FlexRadio Systems Forums / Specifications Discussion / Computers

How to increase system performance

Frad — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 08:57:26 GMT

Trojans and malware applications down the line your personal information and sensitive data are at a stake irrespective of the prevailing PC data Protection . All your web movements are pried upon and all your personal credentials are treacherously stolen without you being totally unaware. Apart from the data theft, viruses are strong enough to impact your system adversely and deteriorate its performance.

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Reset BIOS for a better performing HP laptop

Frad — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 08:29:39 GMT

BIOS is also functional and responsible when comes to control the system for booting up the operating system, stocked up on the computer hard drive. With an updated BIOS, the booting process becomes prompt and performs at its best of efficiency. This in turn improves the system performance, easily detect new devices and enhance the stability of the computer. With an adept HP Support the

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SDR-1000 no RF recieved

AE5YJ — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 08:11:38 GMT

Just got a used FLEX SDR-1000 up and (sorta) running last night. System is AMD 2.8 dual core, 2 gig memory, vista32 and I am using the Edirol FA66 soundcard. Problem is that when using the radio, only signals present are internal system noise related. All cables are verified connected properly, seated firmly, etc. Running a 3 foot parallel cable. Had to manually enter the resource address into the LPT port info in PSDR as the dropdowns were incorrect.

Other forums around the net point to a bad parallel card (I salvaged the MosChips PCI/Parallel from an old computer, my current computer doesn't have a parallel port native to the MB).

Does this sound like the right direction to follow, and if so can anyone recommend a good brand of aftermarket pci parallel card known to work with PSDR/SDR-1000?

Also would consider the FLEX parallel/usb adapter if I could locate one. Anyone have one that they want to sell?

thanks in advance
Andy

AE5YJ

Flex 5000 vs. all high end Icom radio's

joe smith — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:02:40 GMT

The Flex 5000 has 0.3 uV receiver sensitivity while all high end Icom's have 0.1 uV sensitivity.

Does this mean the Icom's can hear weak signals that the Flex 5000 may not even pick up???

Windows 7

KD7GND — Sat, 16 May 2009 22:51:45 GMT

Dudley mentioned to me that there are some issues with windows 7 and Power SDR. I'm curious if anyone has explored the use of the Windows 7 beta or RC1 software and if there might be a workaround to get it to work with powersdr prior to a version of powersdr becoming available that is designed to work with it. thanks
Jim

Toshiba Satelite Notebook - FLEX-3000 - PowerSDR v2.0.16

Steve_45 — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 20:35:18 GMT

I purchased a Toshiba Satelite notebook to run PowerSDR and control my FLEX-3000. I read

the hardware and fire wire suggestions and decided to purchase the Manhattan Firewire 400

ExpressCard/34. It has a TI chipset and has two 1394a ports. My laptop is Toshiba model

A655-S6095, Intel i5 with 4G RAM running WIN 7. I Installed the Firewire card, PowerSDR

v2.0.16, and powered up the system. I set the defaults buffer size to 1024 and sample rate

to 96Khz. Pressed the Start button and the Pandapter froze. I could toggle the "start"

button to toggle on/off and the Pandapter would run for a "cycle" then freeze. I tried

changing the Operation Modes in FlexRadio, changed the sample rate to 48Khz and buffer size

to 2048 and 512, Finally got it to run for a couple of minutes with 48Khz and buffer 2048,

but the pandapter display would still freeze after a few minutes. Loaded WIN XP - same

result. I read where sometimes the IRQ's are shared with the ExpressCard and went in to

the BIOS and tried changing IRQ prority, no change. I was pretty much convinced my problem

was Firewire related.

So decided to try a $40 Dynex Firewire 800 ExpressCard from Best Buy. It has a LSI FW643E

chipset and a 1394a and a 1394b port. I did not see the LSI chipset in the compatible

list, and it cautioned about dual revision 1394 cards. But, I had to get another data

point. I installed it, set the FlexRadio to default 1024 buffer size, and 96Khz. Powered

up and worked great, no issues. What a relief. So wanted to pass along my experience in

hopes of helping other folks out there.

