- COMTEK is a leading developer and manufacturer of specialty wireless communications equipment. We continue to offer new and innovative solutions for remote program monitoring, IFB, discreet cueing, wireless tour guide systems, language interpretation systems, and both large area and personal assistive listening systems (ALD’s).
- Find CMTECH software downloads at CNET Download.com, the most comprehensive source for safe, trusted, and spyware-free downloads on the Web.
Update Your Audio Drivers. If there is an issue with your audio drivers, this could result in your microphone not working as well as other sound components connected to your system. Outdated or corrupted device drivers are the cause of a great many device errors. Amplifier Modules. Comtech PST designs RF Amplifier modules as the building block for our amplifier systems. These modules are available from 1MHz to 18GHz and 20W to multi-kilowatts output power levels.
I bought this little 1gig MP3 player almost 10 years ago and apart from the ear-phones that came with it, (which were absolute crap!) it gets five-of-five stars from me. The quoted 50-hour playback time is a joke by the way - with a 2800mAh rechargeable AA battery and at moderate volume, you are lucky to get 30 hours, never mind 50. With the radio going, you would be even luckier to get 8-10 hours. Much less when recording from the radio.Before anyone thinks that alkaline batteries would fare better, question - off the top of your head, what is the capacity of say, a Duracell Alkaline AA cell? Most of us have been brainwashed into believing that Alkaline batteries are heavy-duty, longer-lasting etc. Yet not one Alkaline battery maker states the battery capacity on the cell itself - why do you think that is? The reason is that Alkaline battery performance is heavily dependent on the load that they are powering. In fact for heavy load applications, alkaline's seriously under-perform almost any rechargeable-type, even old Nickel-cadmium batteries. They perform much better when powering loads in the 10's of milliamps, a AA delivering around a 4500mAh performance - so not any better than the best NiMH's. Yet all the hype (especially around Christmas) would tend to suggest otherwise! But I digress. [Edit: (2.5 years on) Dunno what I was thinking when I wrote this - I had NiMH batteries down as 4800mAh capacity, instead of 2800mAh. If a new Alkaline can deliver 4500mAh, then in theory, it should last almost twice as long as a high-capacity 2800mAh NiMH battery! Sigh.]
Cmtech Microphone Driver
One thing that has been bugging me for years with this MP3 player was the way it would power off unexpectedly when it received a jolt. Recently it had got so bad that I resolved to get to the root of the problem. But opening it proved a bit of a nightmare. Its innards are after-all enclosed in an aluminum tube and I could see no way of removing either of the plastic ends, so in frustration, levered off one, breaking stuff in the process. It turns out that there are 2 tiny screws holding on one of the ends, which are accessible and visible (barely!) when the battery is removed, and with the right screw-driver.
Fixing the powering-off proved simple, just cleaning & re-tensioning a type of leaf-spring contact that it uses. Putting it back together, after having first used Araldite to repair the opening-damage, proved easy enough, but only to discover that one of the buttons no longer worked. Opened again, the reason was obvious - the 'switches' form part of the plastic enclosure case and one of them had cracked off, quickly followed by another as I inspected things. Not new damage as it turned out, both were the 2 most-used switches and their repeated-flexing was the killer, so the others will almost certainly succumb similarly given time and usage. Using more Araldite I managed to at least get them working again but something like Evostik would have been a much more sensible way to go, if I had had any.
Back together again, I next noticed that recording from the built-in 'Mic' no longer worked, it defaulting to the 'line-in' connector instead. Recording from the radio worked fine. Opened it again, but nothing obvious was amiss. In retrospect, I now think that this may have stopped working a long time ago, as it's something I never check, let alone use. But then I wondered if it might be a software problem.
The company (CMtech) itself seems to have gone out of business, with its web-site having vanished. I had bookmarked its software download page, which for posterity may be seen here via the Wayback web-archive, although its software download links are no longer working. Anyway, I still have the software for my device, so updated its firmware, but all for naught. It was while doing this I managed to effectively kill the device completely, with it no longer even being detected by the computer. This was a first, it looked real bad...
