It's all about the Software

Hi
I am noticing an issue with this version while adjusting the waterfall contrast/brightness.
While I am moving the brightness bar, a noise us generated on the waterfall along with a "static" sound noise. That happens with more intensity if the tuned signal is strong.
Since it is a little difficult to describe the issue, I have uploaded a video to my youtube channel.

Video =>> SDR Console waterfall bug

My PC is an ACER ROI running Windows 10 64-bit
Also, I thought the noise was being generated by the mouse. I have replaced it and also accessed my PC remotely and the same issue happens.

**UPDATE** - I uninstalled build 2870 and went back to v3.3 build 2848, and the issue is still there, but with less intensity.

*** 2ND Update *** - Uninstalled 3.3 completely and reinstalled V3.2 build 2665 and the issue is completely GONE. Then I installed back v3.3 b2870 and the issue is back. I have another video showing version 3.2 and there is no Issue with the waterfall --- video here ==>> https://youtu.be/F7z2BCRNwSo

I am surprised that it looks like nobody give any importance to my bug report. No replies or acknowledgement at all.

LuisNJUSA wrote: ↑Sat Feb 11, 2023 4:49 am Hi
I am noticing an issue with this version while adjusting the waterfall contrast/brightness.
While I am moving the brightness bar, a noise us generated on the waterfall along with a "static" sound noise. That happens with more intensity if the tuned signal is strong.
Since it is a little difficult to describe the issue, I have uploaded a video to my youtube channel.

Not seeing anything like that here and never have seen it. I notice when you manipulate the brightness bar the CPU duty (and also GPU) shoots up to around 50%. That is somewhat high. For example, even if I manipulate the brightness bar very vigorously my CPU does not go about about 8%.

Can you post exact details of the hardware? CPU/GPU/Memory etc? Suspect the issue lies here?

Max

Nothing here either regarding noise , but if i click/hold the waterfall brightness slider and constantly move it to dim/bright like 20 times (UN-naturally) the cpu can be up to 50% then back to 0.8% like atm , if i move the slider two or three times up to 12% briefly .

How close to your laptop is your rsp1 and it's antenna? Your cables, laptop, and its powersupply are all prime causes for EMI generation. There is a smaller chance that you are very intermittently overloading your laptop.

Try making gain changes on the rsp1 and then checking for the waterfall noise and look for changes in signal to noise ratio. (ratio not level.) Similarly set video gain to 0 and see what happens. Modest changes (10 dB to 20 dB) in gains and settings should be enough to see if the SDR software might be influencing this. Taking notes into notepad may help reveal trends. If you don't isolate a cause for the noise it's time to break out the large ferrite clamp on "beads".

{^_^}

Not seeing it here either. But mine is located out in the repeater shed +400' away from the operating laptop via SDRC Server.
The RSP1A I have has been modified with copper foil sticky tape on the inside of the plastic box to reduce QRM from nearby sources.
When located near the laptop, w/out an antenna, it was hearing all kinds of garbage. It's currently only a few feet away from the host
laptop (server) with a rats nest of USB wires going to the remaining three other SDR's on that server and USB cable to a remote IC-7100.
There's also a Raspberry PI Dstar machine that's nearby, not in a good RFI proof case too.

The RSP1A AGC tends to get overloaded with strong pulsing signals in the selected bandwidth (think CW). I found I have to run mine at
Manual IF Gain to stop the pulsing. Here's my settings, note the RF Gain at 7, RF Gain at 4 raises the noise floor!
Try my Super Station #4, and connect to the RSP1A on it and see if you get the same 'bug'

73 Kriss KA1GJU
Home of the Super Station SDRC Servers

Hi,
I have a similar problem with the last two betas.
By varying the contrast the waterfall freezes
With 3.2 it didn't happen

I think you might me exceeding the limits of your computer.
BC-FM uses more CPU resources vs SSB, from my humble observations. For example my Airspy Discovery at the max bandwidth of 912kHz show ~10%, BC-FM makes it go up to 23% at times, but I'm currently on an aging HP laptop i5 5th generation with 6MB RAM, and NO GPU.

Try operating at a narrower bandwidth versus 3Mhz as shown in your video. Here's a screen grab of your numbers.

73 Kriss KA1GJU

KA1GJU wrote: ↑Tue May 16, 2023 1:03 am I think you might me exceeding the limits of your computer.

Try operating at a narrower bandwidth versus 3Mhz as shown in your video. Here's a screen grab of your numbers.

73 Kriss KA1GJU

That was first thing that occurred to me. Those CPU/GPU figures look extremely high. Sign of machine struggling badly? Maybe supply details of the computer?

Max

Thanks Kriss & Max for the replies,
unfortunately it is not the GPU or CPU load that is causing this problem . It must be considered that during normal operation (without video recording, active in the last video) the load drops to 5.2% CPU & 36.6 GPU.
The CPU is an I7 4770 3.4 GHz with 8GB of memory.
Two other videos: one video recorded with the smartphone here :



and one again attach with sdrconsole, also using an RTL dongle with 250 KHz BW and as you can see also in USB I get the same problem.
I want to remark again that with version 3.2 I didn't get this problem.

I hope this will help Simon to analyze what happens, that with much more powerful computers you can't perceive.

73 Rocco IK8XLD