Happy Flexing!
Steve - KM4CJ

PowerSDR ver 2.0.16 on 17" MacBookPro Running Windows 7 under Boot Camp 3.2 for Flex 5000A

WN7T — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 19:20:14 GMT

Hi, I am setting up a F5K to run on a MacBook Pro 17" laptop. I discovered the hard way that you DO NOT want to select the legacy version of the 1394 OHCI Complaint Host Controller when running PowerSDR ver. 2.0.16 with Boot Camp 3.2 running Windows 7 Home Premium OS. The FFT may work initially, but is not stable and will start locking up after a while. When I reinstalled the default non-legacy 1394 OHCI version, the problem went away.

CPU is 2.66 Ghz Intel Core i7 with 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 and Mac OS X ver. 10.6.5
Firewire: on motherboard (Lucent) using ver. 3.5.8028
Firmware: 2.0.7.0 (was originally 2.0.9.0 but somehow regressed to 2.0.7.0)
Sampling: 192K
Buffer: 1024
Mode: Safe mode 1 (runs fine under "normal" mode too).

Now, if I can just get the transmitter section to work, I will be in the groove. I suspect a loose BNC connector after a factory 2RCVR install.

73
Paul WN7T

Flex on MACs up and running

SW — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:08:48 GMT

Hi Folks,

it looks like that flex driver and software run on MACs under XP SP3. I tested it with a MacbookPro 13" (late 2009 Edition) and iMAC (also 2009).

On both Systems XP SP3 installed via Bootcamp, the only real issue was that it took me some hours to find out that XP needs a firewire hotfix from Microsoft- available from knowledge base (hotfix #KB955408)

It's a Microsoft issue, not something from the Macs. After patching the hotfix the driver works fine on FW400. I haven't tried it yet on a VM under Snow Leopard, will do it when the weather gets cold.

comments welcome.

Notebook Recommendations for Flex (F3K)

wb5rvz — Fri, 07 May 2010 14:15:19 GMT

My XP Notebook has taken its last gasp and I am going into the market place for a new notebook. I know what my personal requirements for the notebook are. Mainly nice big (at least 17") screen for my aging eyes!

I would be interested in having someone give me the recommended specs for a notebook I can use when going portable with my F3K.

I know I will need a Firewire preferaby with the TI chip. Since I do Softrock stuff on occasion, I will also want a soundcard with a stereo line-in and line-out.

I am resigned to the fact that you are not going to find any more new XP computers and that Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit is the likeliest OS that will be found at the usual stores.

I am looking at I3 or I5 notebooks with 4GB. Will this be enough? Perhaps Neal has some input on this. I cannot find through the SEARCH function anything on notebooks.

tx es 73 de robby wb5rvz

www.wb5rvz.com

Online Radio channels in pc

Alexi1985 — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:27:37 GMT

Hi Folks, have you ever used www.myradiomix.com? I was at my friend’s place and he highly recommends this website. We listened to live radio stations whole night. It’s actually pretty cool, given the multi cultural music available – sometimes makes it very soothing to listen to. There is no need for a PC TV card because the Radio stations are streamed through your internet connection. You get free automatic Radio station updates so it. Isn’t that cool? highly recommended, do try it out

Trackball Mouse

K3ROJ — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:15:26 GMT

Was looking around at a local Best Buy store and noticed the Logitech Trackball mouse. The mouse I was using with my Flex 5000A was ok but since we use two monitors, it was cumbersome to drag the mouse over the operating table to bring the cursor where I need it fast enough. I went ahead and purchased the Trackball ($40) since I had a feeling it would solve my problems. It came with a program (CD) for changing the way certain things could function such as speed of the cursor, whether or not to lock the left button etc. I liked the option of using it either wired PS2 or USB. I opted for using it wired since a USB connection could possibly up the CPU usage gauge. It took some practice to get it right but now am able to quickly move from one screen to the other with just a flick of the right thumb such as when running MixW on the left monitor and Power SDR on the right one. It still has the center scroll button which is great for fine tuning stations. I discovered afterwards that the Trackball is popular with many gamers and the software has that option if so desired.