Then when I had all but given up hope I accidentally discovered a way of reviving it! Hold the power-button down while you plug it into the computers USB port. Doing this causes the computer to detect a never-before-seen 'Sigmatel' device, which XP then diagnoses as being a 'Player Recovery' device, and succeeds in installing a driver for it. The 'Sigmatel' device then vanishes to be replaced with the MP3 Player device I.D again. Hurray!!!
Since the software is no longer available online, I've uploaded the firmware for my device (CA-F200) which may be downloaded from the below links. There are two applications, the big one installs on the computer and allows customisation of the device from the computer, as well as flashing of the 'old' firmware version. The other was the latest firmware, whose major enhancement was the ability of recording from the radio as an MP3 file.
CA-F200 Firmware
Edit:
The less-than-stellar performance of the Ruizo X06 prompted me to do some battery-endurance tests on the CMTech by way of comparison. I was particularly interested in the radio-side, both while being listen-to and being recorded-from, something I'd never done properly before.
As the power source, I was using Eneloop (2nd gen) 1900mAh AA batteries. These beauties deserve an article in themselves - they are superb batteries! I bought a set of 4 about 5 years ago, along with a set of 4 Varta Power Accu 2800mAh rechargeables. Back then, using an AcuPower IQ-328 charger, I tested both, and was amazed at the stable, reproducable results I got from the Eneloop batteries. Naturally, they all performed to spec, each coming in close, but always greater than the stated '1900mAh minimum'. The Varta's also performed close to spec, but from the get-go, their results always varied by a wide margin with the above charger. Sometimes they would only take a fraction of their expected charge, before indicating 'Full' on the charger, other times they'd take far more than their capacity, but when tested immediately, the results would vary a lot, and usually to the down-side. Today, after having undergone maybe 50 charge-cycles, and certainly less than 100, the Varta's are already toast, all delivering capacities between 500 - 1000mAh. The Eneloop batteries on the other hand, with at least the same number of charge-cycles, are still coming in at spec - like I said, really excellent batteries!
But I digress. I did three separate runs with the CMTech CA-F200, volume-level set at 12 (of 30). It ran for the following times before powering-off;
Playback only: 32 hours.
Cm Tech Driver
Radio only: 21 hours.Radio being recorded @ mp3 64kbs: 8 hours.
The radio-only time especially surprised me. This comes in at twice the stated radio-time of the Ruizu X06 (or the AGPtek A06 rather - Ruizu's quoted-times are a joke!) which is a proper stereo-signal, and not the pissy mono-signal delivered by the Ruizu! Hell, the radio-record figure of the CMTech is almost as good as the Ruizu's radio-only time. It would be too depressing to go testing the Ruizu's radio-record time. The CMTech's playback-only time of 32 hours is also very impressive. Considering that this is from batteries with a known, measured capacity of 1900mAh, it now seems quite feasable that this little player could indeed achieve a figure close to the 50 hours-playback claimed by the manufacturer - a figure I ridiculed above! Truth is, I have never tested this with alkaline batteries, whose capacities are supposed to be significantly higher than the 1900mAh that the Eneloop's deliver. But, never say never - I might do it yet!
If nothing else, this testing has re-affirmed to me what a great little player the CMTech CA-F200 really is. When compared to the Ruizu X06, its firmware is better in nearly every respect. The one thing missing from it is a 'Bookmark' option, something the Ruizu has, although it's a poor imitation of what a proper bookmarking option ought to be. It's a shame the company behind the CMTech went bust. Sob.
If you get no response when you speak into your microphone:
- Check that Dragon's microphone is on (as opposed to off or asleep). See the section below.
- If you are using an external microphone, check that your microphone is properly plugged into your computer.
If you are using a laptop with a docking station, try connecting your microphone to the laptop instead of the docking station, or vice versa.
If you are using a USB microphone, connect it directly to the computer's USB port and not a USB extension or hub.
