[Flexradio] Virtual Audio Cable
The price is better from the author.. http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.html One is $30, price drop to $15 for 50-99 copies and $10 for 100 plus. I sent an email to Eugene to see if a group license is possible, I'll post the reply. Ron K0IDT
[Flexradio] Musings
All It's been a while since I posted anything so I though it about time I gave a brief statement of where I am in the somewhat hectic world of SDR1000 software. I do at times feel a little awestruck by the things Bob Frank and the 'official team' get up to, so I sit quietly and try to absorb. It must be very difficult at times for people to work out how and where all the different threads of activity converge or maybe diverge. This is one thread of activity which I hope might become a bit clearer after reading the following (even to me - nothing like writing down what you are doing to make you think!) Everything I am building is pure Python (the 'C' version, not Jython for Java, or Iron Python for .NET). There are two pieces I am building, a console and a radioserver controller/manager. The only extensions I am using are fully cross-platform. At present these are wxPython (a cross platform GUI library) and Pyro (distributed object system). I develop entirely under Windows XP. I am testing on Windows and Linux (Suse 9.3) and at some point will probably do OS X - just because I fancy a Mac on the desk. The architecture is built for distribution so any piece of the functionality - console, DSP, radio control etc could be run on a separate box. My default arrangement is the console on XP and my server pieces plus the jDttSP (thanks to Bob and Frank) pieces on Linux. However, the pieces can all be run on the same box with no software changes. The architecture is built to abstract the DSP and control away from the console through a virtual radio API. In this way different server pieces can be fitted without any client side changes. For example appropriate ports of the jDttSP pieces to Windows could be used for a full Windows system or a different controller for SoftRock-40 etc. Distribution is achieved through Pyro which has proved to be fast and robust and almost trivially simple to implement. Other protocols could be used with appropriate adapters on the client and server. The console architecture is built to allow extensibility, mainly for my convenience but of course provides patterns to allow other to add function. This is mainly down to having a tree navigator and plug-in panels where the connections are mainly configured rather than coded. These panels currently implement all options, radio memory management and multi-radio functions. I expect this area to mature quite a lot in the future. Because this is Python user scripting is also possible and a python shell can be run in a plug-in panel with full access to all objects in the running radio. Those are the main points (I think). The reality is that this is still a work-in-progress. I do have a single code line that works under Windows and Linux after a certain amount of teething trouble. It looks fine under Windows and not so great under Linux due to different screen metrics. I am doing one piece of work at the moment which will lead to a much larger piece of work and should finally realize the intensions I published over a year ago and make the result truly cross-platform. The first piece of work is server side. As well as the actual radio server which is the server side behind the client virtual radio API, I am doing a controller. The controller will start/restart/stop the server processes and do things like make the Jack connections. This is a single click startup of the services and works pretty well. Restart and shutdown have a number of problems to be resolved. There is a GUI for this, built of course with wxPython. I am using this small program to define a build pattern for the console. I pretty much have this sorted using OO techniques rather than the monolith GUI builders force you into. It is built using sizers for layout, otherwise known as layout managers. This means the GUI is resizable but more importantly will resize automatically to take into account different resolutions and font sizes etc. The result is it will look good on any platform with any resolution, display metrics or font the platform substitutes. In addition a widget factory will produce custom widgets for the entire application to ensure ease and consistency. As well as making everything truly cross-platform this also enables one of my other aims which is that the presentation should be built dynamically and respond to the capability of the radio services by adjusting its presentation appropriately. The really big piece of work I am about to start is to tear apart my main console file and apply the same pattern to it. Then do the same for all the plug-in panels. This will take some time... Next up is to finally add in the missing function which of course will never complete as desired function exceeds actual function by a continuous margin. That's all for now folks. 73 Bob
Re: [Flexradio] [SPAM] Musings
Thanks for the update - absolutely fantastic and I can't wait to see the results. I had a US visitor here in the shack today stopping over in Perth on his way to a DXperditin to Christmas Island. He is a 160m fanatic so I showed him my SoftRock40 that I have modified to run on 160m together with Alex's Rocky software. He begged me to sell him my SoftRock! What Alex has done with the automatic !/Q nulling is nothing short of fantastic - with his technique direct conversion will never be the same again! Thanks Phil, I should have got a SoftRock40 but I think I missed the boat. One thing I still need to add is calibration so I might crib a look when I get round to it, sounds like an excellent job. One of my 'down-the-road' intensions is to retrofit my own DSP stuff as another set of services with its original configurator so I can start experimenting again. Bob *** Confidentiality Notice *** Proprietary/ConfidentialInformation belonging to CGI Group Inc. and its affiliatesmay be contained in this message. If you are not a recipientindicated or intended in this message (or responsible fordelivery of this message to such person), or you think forany reason that this message may have been addressed to youin error, you may not use or copy or deliver this messageto anyone else. In such case, you should destroy thismessage and are asked to notify the sender by reply email.
