Welcome to the new FlexRadio Community! Please review the new Community Rules and other important new Community information on the Message Board.
If you are having a problem, please refer to the product documentation or check the Help Center for known solutions.
Need technical support from FlexRadio? It's as simple as Creating a HelpDesk ticket.

Does anyone else have a problem with their SmartSDR trying to have too many slices?

Roy Laufer
Roy Laufer Member ✭✭
Hello,

I have noticed that sometimes my SmartSDR becomes somewhat unresponsive (something like tweaking the AGC setting no longer works).  I quit SmartSDR and restart it only to watch as SmartSDR opens up my previously open 4 slices, but then it opens a 5th and then a 6th, and then an 7th, and then an 8th, and then a 9th! Unfortunately, this does not mean that to have a mutant 6700 with 9 slices.  When SmartSDR attempts to grab a 9th slice the program crashes and shuts down.  Starting it up usually produces the same problem, so that I took to just parking my cursor at the 5th slice's close button and repeatedly closing any more than 4 slices.  I lost count with how many slices SmartSDR tried to open up, but often it would be too fast for me and before I had a chance I had 8 slices on screen and it was summoning a 9th before it once again crashed!

If I repeatedly close slices until it crashes, it eventually rights itself.  If I shut the 6700 down and restart it, it rights itself, but there has to be a better solution.

Is anyone else aware of this little quirk?

Thanks!

Roy, AC2GS

Comments

  • DH2ID
    DH2ID Member ✭✭✭
    edited March 2017
    Hi Roy, my 6500 sometimes starts with a lot of slices, but as I recall one of my profiles every time I start anew, it doesn't matter. Sometimes I reset my 6500 by holding the power button down for more than 5 seconds and reload my profiles. This seems to help. Vy 73, Alex DH2ID
  • Tim - W4TME
    Tim - W4TME Administrator, FlexRadio Employee admin
    edited June 2020
    We have done some work on this in SmartSDR v1.4 so persistence doesn't get confused and try to recreate more slices than were initially defined.  So I think this issue is probably fixed unless there were some edge cases we missed in testing.
  • WA2SQQ
    WA2SQQ Member ✭✭
    edited January 2017
    I've noted some inconsistent behavior at start-up, where sometimes it opens w/o any slices open. Since we know that there are bugs, I'm not over concerned and the instability is not preventing me from using the radio. Been hearing a lot of feedback from Orlando Hamfest that 1.4 may not be so close to a release. Hope this was more of an pessimist's opinion than an accurate observation.
  • Bill W2PKY
    Bill W2PKY Member ✭✭
    edited March 2017

    The part about the unresponsive window and buttons not working are familiar to me when I tried to use the Surface Pro 2 and 3 computers. Occasionally, the integrated GPU on the I5 4300 would loose track of the radio window. Holding the left mouse button on the top of the radio window and moving it around would restore the panadapter scan [in slow motion]  but not the buttons. The scan was slow because the GPU was not servicing that window. Are you using a separate video card? What is your computer hardware profile? Since moving to an I7 computer with separate vedio card the freezing widow has not happened.

    The extra slices may be a separate issue.

    Hope this helps.

     

  • Ken - NM9P
    Ken - NM9P Member ✭✭✭
    edited December 2016
    Great!  The worst offender for me in this issue, and many others, has always been 12 meters.  Why?  I don't know.  

    I have saved the profile with only one slice on 12 meters, but whenever I switch to 12 meters from any other band, it opens three slices.  

    I recently saved my "DXing" profile with a two-slice split.  Now then I close one of them, leave 20 meters, and return to 20 using the band buttons, it tries to open three slices.  Strange behavior that I didn't experience until a week or two ago.  I didn't report it because 1.4 was already in final stages of development and I figured I would wait 'till the 1.4 came out and see if it was fixed.  Sounds like it will be.  Thanks.
  • Roy Laufer
    Roy Laufer Member ✭✭
    edited May 2017
    My desktop is reasonably sturdy.  It's  an ASUS Gryphon Z87 motherboard, with an i7-4771 CPU and an AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series video card.  Either it is a problem with SmartSDR or an unfortunate interaction between SmartSDR and either Windows 7 or some program running on my machine.  Microsoft makes it almost impossible to do any decent bug tracking on Windows (IMHO).

    Roy, AC2GS
  • Bill W2PKY
    Bill W2PKY Member ✭✭
    edited May 2017

    Hi Roy-

    Okay, your machine sounds powerful enough.

     I'm running  Win 7 Pro here with no issues.

    Does this happen after transmitting?

    Bill

  • Alan - KA4B
    Alan - KA4B Member ✭✭
    edited January 2020
    I can't help wondering if we switched to the Apple operating system (Yosemite) if many of the problems caused by Windows would go away.

  • Roy Laufer
    Roy Laufer Member ✭✭
    edited February 2015
    I am using Windows 7 Pro for my OS too.  I doubt it is an RF induced problem.  I have used it solely to receive and walked away from it at night, only to find it partially locked up the next morning.

    I think its SmartSDR and Windows 7 not getting along all the time, but **** if I know who is "the guilty party" <HI HI>!

