200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby F6IES » Fri Jan 04, 2019 11:45 pm

ANAN 200D protocol 2 V 1.4 Thetis 2.6.2
"sticky" Band selector screen : changes to yellow broadcast band mode every time a new Ham band is chosen
TO PHIL FM5GB
Dear All ,

I encountered today the same ^problem as Phil FM5GB , suddenly the SWL mode became "sticky"
Band selector screen section changes to broadcast band mode every time a new Ham band is chosen
This problem was sometimes partially solved by reloading the same database , except that this time the problem became reversed , that is the Ham band mode became the " sticky "one when you select a broadcast band it reverts to Ham bands every time a new broadcast band is selected , however changing from one ham band to another did no longer select the SWL mode .
.
For a Ham this problem is really annoying but it would be also an annoyance for a serious SWL user . because it puts you in the undesired mode
Is there a solution to this problem?
I encountered this problem also with previous version NP V 1.1 and Thetis 2.4
Best regards 73!
Pierre F6IES
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby w-u-2-o » Sat Jan 05, 2019 1:03 am

Gents: I'd recommend posting Thetis problems in the Thetis sub-forum, not the firmware sub-forum.
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby W1AEX » Mon Jan 07, 2019 10:01 pm

Just a quick note to report that I loaded the new v1.5 Orion firmware release (from GitHub) yesterday into my 200D and ran it all day today with sessions of Thetis (v2.6.2) and also with Simon's SDR Console (v3.0.4 build 1374)) and it worked flawlessly.

In Thetis I got excellent correction with Pure Signal on 20 meters while running my pair of 3-500's @ 1KW and it also performed perfectly while driving the pair of 3-500's in AM linear on 75 meters. There were no displays of the Seq=> errors at all and no issues what-so-ever with the VAC resampler.

I ran some AM linear with Simon's software as well and it ran very smoothly. It looks like the last firmware release of v1.5 gets along well with my particular 200D.

Thanks for all the work on the protocol 2 project!

73,

Rob W1AEX

ANAN-200D Rev 24
Firmware Orion_NP_v1.5.rbf
Thetis v2.6.2 beta
SDR Console v3.0.4 build 1374 preview release
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby w-u-2-o » Tue Jan 08, 2019 2:15 am

Great report, Rob, thanks.

I wonder how others are seeing performance-wise with 1.5? It is working well with my 8000.
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby NJ2US » Tue Jan 08, 2019 4:06 am

7000DlE
FW P2 1.5
Thetis 2.6.3
Windows 10 i7 32 GB RAM

160 meters, Both ADC active VFO’s sync’d.
Saw a few SEQ 28 errors.
At one point, RX2 audio was lagging RX1 audio, restarting Thetis corrected that.
It seems that the Mic gain is reduced 5db when Audio look ahead or DEXP is enabled.
Later in evening, 2.6.3 crashed during a PTT/MOX the instant transmit was initiated.
No other anomalies observed.

Nice job devs, this is exciting stuff. Where can we send beer?

Jeff NJ2US
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby w-u-2-o » Tue Jan 08, 2019 12:25 pm

I know it's hard, guys, but let's keep this thread focused on firmware performance and not Thetis issues, if possible, thanks.
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby NJ2US » Tue Jan 08, 2019 12:37 pm

Scott, how do we know the difference?

Jeff NJ2US
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby w-u-2-o » Tue Jan 08, 2019 4:17 pm

Jeff,

Admittedly sometimes it can be hard to tell. However, in most cases it's relatively easy when you remember that the hardware/firmware produces the IF that is consumed by Thetis, and Thetis produces the IF that is consumed by the firmware/hardware. And in the direct sampling architecture there is only a single IF stage (which happens in the digital domain, it's not an actual analog IF). It's IF data that flows over the Ethernet. So when you think about it from a conventional radio point of view, anything that happens on antenna side of the first IF involves firmware. Anything that happens on the mic/speaker side of the first IF happens in the software (Thetis).

There is one minor exception, which is that the radio hardware also contains what essentially amounts to a custom sound card that supports the mic, line, headphone and speaker connections on the box. However hardware/firmware involvement in this is limited to ADC, DAC and headphone/speaker amp. So anything going wrong in the processing , e.g. your 5dB issue, has nothing to do with firmware.