Re: [Flexradio] Mic problem with D44 card
George, Gerald's reply was right on for the D44. It was designed for use in recording situations where you would typically use your own preamp (for performance reasons). For TeamSpeak / other microphone applications, I typically use my motherboard soundcard. In order to do this, you can either change the default playback/record device under the Windows Control Panel - Sounds and Audio Devices form, or you can change the settings within the application to use a specific sound card device (instead of the Windows Default). If you want to get really fancy, you can actually use separate soundcards for the microphone (record) and speakers (playback) on most applications. I do this occasionally if I am running other audio applications on the Delta 44 while listening to TeamSpeak and need to be able to hear them both. Eric Wachsmann FlexRadio Systems -Original Message- From: George Heron N2APB [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 7:12 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; '' FlexRadio '' Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Mic problem with D44 card Thanks Eric. Sheesh, for a top-quality sound card, I'm surprised it doesn't have the same capabilities as lesser-quality ones in this regard. So, for other applications of a PC sound system like recording voice, etc, this forces the need for yet another gizmo and set of patch cables. (An $80 gizmo, no less, for the AudioBuddy they show in their manual.) BTW, what do you guys do for TeamSpeak voice recording? Without a preamp on the D44, you must have some other amplification in the system? Perhaps answering my own question, is there a way to utilize the motherboard mic input with the D44 plugged in? (How is this selected?) 73, George N2APB - Original Message - From: Eric Wachsmann - FlexRadio [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; '' FlexRadio '' flexradio@flex-radio.biz Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 12:05 PM Subject: RE: [Flexradio] Mic problem with D44 card George, The Delta 44 is expecting a line level input. We get around this by providing digital amplification within our program, but this will not work for other applications which do not provide such gain. The input level you saw on the Delta 44 control panel is normal. Consumer sound cards typically include a Mic preamp (and sometimes an additional 20dB boost). You can buy an external one for the Delta 44 and it _will_ improve the signal/noise ratio when transmitting on the PowerSDR software. It is not necessary, however, thanks to the power of digital amplification (aka multiplication). Eric Wachsmann FlexRadio Systems -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] radio.biz] On Behalf Of George Heron N2APB Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 8:46 AM To: '' FlexRadio '' Subject: [Flexradio] Mic problem with D44 card I recently upgraded to the Delta-44 sound card and things are almost working as expected. Things are fine with SDR receive functions and for normal multimedia playback on the computer (like playing MP3 audio files). But then in testing out the mic input function in prep for SDR transmit tests, I notice that I just cannot get any audio gain like I used to with the Santa Cruz card previously used. I can hardly even get 1/4 scale readings in the sound card control panel when speaking loudly into the mic. The mic is proper impedance for mutlimedia sound cards, and indeed worked fine with the Santa Cruz card before. The gain setting is indeed -10dB in the control panel. (I've tried all setting combinations.) Someone had privately suggested that perhaps the D44 doesn't provide a bias voltage for the mic input, as some/most cards do ... Has anyone else experienced this condition with the D44? Thanks. 73, George N2APB ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz
Re: [Flexradio] Mic problem with D44 card
You would probably want to use the MoBo sound card for Teamspeak. Gerald -Original Message- From: George Heron N2APB [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 8:18 PM To: Gerald Youngblood; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; '' FlexRadio '' Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Mic problem with D44 card Yup, I understood what Eric was saying for use with PowerSDR, and that's good that we can amplify enough in software for the SDR-1000. Not to belabor a mundane issue, but my question related to using the mic for non-SDR applications ... like when using Teamspeak. Do you guys use the motherboard mic input for that purpose or do you have an outboard preamp? ~George - Original Message - From: Gerald Youngblood [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: 'George Heron N2APB' [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; '' FlexRadio '' flexradio@flex-radio.biz Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 8:52 PM Subject: RE: [Flexradio] Mic problem with D44 card George, Professional audio sound cards rarely have a microphone preamplifier because they are designed to talk to mixing panels that do that. What Eric is saying though is that you do NOT need a preamplifier because we can amplify in the software. Just turn up the front panel Mic control until you get sufficient output. This simply turns up the digital gain (i.e. multiplication). 