Packet Engine Pro Help

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Sound Card Use
     . Sound Card Interface
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     . 9600 Operations
     . Receive Problems
     . Transmit Problems

 

Help Date: 21 June 2004

 

 

Trouble Shooting Sound Card Transmit Problems

Radio Doesn't transmit
Radio Locks in Transmit mode
No audio or poor audio on transmit

Packet Connections Are Not Working Properly
 

When an application program asks PE Pro to transmit a packet, you should see the red pixel in the PE Pro modem icon blink once   and the red "LED" in the very lower left of the PE Pro main window should flash  .

To Send a "Transmit" Command to PE Pro

Use AGWTerminal (TCPIP version) to send a QRA packet: From AGWTerm tool bar, press the "Tower & Question mark" button and then select the
radioport you want to test.

If you don't see the red lights indicating PE Pro has passed the transmit request to the radio, look for solutions on the Problems? page under "not transmitting". This problem is not unique to sound card radioports.

If the red light does flash, look for solutions to other transmit problems on this page.


Radio Doesn't Transmit

  • Is the PTT cable tightly connect at the radio?
  • Is the PTT cable connected to the RS-232 (COM or LPT) port that you have selected for the radioport?
  • It may be that the physical COM or LPT port where your PTT cable is connected isn't really the port you think it is: e.g. you think it's COM1, but your mouse or internal modem is on COM1, so your PTT is really plugged into COM2 . Try changing the port for PTT Control in the Properties window or move the PTT cable to another COM or LPT port.
  • Is there a problem with your PTT cable and circuit? You can test it by using a 9 volt battery to apply voltage to the connection for the RTS/DTR pin (in the DB9 or DB25 connector) and then using a voltmeter to test for voltage on the radio end of the cable or, if the cable is connected to the radio, look to see if the radio is transmitting.
  • Is your PTT cable wired to the correct pin at the computer's RS-232 port (COM or LPT)? PE Pro sends the PTT signal to the RTS pin only if you have chosen Single Port in the Port Properties window. It does not also send it to the DTR pin, as some other sound card programs do, so some manufactured interfaces may have wired the PTT cable to the DTR pin only and not the RTS. If PE Pro is set for Dual Port then the radioport 1 radio (left channel ) will use the RTS pin, while radioport 2 (right channel) will use the DTR. See the Interface page for wiring schematics.
  • Occasionally there is a problem with the physical port. You can use a voltmeter to test the COM/LPT port pin. There should be DC voltage on the pin when the red pixel in the PE Pro modem icon lights.
    Note:
    When Windows boots, it tests all COM and LPT ports by momentarily putting a signal on the port pins (Windows XP does it 5 times). If you have your PTT cable connected and your radio "on" when Windows boots, then the radio PTT will activate for a few short bursts during the boot sequence. This is a good indication that your PTT cable is working correctly.
  • Many new transceivers, e.g. Yaesu 8100, won't transmit if the TX audio level is too high. Use the Volume Settings screen to lower the Master and/or Wave playback volume sliders.
  • If PE Pro seems to run fine for a set time (15, 30 minutes) and then stops transmitting, your computer's power management scheme may be turning off the COM/LPT port that controls PTT.
     

