2012-08-30
Kinetic Avionics Limited is delighted to announce the release of beta firmware and a Basestation release to provide 6 receiver channels on the SBS-3.
The release is available now from the Downloads area of our site.
Is this Basestation only for SBS3 units ?
Charlie
I think you'll find this is only for SBS-3 receivers.
This version is only for the SBS-3 but will work on all models
Regards
Thanks for that Mike and Chris.
Regards,
Charlie
Quote from: Kinetic Chris on August 30, 2012, 10:24:35 PM
This version is only for the SBS-3 but will work on all models
I think this needs clarifying a bit.
The
firmware upgrade is only for the SBS-3.
The new version of
Basestation will work with all SBS-1/3 family of receivers but the 6 channels only apply if you're using an SBS-3.
If this is incorrect, perhaps Chris can confirm otherwise?
To clarify it is Beta & here are the release notes it is for SBS-3 users
Basestation will as long as possible be backwards compatible and this version is
Any doubts on how to update firmware and software see the Kinetic YouTube channel
BaseStation v173 new features 1. Number of SDR Channels for the SBS-3 Increased to 6
Two additional SDR channels have been added to the SBS-3 Internal Radio Control Panel. These operate in the same way as the existing four channels. A firmware update to the SBS-3 (version 116 or later) is required to use the additional two channels. Note - after this update, to receive AIS messages, 161.975 MHz should be programmed into SDR 6 (not SDR 4).
2. Audio Mixer Panel
The Audio Mixer panel for the SBS-3 internal radio is now a separate window.
It is launched from the Internal Radio menu, or by pressing CTRL-ALT-M.
SBS-3 Firmware L_0201_0000_0116_R_SBS3.kff 3. Additional SDR Channels
This version of the firmware implements six SDR channels. To receive AIS messages with this firmware, SDR channel 6 should be used.
-- Ends --
What this means in a nutshell is the following
If you have your SDR tuner set for AIS you can still listen to 5 channels on the other SDR receiver
If you are aviation only you can monitor and decode up to 6 acars channels or in the UK we have 4 ACARS channels so receive and decode ACARS on one receiver while you listen to Airband on another.
The usefulness of this receiver is coming into its own as people realise its full potential.
For Radio Hams how about listening to 6 70cm repeaters all at the same time or 4 2m and 2 70cm.Maybe 6m & 4m and so it goes.
For Marine enthusiasts imagine listening to AIS and all the MArine chatter all at once in one box.
What ever your interest enjoy
Screen shot of new radio.
Later
Would be nice if they add another network address option where we could use our old sbs-1er and the sbs-3 on the same basestation at the same time.
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Quote from: MIXISM on August 31, 2012, 02:10:54 PM
Would be nice if they add another network address option where we could use our old sbs-1er and the sbs-3 on the same basestation at the same time.
I use both the SBS-1eR and SBS-3 at the same time. Just change the IP address of one of the receivers and run two Basestation sessions.
It would be nice to have both receiver reporting to one basestation data base. ;D
Later
Quote from: MIXISM on August 31, 2012, 04:07:05 PM
It would be nice to have both receiver reporting to one basestation data base.
You can do that by sharing your data using the MMS option, described in my Guide Networking the SBS-1 (http://radarspotting.com/forum/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=item16).
Yes, that was great years ago. ??? , Would be nice not to get the database error poping up all the time.
Later
I never had a database error when I used that sharing option.
Where are the receivers? In different locations?
Ever since I installed the new firmware and exe.file for the SBS-3, I have had a marked reduction in AIS decodes.
I'm using SDR 6, set to 161.975 FM, no squelch, tuner B and fed into PP by Ethernet. Nothing has changed with the connections or PP and it worked fine originally on SDR4.
The interesting thing is that you can cursor onto SDR1, a mouse click will select it and bring the numbers on that display to bright. Equally SDR 2 - 4 are similar. However cursor on SDR 5 or 6 and SDR1 lights up!
Now does this mean that my firmware upgrade did not complete, or is it a general glitch? I don't think that it makes much difference unless this oddity is only present here, in which case I will have to run the firmware upgrade again. There is a bit of a lift on here and this is reflected in my local traffic in ShipTrax coming up at 45 targets and increasing, the SBS-3 has only 7 vessels. Previously they were more or less equal. Signals are showing on the strength bars of all 6 SDR's.
Peter
Being away from home I've not been able to install or test the latest firmware/Basestation. And being too far inland, AIS messages are a no go feature for me.
Perhaps others or Chris can help?
Hi Peter
QuoteThe interesting thing is that you can cursor onto SDR1, a mouse click will select it and bring the numbers on that display to bright. Equally SDR 2 - 4 are similar. However cursor on SDR 5 or 6 and SDR1 lights up!
