Official Starrsoft WIN500 Software Thread

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DonS

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I'm running Win500 on a Virtual XP system using VMWare server on a fast Linux host. It's working great except the audio to the remote client has intermittent brief dropouts. This even over Gigabit Ethernet, so I suspect it's a cpu or sound subsystem issue, not network. They're very brief, but just annoying enough to make it hard to understand some transmissions.

I'm wondering if there are any tweaks I can make to any settings in Win500 that might help.
Or if any VMWare experts know any VM tweaks that may help, I'd appreciate it.
I may move it to a real computer

Have you tried the "buffering" option in the client app?

Any small delay between audio packets can cause a brief dropout. Buffering them in the client can help "fix" that.
 

smason

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Have you tried the "buffering" option in the client app?

Any small delay between audio packets can cause a brief dropout. Buffering them in the client can help "fix" that.

Great idea, I hadn't noticed that feature.
I tried 500ms 1 sec 5 sec and 10 sec, and for some odd reason all of these settings actually made it much worse.
 

DonS

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Great idea, I hadn't noticed that feature.
I tried 500ms 1 sec 5 sec and 10 sec, and for some odd reason all of these settings actually made it much worse.

How does the client behave if you connect to my server (with and without buffering)?
Address: home.starrsoft.com
Port: 26755
 

AC2C

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I've had my PSR-500 almost a week now and have figured out everything that I've needed to know so far.

I've also test-driven 3 available software programs and have decided on, and registered for, Win500 from StarrSoft.

I have read all posts since January 2008 looking for answers to some questions I had, and have resolved all but two:

(a) Trying to get the Remote Client to work.
>> I have gotten as far as running the remote client on my local PC and seeing the data, controllong the radio, and hearing the audio.
>> The next step is in making the remote client usable outside of my LAN with router/firewall configuration.
>> I assume I need to know the WAN IP for my router and I have that.
>> The hangup (I think) is in configuring the prt forwarding -- Is Port 8086 a TCP Port, a UDP Port, or something different ?
>> This area is a major weaknees in my area of understanding -- I'm lost as to how to configure the firewall.

(b) I have the same screen display as another posted a short while ago:
>> I'm attempting to attach a JPEG picture of a screen snapshop, but won't know if it worked until I submit this thread.

Anyway, I'm impressed with the Radio and also impressed with the Win500 Software -- Very nice package.

Ron, AC2C
Maryland
 

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smason

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>> The next step is in making the remote client usable outside of my LAN with router/firewall configuration.
>> I assume I need to know the WAN IP for my router and I have that.
>> The hangup (I think) is in configuring the prt forwarding -- Is Port 8086 a TCP Port, a UDP Port, or something different ?


In my firewall (Linux Netfilter/IPTABLES) I used TCP and it worked fine.
 

smason

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How does the client behave if you connect to my server (with and without buffering)?
Address: home.starrsoft.com
Port: 26755

It behaves fine both with and without buffering. I suspect it's a VMWare issue. I'll see if there are any tuning parameters I can tweak in the VM session.

Thanks!
 

DonS

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(a) Trying to get the Remote Client to work.
>> I have gotten as far as running the remote client on my local PC and seeing the data, controllong the radio, and hearing the audio.
>> The next step is in making the remote client usable outside of my LAN with router/firewall configuration.
>> I assume I need to know the WAN IP for my router and I have that.
>> The hangup (I think) is in configuring the prt forwarding -- Is Port 8086 a TCP Port, a UDP Port, or something different ?

It's TCP.

(b) I have the same screen display as another posted a short while ago:
>> I'm attempting to attach a JPEG picture of a screen snapshop, but won't know if it worked until I submit this thread.

Was your screen capture the entire Windows desktop (the entire screen)? If so, it looks like you have a pretty low vertical dot count. Win500 wants at least 768 pixels vertically - more if you have Windows set up for "large fonts" or have otherwise "decreased" what you can see on the display.
 

AC2C

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Screen Display

Don --

What I posted before was a partial shot showing the area of concern.

Attached here is a screen shot of the entire window with Win500 maximized.

The area of concern is the header row of the Talk Group List in the lower half of the window.

Ron, AC2C
Maryland
 

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DonS

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Don --

What I posted before was a partial shot showing the area of concern.

Attached here is a screen shot of the entire window with Win500 maximized.

The area of concern is the header row of the Talk Group List in the lower half of the window.
Try increasing the "List Row Height" in Configuration -> User Interface.
 

AC2C

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Don --

I had already tried that, and yes, it does solve that display problem.

However, setting the "List Row Height" to a larger number (i.e. 16) really messes up the very neat display of all the various setting on the "General Settings" tab. Thus, I prefer to live with messy row headings on just a few pages, rather than have very messy displays on several other pages.

So, I certainly don't want to start off my relationship on this thread on a bad note and certainly don't want to be too picky on a GREAT Software package.

Apparently very few other have this display problem and I'm content to live with it as-is.

I'll reserve my requests for things that are much more important.

