[App_rpt-users] Mini Computers

Kevin Custer kuggie at kuggie.com
Thu Feb 8 18:53:11 UTC 2018


JJC,

Thank you for the confirmation.  I'm certainly at a loss for an 
explanation.  We do know that some radio adapters that were made 
with/from non-genuine C-Media CM1XX chipsets have issues, but that's 
likely the minority.  Certainly all of the commercially available USB 
radio adapters available today will have genuine components in them, but 
who knows what comes in those $3.00 fobs from China?

Thanks again,
Kevin W3KKC


On 2/8/2018 8:48 AM, JJC wrote:
> Kevin,
>
> I am using full DSP (USBRadio) as I had noted before along with lsusb 
> output.  Happy to provide more details.
>
> Sent from the iRoad
>
> On Feb 7, 2018, at 16:38, Kevin Custer <kuggie at kuggie.com 
> <mailto:kuggie at kuggie.com>> wrote:
>
>> JJC,
>>
>> Are you using the simpleusb channel driver?  It's unclear, but you do 
>> mention something about COS in one of your replies below.  Using the 
>> simpleusb channel driver drastically cuts down on the number of 
>> processes necessary, where usbradio uses much more CPU.  HOWEVER, if 
>> you are using usbradio (what we call full DSP) then I'd like to know 
>> more about your set-up.  If you are using simpleusb, there's no 
>> argument, and that explains it.
>>
>> Please let us know.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Kevin
>>
>>
>> On 2/7/2018 5:16 PM, JJC wrote:
>>> I took a while to think about how I wanted to respond to the "I am 
>>> being fairly picky" statement, seemingly indicating that some of us 
>>> are not.  In any event I am also (as are all of the site owners on 
>>> our system) very picky about our audio.  I stand by my statement 
>>> that we have zero issues with the audio on any of our Pi based 
>>> systems.  I have never generated a tone using the Pi, always rather 
>>> a high grade tone generator to set audio levels etc...  Again, wish 
>>> that I had a silver bullet for you guys, maybe it's just the luck of 
>>> the draw?
>>>
>>> JJC
>>> N0PKT
>>>
>>> On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 8:59 PM, Tim Sawyer <tisawyer at gmail.com 
>>> <mailto:tisawyer at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>     My experience with the 1khz tone test Skyler mentions is that it
>>>     sounds crappy on all flavors of hardware running
>>>     DIAL/ACID/Limey. Only Hamvoip makes a clean 1khz tone. But, has
>>>     been said on here many times, it's not open source.
>>>
>>>     On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 7:20 PM, Skyler F
>>>     <electricity440 at gmail.com <mailto:electricity440 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>         Please realize, I am being fairly picky! Also, please don't
>>>         mention the HamVoip image, I know they have a precision
>>>         timer, but it is not open source!
>>>
>>>         Here is a way to tell for all you out there on a pi,
>>>
>>>         Hit DTMF *904, and listen to the 1kHz tone. Count how many
>>>         times it "POPS" or does something other than a pure 1kHz
>>>         tone over a 30 second period. Report the channel driver you
>>>         are using.
>>>
>>>         Skyler
>>>
>>>         On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 8:12 PM, JJC <cummingsj at gmail.com
>>>         <mailto:cummingsj at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>             And uptime/load info during an active net tonight on the
>>>             same system:
>>>
>>>             $ uptime
>>>              20:10:43 up 64 days, 5:18,  1 user,  load average:
>>>             0.18, 0.18, 0.21
>>>
>>>             On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 4:54 PM, JJC <cummingsj at gmail.com
>>>             <mailto:cummingsj at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>                 I am using USBRadio on one of the nodes (the first
>>>                 that I checked)and here is my usb info:
>>>
>>>                     /Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0d8c:013a C-Media
>>>                     Electronics, Inc./
>>>
>>>
>>>                 JJC
>>>                 N0PKT
>>>
>>>                 On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 3:35 PM, Andrew Sylthe
>>>                 <asylthe at kc9ona.com <mailto:asylthe at kc9ona.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>                     I've only ever experienced strange audio issues
>>>                     with usbradio, and have never had an issue
>>>                     running simpleusb on the Pi 3.
>>>
>>>                     On Feb 4, 2018 3:51 PM, "Tim Sawyer"
>>>                     <tisawyer at gmail.com <mailto:tisawyer at gmail.com>>
>>>                     wrote:
>>>
>>>                         I believe stuttering audio only happens on
>>>                         Pi nodes running USBradio. My understanding
>>>                         is the Rasperry Pi does not have enough
>>>                         horsepower for USBradio.  SimpleUSB should
>>>                         not a problem but if anyone knows different
>>>                         please speak up.
>>>
>>>                         On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 11:53 AM, Dave
>>>                         Maciorowski <wa1jhk at macski.us
