Screen Lock Up

[G4uvz]

Starting the initial testing...I have the Pi, synth, LO filter and band switching all connected...and its looking good so far However after 8 -10 presses on the Pi screen ..changing frequencies, Tx on / off, the screen freezes and just shows the start up BATC logo and then requires a power recycle..anyone else have this problem ? I am using the lastest software downloaded last week?

Adrian

[G8GKQ]

Hi Adrian

I don't know of these exact symptoms occurring before. We had one instance of almost immediate lockup and that was caused by a faulty LCD display/touch module.

As a first step, I suggest that you directly connect your display to the RPi without the extender cable and see if that cures it.

The next step will be to start the touchscreen from an ssh session so that you can monitor what commands are being processed. Instructions to follow.

Note that there is a known bug where the RPi locks up after entering and exiting from the Signal Generator about 3 times. However, if you are not selecting the signal generator, the software should run continuously (for days) with no lock-ups.

Dave

[g3zgz]

For what it's worth, I have the same problem.

Random and can't force it.

I'll use putty to see if there is any pattern, but it's only once in a while.

Dave.

[G8GKQ]

Hi Adrian and Dave

Not sure that this is going to be easy to diagnose, but the best way to start is to see what the touchscreen is trying to do when it crashes out. Here is how to do this:

1. Log on to the console using Putty. The touchscreen will stop (BATC Logo) and the Console Menu will be displayed on the PC.

2. Select The Shutdown Menu, then select "Restore Touchscreen".

3. The touchscreen will restart and you will see some logging reported to the console.

4. Play with the touchscreen until it crashes, and then select the final 10 lines or so lines of logging displayed on the console using the mouse. Selecting the text puts it on the windows clipboard (without doing anything else), so you can then paste this text directly into a Forum Post here for analysis.

5. You should be able to restart the screen without rebooting by using the up arrow to go through the command history on the console until you find the line

Code: Select all

/home/pi/rpidatv/scripts/menu.sh menu

and then pressing enter. Then go to step 2 above.

Dave

[G8GKQ]

Thanks to Dave G3ZGZ for researching how to cause these lock-ups.

I think that there may be 2 (or perhaps 3) separate bugs here that Dave has identified. I hope to cure at least one of them in the next release, and may be able to lessen the frequency of the other 2 occurring.

Just to emphasise - I welcome bug reports as it helps me to make the Portsdown more reliable.

Dave, G8GKQ

[G8PEF]

Hi, chaps

I'm not sure whether there has been an update to the Portsdown s/w since the RSGB convention, but that's the version I'm running, and I experienced this lockup this morning on whichever version was on the cards you were selling on that w/e...

It's only happened once, so far, and I haven't had a chance to exercise it to failure and diagnose it yet, but I'll attempt to get some diagnostic info at weekend.

[g8gtz]

Yes, there's been several updates since October.

The update process is automatic - see https://wiki.batc.tv/Updating_your_Portsdown_Software for details.

73 Noel - G8GTZ

[G8GKQ]

Let's not get too excited about this screen lock-up. It does happen after 7-10 transmit/receive cycles if you are using an EasyCap, and can also happen if you "tickle" the touchscreen during transmit/receive switching.

I have identified the cause of the T/R switching lock up and it does not happen if you are using the Pi Camera or the test cards. So if you need to test your T/R switching, please use a test card or Pi Camera mode.

I am working on a major upgrade to the touchscreen functionality which will tidy the arrangement of menu items and hopefully be a lot easier to use. It will also eliminate the conditions that lead to these lock-ups, although being software I cannot guarantee that there will not be any further issues.

In the meantime, if you have long enough TV contacts to have 7 overs, please tell tell Dave G8ADM about it so that he can write about it in his activity column in CQ-TV!

Dave, G8GKQ

[G8PEF]

Let's not get too excited about this screen lock-up. ...

... I am working on a major upgrade to the touchscreen functionality which will tidy the arrangement of menu items and hopefully be a lot easier to use. It will also eliminate the conditions that lead to these lock-ups, although being software I cannot guarantee that there will not be any further issues....

Dave, G8GKQ

Thanks for all your work on this, Dave - it's much appreciated. I hope to be able to get on the air shortly after christmas, and look forward to the improvements that are already in the pipeline.

Yes, there's been several updates since October.

The update process is automatic - see https://wiki.batc.tv/Updating_your_Portsdown_Software for details.

73 Noel - G8GTZ

Thannks, Noel - I'll probably get up to speed over the christmas break. It's not an issue for me, the point of my post was really to highlight that whatever the problem was, it may have been lurking in the depths of the code for some time, rather than having been introduced by a recent change.

John PEF