USB Port(s) on Maestro?

Jay -- N0FB

I put my reservation in for one of the Maestro's on the Thursday evening when it was announced, so I'm happy no matter what the answer might be to the question below.

I did not notice in the brochure pictures or on the preliminary specifications that an on-board USB port is going to be provided.  

With the advent of SmartSDR 1.4 and remote LAN ops, many of us have invested in USB headsets and USB microphones.  Some of these headsets and microphones do not require any custom drivers but only utilize the built-in Windows drivers.  It has been said that the Maestro will have embedded Windows.  I must confess that I don't have a working knowledge as to what level of driver support is provided by Microsoft for this abbreviated Operating System.

Would you please consider adding and supporting a USB port on the final product?  There may even be some uses from a Flex Radio's Tech Support standpoint:  Flashing the Maestro (if network flashing will not work), extracting log files, loading/unloading support executables.  I'm sure there are others USB uses which I'm not smart enough to think of but your team will.

K6OZY

There are no USB ports usable by the customer on Maestro.

Jay -- N0FB

I know there is not now, however "Preliminary Specifications" leaves a glint of hope.

KD8TVB

How about bluetooth to a headset?

KY6LA_Howard

Gerald has public ally stated that there will be NO USB ports BUT there will,be Blietooth 4.0 connectivity.

Lee - N2LEE

If you think about it, if they had a USB port on the Maestro then they would have to write drivers for every headset and device on the planet. This would be a nightmare for Flex from a software development perspective.

BUT there are tons of USB to Audio dongles out there that I suspect would work.

Gerald-K5SDR

There will be no USB ports because that opens a support can of worms.  We know this from years of experience.  Think of Maestro as a plug and play appliance.  

Maestro has two analog microphone inputs, line input, line output, headphone output, amplified speaker output, internal 2W speaker, PTT input, and paddles.  It also have Bluetooth 4.0.  We plan to qualify specific Bluetooth peripherals to support and sell.

Jay -- N0FB

Thanks Gerald for the reply. As I said in my opening post, I'm happy no matter what the response is. As I am an Apple aficionado (some might say snob) I can appreciate the reasons why a company might want to limit the opportunity for user inflicted issues.

Jay -- N0FB

That is what I alluded to in my opening post. ;-)