P25RX-II P25RX-II Firmware Updates / Testing

[iascanguy]

You are in a bad spot! I'm glad to hear it is improving for you. Can you send me a sample of your P25-P2 audio issues with the line-out / Bluetooth via email? or you can post it here if you prefer. Line-out and Bluetooth are basically ideal now for P25 P1 with this version. I suspect it is probably approaching subscriber quality, but I'm waiting to hear back from those having issues. For testing, I've added 20dB of attenuation in front of a -96dB to -100dB signal (-116 to -120 dBm input). I'm seeing error rates with peaks up to 0.03 with very good audio. (note that is 0.03, not 0.002 like we were talking about yesterday). I think I may know why P2 is has a new issue for you (due to a change made), but it would help to hear a sample.

edit: Also, please try changing the LNA gain from AUTO to fixed 20dB gain, and possibly lower to see if that improves reception.
edit2: Sending a direct email with link.

I didn’t see your post before I updated this morning from your link. The audio issue with the line out/Bluetooth was fixed when I did the update. Can’t be in too bad of a spot, my SDS200 works fine, especially with the mag mount antenna that came with the RX-II.

LNA Gain at 16dB seems to be working best for now

Audio still cuts out at times, I will email a recording made using BTConfig.

 

[btt]

I didn’t see your post before I updated this morning from your link. The audio issue with the line out/Bluetooth was fixed when I did the update. Can’t be in too bad of a spot, my SDS200 works fine, especially with the mag mount antenna that came with the RX-II.

LNA Gain at 16dB seems to be working best for now

Audio still cuts out at times, I will email a recording made using BTConfig.

Thanks for the feedback. If I can think of something to try beside what I already emailed I will. The local system was pretty busy this evening. I took the latest firmware for another mobile test through the worst simulcast areas that I know of locally. The phase 1 decode decode /synthesis is very close to flawless everywhere on my normal testing route. It has never been in a better state than it is now. There wasn't much phase 2 traffic today, but what I heard was good.

 

[btt]

@iascanguy, I found an issue with the P25 P2 voice frame repeat code. Please give 11-06_1136 a try when you have a chance.

 

[btt]

There is a new option on the advanced page for max voice frame repeats. The range is 0-10. If you test it, please report what values work best when the voice err rate is > 0.000. Right now I'm testing it with a value of 3. Another change is that the VGA target and AGC BW are no longer overridden by the AGC Minimum Peak values. Previously, if AGC Min Peak was enabled, then AGC BW=0.01, and VGA Target=60. If it was disabled (default), then the AGC BW=0.2, and the VGA Target=50.

 

[kb8q]

My initial take on this is as follows:

P25RX - consistently low error rate, mostly 0.000 if I leave the optional Max V-Frame repeat value at 0

P25RXII - Optional value +1 seems to work best and error rates are 0.000 half the time and range anywhere from 0.001 to 0.054 the rest of the time. The higher numbers are infrequent.

In both cases the audio is good. The P25RXII audio is better than it was before this update.

Everything here is Phase 1, no P2 yet.

 

[btt]

My initial take on this is as follows:

P25RX - consistently low error rate, mostly 0.000 if I leave the optional Max V-Frame repeat value at 0

P25RXII - Optional value +1 seems to work best and error rates are 0.000 half the time and range anywhere from 0.001 to 0.054 the rest of the time. The higher numbers are infrequent.

In both cases the audio is good. The P25RXII audio is better than it was before this update.

Everything here is Phase 1, no P2 yet.

Thank you for testing there. I figured out a couple of things to reduce the err rate for P25-P1. There was a state that needed to be reset during the TDU/TDULC period. Available in version 11-07_1116.

 

[shirsch101]

Todd or any other knowledgeable forum member, would it be possible to produce a tutorial for a hobbyist on how to use all of these settings?
Thanks

Steve

 

[btt]

I heard back from one person testing phase 1 and 2 systems. Apparently phase 2 is sounding worse with the latest firmware. I will be working on trying to figure out why that is. It should be really close now. I'm sure it won't take too long to figure out.

Todd or any other knowledgeable forum member, would it be possible to produce a tutorial for a hobbyist on how to use all of these settings?
Thanks

Steve

Steve,
I hear you. I know it needs documentation, but it really is a moving target right now. I will get it done at some point.

 

[btt]

Thank you for testing there. I figured out a couple of things to reduce the err rate for P25-P1 to 0.000 most of the time (unless there really is a high error rate). There was a state that needed to be reset during the TDU/TDULC period. Available in version 11-07_1116.