73, Gerald K5SDR -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of George Heron N2APB Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 7:12 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; '' FlexRadio '' Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Mic problem with D44 card Thanks Eric. Sheesh, for a top-quality sound card, I'm surprised it doesn't have the same capabilities as lesser-quality ones in this regard. So, for other applications of a PC sound system like recording voice, etc, this forces the need for yet another gizmo and set of patch cables. (An $80 gizmo, no less, for the AudioBuddy they show in their manual.) BTW, what do you guys do for TeamSpeak voice recording? Without a preamp on the D44, you must have some other amplification in the system? Perhaps answering my own question, is there a way to utilize the motherboard mic input with the D44 plugged in? (How is this selected?) 73, George N2APB - Original Message - From: Eric Wachsmann - FlexRadio [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; '' FlexRadio '' flexradio@flex-radio.biz Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 12:05 PM Subject: RE: [Flexradio] Mic problem with D44 card George, The Delta 44 is expecting a line level input. We get around this by providing digital amplification within our program, but this will not work for other applications which do not provide such gain. The input level you saw on the Delta 44 control panel is normal. Consumer sound cards typically include a Mic preamp (and sometimes an additional 20dB boost). You can buy an external one for the Delta 44 and it _will_ improve the signal/noise ratio when transmitting on the PowerSDR software. It is not necessary, however, thanks to the power of digital amplification (aka multiplication). Eric Wachsmann FlexRadio Systems -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] radio.biz] On Behalf Of George Heron N2APB Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 8:46 AM To: '' FlexRadio '' Subject: [Flexradio] Mic problem with D44 card I recently upgraded to the Delta-44 sound card and things are almost working as expected. Things are fine with SDR receive functions and for normal multimedia playback on the computer (like playing MP3 audio files). But then in testing out the mic input function in prep for SDR transmit tests, I notice that I just cannot get any audio gain like I used to with the Santa Cruz card previously used. I can hardly even get 1/4 scale readings in the sound card control panel when speaking loudly into the mic. The mic is proper impedance for mutlimedia sound cards, and indeed worked fine with the Santa Cruz card before. The gain setting is indeed -10dB in the control panel. (I've tried all setting combinations.) Someone had privately suggested that perhaps the D44 doesn't provide a bias voltage for the mic input, as some/most cards do ... Has anyone else experienced this condition with the D44? Thanks. 73, George N2APB ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz
Re: [Flexradio] DRM Mode, desired cosmetic features, questions ...
Marcus, I'll check out the DRM mode. Good suggestions. We'll keep those in mind. To answer your question about CW, the easiest thing to do to understand the different modes is to setup a tone at a specific frequency and then watch what happens when you change modes. If you are zero beat on the signal in either CW mode, changing to the other should not change the frequency of the tone at all (though you are tuning it from the opposite side). Changing from CWL to LSB (or CWU to USB) will _not_ change the frequency. Changing from CWL to USB (or CWU to LSB) will change it. Eric Wachsmann FlexRadio Systems -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] radio.biz] On Behalf Of PY3CRX PY2PLL Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 7:34 PM To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] DRM Mode, desired cosmetic features, questions ... Hi there ... I tried to use the DRM mode. The signal seems to be centered on zero Hertz instead of 11,025KHz. I tried versions 1.4.5 and 1.4.4 only. I remember that on an older version (I don´t now which one) the signal at the line out was centered at 11,025KHz (or 12KHz??). Does anybody has the same behaviour? I´m using an unsuported card (onboard 16 bit) and a home made QSD. Cosmetics: * Why not make the