DATV-Easy

[G4ZCN]

I have also been doing further tests with similar results to yours, see below. The difference being that I still don't have a picture on either of my batc receivers and no rf detected in bandviewer!

pLUTO STATS.jpg (101.61 KiB) Viewed 227 times

DATV EASY 0303.jpg (108.86 KiB) Viewed 227 times

[g0mjw]

Well that is clearly working. I assume the PTT is enacted ? (Quite important) You can check on the pluto web page. You can also check the power slider, frequency etc.

At this point I would check for broken SMA leads or reverse-polarised SMA leads.

Mike

[G4ZCN]

switched off for a cuppa earlier, what can I say, neither SDR Console or DATVEASY are now working on tx.

Think I'll just go switch on the HF black box, it's a lot less stressful

Mike, Thank you for all of your input to get this dinosaur back on DATV / QO100...to answer your questions, all sma's etc are good and all relevant buttons were activated.

[g0mjw]

Strange. SDRConsole requires the pluto to be in passthrough mode. It may be in DATV mode. Set it to passthrough, apply, then save settings to flash so it boots up in that mode.

Can you say exactly how you know it are not working in TX mode? As you may know, the Pluto is full duplex, so there isn't any change apart from RF coming out of the TX port and, if you have fitted one, the PTT relay operating. I think it is working fine but you have less RF output than you expect. However you should still be able to detect it with a spectrum analyser or SDR.

Also, which version of the Pluto is this? If it is a model A/B all OK, if C/D I recall it may need a firmware patch with 0303.

Finally, have you come across satagen? https://www.albfer.com/en/ download at https://www.albfer.com/en/satsagen-download-page/ - this turns the Pluto into some pretty capable test gear and a good way to figure out if it is working or not. If that doesn't work, perhaps there is something wrong with the Pluto or its power supply.

Mike

Edit - here is Satsagan acting as a spectrum analyser on my QO100 IF

Screenshot 2025-10-04 100757.png (329.8 KiB) Viewed 90 times

[G4ZCN]

Hi Mike,
many thanks for all of the info and your assistance.

I have now added the latest version of SDR Console to my old Win 7 laptop and strangely enough the Pluto Tx's & Rx's without issue on that ancient laptop...but still nothing seems to be working on the recent Nvidia powered laptop.

There must be some conflicting issues since updating the newer Nvidia laptop including Nvidia drivers, updating DATV-Easy, updating OBS to latest version etc plus adding the VB virtual cable etc.

But where to look is beyond my pay grade

[g0mjw]

Could it be a firewall issue? Have you installed anything like that?

[G4ZCN]

Errmmm...nope.

I think VB virtual cable has confused / conflicted things as my headphones no longer work in that laptop, though they did yesterday afternoon but not now.

The headphones work fine on the WIN 7 laptop and the Mac desktop, so they are not at fault??

[G4ZCN]

Whatever the issue is it must have caused conflict after the laptop was shutdown then restarted after lunch yesterday.

[g0mjw]

Errmmm...nope.

I think VB virtual cable has confused / conflicted things as my headphones no longer work in that laptop, though they did yesterday afternoon but not now.

The headphones work fine on the WIN 7 laptop and the Mac desktop, so they are not at fault??

You will probably need to change the default audio device back to the headphones. Whenever you install a new sound device in windows, windows unhelpfully think you want to use it as default. This is a thinking failure in the development teams and why you will hear people complaining about their sound settings changing every time windows updates itself.