Existing versions of xCAT and xDAX do not work with SmartSDR V3

Hi there,

today FlexRadio did release V3 of SmartSDR but xDAX and xCAT will not work with V3.

I did not expect such a big change at this time. My Flex is at my parents place since Xmas (I don't have any antennas where I live so I can either develop or operate remotely) and only after the Easter holidays I will be able to bring it here to do something with the apps. And I don't know how long it will take as my life is more than busy at the moment.

So if you need xDAX and xCAT for your operating you might have to stay with V2.4.9. Even V2.5.1 will not work as it uses the same changed API like V3.

Sorry about that..

73, Mario DL3LSM

New versions of xCAT and xDAX with SmartLink support

Hi there,

this post should have come 3 months ago but a long unplanned stay in hospital and the following regeneration delayed this release.

There are new versions of my apps available. The main addition to the apps is that they now support remote operation via SmartLink.

There are minor bug fixes as well but I did not keep a change log.

You can find the details about how to use SmartLink in the updated documentation.

The new versions are as always available on the Downloads page.

Thanks and 73
Mario, DL3LSM

New versions of xCAT and xDAX for the new radio models

Hi there,

as the new radio models are shipping I tried to anticipate what changes are needed to make xCAT and xDAX usable with these models (FLEX-6400(M), FLEX-6600(M)). As I don't have one of these models and I don't know someone who has and is a Mac user I could not test these changes.

So if you are using one of the existing models there is no need to change but if you've got one of the new models it is worth a try (and please report your success/failure to me). As there are no real changes I have also not updated the documentation (there is a major change in the works).

There were some reports in the community that existing versions of WSJT-X (on Windows) would not work with the new models. I guess this will be the case on macOS as well as the Hamlib version used in WSJT-X 1.8.0 does not recognize the IDs of the new models. In xCAT you can work around this if you set "Mask Flex-6300" in the "Setup" menu. With this your Flex will id as a FLEX-6500 to an asking CAT client application.

The new versions are as always available on the Downloads page.

Thanks and 73

Mario, DL3LSM

New bug fix version of xDAX

Hi there,

some users made me aware that there is a bug in xDAX 0.9 which prevented streaming if the audio stream was the second (or third, ...) stream requested from the radio. 

This bug is fixed in the latest xDAX version 0.9.1 (available on the Downloads page) so please use this version if you want to use more than one RX audio stream.

Thanks to Mike (ZL1MRC) and Burch Akin for their help in finding this.

Thanks and 73

Mario, DL3LSM

New versions for xCAT and xDAX available

Hi there,

new versions (0.9) for xCAT and xDAX are available now on the download page.

Here are the main reasons for the new versions:

On the request of several users I implemented the IQ streams in xDAX. Now you can pipe raw IQ data from the radio to applications like CubicSDR, GNU Radio or SdrDx to use the demodulators there.

In xCAT I implemented the CAT commands to initiate the transmission of Spectrum Display data from the radio. This feature is new in SmartSDR 2.0 and was introduced to use the Spectrum Display in N1MM+ logger with the FlexRadio. I created a small app for the Mac which uses this feature which you can see in action here (0.4 GB video file!):

For now it is more an app for testing this feature but quite usable though. And maybe there will be more additions to it.. xmlScope is also available on the download page.


Changes in xCAT:

• Implementation of the ZZPA and ZZPE commands (see FlexRadios manual for SmartCAT here) to use the Spectrum Display Feature added in version 2 of SmartSDR.
• Changed the user defaults to a more future proof structure.
• Several fixes for bugs nobody reported so far.. :-)

Changes in xDAX:

• Implementation of IQ streams.
• Facelift of the UI to use less screen estate.
• Changed the user defaults to a more future proof structure.
• several fixes for bugs nobody reported so far :-)

Very important, please read and follow the advice before using the new versions for the first time:

The structure of the user defaults has changed significantly to a more future proof approach. If you use the app with your existing user defaults it will most probably crash.

So please make notes of your existing setup in version 0.8.1.

And then delete the user defaults BEFORE you run the version 0.9 of xCAT and xDAX for the first time.

Open the Terminal.app and type/copy these lines (pressing return at the end of each line :-):

defaults delete de.dl3lsm.xCAT

and

defaults delete de.dl3lsm.xDAX

When you run the app the first time you have to do the setup again once.

Enjoy!

73, Mario DL3LSM

Playing with the new Flex Spectrum Display for N1MM+

Hi there,

in SmartSDR version 2.0 FlexRadio has introduced support for the N1MM+ Spectrum Display Feature. You can see it in action in several videos on YouTube like this one:

I wanted to know more about this feature so after some research I came up with a little app which requests and displays this data on the Mac:

For now this app connects to SmartCAT on Windows (running in Parallels on my iMac) but I'll include this functionality in the upcoming new version of xCAT.

If you are interested what data format is used you can read more about it here.

And maybe something more useful will come out of this little experiment.. :-)

73, Mario DL3LSM

New xCAT and xDAX versions

Hi there,

it was not the best experience to be on a holiday trip when FlexRadio released version 2.0. Especially when the mails were received that 2.0 broke xDAX and there was nothing to do but to read the mails and think about it.

But now new versions (0.8.1) for xCAT and xDAX are available which support SmartSDR 2.0 but only locally or via VPN. SmartLink support is not (yet?) possible.

Changes:
- SmartSDR 2.0 support
- App Nap is prevented in xDAX when there are active streams
- auto-connect functionality (see Documentation)
- bug fixes

You can download the new versions from the download page.

Enjoy!

73, Mario DL3LSM