73,

Scott

P.S. start a topic in the Thetis sub-forum about the 5dB issue and let's discuss. I think I know what might be happening.
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby FM5GB » Wed Jan 09, 2019 9:03 pm

Hi all !

I gave it a try with NP _v1.5. (still using Thetis 2.6.2)

Unfortunately it ran very unstable : only fews minutes before hang. In the short test I could
investigate with Pure Signal : It was impossible to achieve a decent correction with PS (sampling set on
192 kHz) as with PowerSDR-mrx. At best I could get a 3rd product 30 dB down (versus 50 dB in PSDR)
and this was intermittent on all tested bands. I could not do more before hang.

Is it worth to downgrade Thetis to 2.6.0 for further testing ?

So after bootloading I got back to HPSDR-mrx in order to use the radio reliably.

73s Phil FM5GB
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby w-u-2-o » Wed Jan 09, 2019 10:40 pm

2.6.2 is a better choice than 2.6.0.

Did you try with a reset database (always the obvious question)?

If 2.6.2. and 1.5 don't work with a reset database then either you've got network problems at GigE speed or you've got an outlier piece of hardware.

73,

Scott
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby FM5GB » Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:57 pm

Thank you Scott,

Is there a way to test the Gigabit LAN connection from the switch to the radio simply ?

Remains very unstable. Shows seq 57 or seq 1 errors (maybe others but it displays too shortly to allow reading)
It always ends with a solid hang which must be overcome by erasing all the data base files in the Thetis folder
I tried other LAN cat 6 cables cables but with no luck.

I'm getting tired with flashing erasing reflashing...



73s Phil
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby w-u-2-o » Fri Jan 11, 2019 2:19 am

Not sure what you would test, Phil.

It's unlikely it is a LAN issue if all of your equipment is rated for GigE speeds.
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby n1gp » Wed Jan 16, 2019 12:43 am

Hey All,

I've been watching the incoming rpt's from the v1.5 releases on the P2 MkII & MkI.
It seems the MkII has been experiencing some crashes on a shift from rx to tx while
using PS or Diversity where the MkI hasn't. At least thats what is seen in the reports.

I've come up with an update for the MkII that has a meld of the changes for MkI and
would like to present it to be tested against v1.5 for MKII. Please give this a try:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3wjluftuaomg3um/Orion_MkII_Protocol_2_v1.6_pre1.rbf?dl=0

and report back on forum.

Tnx!

-Rick / N1GP
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby W1JA » Sat Jan 19, 2019 3:14 pm

Rick,

The firmware you link to in your post right above has "Orion_MkII..." in its filename, so it's only for 7000 and 8000, not 200D, right?

73, John W1JA
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby n1gp » Sun Jan 20, 2019 1:03 am

Hi John,

Yes that is correct, only for MKII.

-Rick / N1GP
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby A92GE » Fri Feb 08, 2019 1:32 pm

As a follow up to my previous posts regarding the failure of my Anan to run Protocol 2, I have now tried to connect the radio through a 1000Mbps switch rather than a direct connection to my computer. Sadly I have still been unsuccessful. The computer connects to the switch at I000Mbps speed as reported by Windows. The link lights on the radio and the switch are both illuminated but there is absolutely no communications. Seems my Anan 200 is a dud at 1000Mbs speeds.

73
David
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby W1AEX » Mon Apr 22, 2019 7:45 pm

Keeping in mind that no firmware updates are coming for a few weeks...

...I thought I should post this observation of 200D protocol 2 firmware v1.8 behavior (that I mentioned in the Thetis section of the forum) where it actually belongs, in the Protocol 2 firmware section. I'm pretty sure the 200D thread is the best place for this observation.

The Orion protocol 2 version 1.8 firmware is working very well except that Pure Signal doesn't provide correction for a period of time after the hardware is first powered up. After around 3 minutes PS will begin to correct on 160 meters, and then the other bands will each begin to see correction, sequentially, from 75 right up through 6 meters. Approximately 12 minutes after powering up my ANAN-200D Pure Signal corrects flawlessly from 160 - 6 meters and continues to do so for whatever length of time I'm operating.

Looks like my FPGA isn't quite there initially but it catches up with the timing after it warms up. The YouTube video shows how it looks from a cold-start to the point where 6 meters begins to correct. Note that the audio in the video is from the MON function in Thetis so it is pre-distorted when Pure Signal is correcting.