>>>                         <mailto:wa1jhk at macski.us>> wrote:
>>>
>>>                             Hi All,
>>>
>>>                             I'd like to know more about your setups,
>>>                             Jay's that are working and Jon and
>>>                             Skyler's that have issues. Do you use
>>>                             simpleusb or usbradio? What USB-to-audio
>>>                             interface are you using including the
>>>                             line returned by the lsusb command.
>>>                             Here's mine:
>>>
>>>                             Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0d8c:000e C-Media
>>>                             Electronics, Inc. Audio Adapter (Planet
>>>                             UP-100, Genius G-Talk)
>>>
>>>                             I ask because I'm chasing an interface
>>>                             issue that might be related.
>>>
>>>                             Thanks.
>>>
>>>                               Dave
>>>                               WA1JHK
>>>
>>>
>>>                             On 2/4/2018 9:47 AM, JJC wrote:
>>>>                             I wish that I had a magic formula for
>>>>                             you.  All that I can say is that we run
>>>>                             minimal setups (least possible number
>>>>                             of running processes and installed
>>>>                             packages) on the Pis and we are sure to
>>>>                             use the correct audio COR interfaces
>>>>                             etc... We also are meticulous in
>>>>                             setting up levels using service
>>>>                             monitors of all of the radios
>>>>                             themselves.  I help to maintain a large
>>>>                             system (That Skyler has used frequently
>>>>                             in the past) which is primarily run on
>>>>                             PIs and we have not had any of the
>>>>                             issues that you guys are experiencing.
>>>>                             Wish I could be of more help, but I
>>>>                             truly do not believe that it's an issue
>>>>                             caused by the Pi.
>>>>
>>>>                             JJC
>>>>                             N0PKT
>>>>
>>>>                             On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 8:57 AM,
>>>>                             REDBUTTON_CTRL <jrorke at cogeco.ca
>>>>                             <mailto:jrorke at cogeco.ca>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>                                 I too have had the sputtering audio
>>>>                                 issues. Mostly it starts to degrade
>>>>                                 over a few days. I have run dial on
>>>>                                 Pi2 s and HP thin clients. and so
>>>>                                 far all of them need periodic
>>>>                                 reboots or asterisk restarts to
>>>>                                 clean up the audio.
>>>>
>>>>                                 I am using DIAL Full DSP with tone
>>>>                                 encode and decode. Some units have
>>>>                                 2 or 3 or nodes. Even a single node
>>>>                                 pi does it.
>>>>                                 So if you have a magic set up that
>>>>                                 fixes this I would like to hear
>>>>                                 about it.
>>>>
>>>>                                 In one case I had to put back a
>>>>                                 full desk top pc to keep from
>>>>                                 having to re set on a daily basis.
>>>>                                 Pcs dont seem to suffer from the
>>>>                                 motor boating issue.
>>>>
>>>>                                 Jon VA3RQ
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>                                 On 2/3/2018 9:26 PM, JJC wrote:
>>>>
>>>>                                     Skyler,
>>>>
>>>>                                     I’ll have to disagree with your
>>>>                                     statements completely.  I have
>>>>                                     not only personally load-tested
>>>>                                     but I have and know of many
>>>>                                     high traffic systems that are
>>>>                                     running with zero “sputter” or
>>>>                                     issue.l on a Pi.  Several have
>>>>                                     been on the air and running for
>>>>                                     well over a year.
>>>>
>>>>                                     I am also running one system in
>>>>                                     conjunction with DMRLink and
>>>>                                     transcoding audio (read a much
>>>>                                     heavier demand on System
>>>>                                     resources) from DMR<-> Analog
>>>>                                     with no “sputter”. Granted the
