SmartSDR v1.4 Update Posted

Nick - W2NER

The fact still remains and I have stated this from the start, don't commit or state release dates you can't deliver, period..

Bill Roberts

Yay, EDS. My alma mater!

Steve W6SDM

That would be fun.  Flex wouldn't say a word about what's coming out or when and make it a big surprise for everyone.  That way, everyone would be happy and nobody would be disappointed.

When I was in the construction business, we scheduled contractors based upon the completion date of other contractors.  Painters had to follow drywall, which followed electrical, etc.  There was money tied to committing labor and resources so everyone understood that a commitment had to be made.

This is amateur radio.  It's supposed to be fun.  All I know is that I am going to get a whole bunch of new features sometime in the future and it didn't cost me a penny over what I originally committed to pay for the radio.

Gerald-K5SDR

As we stated in the December Flex Insider, we are moving away from "time boxed" releases to "feature based releases."  From this time on we will not reference any estimated release dates.  We have been honestly giving our best estimates/goals as a courtesy.  Since there are a few folks who do not understand/appreciate the nature complex system software development and testing,  it seems best that we just say nothing.  

Only a few of our competitors do even minimal firmware updates and none provide software road maps.  In the future we may choose to share general road map themes for upcoming releases but I am now thinking that we should not even give general time frames.  There is no end in sight for our plans for SmartSDR but the time for sharing date based goals has ended.

Assume that everyone will get v1.4 the day we and our test team are satisfied that it is ready for release.  Further disparagement by a few won't write, test, or debug a single line of code and won't pay a single engineer's salary to do so.  In fact it is counterproductive to that effort.  Period.  

[For those who have not run a business: The radios sold this month generally pay for the software engineering salaries due this month.]  

Thanks to all of you who appreciate and support our efforts.  We have received quite a number of encouraging private emails over the last couple of days.  We love breaking new ground in Ham Radio.

73 to all,
Gerald 

Gerald-K5SDR

See my post in the main thread to the topic of dates.

Jay -- N0FB

Bravo!  

Don Loesch

RR
Thank you doing it right.
73
Don K8BVL

Gerald-K5SDR

One other comment.  We will plan to close this thread on Monday.  That should be plenty of time to run its course.

DrTeeth

I really do appreciate your efforts and openness. I hope you find a comfortable middle ground in this matter. I hope you do not compromise your communications so much that all we hear is silence.

With kindest regards and appreciation in spades to you and all at FRS.

I'd rather make my encouragement public (why private?).

Jay -- N0FB

There are a lot of Flex 6000 operators that are watching this thread who have not spoken.  If I were one of Gerald's developers and seeing nothing but all of the garbage that a very few have posted here, I would be rather depressed and defeated.

Now is the time for you to show your support for the Flex Radio Systems Development team.  

Post your Development Team Support message now!

It is time to show FRS that not all of us are knuckleheads and that we do appreaciate their effort and creativity.

tompanderson

I'll support this, but I think it's too bad that a handful of people have caused you to stop releasing dates. Many people understand the difficulty of estimating dates and then meeting schedules. Look at Kickstarter and Indiegogo to see how well people meet dates. And don't think these are novices with no experience in developing a product and bringing it to market. Some of these projects are done by established companies and extremely talented people. In any case I'm delighted with my 6700 and look forward to the new releases like kid waiting for Christmas. Tom W6TPA

Bill -VA3WTB

Gerald, the complainers here are few in numbers. They do not represent the rest of us, please keep this in mind. As being the only company that keeps it's customers informed as you do it seems a bad idea to stop doing so. The down side of being so open is that you are easy to get too.

Nick - W2NER

I understand all about project dates, deadlines, I do it every day and technical in nature. I'm in the IT field so I know all about it.  I do appreciate all the efforts of Flex and the new ground they are breaking.  However, that has nothing to do with falling short on dates you publicly announce to the community and fall short on more then not.  There are too many people here not willing to share their feelings with the fear of getting pounced on by all the posters then spend a good deal of their time hovering around this forum. 

My point is and always has been, DO NOT state a date for a release to the public unless you know you can meet that deadline.  Plain and simple..  And we the people who share our feeelings (negitive or positive) are NOT knuckleheads...  Don't make this personal, its business.

Walt - KZ1F

Well, hopefully, Flex caters to Ham Radio Operators period. These folks may, additionally, be geeks or network nerds or whatever else. I also take a dim view of unlicensed car drivers, minors (actually anyone) smoking tobacco and minors drinking alcohol.

Bill -VA3WTB

Perhaps they should never mention a date in the future. and no road maps. It just comes out when it comes out. That should make you happy. And who cares if it's late? Just enjoy the radio every day. I think what they are working on is far more complex then you have ever worked on.

Bernie

Count me in to the group who wants you to take the time necessary to get things ready for release.  I, for one, am pleased you are doing the "experimentation" to go beyond the current state-of-the-art.  If that proves a little more complex than your original estimates...so be it!  I appreciate the open lines of communications, and I regret the impatience of some will now have an impact on us all.

However, I have had enough of this subject and agree with your decision to terminate it on Monday.

-73-
Bernie
W4BGH

Walt - KZ1F

Gerald, I am actually available now that I am semi retired.

Jay -- N0FB

The point is Nick, do you not believe that FRS wanted to make the timeframe that they stated earlier?   Do you not believe that Gerald and his team have done everything in their power to come in under the wire?

