Langstone Update 28/05/20

Forum for discussion about the Langstone Microwave Transceiver that shares some features with the Portsdown. Wiki: https://wiki.microwavers.org.uk/Langstone_Project
g0mjw
Posts: 2330
Joined: Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:15 am

Re: Langstone Update 28/05/20

Post by g0mjw » Fri Jun 05, 2020 11:43 am

Sounds very much like a change in gnuradio - they are always tweaking and breaking and fixing. Stuff first gets deprecated and then stops working altogether. That's one of the reasons its very difficult for the non-experts to use Gnuradio in anger because code from a while back no longer works with the current releases. The solution is to stick with older long-term-support releases, though long term often means just a couple of years.

It's not just Raspian but Windows is continually evolving and breaking things. We could all go back to DOS I suppose.

Mike

CU2ED
Posts: 23
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2019 11:30 am

Re: Langstone Update 28/05/20

Post by CU2ED » Fri Jun 05, 2020 12:03 pm

Hello all,

Just to comment that I also have the same problem and I didn't force any OS update unless raspbian makes auto-update on the background ?!

This append to me yesterday, I started Langstone, it worked 5 seconds with waterfall and then it stopped, with debug I have the same message
that Martin reported on the forum.


I did have a Langstone backup (hold version, waterfall still no color) and it's working 100% ...

Also, I'm just using Langstone, no other software installed like Porstdown (for the moment)


Jacinto
cu2ed

g4eml
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Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2018 9:36 am

Re: Langstone Update 28/05/20

Post by g4eml » Fri Jun 05, 2020 12:32 pm

Neither Dave or I are doing deliberate updates and we didn’t think that raspbian did automatic updates but it certainly looks like that might be happening.

Colin.

g4eml
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Re: Langstone Update 28/05/20

Post by g4eml » Fri Jun 05, 2020 2:32 pm

Fixed it...
It was not in fact an unexpected update but a bug in my code that controls the iteration rate of the GUI.
I am using the Linux time function which returns the number of seconds since Jan 01 1970.
This is a big number and at some point in the last few days it got big enough to cause an error in my code.
So everyone's Langstone would have stopped working at the same time!.

Having spent hours at work in 1999 preparing for the Y2K bug I should have spotted this one!.

If you do a Langstone update, either directly or via the Portsdown Menu it should start working again.

73
Colin G4EML

g0mjw
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Joined: Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:15 am

Re: Langstone Update 28/05/20

Post by g0mjw » Fri Jun 05, 2020 3:12 pm

Oh no... there have been nearly 1.6bn seconds since then, but the largest 32 bit signed int is 2,147,483,647, co-incidentally a phone number in Dallas that's going to get a lot of calls on 19th January 2038. It shouldn't have overflowed unless you doubled it in a calculation of something. though I have heard of problems manipulating time variables with Python.

My own langstone has locked up - but I think that's related to my connecting it to the internet. It wasn't connected initially. I connected it for a while to check for updates, after that it doesn't work. I wonder if it did an NTP access?

oe6rke
Posts: 14
Joined: Wed Apr 03, 2013 3:16 pm

Re: Langstone Update 28/05/20

Post by oe6rke » Fri Jun 05, 2020 3:14 pm

many thanks for the quick fix, working perfectly again.
Right away for the big contest this Weekend :)

thank you again, br Robert 73 de oe6rke

g4eml
Posts: 674
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2018 9:36 am

Re: Langstone Update 28/05/20

Post by g4eml » Fri Jun 05, 2020 3:24 pm

I actually multiply it by 1000 to get a value in milliseconds!! That's where it was going wrong!

I am actually surprised it worked when I first wrote it. But maybe the result came out wrong but still positive, which would have worked OK.

I think the Pi does do an NTP update so that might be why your's stopped working.

G4FKK
Posts: 135
Joined: Sun May 05, 2019 12:15 pm

Re: Langstone Update 28/05/20

Post by G4FKK » Fri Jun 05, 2020 3:29 pm

Thanks Colin - we're back in business :)

73, Martin - G4FKK

radiogareth
Posts: 1215
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2016 9:46 am

Re: Langstone Update 28/05/20

Post by radiogareth » Fri Jun 05, 2020 3:45 pm

Me too, switched it on earlier and it froze as described. A quick SSH and its back up and listening to GB3VHF :-)
Thanks
Gareth

g0mjw
Posts: 2330
Joined: Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:15 am

Re: Langstone Update 28/05/20

Post by g0mjw » Fri Jun 05, 2020 3:47 pm

g4eml wrote:
Fri Jun 05, 2020 3:24 pm
I actually multiply it by 1000 to get a value in milliseconds!! That's where it was going wrong!

I am actually surprised it worked when I first wrote it. But maybe the result came out wrong but still positive, which would have worked OK.

I think the Pi does do an NTP update so that might be why your's stopped working.
I did some research and discovered it does NTP but when it has nothing it uses a value stored in a file at shutdown. In my case that would have been many days out as it's not been connected to the internet and off most of the time. When it NTPd it must have got the current time and promptly broke.

Mike

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