73,

Rob W1AEX

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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby FM5GB » Tue Apr 23, 2019 2:27 am

Hi Rob, HI all,

I did not notice any issue with PS under FW 1.8 so far (some times PS needs an off/on switching or a second PTT by footswitch to
kick in properly. (maybe a Thetis issue ?)
I had no warmup like issue.
I was quite hopeless, thinking my Orion/200D was a bad draw and would never work until FW 1.8 was released.
I bullied the FW as much as I could (pushing SR to 1536000 on both receivers with smallest FFT bin widths and PTT-ing at a high pace ,PS correcting) on my dummy load. And see what : some sq errors displayed but not a single dropout, nor glitch and NO hang.
This looks rock stable and I'm a happy camper !

73s Phil
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby G3ZQH » Sat Apr 27, 2019 6:59 pm

Hi All
An update on my 200D. and P2

I had reverted to P1 and v4.9 PSDRmrx because of problems with P2 and Thetis. I'm pleased to say that the new P2 v 1.8 and Thetis 2.6.6 are (so far) working very well for me. The TX problem I had previously with poor quality O/P spectrum has gone. Even on 6m, the worst band for this problem, it now gives a clean TX signal to drive my linear amp. The VAC audio problem is much reduced- I still have under and overflows but Thetis is now stable even with these over and underflows. I've tried PureSignal on most bands and it corrects well. No Seq errors reported. The only oddity I can report is on shutdown, when the screen flashes twice after Thetis has closed.

I have had the rig running continuously for several days now and not a single Thetis crash. The P2 1.8 and 2.6.6 is now looking like a stable and functional combination. Many thanks to the HPSDR team for all the hard work put in to make this work.

73 Dave G3ZQH
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby FM5GB » Sat Apr 27, 2019 7:30 pm

Hi Dave,

Overflows & underflows in VAC occur only at startup (enabling) of VAC; Later it runs flawlessly. Decoding, especially on FT8 mode is
perfect.
So check the counters in VAC monitor : you'll probably see no further incrementation after a few seconds from start.

73s Phil.
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby G3ZQH » Sat Apr 27, 2019 9:54 pm

Hi Phil
My 200D behaves differently from yours. I do see VAC under and overflows accumulating all the time I have my rig operating. For example, I reset the VAC counters about 1 hour ago and now I have more than 100 under and over flows. This does not seem to affect performance and I can use FT8 with VAC and it works perfectly.

Maybe there is a better setting I can use in VAC? Currently I have 'force' ticked and I use 30ms manual latency for ring buffer and auto (manual not selected) for Port Audio. I admit that I do not understand these settings! I have just used what others have reported.

73 Dave G3ZQH
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby W1AEX » Sat Apr 27, 2019 10:13 pm

Hi Dave,

Take a screenshot of your own settings so you can go back to them if you wish and then uncheck Force and try the RingBuffer and PortAudio settings in the screenshot below. I am seeing no Overflows or Underflows after the first few seconds and no glitches or dropouts of the audio stream while transmitting.

73,

Rob W1AEX

Image
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby G3ZQH » Mon Apr 29, 2019 8:57 pm

Hi Rob
I tried your settings- not too good for me and I had many over and underflows (1000s). I experimented with various settings and this one below was the most stable with my 200D.

Anan 200D Audio VAC1.jpg
Anan 200D Audio VAC1.jpg (138.85 KiB) Viewed 21462 times


73 Dave G3ZQH
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby w-u-2-o » Tue Apr 30, 2019 1:12 am

Gents: let's keep this thread on point, please, which is 200D P2 firmware performance. If you have VAC issues, please take them to the either the Digital Audio or the Digital Mode sub-forums. Thanks!
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby n9vv » Thu May 02, 2019 2:41 pm

200d with 1.8rbf and Thetis 2.6.7 A.O.K. no problems running CW, the new FT4 ,and FT8. Worked all over the world with a crummy Dipole ANT :-) see my QRZ Logbook for examples.
73 de Ken N9VV
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby W1AEX » Mon May 06, 2019 4:40 pm

1-20-2020 UPDATE - THETIS STARTUP ISSUE RESOLVED: On December 27, 2019 I finally discovered the cause of this problem. As it turns out, the Windows Firewall was creating numerous duplicate rules that blocked outbound connections on the ANAN subnet with each new update of the Thetis.exe file. It was quite persistent and whenever a new version was dropped into the Thetis folder, the first time the executable was started, windows would pop up a security warning: "The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software?". Of course I would give it permission, but at that time, the firewall would add two more outbound rules that conflicted with my installed rules that allowed the connection. This randomly caused Thetis to come up in a broken manner with no RX. I found more than 30 duplicate "Block" outbound rules in the Windows firewall settings.

