My remote setup is a Beelink Mini PC (Ryzen 7 5600U) to serve an IC-7300. Installed the Icom USB driver first. Installed WFview. Plugged in USB from radio and fired up WFview. In the server settings I see two identical USB audio devices listed to choose from even though Windows only shows one device. When trying to work remote, the client computer receives just fine but as soon as I TX, it locks up the server PC and throws an error that it cannot open the COM port. COM port is correct and verified via device manager. I have tried using both audio devices but it always throws an error on TX no matter which I choose from the list on the server setting page.
Anyone else had this happen and how did you resolve it?
Make sure the coax is not run with the USB cord. Add cheap ferrite snap-on beads at each end of the USB cord. Can’t hurt any.
As for the multiple devices, try switching to RT Audio or Port Audio to see if the device list clears up. You may also see some relevant info in the log file.
Thanks for the suggestions. I had another mini PC and a laptop laying around so I tried both of those and I have no issues at all. They both RX and TX perfectly fine. They are both Intel devices and the one I am having trouble with is AMD based. Not sure if that has any real relevance to the situation. I’m going to fresh install Windows on the AMD machine tomorrow and see if maybe it’s a USB driver issue with the chipset or something along those lines. I will also add some ferrite snap on beads. I tried RT Audio but never could get it work right. Maybe I’ll have another go tomorrow with that as well.
Most of those mini-PC devices are built to a price-point, and are just boards in a plastic box… There will be no serious attempt to RF shield them. You can get adhesive metallic tape, then line, or wrap the case: ALUMINIUM FOIL TAPE SELF ADHESIVE HEAT INSULATION 50MM 74MM 98MM | eBay to try help matters.
Any leads should also be looped thru’ snap-on ferrites as close to the USB & Power sockets as You can get.
In addition, USB leads should be shielded, or wrapped in the same adhesive metallic tape, or tinfoil at a push. Even in setups with proper metal computer cases and best practice, the USB lead will cause crashes, freezes and ports failing from RFi when You TX… It’s common.
So something interesting happened today. Using one of the mini PCs that worked properly, I tried switching to RT audio. I could not get it to work. So I switched back to Port audio and all of the extra devices began showing in the list on that PC too. And sure enough when I tried to TX, it locked up again after about 2 seconds of TX. Still working on the other suggestions.
Problem resolved. It was a bad USB cable. It was the only shielded USB cable I had so I ordered another of the exact same Tripp Lite shielded cable and it arrived today. Fired it all up and everything is working well again.
In the future, when you have RF Interference like this, try wrapping the USB and DC Power cord in a toroid ferrite core. Such as the link below. About 4 to 6 turns should be enough to stop most RFI/EMI Issues. You can use on the Ethernet cable and your Coax cables too.
By the way they make smaller and larger cores. The FT-XXX number means the ‘XXX’ is the diameter in inches. The second number after dash is the material designator ( we call it the “mix” ) which is just what iron and cobalt compounds are in the ferrite
With that said, I too have encountered unshielded usb cables, and it’s just not worth the trouble. Start with a shielded usb cable and see how it does.
I use ferrites on my shack computer, but it is only an issue when I’m running my Henry 2k4.