Another one month to brew expectation for v1.4

Takeshi Yamada

According to the today's Insider, we can enjoy another one month to dream new features and bug fixes of v1.4.
I hope we would not have another Insider telling the delay in January.

73 de JI1BNU

James Kirk

I am refactoring my expectations.

George KF2T

I can only imagine that Flex knows I have a trip coming up in January. Guys, where am I going? :-)

KM6CQ - Dan

I am fine with January. I knew the 6500 was not a turn key radio when I purchased it. I received mine last December and Flex has done a great job getting it to where it is now. I have really enjoyed owning the 6500 this last year. I have no regrets. I think a lot of us always like to have something beta, sometimes its frustrating, the flip side is that it is so much fun. Once SSDR is mature we wont have the Christmas morning experience as frequently. Remember last year when Flex gave us DAX for Christmas, oh man. If that does not get you hot and sweaty I don't know what will. Flex listens to our feedback. They converse with us here. Speaking with them on the phone is a good experience.
Overall I am satisfied with Flex, the 6500 and the 3000 

Happy Holidays to Flex and the Flexers. 

73,   Dan  KM6CQ

Ernest - W4EG

Florida! 

Hi ...LOL... 

Ned K1NJ

      The trick in today's world is to bring a product to maturity before it becomes obsolete.

Ned,  K1NJ

Tony Hateley

6 weeks by my calendar

np2g

Who knows ??? Possible with the additional time They  can get the Noise blanker Working !!!

Steve - M3SXA

More time for everyone to moan and groan.... ;-)
Make it the 27th Jan My Birthday!
Happy Holidays to all....

73 Steve

Gerald-K5SDR

The current noise blanker does work but not as well as we would like.  As announced in the prior Flex Insider, the theme of v1.5 will be noise and interference mitigation.  We don't plan to go for just parity with other radios but to raise bar in this area just as we did with the Panafall.   We have several "science projects" on tap with a few PhDs contributing to the effort.  No promises yet as to what that will look like but it will be the main focus of v1.5.

Gerald-K5SDR

Just thought I would reinforce a point or two:

1. Our software team focus has shifted from feature addition to maximization of performance and stability.
2. LAN Remote involved major surgery that pointed out bottlenecks in the existing code that required re-factoring to achieve best performance.  Code re-factoring creates new bugs that must be located and fixed before the software is released to the general public.  Code re-factoring is a fact of life in order to build high quality software that evolves over time.  We expected to re-factor this specific code at some point but the bottlenecks incurred with the new feature moved the work into this release.
3. Pontificating here or elsewhere won't add any software engineers to our team or speed the test/debug process.  
4. We are currently in the cycle of alpha test > bug reports > debug > alpha test > rinse and repeat until done.  For you software guys, we use Agile methodologies that produce daily builds and frequent releases to the Alpha Team.  A new alpha release went into field test yesterday.  
5. As Steve said in his article, we are targeting a January 30 general release.

Thanks for your patience as we complete the process.  We wish you all a very happy holiday season.

73,
Gerald

James Kirk

Tongue-in-cheek, when PhDs are involved double or triple the time estimates.

[Deleted User]

Maybe you should give a target date of June 2015 . . . Then when it arrives early it will be a surprise instead of another disapointment

np2g

Yes it does not work as well as it should. (Compared to most radios ) And I was hoping that 1.4. Or previous. 1. V. Would have addressed this. Making it. On parity. So 1.5.

James Whiteway

Cannot speak to the NB problem, (I'm blessed with a very quite location) but, for Noise Reduction and Auto Notch Filter, I have found that adjusting the AGC-T slider according to instructions from Gerald in a post on this forum, worked very well. There is little to no distortion in the received audio and both controls work fine then. But, if I up the AGC-T too much, then the distortion shows up. Maybe, this might work with the Noise Blanker as well.
james
WD5GWY

DrTeeth

...but it may make the ones they have work harder knowing that Flex users are straining at the leash, hi hi

DrTeeth

Can the Flex Signature really become obsolete with so much more that the software can add?

Walt

Stay the course, Gerald - and thanks for the background info on what is happening. You and your staff have a great holiday season.

Walt

Gerald-K5SDR

They are already working hard.  Don't want them to burn out.

DrTeeth

Tongue planted firmly in cheek Gerald.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and all the FRS team.

np2g

Ok. On the nr. Control. Change. The name to ad. That stands for add distortion. And this is what it does. Period. It should have been addressed as soon as this was discovered. This is what those numbers in between the release numbers are for . The original comment was not negative but just hoping that NB. NR also was addressed. And the political answer of 1.5. Would mean so much more if somewhere in-between this release they had actually corrected it

Gerald-K5SDR

Wish it were that simple.  The current NB works at the 24 KHz baseband bandwidth.  Wide band noise blanking needs to go into the FPGA and is non trivial.  If we get something good enough to release sooner than v1.5 as a point release, we will.  

Mike_WB8CXO

Austin, Texas!

Tony Hateley

I believe these delays are costing sales

DrTeeth

I really doubt that very much. FRS could not be any more honest or hard working. That is what got me hooked before I bought in as well as the glowing reports of those hams whose opinions I had come to value and respect. I strongly suspect that other potential customers would come to the same conclusion and jump on board.

Tony Hateley

I can only say my son was going to buy a 6500 like mine for Christmas but seeing the delay has changed his mind and gone for a new icom.

[Deleted User]

I will wait till 2.0 comes out to buy another one. Really enjoying the K3  / P3 combo

Neal_K3NC

Steven,

We all appreciate that a rig is a specific item appealing to everyone's specific taste but the idea of hanging around one manufacturer's support forum, baiting people to engage in flame wars while you do not even own one of their products just doesn't seem right. The K3 is a great rig from a great company, I just prefer the Flex people and their rigs. I have owned Elecraft equipment but do not think its fair to sit in their forums making noise. Please focus your wisdom on their equipment and forums as you have their equipment.

Tim - W4TME

Since Gerald has addressed in detail the issues raised on this particular post regarding the release of SmartSDR v1.4, it might be prudent to close it at this time.  Thank you to everyone who provided constructive comments and feed back.