display reflects the notch filter effect? * For the 16 bit users, a way to make the dBm display lit on a different color when max dbFS is reached (kind of overload indicator)? * Syncronous AM with selectable sidebands (USB, FULL, LSB). We can get this via variable filters anyway but ... who knows. * 6KHz filter on AM ... good on MW ... but on SW the BCs channel spacing still 5KHz so the beat tones are there. So 4KHz or the variable filters are the way to go ... A +/-4980Hz filter will be great. Question: * CWL and CWU: is there any hardware freq change when in CW? Is the transmitted/received signal at the sidebands or the CW signal is zero beat with a shift USB/LSB on local oscilator equal to heard CW tone ? BTW: I´m using an external tunnable prescelector on MW. Impressive performance of the QSD/Software. Beats a Kachina 505DSP on splatter. 73 Marcus PY3CRX/PY2PLL http://py.qsl.br ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz
[Flexradio] Spectrum vs. Histogram CPU Load
Last night was the first time Ive experienced intermittent tx audio. Ive been running a 256 byte buffer with no ill effects on a 3GHz Pentium for the last week. Cpu load is usually less than 5%. Last night it was around 50% on tx. After shutting everything down and restarting it was still the same. Bottom line is that when in the Histogram Display Mode it was sucking up a lot of cycles. Heres what Im seeing with the Spectrum display, ~3% on rx, ~9% on tx. With the Histogram ~17% rx and ~33% on tx. I expected the Histo to use more resources, but Im surprised to see it increase so dramatically on tx. Comments please. With a 1024 buffer its not a problem. 73, Curious John k2ox
Re: [Flexradio] Spectrum vs. Histogram CPU Load
Just a thought. More buffers =less swapping out memory buffers =less CPU required. -Tim --- Integrated Technical Services "You can't close the door when the walls cave in" --Robert Hunter From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]Sent: Friday, October 21, 2005 2:36 PMTo: FlexRadio@flex-radio.bizSubject: [Flexradio] Spectrum vs. Histogram CPU Load Last night was the first time Ive experienced intermittent tx audio. Ive been running a 256 byte buffer with no ill effects on a 3GHz Pentium for the last week. Cpu load is usually less than 5%. Last night it was around 50% on tx. After shutting everything down and restarting it was still the same. Bottom line is that when in the Histogram Display Mode it was sucking up a lot of cycles. Heres what Im seeing with the Spectrum display, ~3% on rx, ~9% on tx. With the Histogram ~17% rx and ~33% on tx. I expected the Histo to use more resources, but Im surprised to see it increase so dramatically on tx. Comments please. With a 1024 buffer its not a problem. 73, Curious John k2ox
[Flexradio] German presentation of SDR-1000 by Bodo
For those of you who are German speakers http://dj9cs.raisdorf.net/downloads/Software_Defined_Radio_DJ9CS.pdf by Bodo DJ9CS
Re: [Flexradio] Spectrum vs. Histogram CPU Load
John, The long and short of it is the GDI+ (the graphics engine built into C#) does not use hardware acceleration. This means that all vector and drawing computations are done in software. This becomes particularly apparent when doing things like waterfalls or histograms where lots of computations are being done (vs Spectrum where you call a single function to display a line). The long term solution to this is to move towards a graphics subsystem that supports hardware acceleration such as OpenGL or DirectX. This has been on our list for quite some time, but has never gotten to the top for some reason. It will happen, its just a matter of time. Eric Wachsmann FlexRadio Systems -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, October 21, 2005 1:36 PM To: FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz Subject: [Flexradio] Spectrum vs. Histogram CPU Load Last night was the first time Ive experienced intermittent tx audio. Ive been running a 256 byte buffer with no ill effects on a 3GHz Pentium for the last week. Cpu load is usually less than 5%. Last night it was around 50% on tx. After shutting everything down and restarting it was still the same. Bottom line is that when in the Histogram Display Mode it was sucking up a lot of cycles. Heres what Im seeing with the Spectrum display, ~3% on rx, ~9% on tx. With the Histogram ~17% rx and ~33% on tx. I expected the Histo to use more resources, but Im surprised to see it increase so dramatically on tx. Comments please. With a 1024 buffer its not a problem. 73, Curious John k2ox
[Flexradio] RoMac Software
Here is a link to a brand new 10 Band DSP Equalizer for your computer sound card that looks very interesting. I am going to give it a try with my SDR. You can try the software out for free. Let me know if you have any luck, and if it helps. http://www.romacsoftware.com 73, Hank K9LZJ Greenfield, IN