>>>>                                     transcoding is offloaded to a
>>>>                                     separate chip but nonetheless.
>>>>                                     On all of these systems running
>>>>                                     on a Pi 2 or 3 the system load
>>>>                                     from asterisk, DMRLink etc all
>>>>                                     combined never exceeds 15% and
>>>>                                     the audio is always clean ( not
>>>>                                     withstanding network craziness ).
>>>>
>>>>                                     So having said all of this I
>>>>                                     would look elsewhere for what
>>>>                                     may be causing your audio
>>>>                                     ailments.  I can’t really point
>>>>                                     you in a specific direction
>>>>                                     other than to review overall
>>>>                                     system load and performance
>>>>                                     inline with general system
>>>>                                     administration best practices.
>>>>                                     And of course standard
>>>>                                     troubleshooting methods of
>>>>                                     hardware swapping/testing and
>>>>                                     validation.
>>>>
>>>>                                     JJC
>>>>                                     N0PKT
>>>>
>>>>                                     Sent from the iRoad, so please
>>>>                                     ignore any typos or awesome
>>>>                                     autocorrects
>>>>
>>>>                                         On Feb 3, 2018, at 18:19,
>>>>                                         Skyler
>>>>                                         F<electricity440 at gmail.com
>>>>                                         <mailto:electricity440 at gmail.com>>
>>>>                                         wrote:
>>>>
>>>>                                         At this point, I don't
>>>>                                         think the raspberry pi
>>>>                                         audio is as good as it
>>>>                                         could be on the raspberry
>>>>                                         pi. Even with a pi 3 on the
>>>>                                         best settings in usbradio,
>>>>                                         it will sputter every once
>>>>                                         and a while I realize Doug
>>>>                                         has implemented a precision
>>>>                                         timer, however, his image
>>>>                                         is not open source, and I
>>>>                                         cannot modify, therefore
>>>>                                         not an option for me.
>>>>
>>>>                                         What is the best mini
>>>>                                         computer hardware available
>>>>                                         for reasonable prices
>>>>                                         nowadays that I could use
>>>>                                         in place of the pi? The
>>>>                                         raspberry pi arm
>>>>                                         architecture just does not
>>>>                                         seem to cut the current
>>>>                                         versions of AllStar and
>>>>                                         DAHDI. I realize how picky
>>>>                                         I am being, but I am sort
>>>>                                         of going crazy by some
>>>>                                         raspberry pi nodes i've put
>>>>                                         together with crazy
>>>>                                         sputtering issues. And the
>>>>                                         telemetry sometimes sounds
>>>>                                         like it is played at 1/2
>>>>                                         speed. U
>>>>
>>>>                                         Usbradio and simpleusb have
>>>>                                         their different problems,
>>>>                                         but neither seem to work
>>>>                                         ok. I would actually argue
>>>>                                         usbradio works better on
>>>>                                         the pi because it does not
>>>>                                         have an unreliable duplex
>>>>                                         audio delay.
>>>>
>>>>                                         Do ATOM processers work
>>>>                                         well? Best suggestions here
>>>>                                         for something lightweight
>>>>                                         and non power-hungry?
>>>>
>>>>                                         Thank You!
>>>>                                         Skyler KDØWHB
>>>>

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