T/R Relay clicking on the HL2 board

[Rajiv Dewan]

I am having a weird problem with my HL2 board.  The T/R relay (the orange relay next to the PA) is clicking, and the power and SWR reported by Thetis is varying.

I first noticed this with the IO board and my transverter.  I removed the IO board and it still happens whether I have the PA disabled or not. 

Test conditions:  

Ant and RF1 ports are terminated into 50 ohm loads. 

No PTT leads, just ethernet cable, power, and patch cables for ant and RF1 ports.  I have tried different cables just to rule out those issues.

 Latest Gateware.  

Beta version of HL2 Thetis and Quisk. 

Has any one seen this?  Recommended next steps?

Thanks,

Raj, N2RD

[Mike Lewis]

Can you clarify what clicking means?    Clicking 1 time for tx and then 1 time back to RX?  Or cycling at some interval(s)?   What kind of power readings are you seeing?

 

Which version of HL2 Thetis?  Later ones support some IO board info.

https://github.com/mi0bot/OpenHPSDR-Thetis/releases/tag/v2.10.3.3-beta1

 

 

How do you have the OC Control tab configured?

 

 

 

Do you have the PA enabled?

 

You can also try Checking the Receive Only box under Radio model which will disable  TX and thus T/R switching all up.

 

 

You mentioned you had transverter(s) set up.  I use split, low power TX on RF1 and Rx on Alt TRX.  See other posts on the IO board for more discussion.  Here is my example, playing with different RX gain numbers as well.  None of these should cause a T/R to click at any other time then TX state though (If enabled).  Good to check anyway.

 

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[Rajiv Dewan]

Thanks for your detailed response Mike.

It is clicks on TX and clicks on an off multiple times with no change in PTT. 

I will send a .mov by separate email.

I am using the Beta version of Thetis that you linked.

I removed the IO board and it still happens.

With or without the PA enabled.

Raj, N2RD

---

From: Mike Lewis <k7...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 5, 2023 1:37 PM
To: Rajiv Dewan <rmd...@gmail.com>; herme...@googlegroups.com <herme...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: T/R Relay clicking on the HL2 board

 

[Rajiv Dewan]

[Rajiv Dewan]

[Rajiv Dewan]

[Rajiv Dewan]

[Mike Lewis]

Try turning SWR Protection off.  You said you are into a dummy load but there could still be a bad cable/connector also.  I have it on here in this pic  Maybe a high SWR scenario, possibly a damaged PA inductor wire joint? -  it is something that is easy to bump during handling.

 

Did you try the receive only config.  Should prevent any errant messages for T/R.  Or does this only happen during TX?   What readings are you getting from the SWR/Power meter in Thetis, however brief?  The power/swr comes from the filter board, I do not think there any useful values without the filter board installed.

 

 

 

 

 

[Reid Campbell]

Hi Raj,

Check out the HL2 WiKi documentation for relay clicking on transmit. This is usually down to latency in the network the HL2 is connected to, especially WiFi ones.

Cheers 

Reid
Gi8TME/Mi0BOT

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hermes-lite/CPWPR80MB78150A6A06A0B57B099B0F23A3ABA%40CPWPR80MB7815.lamprd80.prod.outlook.com.

[Rajiv Dewan]

Thanks Reid.  I will check that.  The laptop is on Wi-Fi while the HL 2 is wired. 

Best

Raj, N2RD 

— Sent from my mobile

Rajiv Dewan

rmd...@gmail.com

On Nov 5, 2023, at 6:04 PM, Reid Campbell <scumballc...@gmail.com> wrote:

 Hi Raj,

Check out the HL2 WiKi documentation for relay clicking on transmit. This is usually down to latency in the network the HL2 is connected to, especially WiFi ones.

Cheers 

Reid
Gi8TME/Mi0BOT

On 05/11/2023 22:07, Rajiv Dewan wrote:

Thanks for your detailed response Mike.

It is clicks on TX and clicks on an off multiple times with no change in PTT. 

I will send a .mov by separate email.

I am using the Beta version of Thetis that you linked.

I removed the IO board and it still happens.

With or without the PA enabled.

Raj, N2RD

---

From: Mike Lewis <k7...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 5, 2023 1:37 PM
To: Rajiv Dewan <rmd...@gmail.com>; herme...@googlegroups.com <herme...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: T/R Relay clicking on the HL2 board

 

Can you clarify what clicking means?    Clicking 1 time for tx and then 1 time back to RX?  Or cycling at some interval(s)?   What kind of power readings are you seeing?

 

Which version of HL2 Thetis?  Later ones support some IO board info.

https://github.com/mi0bot/OpenHPSDR-Thetis/releases/tag/v2.10.3.3-beta1

 

<image001.png>

 

How do you have the OC Control tab configured?

 

<image002.png>

 

 

Do you have the PA enabled?

<image003.png>

 

You can also try Checking the Receive Only box under Radio model which will disable  TX and thus T/R switching all up.

<image004.png>

 

 

You mentioned you had transverter(s) set up.  I use split, low power TX on RF1 and Rx on Alt TRX.  See other posts on the IO board for more discussion.  Here is my example, playing with different RX gain numbers as well.  None of these should cause a T/R to click at any other time then TX state though (If enabled).  Good to check anyway.

 

<image005.png>

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hermes-lite/81c051f0-3c56-48b1-88d2-28e3bc7cd696%40gmail.com.

[Kurt V.]

I had the same issue. It had to do with show network connections. 

Are you using a laptop, if yes, please do the following:

Open your registry

Follow this path and you will find two DWORD 32-bit Values: NetworkThrottlingIndex & SystemResponsiveness (if you can’t find them, make them)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile

 Double-click on NetworkThrottlingIndex and give it the value “ffffffff” (8 Fs)

When finished, then RESTART your computer (VERY IMPORTANT)

And you will never look back at this issue again. 

The reason is that windows by default turns on throttling on your network devices to save battery power. It makes packets getting lost and these packets are crucial for the smooth communication between your laptop and your HL2. 

Leave some feedback if it helped. 

73. de ON7OFF

[jpwa...@gmail.com]

Raj,

On my Mac I use a script that turns off the wifi when I connect the ethernet to keep the packet routing from flipping back and forth. (https://gist.github.com/albertbori/1798d88a93175b9da00b)

But on other hardware configurations, search for your OS Flavor. 

[Rajiv Dewan]

Dear Reid, Kurt and the group,

   You correctly identified the problem as that of latency/dropped packets.  Both the fixes suggested work and solve the T/R clicking problem.  In particular:

 

I first tried the Windows Registry solution.  In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile,  I replaced:

Network Throttling default value of 0xA with 0xFFFFFFFF, and

System Responsiveness default value of 0x20 by 0x0.  

This solved the relay clicking problem!  Thanks Kurt.

Next, I reset the values for the two Registry entries back to their defaults.  I plugged in a USB Ethernet adapter (an older Apple model, 100MBs).  That too solved the problem.  Thanks Reid.

This is where it stands now,

Thanks to Mike as well for detailed responses.

Thanks all,

Raj

---

From: herme...@googlegroups.com <herme...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Reid Campbell <scumballc...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 5, 2023 3:04 PM
To: herme...@googlegroups.com <herme...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: T/R Relay clicking on the HL2 board

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hermes-lite/81c051f0-3c56-48b1-88d2-28e3bc7cd696%40gmail.com.

[Kurt V.]

Happy I was of any help! Give me a shout on the air! Deal?