New 7000/8000 Orion MKII Protocol 2 Firmware Topic

[db8gk]

The Bootloader source can be found under "openHPSDR-Protocol1-Programmers".

Hah, apparently I just didn't dig deep enough. Thanks! Builds from source, let's see.

[NN3RP]

If it helps, WSJT-X needs / demands your PC to have time synchronized with time server, i.e., using Dimension 4 software or other. Otherwise you will not be heard. I've been there done that.



Rafael / NN3RP

[K1LSB]

If it helps, WSJT-X needs / demands your PC to have time synchronized with time server, i.e., using Dimension 4 software or other. Otherwise you will not be heard. I've been there done that.

Rafael / NN3RP

Rafael,

Just a heads-up, Dimension 4 software was written for Windows 95 and hasn't been maintained for 16 years.

Mark K1LSB

[w-u-2-o]

Gents: let's keep the thread drift to a minimum, please. If you wish to discuss options for time sync software, please do it here: viewforum.php?f=16

[w0ivj]

I am running an ANAN 7000DLE MKII with PoweSDR mRX v.3.4.9(3/19/18) using Protocol 1 Orion_MKII_v2.7_K5SO_5-4.rbf. It seems to work perfectly. When I switched to Thetis v2.6.9 (1/25/20) using Protocol 2 Orion_MKII_Protocol_2v1.9.rbf, I experienced what I think is called (elevated noise floor of doom). I understand that this results from timing errors in the firmware that happens with some hardware. In an attempt to solve this, I reverted to some different versions of P2 firmware. Here is a list of Protocol 2 firmware that I tried and some of the problems:
metis_Orion_MkII_v2.7_K5SO_5-4.rbf will not connect
metis_Orion_MkII_Prorocol_2_v2.0b.rbf puresignal will not work
metis_Orion_MkII_Protocol_2_v1.9.rbf noise floor of doom
metis_Orion_MkII_Protocol_2_v2.0_pre1.rbf This file works with no raised noise floor and puresignal but has popping audio, spectrum jumps on tune, and many sequence errors.

[w-u-2-o]

I am running an ANAN 7000DLE MKII with PoweSDR mRX v.3.4.9(3/19/18) using Protocol 1 Orion_MKII_v2.7_K5SO_5-4.rbf. It seems to work perfectly. When I switched to Thetis v2.6.9 (1/25/20) using Protocol 2 Orion_MKII_Protocol_2v1.9.rbf, I experienced what I think is called (elevated noise floor of doom). I understand that this results from timing errors in the firmware that happens with some hardware.

That is correct.

In an attempt to solve this, I reverted to some different versions of P2 firmware. Here is a list of Protocol 2 firmware that I tried and some of the problems:
metis_Orion_MkII_v2.7_K5SO_5-4.rbf will not connect

That certainly won't, it's a Protocol 1 firmware build and Thetis requires Protocol 2 firmware to be loaded.

metis_Orion_MkII_Prorocol_2_v2.0b.rbf puresignal will not work
metis_Orion_MkII_Protocol_2_v1.9.rbf noise floor of doom
metis_Orion_MkII_Protocol_2_v2.0_pre1.rbf This file works with no raised noise floor and puresignal but has popping audio, spectrum jumps on tune, and many sequence errors.

You will have to go back up to the beginning of this topic (the first post) and continue to try different versions of firmware until you find one that works. Very rarely someone will find they are in the unfortunately position of owning a serial number that will not work with any available version of P2 firmware. Let's hope that's not the case here. But you have many other versions to try still.

73,

Scott

[kc2rgw]

Have any of you found you need to reload firmware for glitching, similar to the database reset?

I'm running 2.0.0b on a 7000 DLE mkII and started having a lot of odd glitches with the latest 2.8.7 and now 2.8.9 Thetis. I've done database resets and re-imports. The issue seems to be a firmware issue as power cycling the radio itself "fixes" the issue but only for short periods of time.