This morning I received feedback from a tester that 11-07_1116 from yesterday was not a good release for P25-P2 and that version 11-08_0200 from this morning was MUCH better when the voice error rate is > 0.000 and that the P25RX-II compares favorably with the SDS-200 when receiving P25-P2 in a simulcast environment. Hopefully, this will take care of the issues that some have experienced. Both versions were tested with default settings. I made some other changes unrelated to P25-P2 since 11-08_0200. Once change in the latest releases for both model today is that a bug has been fixed when importing more than 4915 talk groups. They would import fine, but voice grants were being ignored if more than 4915 talk groups were in flash. This has been verified to be fixed.

 

[btt]

There is a fix for the recent issues with P2 audio available. The max-voice-frame repeats option should be less confusing now. It is disabled by default.

 

[Vermonster]

Anyone else on Win10 try to flash 2021-11-09_1936 and have the device lock up? I'm getting SIG TG fast flashing lights on device and device manager in Win10 does not show device as present. Tried computer and BT device restart. Tried 2 different Win10 computers.

I have not tried button hold or recovery firmware yet to see what is needed to get working again. Thought I would check here first.

 

[alphaacres]

I'm on Windows 11 and having the same issue is your P25 Frequency Primary changing on the updates when that happens it locks up and I loose my talk groups also need to go to Search Data Base and enter Primary Frequency again also make a back up of Talk groups.

 

[Vermonster]

I'm on Windows 11 and having the same issue is your P25 Frequency Primary changing on the updates when that happens it locks up and I loose my talk groups also need to go to Search Data Base and enter Primary Frequency again also make a back up of Talk groups.

Not sure you are experiencing the same issue. I was monitoring a Con+ DMR system and have had no issues with the past few firmware updates.

I just did button hold on USB connect method and then successfully reinstalled _1936
Primary frequency was retained, but frequencies on DMR tab were lost (maybe because of button hold method??).

Reprogramming DMR frequencies now and will advise.

 

[btt]

The issue with the flash corruption (short-long led pattern flashing) during a fw updates seems to be something that started happening more frequently (it may be fixed now). As you found, you can get past the error by holding down the TG button for a second or two, then waiting for the leds to start flashing rapidly (bootloader mode). After that, you can continue to load the firmware. This does erase flash including roaming/talk groups, configuration. Hopefully this issue has been fixed in the version 11-09_1518 and later. Let me know if you have this happen again after you have installed that version or later. Sorry for the hassle of reentering the DMR frequencies. It is on my list to get the backup/restore for DMR implemented.

 

[Vermonster]

Mostly all seems good on Con+ once I got 1936 installed; I will try another update later today.

I do see some weirdness with 1936 around Con+ reception. This is barely perceptible, and reception is still 95% equivalent to the DSD+FL SDR dongle I have running as a comparison. But reception seems just slightly off from 08_0226 I was running previously. I also note the DMR BLKS_PER_SEC readout behaves differently than before. It seems to occasionally get "stuck" on a value, and now also sometimes shows "0", which it did not do before on this system. It's possible today is just a bad reception day, but I think not. Note that EVM% displays as per previous and qualitatively is in the same range for this system (8-11 on a voice call). Still finding LNA gain set manually to 22dB is best.

 

[btt]

The difference between the 11-08 and current version regarding the voice decoding / synthesis could be the voice-frame repeats. The default was changed to "disabled" for repeats. Try changing it to 3. I'll run in DMR mode for a while here and see if I can spot the issue. If you are using the AGC minimum peak mode, I would recommend also setting the the VGA target value to 60dB or higher (vs default of 50).

 

[Vermonster]

The difference between the 11-08 and current version regarding the voice decoding / synthesis could be the voice-frame repeats. The default was changed to "disabled" for repeats. Try changing it to 3. I'll run in DMR mode for a while here and see if I can spot the issue. If you are using the AGC minimum peak mode, I would recommend also setting the the VGA target value to 60dB or higher (vs default of 50).

Thanks.
Currently trying V-Frame repeats set to 3
I have been running with have AGC Min Peak unchecked; will also try turning on with VGA target value of 50dB

Also now running RX-I for comparison instead of DSD+FL dongle.

 

[btt]

...I have been running with have AGC Min Peak unchecked; will also try turning on with VGA target value of 50dB

Try 60dB when enabled. (The default is 50dB with AGC Min Peak disabled).

 

[btt]

@Vermonster, I think the issue with DMR BLKS_PER_SEC display getting stuck and going to 0 is fixed for both models in latest versions.

 

[btt]

This post is a status update for those who have remaining issues with P25 reception. I've come to the conclusion that I have been looking at the wrong thing to resolve these issues. I'm posting this to let you know that I am aware that there is still an issue and to let you know that I'm working on a solution. I don't think it will be too much longer.