TS-480HX won't power up consistently (UPDATE - PROBLEM SOLVED)

[N8QB]

The rig control issue seems to have been related to the 3G hardware I was using previously, which I suspect was dropping packets.  I purchased a refurbished AT&T MiFi 3G hotspot from eBay for $41 USD, transferred my SIM card to it, and the RemoteRig has worked first-time, every time since.

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Greetings,

I have the RRC-1258 MkII with software v2.54 on both remote and base units configured for my Kenwood TS-480HX.  The RRC units work great most of the time (and I love them!) but I have noticed a problem occurs sometimes when connecting remotely from a registered Internet IP back through the firewall to my non-routable LAN IP.  As mentioned, it works sometimes which leads me to believe my firewall must be set up correctly.

The problem is that when I push the power button on the faceplate of the TS-480HX, it gives one short beep indicating that the unit "thinks" it has connected and is "ON" but its on-screen display does not function at that time.  A quick look at the LED's on the RJ-45 NIC indicates that it seems to be communicating back to the base unit, however the radio at the base location is not powered up.

Further investigation revealed that, while the units are in this malfunctioning state, if I have someone manually force the radio to power up at the base location, I immediately receive sound from the remote faceplate without pushing any additional buttons.

This tells me that, even though the units are "connected" across the firewall, the command from remote unit back to the base unit telling it to power up the radio is failing in some way.  I get the same results no matter if I utilize a wireless 3G Internet connection or wired DSL on the remote end. 

Currently my Rx jitter buffer = 7 and Rx jitter delay = 6 on both units, with other settings set to their default values.  By the way, this is never a problem when both RRC units are connected to the same LAN (and network latency is low).

Has anyone else reported this problem where the radio refuses to power up even though both RRC's seem to be connected?

73,

Robert

[dj4mz]

Hi Robert,

I have seen that problem with my IC-706 also. Solution in my case: I keep the power on button pressed for about half a second to power up. In my case that work in maybe 99 cases out of 100.

BTW: What is the latency in your network? In my case its around 30ms.

vy 73
Simon, DJ4MZ

[N8QB]

Thanks for your response.  Good to know the trouble is not only with TS-480 rigs.  I usually depress the power-on button for about 1.5 seconds but results vary - sometimes it works first time, sometimes it doesn't power-on at all.  I agree that network latency seems to be the determining factor.  The latency on the base-unit's end is around 30 mS but on the remote-unit's end could be anywhere from 60 mS from my friend's cable modem, and up to 260mS from my 3G connection at times.  It seems I read somewhere that sending commands to the base unit is via UDP.  Wonder if the software authors have considered utilizing TCP for sending commands since UDP is only a "best efforts" type of service?