Thetis - 7000DLE MKII first drive
Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 9:20 pm
In the best engineering tradition: When I couldn't fix a minor issue with PowerSDR mRx, I changed everything out and started over...
I loaded the very latest Protocol 2 Orion MkII firmware (2.0b 10 Feb 2020" found by scrubbing these forums, and the matching 2.6.9 version of Thetis.
Thetis works fine, with the exception that every 3-5 minutes I get a SEQ error. (various packet types, no apparent pattern) The accompanying 250mS or so RX audio drop is annoying, but since it's ramped and I don't use digital modes much I can live with it until fixed or some other squirrel runs by and distracts me.
I set up a dedicated L2 switch port pair using two of my L2/L3 router's seven internal fabric ports instead of the 24-port L2 switch I normally use to connect all my doo-dads. I can stuff UDP sequenced packets between two PCs on that circuit until the line glows without losing any, but again every 3-5 minutes I'll see around 250 packets drop between Thetis and the radio.
I did go to the trouble of loading Windows 10 2004 on a literally brand new i9 9900K, (Gigabyte hi-rel mainboard with both Intel and RealTek NICs ) and loading Thetis on it for a second opinion. Exactly the same symptom. Everything works fine except for that data "hole" every 3-5 minutes. DPC latency on that machine rarely exceeds a fraction of a microsecond when artificially loaded.
Based on the above, it would seem that the drop is: (multiple choice)
(1) Caused by the Orion MkII firmware or Thetis or both
(2) Caused by some unknown interaction with Windows 10 2004
FWIW (and possibly not relevant) the latest version of SDRConsole on the same hardware has huge packet losses, with the audio sounding more like a welding arc than white noise. Not usable.
BTW: I had to use HPSDRBootloader to load the firmware. Discovery failed on both the command-line and web versions of the "Protocol 2" programmer. My router either failed to see or failed to respond to the DHCP request from the radio in bootloader mode, if that helps anyone. The radio does NOT show the "11:22:33:44:55:66" MAC when in "run" mode, but since the router apparently ignores it altogether in bootloader mode ( and I don't have time to reload WireShark) I don't know what MAC the radio bootloader uses - I assume the "fake" one.
One thread I haven't pulled - Both machines have AMD video cards. One a RX580 and the other a Vega 64. Both have built-in Intel GPUs as well, so if I find another hour somewhere I may pull one of the AMD cards and try that experiment. Uprooting other machines in the house would have ramifications, so I'll stick with these two for testing. As above, DPC latency on the 9900K is excellent with the Vega 64, but you just never know.
73,
Jim N7CXI
I loaded the very latest Protocol 2 Orion MkII firmware (2.0b 10 Feb 2020" found by scrubbing these forums, and the matching 2.6.9 version of Thetis.
Thetis works fine, with the exception that every 3-5 minutes I get a SEQ error. (various packet types, no apparent pattern) The accompanying 250mS or so RX audio drop is annoying, but since it's ramped and I don't use digital modes much I can live with it until fixed or some other squirrel runs by and distracts me.
I set up a dedicated L2 switch port pair using two of my L2/L3 router's seven internal fabric ports instead of the 24-port L2 switch I normally use to connect all my doo-dads. I can stuff UDP sequenced packets between two PCs on that circuit until the line glows without losing any, but again every 3-5 minutes I'll see around 250 packets drop between Thetis and the radio.
I did go to the trouble of loading Windows 10 2004 on a literally brand new i9 9900K, (Gigabyte hi-rel mainboard with both Intel and RealTek NICs ) and loading Thetis on it for a second opinion. Exactly the same symptom. Everything works fine except for that data "hole" every 3-5 minutes. DPC latency on that machine rarely exceeds a fraction of a microsecond when artificially loaded.
Based on the above, it would seem that the drop is: (multiple choice)
(1) Caused by the Orion MkII firmware or Thetis or both
(2) Caused by some unknown interaction with Windows 10 2004
FWIW (and possibly not relevant) the latest version of SDRConsole on the same hardware has huge packet losses, with the audio sounding more like a welding arc than white noise. Not usable.
BTW: I had to use HPSDRBootloader to load the firmware. Discovery failed on both the command-line and web versions of the "Protocol 2" programmer. My router either failed to see or failed to respond to the DHCP request from the radio in bootloader mode, if that helps anyone. The radio does NOT show the "11:22:33:44:55:66" MAC when in "run" mode, but since the router apparently ignores it altogether in bootloader mode ( and I don't have time to reload WireShark) I don't know what MAC the radio bootloader uses - I assume the "fake" one.
One thread I haven't pulled - Both machines have AMD video cards. One a RX580 and the other a Vega 64. Both have built-in Intel GPUs as well, so if I find another hour somewhere I may pull one of the AMD cards and try that experiment. Uprooting other machines in the house would have ramifications, so I'll stick with these two for testing. As above, DPC latency on the 9900K is excellent with the Vega 64, but you just never know.
73,
Jim N7CXI