laptop

Status
Not open for further replies.

moonbounce

Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2002
Messages
1,398
I am looking to buy a laptop to run DSD+ from a scanner with a discriminator tap. I was looking for a laptop that has a line in jack, but I haven' t found one yet. I had read that the mic jack should work and that all I had to do change the sound set up form line in to mic in. Well I tried this on my desktop, I have Windows 7 Pro. Long story short the decode was very bad, a lot of error were showing up in DSD+ scroll screen. I had the the slide adjuster for mic in set to zero.
So I am wondering if anyone is using a laptop and DSD+ and a discriminator tap with line in if so what type of computer are you using. If not "line in" but "mic in", what kind of results are you getting?

Thanks
MB
 

KD9KSO

Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2011
Messages
115
Location
Midwest
Mic level is much lower than an earphone or speaker level.

Try reducing the volume to the bare minimum on the radio and adjust your mic level in from there. If the earphone out from the radio is too high distortion will result and is why you are getting a bad decode.


Check the input level of the radio in the computer. There should be a sound level meter and a sound check portion of the mic input in the sound software.
 

moonbounce

Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2002
Messages
1,398
Mic level is much lower than an earphone or speaker level.

Try reducing the volume to the bare minimum on the radio and adjust your mic level in from there. If the earphone out from the radio is too high distortion will result and is why you are getting a bad decode.


Check the input level of the radio in the computer. There should be a sound level meter and a sound check portion of the mic input in the sound software.

Volume on the radio is off, the input level is up just enough to get a signal, too low and I get nothing. I do get decode but it is not even close to what I get with line in. So I was just wondering if anyone else uses a laptop with "Mic in" if so how good is it for your set up, thanks in advance for your replies.

Moonbounce
 

racingfan360

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2005
Messages
1,158
So just to point out, adjusting the volume of a disrim tapped scanner will have absolutely no impact - the tap is taken before the audio components of the speaker/earphone socket not after.

I've had some hit and miss results using mic in on various PC's and laptops. In general Mic in is a bit more fiddly to play with IMHO. It took a lot of adjusting to get the right settings.

You might want to think about a USB audio sound card: I can recommend a Griffin iMic or a StarTech ICUSBAUDIO2D

Jim
 

Saint

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
4,492
Location
Fort Erie Ontario Canada
computers

I am looking to buy a laptop to run DSD+ from a scanner with a discriminator tap. I was looking for a laptop that has a line in jack, but I haven' t found one yet. I had read that the mic jack should work and that all I had to do change the sound set up form line in to mic in. Well I tried this on my desktop, I have Windows 7 Pro. Long story short the decode was very bad, a lot of error were showing up in DSD+ scroll screen. I had the the slide adjuster for mic in set to zero.
So I am wondering if anyone is using a laptop and DSD+ and a discriminator tap with line in if so what type of computer are you using. If not "line in" but "mic in", what kind of results are you getting?

Thanks
MB

I have a 5 year old HP Pavilion dv7 laptop computer and have never had a problem running any of the software programs that decode the digital systems, unitrunker, DSD+ , DMR DECODE and all the other programs
Steve
 

br0adband

Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2005
Messages
1,567
Location
Springfield MO
As I mentioned a few months ago, if you're forced to use a mic input with no other possibilities - and you're absolutely certain the laptop sound chip doesn't have software that can make the input jack a dual purpose one (mic or line input, as my Dell Latitude E6400 can do - I choose what type of input level it is using the software for the sound chip, the IDT stuff) - then your best possible solution to keep the signal path clean or as clean as possible is to use an attenuating/attenuation cable, either one you buy or one you make yourself.

The post is here (but there's some discussion of audio input levels in the thread as well and iirc one post even links to a diagram to build your own):

http://forums.radioreference.com/digital-voice-decoding-software/280577-dsdplus-8.html#post2108795

I've used those for many years primarily with scanning and radio inputs/outputs because in some situations, especially "the good old days" when I would record audio to actual tape sometimes I'd have no alternative but to use a mic input for a line-level output signal so without that attenuating cable the signals were always distorted to some degree or another.

Again, if you must use a mic input and have no other alternatives available, using an attenuating cable is pretty much a must-have type of thing if your source is line-level output.

But definitely look into the software provided for your sound card or chip on the laptop - if it's a Realtek based solution, or IDT aka Intel/Realtek/Sigmatel, or perhaps even something else, there's a chance that the sound software may allow the input jack to perform double-duty where it can handle mic or line-level inputs depending on how you set it.

Pic related as it's what I see with the IDT sound control software if I select the mic/line input (Mic is bolded because that's what I used last for a headset) - I can choose which one I prefer so I know there are other sound chips and software out there that have the same capability, you just have to do some digging and perhaps use the sound card/chip software provided by the laptop maker and not the company that actually manufactured the chip itself. The drivers alone aren't enough, you will have to install the actual software for controlling the card/chip to find out.

Hope this helps...
 

Attachments

  • SoundInputOptions.jpg
    SoundInputOptions.jpg
    50 KB · Views: 132
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top