Test Firmware for DMR OFT and Band Plan Issue logging

[timbartell]

I played with these last night finally and after looking at N0BDW's results I will save myself some typing and note on the similar Chautauqua County system I have the exact same results in both cases except in good state mine continues to display and hold on the TGID alphas but I never get any decoded tdma audio at all in discover or scan modes where I believe he was getting some audio decoding. Starting to wonder if mine has a possible hardware issue with tdma?

 

[UPMan]

Band Plan issue: When the first reception state is bad, please set the system hold time to 10 second or more and try again. Does the reception state change?

 

[UPMan]

I was able to program this system into a 996P2 and it works fine there, no analyze needed (and of course there isn't one if it were). Just for another point of reference.

What firmware version was installed?

 

[N0BDW]

What firmware version was installed?

Sorry, I don't know the answer to that. Wasn't my scanner, and I no longer have access to it.

If you have a test unit you'd like me to try it on I'd be happy to do that.

Band Plan issue: When the first reception state is bad, please set the system hold time to 10 second or more and try again. Does the reception state change?

Tried with values of both 12 and 30 seconds. Left for at least 5 minutes with each value. The reception state does not change.

 

[UPMan]

Well, more and more puzzling. Engineers would like to see what the auto threshold is doing. Can you make a video (phone video is fine) of the threshold action (F+VOL):
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot] Before analyze mode[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot] in analyze mode[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot] after analyze mode.[/FONT]

 

[N0BDW]

Well, more and more puzzling. Engineers would like to see what the auto threshold is doing. Can you make a video (phone video is fine) of the threshold action (F+VOL):
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot] Before analyze mode[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot] in analyze mode[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot] after analyze mode.[/FONT]

Thanks UPMan, here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3zjNOWi91o

 

[N0BDW]

And I just realized that whole video was shot while in manual threshold mode, which probably isn't what you're looking for (though perhaps still valuable)?

I re-shot it with the scanner in auto threshold mode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc05AdXZz4s

 

[UPMan]

Ok, here is another firmware load to try (anyone can try by copying the appropriate bin file into the firmware folder on their BCDx36HP).

http://info.uniden.com/twiki/pub/PartnerWeb/BCD536HPBeta/BCDx36HP_V1_11_23.zip

-- Modified and Improved Items --

1. P25 Band Plan Issue
2. DMR One Frequency Scan Speed
3. Capable of receiving RAS of Capacity Max (DMR Tier 3)

The engineers and I all appreciate everyone's great support while we work on these improvements.

 

[jonwienke]

I can confirm that OFT and DMR conventional channels scan the same speed now. Overall scanning speed seems slightly faster as well.

 

[jonwienke]

One oddity: Occasionally when monitoring a P25 system, the scanner will hang on a talkgroup, but not play audio. When this happens, LNK or DAT flashes in the bottom right corner of the screen instead of P25. I've seen it happen when the scanner first hits the system, and after several transmissions on the talkgroup. It's sporadic; it happens less than 5% of the time. But I've caught it happening several times.

 

[jonwienke]

The talkgroups where I've see this happen are mostly fire tac channels where encryption is never used AFAIK.

 

[Phillipsc84]

I can confirm that OFT and DMR conventional channels scan the same speed now. Overall scanning speed seems slightly faster as well.

For the OFT do you have multiple frequencies in one site or one frequency per site with multiple sites?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[N0BDW]

UPMan: Just tested this on the 536 at the fire hall and it works perfectly. As as aside: the display no longer rapidly flashes between DAT & LNK as it did before. It is now stable on DAT, as I'd expect it to be with a solid lock on the control channel.

Thank you so much for your dedication to getting this issue resolved for us! I'll follow up if I notice any difficulty after updating my other scanners.

 

[jonwienke]

For the OFT do you have multiple frequencies in one site or one frequency per site with multiple sites?

Both. I have one list of 128 frequencies programmed conventional, and another list with the same 128 frequencies organized into 8 sites with 16 freqs each. I also have one-frequency systems with one frequency. All scan at about the same speed--approximately 80 channels per second.

 

[timbartell]

UPMan, Finally I am a happy man and not deaf on my local County p25 2 simulcast. I was getting very discouraged after trying many things and many locations and never had voice one time just TGID hits very randomly. I did notice the band plan and analyze thing as well but for me this went even deeper. The NAC liked to blink in analyze and now holds solid as well. This latest firmware (.23) properly populated the band plan and DAT and LNK lights are as expected. I did not work last night when I loaded it as I am not sure if it took a while to populate the band plan again properly or there was just no action (was 3am). Today I took my 436 with stock antenna riding with my boss to mutiple locations, even out of county South and I get some decode garble but I am finally smiling about my investment again and oddly it is working at home on all antennas when it didn't last night initially.. I am MORE than happy to continue to supply logs, videos, feedback etc for continued improvement and support. Thanks to you and your engineers my Uniden faith remains.

1.11.23 test/beta firmware on 436

Tim

 

[timbartell]

UPMan: Just tested this on the 536 at the fire hall and it works perfectly. As as aside: the display no longer rapidly flashes between DAT & LNK as it did before. It is now stable on DAT, as I'd expect it to be with a solid lock on the control channel.

Thank you so much for your dedication to getting this issue resolved for us! I'll follow up if I notice any difficulty after updating my other scanners.

Sounds like it did well for both the 436 and 536 and very similar systems! Next time I am up your way I will have to bring mine and try Livingston. Cheers!

A green cold beverage to Paul and the Uniden engineers today.

 

[wx5uif]

Now to nail down the false TG display. I've had no luck finding a rhyme or reason to reproduce it.

 

[jdolina]

+1 on the false TG display. Seemed to happen only after using the analyze function.

Now with .23 on what I would call a marginal weak signal for a P25 simulcast site that I have been having to do the analyze quality dance and antenna moves to receive the following happens

If I have it set to manual for the site I can now start receiving traffic from that site immediately.
If I have it set to auto no traffic. Seems no traffic even after the analyze as well but I will have to experiment more.

With .22 I would analyze and find an antenna position where I would have the quality peak then move the antenna back to where there was signal but not quality which was optimal for other systems. I would start receiving traffic on all systems. Now with .23 and auto it looks like moving the antenna back for use with the other systems stops traffic on the one P25 simulcast. With manual set for that one system it just seems to work with the antenna in the optimal location for all sites and only signal for the one marginal P25 site.

 

[sibbley]

Now to nail down the false TG display. I've had no luck finding a rhyme or reason to reproduce it.

I believe the false talk group issue is much worse on this new firmware.Same thing as before, one system's talk group ID's show up in completely different system.

All I am doing is scanning OFT systems with ID Search on. No Analyze features are being used.

 

[Ubbe]

TGs being displayed from other DMR systems are still present. Someone mentioned it is a SD card problem but I've tried different types and sizes and there's been no change.

One thing that changed with this version are the Q value in analyze/status, that used to be active after 15-20 sec, now activates after 1-2 sec. The freq value also used to flicker between all kinds of values from one to three digits but are now showing 1 or 2.

Trunked DMR systems still have problems to follow conversations. It could be that the 536 immediatly drops to the control channel when a user releases his PTT but the users might have a hang time for a few seconds on the voice channel. Only if users wait out that hang time and drops to control channel before pushing PTT will the 536 follow the conversation without delays.

/Ubbe