Hi,

I posted this in the SunSDR2 forum but thought it might be more relevant here so sorry for the cross-post!

As there doesn't (currently) seem to be a way to get spots from N1MM+ onto the SunSDR2-Pro panadaptor, I have written a small stand-alone Windows app to do it.

The app is very basic and simply listens for N1MM+ spot broadcasts and sends them to ExpertSDR2 via TCI. It allows users to configure what colours spots use via an xml file but by default uses the N1MM+ defaults (blue=not worked, green=mult, red=double mult and grey=worked).

It seems to work OK, I have been running it against the RBN for the past few hours and it is quite stable with minimal CPU and around 500KB of RAM usage. Once you work a spot, it turns grey which is a real help during contests!

I have compiled it as a standalone 32bit Windows .exe console application and I have targeted MSVC Runtime v2005 as I suspect most users should have that but I would be interested to know if it will run on older Windows (2000/XP etc).

Eventually I will probably make it into a Windows Service as that is pretty easy and you can't forget to start it then!

I am happy to release it as a free download once it has had some more testing and I would like to know if anybody is interested in testing it for me?

Please contact me on here if you want to try it.

73 Phil M0VSE

This sounds like a leap forward from the existing TCI_SRV app. I have sent a PM to your email address, Phil. Good work.

Regards,

Erik.

Hi Phil
I am using an MB1 with N1MM+ but I assume your program would work with that as well as the SunSDR2Pro too.
I have noticed that when using the skimmers in the SDC program to populate the MB1 panorama, they are frequently additional to the call signs found on the N1MM+ bandmap even when both are using the RBN to populate the bandmap/SDR2 panorama. Of course a lot of call signs are the same too.
I wonder if your N1MM+ application can work with the spots from SDC or whether its a case of either/or?
I will PM your email address for a download please.
73 Ray G3XLG

I am currently running Phil's app and SDC concurrently. No problems at all. Of course SDC cannot give the same Spot colours as it has no link to the N1MM log so, for contests, Phil's app is the one to use with only N1MM on telnet/cluster. The SDC Skimmers will also provide locally heard Spots to the Pan but outwith Phil's colour scheme. This app is a great bonus for Expert Electronics' users.

Erik

Hi Ray.

It should happily work alongside SDC, According to EE, multiple clients can connect to TCI (they don't say how many though).

As the TCI protocol just uses the callsign as the unique identifier for spots, if you work a skimmer spot, it should turn grey (although the next time it is skimmed by SDC it will re-appear using the default SDC colour). I think if you uncheck "to Pan" in the SDC Telnet Server tab, this should allow N1MM+ to manage all spots and will remove the duplicates?

If you can let me know your email address, I will send it over to you. I just want to make sure there are no MAJOR bugs before releasing it.

73 Phil

Just to let you know, I have made various changes to the program over the weekend. It can now run as a service and has a configurable debug level including logging to both file/screen (and Windows event log when in service mode). In the lowest debug level (0) it will only display a tally of incoming spots every 30 seconds, in the highest level (6) all incoming and outgoing messages are displayed.

I have fixed a few bugs that I discovered as well...

It also now keeps an internal list of all spots and will automatically send them to ExpertSDR if the connection is lost due to ExpertSDR being restarted.

I will probably put a page on my website today for people to download it.

73 Phil

Hi.

An initial public beta version of VSELink is now available at www.m0vse.uk/22-release-of-vselink-for-n1mm-expertsdr2.html
Please download and test this and I would appreciate it if you could let me know of any issues that you discover.

73 Phil

Hi again.

As is so often the case when creating software, it can suffer from "feature creep" and I suspect VSELink is one of those.

I was thinking what else could I do with the TCI connection and of course it can send an I/Q stream so I wondered how difficult it would be to make VSELink also send this to the N1MM+ spectrum monitor?

As it turns-out, this is quite difficult as the I/Q must first go through an FFT before it can be used. After much cursing and messing around. I have got it to work. It will take me some time to tidy everything up and make sure I haven't introduced any major problems but I plan to release this on my website soon. If you don't want to use this feature, it will be turned-off by default anyway and won't impact operation of the rest of VSELink.

To be honest, I'm not sure exactly what this adds as you can do pretty-much everything that you can do with the Spectrum Monitor on ESDR2 itself, but it was fun to do! I have attached a screenshot to whet your appetites!

73 Phil M0VSE

Hello Phil. Well done, good job. This was attempted by some other programmers who did not manage it. There are some ESDR2 users who would like the N1MM Spectrum Scope to work with ESDR2. It would enable a Spot display reproduction per the ESDR2 Panorama on another monitor which, in a contest environment where you are likely to have separate monitors for the SDR and the logger, is a big bonus. So, it does add something and we look forward to seeing it in action.

Erik.

Thanks for the words of encouragement Erik. It is pretty close to being ready, I just have to overcome a display issue (I think) by creating a form of AGC as at the moment you need to manually adjust settings for each band which isn't ideal but I don't think that this will be too difficult?

73 Phil M0VSE

Hi.
As promised, I have now released v0.4b which includes support for sending to the N1MM+ Spectrum Monitor.

I'm still not 100% happy with the implementation but I think that it is mature enough for people to have a look at.

The biggest issue that I have discovered so far is that the sample rate (48, 96 or 192Khz) doesn't seem to exactly equate to 48, 96, 192Khz of spectrum so when you click on a spot (especially at the extremities of the scope) it is slightly off-frequency. Hopefully EE can chime-in as to why this might be?

The download is at www.m0vse.uk/downloads.html and as always, reports are welcome (encouraged)

Thanks
Phil

It suddenly occurred to me why clicking on a spot on the N1MM++ Spectrum Monitor was off-frequency! N1MM+ works in Khz and TCI in Hz so I was dividing by 1000. As I was working on an integer, this obviously decreased the precision of the number so it was only accurate to 1Khz (not great for CW spots). I have changed it to work as a floating point number and now it is on-frequency!

As nobody has downloaded 0.4b yet, I have replaced the .exe with one containing this fix.

73 Phil M0VSE

Top man. Thanks Phil.

Phil - can you tell me why the Spectrum low frequency edge does not conform to either the real band edge or any frequency of the SDR. Example, 20m below, I cannot see the cursor when it is below 14006 and 80m I cannot see the cursor when it is above 3527?

Hi Erik,

This is a bit of a limitation of the TCI protocol as it only supports sending I/Q data in 48K, 96K or 192K sample rates which don't match the "internal" sample rate of the SunSDSR2/MB1.

When you "move" the ExpertSDR2 panadaptor, it send a "dds" command to all connected TCI clients which corresponds to the frequency (in hz) of the exact centre of the panadaptor. I then subtract 1/2 the sample rate to get the bottom frequency and add 1/2 the sample rate to get the top frequency, both of which are sent to N1MM+ as part of the spectrum data. If you edit the xml file, you can increase the sample rate from the default 48000 to 96000 or 192000 but it will never match the ExpertSDR2 panadaptor as that uses different sample rates.

I haven't found any other way of getting band/panadaptor information from TCI but if there is one, I am happy to give it a go!

Thanks

Phil