Flex 6600 ordered on:  Oct 11, 2022          Received on: Oct 30, 2022   ---  Serial Number4322-1104-5962

Flex TGXL ordered on:  Oct 6, 2022         Received on: Oct 11, 2022   ---  Serial Number 0663

Flex PGXL ordered on:  Oct 7, 2022         Received on: Oct 11, 2022,   replaced on Nov 10, 2022  --- Serial Number 8-360 / 22-0040

Station equipment  overview   --  File: Flex Radio / Flex 6600 Station Diagram V1.jpg

Ratpack Bandmaster V Antenna selector

The Bandmaster 5 is connected to the Flex 6600 via USB to get band data. 

The Bandmaster then connects the RatPack relays for 80-10 meter antennas.

Antennas and Towers

Click the PICTURE to go to my Antenna and Towers page

FlexControl setup to use 2 knobs with SSDR

There are several ways to setup the software to use 2 (or more) Controls.  Since I always have SDR-Bridge running I use it to control one knob and SSDR to control the other one. 

- To start verify that Windows device Manager shows 2 FlexControls

- Now start up SDR-Bridge and configure as below, it will then find and grab the other FlexControl knob. 

- Note the message that says “flex knobs found 1, then attached 1.” 

I put some Dymo stickers on the FlexControl to remind me of the settings.

I leave the PC up 24x7 and also leave the SDR-Bridge program running on my PC 24x7.  I do shut down SSDR when the radio is not in use.  The setup sticks and I don’t have to go back and do anything when I start up SSDR.  The FlexControl knobs stay properly configured.  If you shut down your PC regularly,  The only thing you have to do is start SSDR first to let it grab it’s knob and then start SDR-Bridge to grab the other one. 

Astron Power Supply - Voltage measurements and troubleshooting

Power Cabling -- Flex uses a 45 amp Powerpole connector.  If you make your own power cables be sure to use 10 gauge wire and

the 45 AMP contacts to minimise voltage drop.  ( not the more common and  lower rated 15-30 amp contracts).   From the hardware manual:

This grease is recommended to  use on the power pole connectors and the internal fuse.  It will prevent voltage drop issues.

Use a very, very small amount, it spreads.

The power supply is adjusted to provide 15V - within the range specificed by Flex

The steps to adjust the Astron RS-35M supply voltage are in this document by W1MIK.  

http://www.repeater-builder.com/astron/voltage-adjust/voltage-adjust.html

Or CLICK for PDF

Here is a good utility to monitor the voltage on the Flex Radio

The Voltage and Temp display ( the Green box shown above) can be dragged to reside on  the SSDR app.

SDRMonitor is available here:  https://k9dur.us/smartsdr_utilities.php

I recently changed radios from a 6700 to a 6600. There were some voltage drop issues on the 6700 that I described in detail, see link below. 

There is a big difference with my  6600. The internal volteage drop is very low on the 6600 as measured internally by SDRMonitor when transmitting at 100W.

The total drop is only about 1/3 of what it was on the 6700.

Below  are the new measurements for RX and TX at 100W. The voltage supplied to the radio is measured with a Fluke 177 meter at the power supply

and at the powerpoles on the back of the radio while they are plugged into the radio. The internal voltage is reported by the SDRMonitor app.

NOTE: to accurately assess a voltage issue you need to measure the voltage in 3 places.  The power supply terminals, the power pole terminals, and internally with a utility like SDRMonitor.  It is also important to measure all 3 places in both RX and TX.  This will help your determine whether the problem is the power supply, the power cable, the power pole connectors at the radio or in the radio internally at the fuse or other area.


RX readings
-----------------

1 - The voltage at the power supply is 15.13 volts

2- There is a measurement of 15.10 volts at the power poles on the radio. A drop of 0.03 due to the power cable resistance.