Radio Locks in Transmit mode

  • First try closing and restarting the packet application and PE Pro; or try rebooting.
  • If you are using a hand held radio:
    • Remember that, in addition to the usual PTT circuit components, you will still need all the PTT components recommended by the radio manufacturer for MIC and Speaker jack data use. Many handhelds need a capacitor on the TX audio line between the radio and the PTT gate circuit (as well as a resistor on the PTT line). Without that capacitor, the PTT circuit may be active at all times.
    • If the manufacturer says to use a stereo plug for the radio's MIC jack, don't use a mono plug!
  • You may have a short circuit in the PTT cable. Double check the wiring, components, and circuit routing. Make sure the PTT line isn't touching the shield or ground and that you have wired the PTT line to the correct pin on the transistor or opto-coupler. See Sound Card Interface for a schematic.
  • Windows can start up leaving the COM port handshaking lines "high" (with voltage) instead of "low" as it should. This has been reported happening with Windows ME and XP; also in other versions of Windows when using a USB-to-Serial Port Adapter. Look first on the Microsoft web site for a Windows fix; or look on the internet for a utility that you can run at startup that will return the lines to 'low".
  • It's possible that some other device is affecting the COM/LPT port. For example, one user forgot that he had an unused adapter "installed" in Windows that was conflicting with the PTT port. Another user reported a conflict with the Palm HotSync Manager, which loads on startup and puts the COM RTS
    pin high. Windows didn't report that the COM port was being used by the Palm device driver, but it was. Still another user had both the COM port and an infrared port assigned to the same IRQ.
  • On older/slower computers, the PE Pro sound card sampling rate may be too high for the computer to process.  In the PE Pro folder, open the port?.ini file that corresponds to your sound card port, remembering that the .ini file has a number one less than the port, e.g. radioport 1 settings are found in the port0.ini. Open the .ini file with a text editor such as Notepad and look for this line: QUALITY=2. Change it to QUALITY=1. Save the .ini and restart PE Pro.

    Alternatively, use the Windows Control Panel to adjust the soundcard hardware acceleration and sample rate quality until you find an optimum setting ( In Windows XP, you get there by clicking on Sound and Audio Devices, then click on the Audio tab. Under Sound Playback, click on the Advanced button then click on the Performance tab.)

No audio or poor audio on Transmit

How does my transmit audio sound?

The surest test of your transmitted audio is to use a second radio to listen to the  audio transmitted by your first radio. A hand held radio is great for this. Or ask a nearby friend to listen. You should be hearing packets signals from your station that are similar to the packets you hear from other stations (although perhaps a bit clearer and louder).

Remember that your audio signal must pass through 4 devices that could modify it: 1.) the sound card's mixer, 2.) the interface cable, 3.) the radio and 4.) your transmission system, i.e. antenna and feed line.

For example, you can test the audio coming from the sound card mixer by temporarily putting your computer speakers back into the LINE OUT jack. This will give you a fairly good indication of whether you selected the right audio source (PE Pro) and volume level settings.  But this isn't how your final audio will sound necessarily.

The sound card TX cable has an attenuation circuit that could reduce the audio significantly -- or maybe not enough.

Even your radio may have audio modification circuits in it. Some VHF radios have a "bass boost" option (should be off), and HF radios have speech compression settings (should be off), drive settings (should be turned all the way up) and microphone gain settings (should be left at normal).

And of course your transmission system -- feed line and antenna -- could further attenuate your signals.

So the best way to test your audio is to listen to what it sounds like on another radio. 

If you have a problem with your TX audio:

  • Re-check the Volume settings for Playback (TX audio). Make sure the TX Master and TX Wave settings are not muted and that none of the four sliders is too close to the bottom of the scale (remember that sliders 1 and 3 control the transmit audio for radioport 1, while sliders 2 and 4 control audio for radioport 2).
  • The attenuation circuit in your TX cable may be over/under attenuating your TX audio. If you have a variable resistor (pot) in the attenuation circuit, try adjusting it.
  • Are the TX Audio cables connected tightly to the LINEOUT jack on the sound card of a desktop computer (or the headphones jack on a laptop?)
  • Make sure you are using a stereo plug (has 2 bands below the tip) for the LINE OUT (TX audio) jack. If you use a mono cable (has 1 band below the tip) you may get only half the audio volume on transmit or you may even short out one channel of the sound card.
  • Re-check the soldering and component placement in the TX cable.
  • The strong magnetic fields in your monitor may be distorting the signal.
  • If you have unusual sounds in your transmitted audio or experience delays before PE Pro transmits a packet, it may be that your sound card is getting input from sources other than PE Pro:
    • Turn off any sound schemes for Windows.
    • Turn off any sounds that might be generated by your packet applications.
  • HF Rigs: Speech compression should probably be off for digital modes and the Drive adjustment should be turned all the way up (use the Volume settings to control transmit power output). Microphone Gain should be set to normal.
  • If you hear interruptions of the packet stream, it may be because your  computer/or driver is not fast enough. In that case, set the sound card for Single Port use and use only the left channel. Also, set your VGA card accelerator a click below full level and adjust the soundcard hardware acceleration and sample rate quality until you find an optimum setting (these settings are made through the Window Control Panel. In Windows XP, you get there by clicking on Sound and Audio Devices, then click on the Audio tab. Under Sound Playback, click on the Advanced button then click on the Performance tab.)