What I'm seeing.

CTUN selected at startup, I rarely use it, I've toggled it on/off/on/off, still pops up from time to time.

PTT, mutes audio and waterfall but doesn't key the relay or bring up the transmit audio.

PureSignal stops working, toggling PSA multiple times doesn't kick it back in, takes a power cycle of the radio to bring it back.

I'm wondering if anyone has had firmware get "corrupted" and need to be reloaded?

**Update. This was all due to Malware Bytes monkeying around with the network stack. I removed it and all returned to normal again.

[w-u-2-o]

Anything that requires a power cycle of the hardware indicates malfunctioning firmware. your PTT and PureSignal problems are indicative of this. The CTUN issue has nothing to do with it.

The most likely explanation is that the firmware you have loaded is just barely making timing when your hardware is cool, but as it warms up it starts to fall out of timing closure. It's not becoming corrupt, the bits and bytes in the non-volatile memory are intact, but the version you have with the hardware you have is right on the edge for timing closure vs. temperature.

I'd recommend you try a different version of the P2 firmware. Go back to the first post in this topic and pick a few to download and try. You may even need to go back to 1.9 or possibly 1.8 series revisions.

[kc2rgw]

I'd recommend you try a different version of the P2 firmware. Go back to the first post in this topic and pick a few to download and try. You may even need to go back to 1.9 or possibly 1.8 series revisions.

OK thanks, will see if it continues as stable with the 2.8.9 now. it was reasonably stable on 2.7.0 a3 with the 2.0.0b

[kc2rgw]

This _still_continues_ and it was unfortunately not RF. I'm losing control of the radio without any sign of it happening until I go to PTT or tune etc.

I've narrowed this down to either Thetis or the firmware. The audio continues to come through so it isn't the OS network link or that wouldn't work. I've tried many optimization combinations for the NIC settings, stripped out all the things it shouldn't be using, updated the driver and then reset all the params back to defaults as well. None of that has helped.

I'm losing the control channel that tunes and PTTs the radio and that to me says a software issue. Occasionally I can just "power cycle" Thetis and catch it and it goes again, but of late that won't even do it reliably and the radio itself needs to be power cycled.

I tried to dump the 2.7.0a3 files on top of the 32 bit 2.8.11 but that won't work. I've tried firmware all the way back to 1.8, same issue. I've run 2.8.7 through .11 now, same issue. It started with the 2.8.x series.

I can't remember what the baseline release was that I initially plunked the 2.7.0a3 files onto, but will keep trying to get myself back to that state as that with 2.0.0.b was fine for several months aside from some sequence errors...I never lost control of the radio at least. The msi installer for 2.8.x just wiped out the old install, ugh. I tried to tell it to install to a new dir but it took the input and ignored it.

It has been very very frustrating the last week or so, not being able to run this thing reliably and not find a consistent trigger or pattern for the issue. I have to say if this was linux I would at least have system logs and the utilities that give me the ability to actually analyze the traffic and system call traces to find what is going on. Working with Windows is so infuriating with it being such a black box. It's just too far over my head to try and get this ported to Qt or some other portable toolkit so it can run on a more reliable OS platform.

I'm hoping I'm not the only one seeing this issue. Some other threads sound like similar experiences.

[w-u-2-o]

I suggest you uninstall all instances of 2.8.x and completely delete the settings folders. Install the firmware that worked for you with 2.7. Then reinstall 2.6.9 and upgrade to 2.7 per the 2.7 thread. Then start with a fresh database. This will get you back to the baseline that you say worked.

If that baseline no longer works, then something else has gone wrong.

Unfortunately you do seem to be the only person expressing such difficulties. It is worth noting that the alpha version of 2.8 did not precisely copy the exact sequence of C2 packets as used in 2.6.9 and 2.7. This did cause many difficulties among alpha testers. As a result, 2.8 was changed to exactly mimic the C2 behavior of 2.7, and that solved the problem.