    Roy
  • Roy Laufer
    Roy Laufer Member ✭✭
    edited February 2015
    In a perfect world we would all migrate to the most powerful, stable, user friendly OS around, but this ain't no perfect world, or else most of us would be using never written versions of BeOS or AmigaDOS.  We have relatively few OS's to choose from and usually, unless you are heavily in a graphic centric business, most software is invariably written for some form of Windows OS.

    Like the saying goes "ya gotta dance with the girl ya brought", and chums, we've all brought our cousins <HI HI>!

    Roy
  • N7AIG
    N7AIG Member
    edited February 2015

    I often dream of this too... but Apple and Microsoft are both going in the direction of maximum revenue streams and that doesn't include us. I often fantasize about having one of my old VME crates in charge again.

    One of the best things about the Flex radios is that it uses an OS that we can all hack. And one of the worst things about the Flex radios is Windows.

    73 de Dave, N7AIG

  • Bill W2PKY
    Bill W2PKY Member ✭✭
    edited December 2016

    Hi Roy-

    Check your task scheduler to see if there are any CPU or Disk hogs scheduled over night. Sounds like SmartSDR is not getting service at some point. I had "Connection Lost" many times on the Surface, was due to tasks fired off by the O/S taking up CPU cycles.

    Hope this helps;

    Bill

  • Jay Nation
    Jay Nation Member ✭✭
    edited August 2016
    Just set aside some funds now, When someone acheives perfection you might want to switch to it. I doubt many Hams will, They seem sort of set in their ways. Till then try to adopt as many of the better ideas as you can. Best is pure fiction, it doesn't exist beyond a few nanoseconds. Better might last a bit longer. Worst is temporary too. I've always been inclined to just go with good until it starts to feel bad. If it feels good, do it!

    Jay - NO5J
  • Paul
    Paul Member
    edited September 2015
    I have an older precision desktop (6+years old), I actualy ordered a new system yesterday. If I open too many slices my my system sometimes gets overwhelmed.
  • Bill W2PKY
    Bill W2PKY Member ✭✭
    edited December 2016
    The waterfall data can be overwhelming so I slow mine down to a crawl; Panadapter update about 1/2 way and up the averaging to 25% helps keep the Ethernet traffic down. open the Task Manager and go to Performance; Watch the Ethernet usage and vary the display controls.
  • Walt - KZ1F
    Walt - KZ1F Member ✭✭
    edited November 2016
    Alan, what do you mean by 'we'?
    Stu did an iPad version, I am doing a Linux and Android version. If you are a single vendor person (FRS) you are pretty much stuck with Windows. There is something to be said for buying SSDR from FRS, they support the software. Stu likely would fix bugs but isn't obligated to, ditto with me.
  • Walt - KZ1F
    Walt - KZ1F Member ✭✭
    edited November 2016
    Bill, why do you say the Connection Lost is due to other tasks running in the OS? There are always other tasks running in the OS. Windows supports multiple processes running concurrently. It has for 20 years now? I ran fine for almost an entire year with no crash related problems. Just in the last few days I've had 3 Connection Lost issues with SSDR. The Panadapter band display, waterfall, and metering are all UDP based which means lost packets are expected and acceptable so, worst case, you'll lose some precision in the graphic displays. Even TCP for commands and control has very tried and true algorithms for backoff when there is congestion and slowness.
  • Alan - KA4B
    Alan - KA4B Member ✭✭
    edited February 2015
    Walt, I was trying to say was that I am curious if Flex were to use the Apple operating system whether would be fewer problems.  I believe that using Windows complicates things.  If someone were to create an Apple interface to the Flex 6500 I would definitely be in the market.  I do not like Windows and I do not like running Parallels
  • James Whiteway
    edited February 2015
    I think in time you won't have to run Parallels to use your radio with iOS. I'm betting there are people developing apps that will run natively in iOS that will work with the 6000 Series. But, at the same time, using an Apple OS won't guarantee you won't have issues. The internal software/firmware of the 6000 Series is running on a modded Linux OS, which might make it seem that iOS would be a better fit. But, I doubt that would be the case. Plus, there are much more Windows based systems out there than IOS. So, Flex is playing to the bigger market. But, with the api's open to outside developers, other platforms can be supported.
    The next version of Visual Studio will support Windows, iOS, and Android. So, conceivably, a developer could target a huge device base while developing in a single environment. Even Visual Studio 2013 Community Edition has that ability with add-on's.
        There are even free development software that targets C# in Linux. So, the ability is there. It depends entirely on developers and if they see a market for their products.  Once Flex Radio gets the major kinks out of the software on the radio, then the client side software like SmartSDR, (and others) will become much better and more stable. After all, SmartSDR is just an external interface to the radio. And that interface can be on almost any platform with the right tools. Limiting the software to just iOS or Windows would not be a good thing. I think Flex did the right thing in making the Flexlib api's available to outside developers. And in time, IF there is a market for software for other platforms, it will show up.
    just my .02
    james
    WD5GWY
     
    

Leave a Comment

Rich Text Editor. To edit a paragraph's style, hit tab to get to the paragraph menu. From there you will be able to pick one style. Nothing defaults to paragraph. An inline formatting menu will show up when you select text. Hit tab to get into that menu. Some elements, such as rich link embeds, images, loading indicators, and error messages may get inserted into the editor. You may navigate to these using the arrow keys inside of the editor and delete them with the delete or backspace key.