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Flex 6600 Start up issues

Paul Ewing
Paul Ewing Member ✭✭
edited January 19 in FLEX-6000 Signature Series

I have a Flex 6600 that I bought second hand about a year ago. The previous owner said he “didn’t like it” I don't know the history of this rig.

Since day one of my ownership, this 6600 has some issues when powering it up. Boot up time is very slow. Once I try to start Smart SDR 3.3.33, the radio goes into a cycle where SDR/CAT/DAX try to start. On SDR, I see frequent pauses in the waterfall. Oftentimes, Smart SDR opens without a slice and there is no way to start a slice. SDR then disconnects and restarts, then opens without a slice, crashes and re-starts. It usually takes 2-3 powercycles and about 30 minutes of effort to get the 6600 working properly. Once it is running, it will run properly for weeks until the next power cycle starts this crazy start up process all over again.

I told my Flex guru about this problem and it was suggested that I replace the Micro SD card, which I obtained from Flex and have done, but this did not resolve the issue. I also have a Flex 6500 which is using the same Smart SDR 3.3.33 without any issues (not at the same time as the 6600)

Any suggestions on how to get this 6600 starting properly?

The PC is a very powerful machine with 16GB of memory. 

Comments

  • Trucker
    Trucker Member ✭✭✭✭

    I would suggest you contact Flex Radio's Help Desk and get them to help you with this problem. At first it sounded like an SD card starting to fail. But, since you have changed that, it may be something more serious. Contact them and they can help pinpoint the problem.

    James

    WD5GWY

  • KP4IP
    KP4IP Member ✭✭

    @Paul Ewing - if you run a continuous ping to the radio IP, do you see timeouts (packet loss)?

    https://www.ionos.com/digitalguide/server/tools/continuous-ping/


  • Paul Ewing
    Paul Ewing Member ✭✭

    I tried ping -t and it ran fine, no timeouts. The 6600 only acts up at start up. Once it is up and running, sometimes after 20-30 minutes, it works fine until shut down and re-started.

  • david ingebright
    david ingebright Member ✭✭

    I am having similar CAT issues with my 6400 and 6500 remotes—here is my story:

    I'm having the strangest problem with the garage 6400 remote radio. When I turn it on here in Maricopa and start the SmartSDR software on my laptop:

    1. I get a CAT error: "Cannot open TCP Port 5003."
    2. Serial Port COM4 shows as "Not Present."
    3. An "Error has occurred starting the Audio input" dialog box appears.
    4. A Windows OS dialog box appears: "An Error has occurred at 0x80070490" (this is the DAX reserved Audio TX virtual cable).
    5. I checked all the Windows audio settings, virtual cables, and Device Manager (including the COM4 port), and everything looks okay.
    6. The Windows sound settings have always been ambiguous and difficult for me to set up with this SmartSDR software. There are over twenty virtual cables displayed in the input (record) and output (play) sound card settings for third-party software.
    7. I am receiving an error that I cannot understand; it seems to be related to the Windows interface somehow.
    8. When I turn off the garage 6400 radio via WebRelay and turn on the mountain 6300 radio instead, I restart the SmartSDR software and that radio works normally. Both use the same software, ports, and virtual cables.
    9. This indicates something specific is happening only when the garage 6400 is running on this laptop!
    10. I can go to my desktop PC and the radio runs fine; the issue is isolated to the laptop.

    How can I fix this? I am considering reloading SmartSDR on the laptop. What do you think?

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