[kc2rgw]

There is a chance I've found the issue... only a handful of hours into it so far.

I stripped Malware Bytes out of my system, it had a major version update about when 2.8.x dropped. They added "features" to it, even though I disabled them as an override.

After removing it and rebooting to ensure the network stack shims were out...I've been stable.

I'll reply back to the main wall of text with an update if this holds for a decent amount of time.

Currently, status is 2.8.11 with 2.0.0.b running, I left the house with it running for several hours, and it's still stable. That was not possible for a week or so now. No glitches, multiple bands, multiple modes, been stable all afternoon which is longer than it has run for a week or so now.

I've had the firewall and any other filtering disabled for ages, prior to the Anan even due to the issues caused with other apps. Will update as it goes.

[kc2rgw]

I've confirmed the issues I was having were all a result of having Malware Bytes installed. The major version update Malware Bytes pushed right about the time the 2.8.x release happened kicked off all sorts of issues on my Windows 10 system.

Now that I've completely removed Malware Bytes, all_of_my_issues are now resolved.

Anan 7000 DLE mkII running firmware 2.0.0b with Thetis 2.8.11 has now been running over 24 hours continuously, multiple bands, multiple modes, have not had to even hit the power on Thetis itself, glitch free.

[w-u-2-o]

Good news!

[K1LSB]

I use Bitdefender Antivirus Free, it's very low overhead (much lower than Windows Defender) and doesn't appear to openly interfere with any aspect of use of the PC.

Edit: I have Bitdefender set up to Exclude Thetis from the things it's watching.

[kc2rgw]

Yeah I had the Thetis versions all whitelisted to be ignored as well but that didn’t stop the issues. I think they were just handling all packets.

A few days in now, everything is running better than it ever had now that Malware Bytes is uninstalled.

[m1tzr]

I have just received a 7000mk2 black edition. I am trying to work out what firmware is currently loaded but getting confused.
If I look on https://github.com/TAPR/OpenHPSDR-Firmw ... LE-8000DLE) then the latest version is v1.9
When I use HPSDR Programer to look at the radio it says
Protocol 3.8
Firmware 2.0

If I check in General > h/w select this also shows ver:2.0

Thanks in advance
Paul

[w-u-2-o]

Paul,

Your post is missing a lot of detail. However, reading between the lines, it would appear that you are using the "web programmer". Since the web programmer is discovering the hardware that means, by definition, that the hardware has Protocol 2 firmware loaded on it (the web programmer will not discover Protocol 1 firmware). This is further confirmed by the firmware version being reported as "2.0".

With respect to P2 firmware, unfortunately Git is no longer 100% complete. The latest is available from this exact forum topic, in the first post.

There is no way to know exactly what is loaded because all of the beta versions referred to in the first post of this topic only report as "2.0". In order to know for certain you would have to reload the firmware and thereby know, a priori, what you loaded.

It is strongly recommended that you use Bootloader to load P2 firmware and not the web programmer.

73,

Scott

[m1tzr]

Thanks for the quick response Scott. Yes I was using the web loader thinking this would show me what was currently installed, not that I was trying to update it.
I don't want to change anything yet as so far everything seems OK. But if I update the firmware with any new releases in the future that don't work I would have liked to have known what was previously loaded.

Thanks again for the quick response
Paul

[KA5KKT]

What version of firmware are recent ('21) DLE 7000's arriving with?

[w-u-2-o]

My understanding is they are shipping with P1 firmware, but someone who is a recent recipient will have to confirm.

[PD3LK]

I asked explicit for P2 but got (1,5 year ago) P1 when the radio arrived.
When i asked Apache about this they told that they first prepared it with P2 but they had to put P1 back because they couldn't do quality tests in the factory with P2.

[va7qi]

My 7000DLE MkII was shipped with version 2 firmware and has been working very well for several months.

73 de va7qi, ....Erik.