I've been in the IT industry for over 30 years.  I can't speak for your experience, but I can speak for mine.  There has not been one company that I have worked with where at some point in time, the stated timeline had slipped.  Not one.  When you say you "know all about it", I'm not sure that that is true.   

You have bought a radio, you have not bought stock.  You are not on the board of directors of anything.   When you bought your radio and laid down your dollars, you were given a product with a finite amount of features.  At that point they have NO responsibility to provide any New features to you or anyone.  

My best suggestion for you Nick is to start a business.  Make a product and attempt to sell it.   Put your your home and family's well-being on the line to guarantee a payroll. Until you do that, I'm not much interested in hearing you lecture Gerald, FRS or anyone about missing timelines or how to run a business.  I guarantee you, running a business looks a lot easier from the bleachers.

Peter K1PGV

Sigh.

DO NOT state a date for a release to the public unless you know you can meet that deadline.  Plain and simple

Why?  Do you have some major venture that depends on the announced date that V1.4 or V1.5 specifically ships?  Or can you just not manage your disappointment?

I honestly don't get it?

Anyhow, I think Gerald just intimated that you'll get your wish.  No more dates will be stated for releases.

Like Windows 10:  You'll get it when Microsoft decides to release it.  When will that be?  Oh, some time in 2015, probably.  There are, of course, internal dates.  But are those shared with the public?  No way.  Not since Vista... remember?  That slipped by quite a lot.

Peter K1PGV



Walt - KZ1F

For all those with their **** in a twist now. Consider this: As angry or upset as you may be now, you'd be orders of magnitude more angry and upset if, after the earlier delays, what Flex shipped wasn't ready to be used. The more something slips, the more perfect it has to be when it does ship. Most, if not all, would be equally angry if it shipped on time but wasn't ready.

Remember too, we bought a concept, a vision. Those that just wanted to buy a COTS all mode radio, would have gone with a Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom, Elecraft.

As I've tried to explain many times now, the more you complain, the more you shoot yourselves in the foot. Prospective customers read this board. If they perceive there is too much drama associated with a Flex radio, they will spend their money elsewhere. Less revenue for Flex, less innovation from Flex. So we all, collectively, have a choice to make regarding our own self interest.

Nick - W2NER

you honestly don't get it?  What don't you get?  Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan, lets see how far can this go.  If the date is a moving target, don't say a word.

Walt - KZ1F

If you're ready to put a $5,000 radio in a shed with a padlock on the door, why not add a $600 PC and do remote the way people have been successfully doing it for years.

Nick - W2NER

Your dead wrong, you have no idea what I do in my job or how complex it is.  I work internationally and have 5,000 people who depend on my deadlines.  And no, I have NEVER missed a date, ever!

Nick - W2NER

Its best this post gets closed because there are way to many who follow blindly and god for bid there is anything negative you have to say.  Life is not all roses and people get upset at things.  If someone else thinks that issue may not be valid, that's there opinion and theirs alone.

Nick - W2NER

Thanks Burt at least someone get it.

Bill -VA3WTB

I bet you have more than 5 people working on it. And I'm sorry, but if you were not working on a complicated radio and software, I don't think there are many tasks much more complex.

Gerald-K5SDR

Nick, you get your wish. Done with dates.  Period.  "Plane and simple."

We have a small but dedicated team of software engineers who love what they do.  They work hard, do their best and give the best estimates.  We truly want to deliver a quality product that our customers will enjoy.  We are breaking new ground in Ham Radio and that is not always easy.  

The term IT can cover a very wide gamut.  I don't know how many real time, multiprocessor (five different types including FPGA), client/server digital signal processing system development projects you have done starting with zero lines of code.  Maybe a lot or maybe none.  It is easy for all of us to call plays after we see them on instant replay.  Come walk a mile in my moccasins.  If we didn't care about the work of our hands, it wouldn't be personal.  Oh, but we do care.  Sorry.

73,
Gerald

Peter K1PGV

Nope.  Honestly.  Don't get it.  Swear to Gxd I don't.  Really!  I have no idea why you would be so angry.

It's a radio.  For a hobby. To me, there are exactly two reasonable alternatives:

1. If the radio works well enough for you to be satisfied with your purchase, use it and wait for new stuff to appear.  If it appears, be glad it has appeared.
2. If the radio does not work well enough for you to be satisfied with your purchase, return it and buy a different radio.

I'm not saying "I think the radio's perfect as it is, and I'm not looking forward to improvements."  Far from that.  But, you know, good enough.  I'm satisfied with my purchase.  I'm keeping it.

But updates in October, January, next August bank holiday?  Personally, I'm good with it.

It's not a part for an MRAP that you need in order to keep your team safe in Afghanistan.  It's a radio.  For a hobby.  Deep breath.  Exhale slowly.

Bill -VA3WTB

Gerald. Nick along with some of these guys that claim they have done it all really have know clue, and most of us know this. Please don't stop what your doing because of a few. Almost all of us know the score here, let them complain and gripe, but you just go on as you are, your doing just fine...
Bill VA3WTB

Gerald-K5SDR

Burt,

From the time we published our first SmartSDR road map, we hit v1.0, v1.1, v1.2 released dates.  We missed v1.3 by two weeks.  During v1.3 development we actually did proof of concept work on v1.4, which is why v1.3 was two weeks late.  v1.4 is the most complex system development we have done since prior to v1.0.

Gerald