The quick and dirty solution was to disable the firewall on the closed (no internet access) subnet that only my ANAN is connected to. After doing that, there have been no problems at all with the strange random startup issue. It appears that this problem was self-inflicted because when I created the network connection for my ANAN's subnet I inadvertently classified that subnet as a Public network rather than a Private or Home network. The rule set that Windows applies to Public networks is far more strict than Home networks and this caused all my problems with Thetis starting up incorrectly. Since the ANAN subnet has no internet access and is not bridged to my LAN that has internet access there is no danger with shutting the firewall off for just the ANAN subnet.

Note that none of this should ever be necessary for anyone who has correctly classified their ANAN subnet as a Home or Private network. Unfortunately, windows will not allow you to re-classify a Public network as Private. When I have some time, I'll delete the ANAN subnet with its Public classification and then create a new one with the Home or Private network classification and that should be the end of it.

73, Rob W1AEX

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've been trying to trap any user settings in Thetis that might cause the bad startup event I am seeing with Protocol 2 about 1 out of 10 startups. The video below illustrates what happens, but the short story is that even with a fresh database this loss of reception with both RX-1 and RX-2 issue is happening and re-flashing the v1.8 firmware seems to be the only way to bring it back to life. So... it looks like it's probably firmware related.

When a bad startup happens, the following behaviors are observed:

-RX-1 and RX-2 are both dead and behave as if they are not connected to their assigned ADC
-The radio is pingable
-Thetis connects to the radio successfully
-Toggling options in Thetis, such as changing bands, will produce relay clicks normally
-The ANAN will transmit a carrier normally using the tune button
-Stopping and closing Thetis and then re-starting does not restore RX-1 and RX-2.
-Power cycling the ANAN does not restore RX-1 and RX-2
-Re-flashing the ANAN with firmware v1.8 brings it right back to life.

This absence of RX-1 and RX-2 function seems to happen most often with a cold start first thing in the morning so it might be related to the unresponsive PS behavior I see for the first 10 minutes when the ANAN is powered up. That's all the information I have at the moment but if there are any other tests I can run just let me know.

73,

Rob W1AEX

Original thread: https://apache-labs.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3087#p7800

(Fresh Thetis v.2.6.7 database )
Last edited by W1AEX on Mon Jan 20, 2020 4:47 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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100D and 200D Seq #41

Postby Jackie Cunningham » Wed Jun 05, 2019 5:05 pm

Hello Scott or anyone that has advice,

I am running P2 and the latest Thetis 2.6.7, on my 100D and a new 200D(New to Me).

I have Network watchdog unchecked in set up General>H/W Select.

I am getting sporadic Seq # 41 which is preceded by a "Lock/Freeze up" that sometimes is brief and sometimes along as 15 - 20 secs.

Running on a Windows 10 with a i7 8 core intel chip.

Network is 1gig

Just wondering if you might know where I should look or adjust to eliminate the error.

Thanks for your time,

Jackie K5JLC
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Re: 200D Protocol 2 users: what say you?

Postby w-u-2-o » Wed Jun 05, 2019 5:19 pm

Jackie,

It would be most unusual to see both the 100D and 200D act in exactly the same manner like you describe. The firmware images are different, so one would expect them to misbehave a little differently!

In any case, the answer is, as you can probably determine from the rest of this topic, that in the P2 universe not every build makes timing on every serial number radio. That's the bad news. The good news is that for most hardware platforms there now is two or three builds that have slightly different timing that you can try. These versions are either posted up on the Github repository outright, or offered up by as special test versions and posted within the relevant topic/thread here in this forum (look at the 100D Angelia thread as well). I suggest you try some of the alternate versions and see if you can get them to work better for you.

73,

Scott

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