank you Mike. I will open a different thread. I have done so many time on other subjects and I have had very limited success, so I do not "trust" it will get me anywhere besides receiving the typical share of posts criticizing my post instead of providing insight to the content itself. Maybe this time around it will be different....
  • Greg SP7QJF
    Greg SP7QJF Member ✭✭
    edited December 2018

    they have not repaired anything for over a year.

  • Chris DL5NAM
    Chris DL5NAM Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2018
    Bill your a employee of FRS or as next FRS Elmer ? 
  • Burt Fisher
    Burt Fisher Member ✭✭
    edited December 2018
    I tried using a WAN twice, first time  I barely could hold a contact second time latency was barely good enough for receive so what are the experiences of others?
  • Matt (K0KB)
    Matt (K0KB) Member ✭✭
    edited December 2018
    Burt,  The experience here is great.  The latency isn't noticeable and the result is that I operate just like I'm at home.  I've done it from a multitude of devices, locations and connections and my home internet is nothing to scream about being several hops on a WISP to get internet with a max upload of 5mbit that is spotty.

    Only problem I've had that I've posted about is that IMO they should do something to improve availability.  There should be absolutely ZERO down time for the service.  The entire thing needs to be cloud hosted with multiple failovers.
  • [Deleted User]
    edited April 2020
    Getting a little rough here aren't we.
  • EA4GLI
    EA4GLI Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2018
    This is Smartlink

    image

    And below same connection same network same radio but on VPN

    image




  • Al_NN4ZZ
    Al_NN4ZZ Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2018
    Hi Bill / VA3WTB,
    RE: your comment " If there are over a 1000 bugs..."

    Since a bug is a defect ( i.e. a design or coding error), that seems like a huge number.  I've seen references to an internal FRS defect list and they do reference some defects by number occasionally.  They don't publish the list but I would have guessed the number of bugs to be closer to 30 than 1,000.

    There are a lot of ideas, enhancement requests, requests to finish up existing features, etc but most would not be considered bugs.  Some users would consider a few of the incomplete features bugs but that still doesn't approach 1,000.  

    QUESTIONS
    • Is the 1,000 bugs your estimate, or a guess, or a hypothetical?  
    • Is there a post or data from FRS that references the 1,000 bug number?
    • Are you considering all requests for changes ( enhancements, etc) as bugs?
    Also since a bug or defect implies an error in design, or coding and something that was missed in testing it would reflect poorly on the team if they really made 1,000 errors.

    Al / NN4ZZ 
    al (at) nn4zz (dot) com
    6700 & SSDR-W  V 2.4.9
    Win10 




  • Mike-VA3MW
    Mike-VA3MW Administrator, FlexRadio Employee, Community Manager, Super Elmer, Moderator admin
    edited December 2019
    Just a few more thoughts.

    Mike va3wtb is not employed by Flex but has been honoured by Flex for his help and support of the Flex products.  He is very knowledgable in the Flex product set and more.

    As for remote, SmartLink, today I just drove across Toronto (11 million people here) and was on HF the entire way with my 1mb/sec upload at my remote.  It was on my iPhone and an on and off again LTE connection.  In 45 minutes, I had 2 slight drop outs in areas that are very high traffic, but for the most part it was rock solid.

    Streaming HF and the white random noise we hear on HF is bandwidth intensive.  You can't really compress it like Video or even a telephone call.  If it was FM, that would be a different story.  Heck, AM might be more efficient on bandwidth, but I have never tried it.  :)

    As many have said on various threads here, WiFi is a party line and expect it to work perfectly is difficult due to the 802.11 spec.  

    Just a reminder, this is a technical hobby and things at times do require digging under the covers at times.  That is what makes these forums very helpful.

    Mike va3mw
  • Pat N6PAT
    Pat N6PAT Member ✭✭
    edited December 2018
    LOL!!
  • Pat N6PAT
    Pat N6PAT Member ✭✭
    edited December 2018
    Mike va3wtb is not employed by Flex but has been honoured by Flex for his help and support of the Flex products.  He is very knowledgable in the Flex product set and more.

    I asked this same question about Bill's relationship with FRS yesterday. Many times his comments come across as those of an employee or a representative of FRS. It's very misleading and I do not find it beneficial.
  • Bill -VA3WTB
    Bill -VA3WTB Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2018
    To help you in the future I will try to name the source of my comments. I have also made it clear that when something is my own opinion I say so.

    Any of the info I mention in my comments can be found here on the forum if people would care to look for it.

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