can flex 6700 be left on with out causing damage

John Molenda

I sometimes forget turning of the radio after working remote will this hurt the radio in any way ?

Bill -VA3WTB

Many leave the radio on 24/7 without any down side.

Martin AA6E

Well, you could look at the parts in your radio. They are pretty much the same as what you find in your computer or in your TV for that matter. Do you leave those running 24x7? Some do and some don't. While some parts slowly degrade with running hours, the bigger issue is probably the energy use -- cost of power, etc. There's also some security risk. An unauthorized person could hit your PTT button. Also your rig is somewhat more at risk from power/lightning surges when powered on. Summing up, don't lose too much sleep over this. :-) Thought for Flex: offer an optional auto shutdown after N minutes of user inactivity.

Tom

I leave mine on all the time -- Tom K3IO

Tim - W4TME

Martin - I recommend reviewing the SmartSDR for Windows Software Manual for features.  The auto shutdown after N minutes of transmit has been a feature for the past several releases.  It is in the Radio Setup->Transmit tab.

Tim - W4TME

John - the answer is absolutely.  We designed it that way.  I have one of the very first pre-production 6700s ever built (November 2012).  With the rare exception of traveling to a hamfest, or back to Austin for an expedited ECO or when there is a lightning event, the radio has stayed powered on 7x24x365.

The only moving parts are the fans and the relays.  The only consideration would be the fans.  They will wear out, but they have a high MTBF so I would not concern yourself with that too much, and they are easy and not expensive to replace if a sealed bearing fails.

One other concern might be dust.  If the radio is operated in a dusty environment, then you may need to clean it out occasionally.  If using compressed air to clean any type of cooling fan, make sure the stream of air does not spin the fan when cleaning.  That can damage the fan.

Tim - W4TME

The crux of his question was not about power consumption, but the ramifications to the hardware itself by leaving it on, of which there are practically none.

Martin AA6E

Yes RTFM is good advice, but the current timer prevents runaway transmission, right?  I was thinking of shutting down all the way when inactive to save power or whatever.  But as I recall, the 6700 draws some 4 W even when powered off.  Such a waste! :-)

rfoust

I've had mine on pretty much 24/7 for about a year now (since I bought it). No problems at all.

Martin AA6E

Tom - I imagine you're running drift curves to check on galactic emission.  Or is it a supernova or pulsar search?

73/Cheers - Martin AA6E

Tim - W4TME

The current TX timeout timer will terminate TX if the user loses contact with the control GUI (running remote and the Internet drops out).  A very probably use case when operating remote. 

If the SSDR application and radio stop communicating (15 seconds) TX is automatically terminated.

For powering down the radio, that is what the remote power on connection on the radio is for.

rfoust

Not sure what the rate is here. I've never bothered to look.

Yes, the computer stays on too.  I use it (the computer) full time, usually remotely, even from work because my laptop is too old and slow to run all the apps that I run.

Having the flex on full-time is mostly for convenience since I rarely go to that room in my house. Also sometimes I like to leave JT65 decodes/reporting running all the time on multiple bands - it's helpful for other operators to see where their transmissions are being heard.

Dan -- KC4GO

Burt,
I leave my 6500 on 95% of the time at night I leave it running WSPR RX 4 bands and TX 1... 
Or it could be receiving WX Fax and storing them. There are lots of things that can be done unattended..
Dan -- KC4GO

Michael Engstrom

I leave my computer, monitor and 6700 on 24/7 with 8 bands up.  
Loving it!

DrTeeth

I do clean the fans, but using short pulses of air so that they get cleaned too. I have found that fans with crud on their leading edges are much more noisy than clean ones.