73,
Ron, AC2C
Maryland
 

Mike_G_D

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Display

AC2C,

I kinda went the other way! I ended up choosing the larger row height and living with the limited General Settings display issues. I have my screen set to large fonts, etc, primarily for the benefit of my aging eyes. So, for me, since I work in the TSYS and Conventional pages most of the time that works. I can work with the odd sizing of the General Settings page windows though it would be nice to be able to resize them as well (or set the fonts independently from the other pages). But, like you, I really like the program and this is a relatively minor issue I can work around.

-Mike
 

SCPD

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I have noticed that everytime I install a Win500 update, I have to re-select the comport...(it defaults to 9) is there a way to set this once and not have to fix it every time ?
 

bubbaearle

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AC2C,

I kinda went the other way! I ended up choosing the larger row height and living with the limited General Settings display issues. I have my screen set to large fonts, etc, primarily for the benefit of my aging eyes. So, for me, since I work in the TSYS and Conventional pages most of the time that works. I can work with the odd sizing of the General Settings page windows though it would be nice to be able to resize them as well (or set the fonts independently from the other pages). But, like you, I really like the program and this is a relatively minor issue I can work around.

-Mike


I think the majority of folks do see the issue but feel like you, that is not important enough to be concerned about.

I posted my original comments to see if it was just me seeing something goofy on my Vista machine.

I am no software guru...I just thought that maybe when you maximized the application to fit the available viewing space that the General Settings & Extended Settings tab would resize the way the tables on the other tabs accomodate between minimized & maximized state.

Awsome progarm.....well worth twice the price!!!
 

DonS

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I think the majority of folks do see the issue but feel like you, that is not important enough to be concerned about.
The grids on the first three tabs in Win500 (General Settings, Extended Settings, Weather Settings) are sized at program startup based on the current List Row Height, etc. The program tries to make them "big enough" to fit everything without scroll bars.

If you change the List Row Height (i.e. increase it so that multi-line headers in grids show up correctly), the grids on these first three tabs won't dynamically increase in size. Exiting and re-starting Win500 will give them a new size.
 

ChuckinSC

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Question about "Check CC's on every Scan-mode pass" on TSYS Objects page.... I'm using the "stationary" setting since we're in a metropolitan area that uses a state-wide Motorola trunking system. One of the towers has its own set of control channels and transmits traffic for one county (and others as well). Another tower within range uses another set of control channels and transmits traffic for the other metro county (Plus other traffic). A third tower offers even more traffic. If I want to be able to listen to selected traffic from all towers at once should I use the setting to select all CC's in every scan mode pass? Or will the PSR500 automatically check the control channel since I've set it to "stationary"? Thanks.
 

DonS

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Question about "Check CC's on every Scan-mode pass" on TSYS Objects page.... I'm using the "stationary" setting since we're in a metropolitan area that uses a state-wide Motorola trunking system. One of the towers has its own set of control channels and transmits traffic for one county (and others as well). Another tower within range uses another set of control channels and transmits traffic for the other metro county (Plus other traffic). A third tower offers even more traffic. If I want to be able to listen to selected traffic from all towers at once should I use the setting to select all CC's in every scan mode pass? Or will the PSR500 automatically check the control channel since I've set it to "stationary"? Thanks.
In "Multi-Site: Stat" mode, the PSR-500 will always check all control channels that you've programmed into the TSYS.

The "Check all CCs in every Scan-mode pass" setting in Win500 (equivalent to the "Check All CC" item in the scanner's TSYS menu) controls how often the scanner checks all those control channels. If the feature is disabled (box not checked in Win500, item set to "No" in the scanner), then it can take several Scan-mode "passes" to get through all the CCs - if you're scanning multiple trunking systems, or have a lot of CONV objects enabled, this can take a while. If the feature is enabled (box checked in Win500, item set to "Yes" in the scanner), then all CCs are checked every time the scanner "looks at" that TSYS - this gets you through all the CCs pretty quickly, but can cause delays in scanning other objects, since the scanner may spend up to 1 second on each active CC.
 

AC2C

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Audio Monitoring

Using Win500 on a Windows Vista HP Laptop.

I have the audio out of the headphone feeding into the Mic input on the laptop.

When I run the Monitor / Control program I cannot get any audio out of the spearkers. However, if I run the Win500Client and connect via "localhost" on the same PC, the audio comes through the client just fine.

Any ideas why I can't get audio without running the remote client locally ?

Ron, AC2C
 

DonS

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Using Win500 on a Windows Vista HP Laptop.

I have the audio out of the headphone feeding into the Mic input on the laptop.

When I run the Monitor / Control program I cannot get any audio out of the spearkers. However, if I run the Win500Client and connect via "localhost" on the same PC, the audio comes through the client just fine.

Any ideas why I can't get audio without running the remote client locally ?
In Windows' audio settings, under "playback", your Mic input is muted.
 

AC2C

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Okay... I must have my stupid hat on here...

I can not find anywhere within the Vista Control Panel ot the Master Volume Control Panel a place where I could mute the microphone.

If the microphone were muted, it wouod still play through the client ?

Ron
 
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