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Posted 3 years ago
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73, Mike va3mw
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Right now using the Maestro makes my 6700 a 6300 and removes TNF and Downward Expander.... it is a considerable "downgrade" in usability.
I personally would like to see those 3 things added in the next 6 months to a year otherwise the Maestro might not make a lot of sense to me.
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The setup to use Softether is not as complicated as it sounds. And, once you have it functional, imagine being able to take your Maestro and connect to your buddies station as a change of operating location. Spending some time learning SoftEther (or some other VPN) is time well spent.
The hardest part of remote operating is managing your antennas and amps. Remember, you can't twist any knobs now. Relays your friend.
I am a Hurricane Watch Net operator and while I was travelling for work, I was on the net in 4 unique locations, all using my Maestro, IOS, or SmartSDR. Awesome stuff.
For a large number of operators, most who may only have a 6300, the Maestro is a perfect match. And, you don't even need a PC.
Mike va3mw
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But, if I use my laptop to control the Flex I can also work digital mods, log contacts and control other devices. The reality is that in order to use the Maestro efficiently in my station I also need a computer, and if I am already using a computer with a better screen than the Maestro, then why would I use the Maestro?
I lose TNFs which is a huge deal for me because ANF is very crappy. I lose Downward Expander, which is even more necessary because I can be in a more noisy location with the Maestro, like outdoors in my deck.
I had to modify the hand mic and add a couple electret capsules to make it usable with the Maestro. The dynamic element from FRS is borderline adequate at best (for my voice).
Maestro doesn't have bluetooth, so I have to be tethered to the device. I can use bluetooth headset with the laptop.
The speaker on the Maestro is average with fairly tiny sound, headset is almost a must.
The idea of the Maestro is a cool one. On paper it was great. The device is built correctly... I don't find the construction to be any better that other similarly price electronics. Some things feel cheap, such as the ON OFF button. The screen is that of a regular tablet, not HD in there.
Other design decisions are just odd. Having the RJ45 plug in the back instead of the side.... weird, undue stress on the connector. I have to literally grab the device and look at the back to figure out where to plug things. Not having headset and mic on the front..... very weird.
I have the option to turn on the Speaker when I have headset on... or it seems so on the Menu, but the function doesn't work. I cannot hear on the Maestro speaker if there is a headset connected (which I can do with the radio). Limited functions available for the Fn buttons. The list goes on and on.
The last thing, the Maestro by itself is useless. A $1000+ device that will do nothing at all by itself. At least a laptop can be used for multiple functions.
I imagine FRS will look into some of these things, or all of them, but since they decided not to share any roadmap anymore I have no idea what will happen in future upgrades so I have to take the device for what it can do today and make my decision of ownership on that.
If I have to score the Maestro in a scale of 1 to 10, I will give it barely a 5 in its current state. And that is because I feel generous.
While I was writing this I turned it on, it is plugged to my power supply and connected to my Gigabit network with a short patch cable to a smart switch, same switch where the Flex radio is connected.... so all ethernet with good quality cables and the Maestro has dropped 0.03% of the packets!!! in barely 5 minutes!
It is very difficult to like this device. :(
PS. A few more minutes while I reviewed my own post and the drop rate is 0.04%
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I honestly thing the newer switches and routers are not handling their buffers very well and the Maestro streams a ton of data.
My Maestro connection is the cheapest indoor CAT5 cable you can buy and it runs from my cottage to my boat house where the radio and the cable modem is. It is buried under the grass 1/2 the way and even has 2 splices in it due to the fact someone hit the cable with a shovel in 2 places. I just used traditional phone wire splicing techniques and some waterproofing. No time for proper RJ45s.
It has been i place (under the grass) for about 8 years now. Certainly not done to spec by any means. Thousands here will say it shouldn't be working , but it does and perfectly. This is the vinyl cheap crappy CAT5 that you can buy.
Can you check your Lan cable wiring and switch? Maybe try a different port or just change something in your network to see if it improves or changes. As Stu K6TU reported, he had a similar issue and it was related to a number of commercially available patch cords that were miss wired. Once he changed those out, it was rock solid.
I'm sorry it isn't what you expected. You could always part with it if it is that painful. Personally, I love the fact all the connections are on the back and nice and clean. Cables out the front drive me crazy.
73, Mike va3mw
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Tim - W4TME, Customer Experience Manager
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Tim - W4TME, Customer Experience Manager
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It is the highest rated smart switch on Amazon with 100 reviews and almost 5 stars.
https://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-Gigabit-Ethernet-Desktop-TL-SG108/dp/B00K4DS5KU/ref=pd_lpo_147_bs_t_2...
Nonetheless this is good advice and I will follow it.
I am also going to try to run it on 100 to see if it makes a difference.
Interestingly, sometimes I get dropped packets and others I get Excellent and no drops, it just seems that the maestro sometime wants to work with me and some others it doesn't, very temperamental.
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- 1788 Posts
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I unplugged the ethernet cable without restarting the Maestro and plugged it back in and now I have 0% dropped packages.
So who do we blame now? :) I didn't change cables, and didn't restart the Maestro or the switch. Now it works.
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Tim - W4TME, Customer Experience Manager
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- 29 Posts
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Tim - W4TME, Customer Experience Manager
- 9199 Posts
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- 29 Posts
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- 12 Posts
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My idea was to write a piece of software that would sniff the network for the 6000 series radio and subscribe to the slice and perhaps meter data. Then it would simply scan the network looking for outbound UDP packets from the radio IP and just piggy back decode them into pans and waterfalls.
I was going to call it Flex6000Monitor as it would offer no control, just sniffing and monitoring of the slice data and panafall displays. I already have the code to connect to the radio, get slice data and also to paint waterfalls and pans. I just need to pull that apart and make it work as a non-control app.
I was able to write a small app to sniff out the UDP packets of radio data. So that combined with the code I have for displays might make a cool monitor app.
My idea was this would be great for a couple of purposes:
Any op could paint their slices and pans on a second, perhaps bigger monitor.
Ops with Maestros could use a laptop or other computer with display to show other slices/pans
Anyway I can think of lots of reasons this would be cool. I have started on the project but have not had the time to get it really working yet.
If I make some progress before FRS puts this ability in I'll let everyone know. If you'd like more personal updates on my progress drop me an email: ws7m@arrl.net. Let me know you are interested in the monitor app.
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Before you start down that path, please remember that the radio server calculates the panadapter display content, not the end device. Multiple different displays needs multiple network connections and additional display content creation and FRS to write parallel support in the server.
This means that if the target is the Maestro, or a different device, the stream will be tailored for those screen/target attributes.
I share the request for multiple concurrent display devices as I like the Maestro control and work flow but also miss the high quality display (size and resolution) of SSDR.
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While perhaps the "right way" to do this is the multiple network connections and having each "GUI display" tell the radio server what to send, I think it is while before FRS goes that way and with the pressure on WAN it will be one of the later features added. I could be wrong.
That being said it is possible to examine the UDP pan packet and determine the pixel width of the display. This I've done already. Knowing that it is possible to apply an up or down scale factor to both X and Y.
Not saying it would be gorgeous or pretty but it might be usable and if I can somewhat mimic the current pan display with slice display it still might be useful.
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Glad to see you back in the fold:-)
Happy coding!
James
WD5GWY
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