- Run Dragon's sound system check: say 'Check Audio' (or 'Switch to DragonBar', then 'Settings', then 'Microphone', then 'Check Microphone'). If your audio signal level is low, more memory is used to recognize your speech and Dragon will run more slowly.
- Make sure the window in which you want to dictate is active. The active window can change when you use another application or save your profile. A window or dialog box must be active for you to dictate into it.
- Make sure your microphone is turned on and not muted.
- Make sure you have the latest audio drivers for your device. Check your device manufacturer's Web site for updates.
Is your microphone on?
Dragon's microphone has to be on for you to dictate.
When the microphone is... | It looks like this... |
|---|---|
On Dragon's microphone has to be on for you to dictate. To turn the microphone on, do one of the following:
| |
Off To turn the microphone off, do one of the following:
| |
Asleep To put Dragon to sleep, do one of the following:
If Dragon is asleep, do one of the following to wake it up:
| |
Off—No user profile loaded If you see Dragon in this state, the microphone is disabled , either because no user profile is open or because you opened a transcription profile. To enable the microphone: Select Settings>Profile>Open User Profile and select your user profile. |
If Dragon doesn't always respond
- Make sure your device is right in front of you when you speak.
- Make sure it's reasonably quiet where you are, and that Dragon isn't hearing background voices, music players or TVs. Less background noise is better.
- If Dragon misunderstood something you said or did not respond, try repeating what you said. Speak clearly at the type of volume level you would in a typical conversation.
If you are experiencing 'clipping'
Clipping occurs when you dictate and Dragon's volume meter rises into the red dot range. This can occur when the Automatically adjust the microphone level as I speak option is disabled. To enable this setting:
Select Settings>Microphone>Choose Microphone.
The Choose a Microphone dialog box opens.
- Select the Automatically adjust the microphone level as I speak option.
- Click Finish.
Running the Windows Troubleshooting tool
Cmtech Driver
If your computer is having problems recording sound, try using the Recording Audio troubleshooter to fix the problem. It checks for common issues, such as making sure that both a working sound card and a recording device are installed on your computer.
Here's how to open the Windows Troubleshooting tool:
Windows 7
- Press the Windows key and select Control Panel.
- Click Troubleshooting.
- Under Hardware and Sound, select Troubleshoot Audio Recording.
In the Recording Audio wizard, select Next and follow the prompts.
The troubleshooter can find and fix conflicts if any are found.
Windows 8.1/10
- Press the Windows key and select Control Panel.
Click Troubleshooting.
If you don't see Troubleshooting, type 'Troubleshooting' into the Search box in the upper left of the Control Panel.
- Under Hardware and Sound, select Troubleshoot Audio Recording.
- If you see the 'Which of these devices do you want to troubleshoot', select your microphone.
In the Recording Audio wizard, select Next and follow the prompts.
The troubleshooter can find and fix conflicts if any are found.
Checking your microphone setup
Here are the steps you'll need to follow to check and update your microphone setup:
- Windows 7: Press the Windows key and select Control Panel and click Sound.
Windows 8.1/10: Click Sound. If you don't see Sound, type 'Sound' into the Search box in the upper left of the Control Panel. In the Sound window, click the Recording tab.
A list of recording devices appears.
- Try speaking into your microphone, and see if there any green bars rising next to one of them while you talk.
- Check if you can recognize which one of the devices in the list is your microphone. If you found it, click it to highlight it, and then click Set Default.
- Check again if you see green bars rising when you talk into the microphone. If you do, your mic is now correctly setup. If not, continue to the next step.
Double-click on the device that represents your microphone.
The Microphone Properties window appears.
- Click the Levels tab.
In the levels tab, drag the slider to the right to increase the microphone level. Click OK and check again if you see green bars rising when you talk into the microphone: if you do, your mic is now properly configured.
If you still don't see any green bars, try repeating steps 3-7 for any other recording devices you may have.
- When you are done, click OK to close the sound window.
Cmteck Driver
4/25/20182:35 PM