FLEX-6700 "Error PSL1VOC-0.92 Powering Down" Displayed On the front panel and the Radio and PC Hang

Reg

I installed SmartSDR version 0.16.4 immediately after it was released. Since installing 0.16.4, and upgrading the radio firmware, my radio has been completely unstable. At intervals ranging from a few minutes to as much as almost 2 hour the FLEX-6700 will hang with the following message: "Error PSL1VOC-0.92 Powering Down" and the SmartSDR software ceases all activity and does not respond to any clicks except exit. On one occasion I only had to reboot the radio and PC 2 times. On another occasion it took 3 reboots. On all other occasions it took 4 reboots of the radio and the PC. After the failed reboots when I click on the SmartSDR icon I get a "(Not Responding)" message from the Radio Setup box wherein we select the radio to use. After "enough" reboots everything works normally, for a matter of minutes. I have completely uninstalled all software and reinstalled 0.16.4 a total of 5 times. The behavior is the same. After having the radio crash in the middle of multiple QSO's I have stopped using the radio on the air. It takes 15-20 minutes to get successful reboots of the radio and PC and the other ham is left wondering where I went. Yesterday Gerald told us that, "All bugs have been fixed. We have hundreds of customers waiting for v.1.0 and it would not be fair to make them wait any longer." Therefore, I was just going to wait for next weeks bug-free release of v1.0. I realized that I need to report the "Error PSL1VOC-0.92" problem in order to verify that it has been fixed. FRS: What does the error code mean and has the issue been resolved in the upcoming release? Thanks, Reg, KD5RB

Thom Baxter

You are not alone, but after being criticized for reporting issues, they will not hear a peep out of me again. If you ask the public for errors, be nice about your responses even if you have seen the question before or if you have already redesigned it. How do we know that? Not every ham has time to read every error. Good luck! This radio is not production quality and the users should be given the choice to choose with full disclosure as to what is wrong before purchase. That being said, I like the radio, but it must be rock solid to purchase a real version.

Eric-KE5DTO

I looked back through your posts and couldn't find anything that looked like you were being criticized. Could you shoot me an email with a link to that? You can send it to eric AT flex DASH radio DOT com. Thanks.

Dudley-WA5QPZ

As of yet I would not catalog it as a bug, you might have a HW malfunction or ever miss loaded firmware . But this really should go to the Help Desk to be fully worked. First suggestion is to go back to 0.15.13. To see if the error still occurs there, So far I am unable to replicate the issue here . We'll get it going again if at all possible.

Gerald-K5SDR

Reg, I am very sorry you are having the problem. That does not look like a software problem so we may want to open up a help desk ticket in Zendesk. The message says that your 1V power supply is running low at 0.92V. When the voltage goes below 0.92V, the supervisory processor will shut down the CPU and reports that error. It is unlikely that software would cause that kind of problem. However, I would recommend that you try v1.0 on Monday. If that does not resolve the problem, please open a help desk ticket. You can click in the Zendesk link on the right hand column of Community home page. I promise we will help you get it resolved.

Reggie-k6xr

I also experienced this same error message. I was about to call a station and touched my key and the radio went into a tail spin! got the error message and red led on front panel. turned radio off and re-booted and it came back ok.

dj4zn

Have tried v.0.13.10 and v.0.16.4 and changed to other power supply, without avail. It takes from 2 - 10 minutes before the radio shuts off. What can I do? 73, Jost.

Thom Baxter

So far this reboot has only happened to me twice. Just curious, does it happen when your transmitting or in receive. With me, it has happened both times while I was transmitting and I had both panadapters open. I have not had the issue with just one going. 73 de wi4usa Thom

Thom Baxter

Hi Eric, Thanks for the nice email back addressing my concerns. I understand that you all under a lot of stress to get the radio out on time. Please keep in mind, some of us have come into this late in the game and not aware of every decision that has been made on the design. I know that there are a lot of people waiting on the radio, and your company can't afford to lose those orders. I get that, please give everyone full disclosure of known bugs before sending out the unit. This is such a great radio, that I don't want the reputation ruined by people thinking it was delivered with issues and were not told. Ideally, if you could release the 1.0 to your beta group first, we could help protect that image in case there is anything your testers did not find. I do understand now, after your explanation, that the current design employs the use of only one active antenna per spectral unit. This is why it was confusing when the product has the antenna control at the receiver slice level. If you are not going to be able to separate at the slice or pan-adapter level, then those controls should not be there for selection purposes. If they are going to stay there, then it should update the other slices to display the same on each and keep them in sync. You mentioned you were are already redesigning in the antenna switching, I am going to assume you have already considered that already. When your company gets to the point to form a customer advisory board, I would love to be on it. This has greatly helped other software vendors in the past. Being a software development manager myself, I would really like to help with the usability of the product. Keep the updates coming. I'm fired up. Sincerely, Thom Baxter WI4USA

Reggie-k6xr

Happened to me while transmitting.

Thom Baxter

I sure hope this is an issue with the software and not a issue with the radio. Does anyone know if there is a way to turn on logging so that if it this does go out again, I can send the log to Flex to give them more information on the status of the radio at the time? Is this a feature available to help troubleshooting yet?

Gerald-K5SDR

If it takes longer than 30 seconds to shut down, just hit the power button again and it will shut down instantly.

Gerald-K5SDR

Thom, if you continue to have the problem please enter a help desk ticket so support can help you resolve the problem.

Ernest

Have you disconnected the DC supply to reset the radio ? This means turning the radio off and removing the power cable from the radio. I learned that if you turn off the radio; a mere touch on the switch does not do it. I hold it down for several seconds and the radio turn it self off automatically. Now if you press the power switch and turn the DC voltage off. The radio will shut off and it lets you know by displaying an error message. Apparently, it must go off by itself otherwise, you get errors as described in this forum. I had to ask questions in the beginning. However, I knew that I agree to receive my Flex 6700 with BETA software. I think you did likewise? I have no beef with the Company for my failures to read the instructions and to follow their recommendations.

Al_NN4ZZ

My 6700 was occasionally crashing under apparently similar conditions. In my case it appears to be RFI related. Tag me off line if you would like a link to the details, there is too much to re-post here. al@nn4zz.com Regards, Al / NN4ZZ

Tim - W4TME

I have converted this issue to a HelpDesk ticket.