     

Packet Connections Are Not Working Properly

  • Problem:  Sometimes transmitting works and at other times it doesn't.

    Solution:
      This seems to happen mostly on older sound cards and computers. Try disabling the Full Duplex mode of the card. On the Properties screen, uncheck Full Duplex. [Older, one 16-bit, one 8-bit channel sound cards can not handle both receive and transmit (i.e. full duplex) at 16-bit rates. They compensate by moving one -- usually transmit -- to the 8-bit channel. By un- checking Full Duplex, i.e. using half duplex, you force the card to alternate between receive and transmit, but it will always use the 16-bit channel.]
     
  • Problem:  I can send and receive a few packets, but pretty soon transmitting stops, especially if I try to send packets too rapidly. This clears up if I close and restart  PE Pro and the packet application, but it just happens again.

    Solution:
    This seems to happen mostly on computers with older processors. It's possible your computer isn't keeping up with the quick switching that is taking place between the sound card and PE Pro. The computer may have missed a "hand shaking" data segment from PE Pro, so it's waiting for a signal from PE Pro that will never come again. This may mean you need a faster processor or perhaps a sound card driver upgrade to run PE Pro, although you can try to cut the processor load by shutting down other programs and background tasks. Also, see the paragraph above about interruptions of the packet stream.
     
  • Problem:  I can't connect to other stations.
     
    • Tone Clipping: Your sound card is over-driving the radio and the radio had to "clip" (reduce the deviation of) your signal.

      Solution: 1.) Reduce the sound cards playback volume by moving the Wave slider or Master slider down.  and/or 2.) You may also need to increase attenuation in your TX Audio cable by changing the resistors. If you have a fixed circuit, change the higher resistance resistor (serial) to a lower value or the lower resistance resistor (parallel) to a higher value; or use use a variable resistor (potentiometer) in combination with one resistor as shown in the schematic for interface help.
       
    • Weak Audio: Your packet tones are too weak and aren't being decoded by the other station.

      Solution: The opposite of the Tone Clipping problem above..
      • Increase playback volume or decrease attenuation in the TX Audio cable.
      • Increase power out at the radio.
      • Try a different antenna or a different antenna location.
      • Consider an antenna feed-line problem if there's any other evidence of weakened signals, e.g. low audio and static on your signal compared to the signal of someone else nearby and moving the antenna doesn't help.
         
  • Problem: I'm trying connect to a BBS/other station. When I connect, the other station immediately disconnects me.

    Solution: You probably have Dual Port selected in the port properties and probably have 1200 baud selected for both ports. Try changing the second port's baud rate to something other than 1200. (Another choice: If you are not using the second port, select Single Port. and restart PE Pro.)

    The behavior you are experiencing could be due to the fact that PE Pro port 2 may hearing what's going on on port 1 (a bug somewhere) and port 2 and port 1 are both talking to the BBS -- port 1 asking for a connect and port 2responding to the BBS's connect confirmation by saying "I didn't ask for a connect; please disconnect".
     

For other problems relating to packet exchanges and connections, i.e. problems not  unique to sound card use, see the Problems? page.

If your problem is not resolved by these Help pages, then try these other solutions:

 

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Copyright 2004 SV2AGW George Rossopoulos . All rights reserved.