I get the same here and have emailed Kinetic support and reported it as a bug in this latest Beta firmware/software.
Sorry - don't know if this bug would affect AIS reception.
Regards
Stuart
Thanks Stuart, it seemed a bit odd to me which is why I mentioned it. I've played with the audio mixer etc, but as I'm coupled with Ethernet, I don't believe that figures in the equation either. I had planned to write the firmware in again, but as you, and possibly others have this oddity, I'll hang on!
Thanks also to Anmer for taking the trouble to reply from his holiday location, hopefully Chris will latch on to this and deliver a verdict so that we can eliminate this glitch and try a different tack.
Cheers
Peter
I've done some interesting tests over the last hour. Maybe not completely scientific, but enough for food for thought!
Both Shiptrax and SBS-3 share the same AIS aerial through a high quality splitter and have worked like this perfectly OK for nearly 9 months. Because I run on Ethernet for both, I can easily swop over from receiver - receiver into SP and previously there was little to choose between them in my location plotting just my own reception areas.
The Shiptrax runs dual channel, I'm not sure about the SBS-3, but maybe it did when on SDR4 as performances were similar. Tonight, the range of signals plotted by the Shiptrax showed reception of about 60 miles over a period of 5 minutes. The SBS-3 plotted more or less the same vessels, but took 15 minutes to achieve the same total. Is this because it now decodes on a single frequency, or what is different running on SDR6? I have tried to run on SDR4 and got nothing, which of course is correct. I have swopped the leads around on the splitter, but the Shiptrax outperformed the SBS-3 in terms of speed exactly as previous.
The only difference apart from the IP addresses is that the Shiptrax runs on port 10110, but the SBS-3 runs on 30007. As it used to be fine, this cannot be anything to do with the sudden change.
Peter
We are working on it and Peter you need to use channel 6 for AIS and yes it receives two channels simultaneously
Regards
Hi Chris
Would that slow the decoding / plotting rate down a bit because that's how I first twigged something was not as it was last week?
Peter
No reason it should
Email me your issues Peter and I will try to replicate and fix it
Regards
Will do tomorrow. Getting 90 miles range on ShipTrax tonight so nothing amiss on aerial.
Peter
I have to admit being baffled by this one. The firmware was definitely build 116 and software exe file v173 according to "About BaseStation". I've had every lead out to check, swopped over connections on the CAS-900 splitter, swopped over ethernet leads, but no progress whatsoever.
There was only one thing left to try, re-flash the firmware! Nothing looked any different to last time on the screen during upload, it just stopped on completion and the screen disappeared exactly as before.
The big difference is it now works! It is now ratcheting up decodes at a similar rate to feeding PP from my Shiptrax receiver so whatever went adrift was presumably during the firmware upgrade. We still have the glitch with SDR's 5 & 6 as previously described, but these are merely cosmetic and I'm sure have no effect on the actual workings of the unit.
Thanks to all who came back
Peter
Peter
Did you re-flash firmware 116?
Yes. It definitely showed firmware 116 before I started, and 116 after I'd finished, the only difference being that it worked at full speed now!
An interesting point is that I had computer problems with IE9 last week after I'd extracted a virus protector which was proving to be a pain. So the first firmware install was working within the partially broken IE9 which would not allow flows of information to say "on line banking" , social networking etc, but it did allow access to the Kinetic site to download and upload the new firmware / software versions.
IE9 could not be repaired, we are guessing an essential dll was taken out by the Kaspersky uninstall programme, so I got over that by installing Firefox. When I went to download the firmware upgrade today, Firefox offered to upload it, i.e. no messing about trying to find the firmware upload programme, it just got on with it, and it worked.
Makes you wonder if something essential was not loaded on the first attempt, but you would have thought that it wouldn't work at all if it was corrupted. Anyway, it's happy now until the next upgrade comes along!
Thanks
Peter
Peter a new software update will be better for you if you are using all 6 channels
Regards
Hi Chris
I'm using 4 x European ACARS + 1 x AIS and they all appear to be happy. I did put the new exe. file in previously with the 1st firmware upload, do you mean a full reload of BaseStation?
Tnx
Peter
I think Chris means replace the Basestation.exe with the new beta version 174.
http://radarspotting.com/forum/index.php/topic,1443.msg6459.html#msg6459
Thanks. Pat has just given me a heads up on this one as well. I'll try it out very shortly!
Thanks again
Peter
Hi
I have updated my sbs3 box with 116 firmware and the 174.exe for basestation,
i have found that AIS is running slow to what it use to,i have 161.000 set up in tuner B as middle freq and
161.975 FM set up in SDR6.
I tryed AIS on 10 mins on SBS3 box and pick up 8 ships ,i then put on AIS Engine with same arieal and
pick up nearly 20 ships in 10 mins.
I have reflashed the firmware too.
Brian