3 - There is a measurement of 15.0 volts internally by SDRMonitor - an additional drop of 0.1 volts internally ( radio fuse, wiring, etc)





TX readings, key down 100W
-----------------------------------------

1 - The voltage at the power supply drops very slightly to 15.11 volts, a drop of 0.02 volts

2 - There is a measurement of 14.77 volts at the power poles on the radio - this is a drop of 0.34 volts at the power pole due to the resistance of the power cable from the supply to the radio when supplying about 15 amps

3 - There is a measurement of 14.74 volts internally by SDRMonitor - this is an additional drop of ONLY 0.03 volts internally ( radio fuse, etc) for a total of 0.26 volts.

Here is the seup used to measure the voltage at the radio.

For more information about my 6700 LOW Voltage lockup issue and solution,

 see this link on my 6700 page:

Low Voltage Lockup issue and solution from 6700 page

6400 & 6600 Startup and Shutdown, NON-M models

These notes are for users that shut off the power to the radio when it is not being used.  If the 12V power is always on, there are no special requirements - just hit the radio button (for either OFF or ON) and forget it. Expect to wait several seconds until the panel indicates on if starting up.

Startup  -- apply power, wait a few seconds then press the power control button as noted below. 

Shutdown - press the button and wait till it finishes before shutting off the power supply as noted below.

The Correct Power Up and Power Down Sequence for "M" Model Radios

When powering down an M model radio, do the following:

• Power down by pressing and releasing the radio's power button once.
• Wait for the radio to fully power down.  Once the screen goes blank, the power button will stop flashing green and you will hear the last relay click.
• Wait about 45 seconds for the remaining internal processors to shut down, then turn off the power supply (if this is something you normally do - it is not, however, necessary.  Leaving the power supply on will speed up the boot-up time).

When powering up an M model radio, do the following:

• If the DC power supply is off, turn on the 13.8 VDC power supply to the M model radio, otherwise, skip to the 4th bullet to start the boot-up process.
• Wait for 2 minutes (120 seconds) before powering on the radio to provide time for the front panel to initialize
• Press and release the power button once to start the radio boot-up process.
• Wait for the radio to boot up completely (do not press the radio's power button again).  The power button will flash green before turning solid green (unless there is a GPSDO installed where the LED may be amber or blue (solid or flashing).  The power button should not show a different color than green, amber, or blue.

More here:  M model Power up / down article on the help desk

          ****    Error Codes  ****

Resolving the "single red blink" Fan Error on Start Up

The FLEX-6000 has the ability to detect a variety of faults that could potentially harm the radio and one of these is detecting if the cooling fan is working properly.  When booting up your radio, if the cooling fan is not spinning fast enough to provide adequate airflow to cool the PA, CPU, FPGA, and SCU(s), the PSoC will report the error which results in the radio firmware shutting down and the power button blinking red once and then repeating.

This fault can be a problem with the fan itself or the fan controller.  However, there is a particular condition that may result in a false positive error indication.

If the radio experiences a momentary loss of DC power for less than 30 seconds and then power is reapplied to the radio, this results in a partial reset of the radio's internal processors leading to a condition where the fan controller is not providing adequate voltage to the fan.

If you experience a fan error on startup, the first thing you want to do is a "cold boot" of the radio to reset all of the radio's processors.

The following procedure will "cold boot" the radio:

NOTE: If you have a cable connected to the REM ON connector, please remove it before running the reset procedure.  Reconnect it once the procedure has been completed.

• Power off the radio by pressing and releasing the power button. Allow it to completely power down before continuing by waiting for the power LED to turn off (or amber if a GPSDO is installed). If pressing and releasing the power button does not shut down the radio, press and hold the power button until the radio shuts down.
• Once the radio is powered off, wait for 2 minutes to allow for all processors to properly shut down.
• Remove the power cable from the radio for at least 30 seconds and then reconnect it.  It is important to remove the power cable from the radio and not just turn off the power supply. 
• After reconnecting the DC power cable, wait for 2 minutes to allow for the internal PSoC processor to boot up completely before continuing.
• Press the power button to restart the radio.

If you continue to receive a fan error after running the cold boot procedure, please open a HelpDesk support ticket so that one of our support engineers can triage the issue.