5000A Working Well with Vista 64 bit

K3ROJ — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:12:45 GMT

Ah, at last thanks to one of the administrators, Tim W4TME, I am up and running well with my 5000A in all modes. I had it working somewhat in Safe Mode using Vista 64 bit Ultimate but had to put up with "safe mode" warnings all over the screen. Luckily Tim saw a posting on QRZ since I was somewhat distraught not being able to use my new Vista computer. Right away Tim E-Mailed me and said to use the F8 key when booting up but instead of going into safe mode, to scoll on down and click on "Run software without signature signing". I deleted my original firewire driver and started over again. Once I had accepted the unsigned statement, the firewire driver installed right away and then connected the 5000A after booting up after a computer restart. After turning on the 5000A and running the SDR console, the receiver came to life with a nice sharp image. At first I was a little disapointed since I couldn't transmit. I sent Tim an E-Mail and he responded right away and asked if I had unchecked the "receive only" box. As soon as I did that, I had full transmit capability. My CW was woking but for some reason didnl't like my Begali key and read a post where someone had used two reed relays to switch the CW input. It took me an hour to make one up and sure enough, the CW key then worked great. Only problem now is, my wife hasn;t seen me for two days but hears my CW coming from the ham shack. As lomg as I remember to keep hitting that F8 key when booting up the computer, I am in business. Many thanks to Tim who is on the ball. AL

Dell processor and video card options

rmw — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:57:15 GMT

I'm getting ready to upgrade my computer and want to get one that will do more than get by with a 5000A radio. I could spec a system but dell has a number of options, that if they will do the trick would probably work out as cheap if not cheaper.

From what I've read, the Intel quad core works well but are there any issues to be aware of with the newer, supposedly faster i7 processor? The Dell XPS 435 series features this processor.

MARS, etc.

kn4gc — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 11:17:54 GMT

I am considering this radio, but the only transmitting frequency specs I see are for the amateur bands. The majority of my operating is in Navy MARS. I imagine that the radio would operate exactly as well outside the amateur bands, but would like that to be confirmed.

Lee KN4GC/NNN0GBL/NNN0SYS
NC State NMC MARS Director

AMD or Intel

kmoravec — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:54:40 GMT

I am trying to specify the computer to use and I have been away from the details if the differences between Intel and AMD.

In the past the Pentium had a better math co-processor than the AMD so it could do floating point math much faster. AMD made many assembler instructions take fewer clocks, so it could run most non-math intensive programs faster.

Now AMD has a 64-bit processor, and Ubuntu has a specially compiled OS to take advantage of the 64-bit instructions. (I plan to use Ubuntu Linux.)

Both have multi processor cores, dual and quad.

My information is old so I do not know the details about the new processors.

So what is the recommended processor to hold me for a few years? Intel or AMD? Once I choose the processor, I can choose the motherboard.

Is there a document on the website with recommended HW for the Flex-5000a I did not see it.

Apple Computers & FlexRadio

LA2REA — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 04:45:18 GMT

Has anyone tried to use PowerSDR and SDR-1000 with an Intel based Apple computer running Windows XP? If so, are you using Parallels or Bootcamp? I'd like to use a MacBook laptop for my Flexradio setup.

Recommendations for add-on Parallel port card

N4OQ — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 10:23:24 GMT

Does anyone have any recommendations for add-on parallel port cards. My new PC does not have a parallel port and from my understanding the only way to have the SDR-1000 under vista is to the an actual parallel port. Recommendations?

Thanks,

Jason N4OQ

What is minimum computer I would need to use the SDR-1000?

aa8wl — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 12:37:13 GMT

I would like to know what is the minimum computer I would need to be using with the SDR-1000 and any brands that are not user friendly when hooked to the SDR? I have heard of some motherboards that have sound built onto them and is that a problem. TIA from a newby, 73' de aa8wl,

Computer Setup - W4TME

w4tme — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 23:47:22 GMT

This is the PC configuration I am using for the SDR-1000 (full stack) with 100 Watt PA (parallel port for system control)

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 (dual core) +4400 (2.2 GHz clock speed)
Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo4 (PCI and PCI-eBus)
Sound Card: Edirol FA-66
Speakers: Klipsch ProMedia 2.0
Firewire Interface: ADS Pyro PCI 64 (TI chipset)
RAM: 1 GB (dual channel DDR400)
Video: Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT
Hard Drives: Two 250 GB WD SATA Drives (using hardware RAID I)
Operating System: Window 2003 Server (32-bit)
Monitor: NEC LCD1970GX (LCD monitor)
USB Interface: Griffin PowerMate (black)

Software:

VAC 4.03
Vcom 226a
Prolog2K version 6.14 (logging)
Easylog 5.2.1.2 (logging)
MixW 2.17
HRD (current version)
Dream 1.6.1

Audio Configuration:

Microphone(s): Marshall MXL 6v, Marshall MXL 990 & Heil PR-20
Processing equipment: EQplus by W2IHY