Why did FlexRadio decide to go with a RJ45 microphone connector for Mic1 on the Maestro?

Walt - KZ1F

As far as 'seeming pointless', what can possible be served by bitching about a vendor decision for what subcomponents were chosen for a new product ? The product is rolling off the assembly line. If one doesn't like a design decision Ford made with Mustang subcomponent choices don't but a Mustang, the Sun will still continue to rise in the East. I believe they use the same subcomponent on the 1500, still in production.

Steve K9ZW

Knock it off with the fanboy comments. Like you I like 8-pin but unlike you I respect the professionals at FRS to do their jobs, including picking connectors. I haven't belittled you for having no situation awareness and like rip van winkle waking up to needing a trivial accessory that was obvious for nearly a year. Show me the radios you've brought to market and perhaps you opinion will have some weight, but you are coming across as a whinny and petty old man pissing and moaning about a $20 accessory to select in with a $3500 to $9800 Flex-6x00 plus Maestro setup. I'll send you, as a fellow game, connectors if being ready to ask for the right connectivity connectors when FRS calls is such a big deal. You can make up the adapter yourself. Pissing and moaning almost a year after announcement when the unit finally is in prerelease production just seems a sad way to greet a significant new product. Skip your Meastro is needing the connector is such a spoiler, but don't look to sympathy from this court as guess what? You are going to need other accessories to use the Maestro well too! Figure battery packs, feet rather than a bail, connectors, Chargers and Bluetooth accessories. To get the best experience you might need a couple hundred in accessories, and gee **** some of your old stuff might just not work. Needing the customization stuff isn't a rally cry to play "sad panda" - it is just life as usual as it has been for the 60+ years your had your ticket. I will say I think taking FRS to task suggesting bad motives was a horseshit nay to ask questions that needed no leading answers or innuendos suggest. Crabby old person stuff doesn't make for facts. You were within bounds to ask them why, they rest was shamefully insulting FRS. YMMV, but when you call me a fan boy and question my motives when I'm trying so hard to not point out your shortcomings you can **** off. 73 Steve K9ZW

Michael Coslo

I think after hearing all of this, you would be much better off with one of the other radios you mentioned. 

And they even have the right connector. And the mics are all interchangeable, correct? 

And at this point, I'm not certain what the point is. Seems to have been a combination of the RJ45 is a weak connector (I've replaced many more Fosters)  and that Flex is bent on corporate suicide for  daring to switch connectors. 


You want strength, a Foster is not even remotely the way to go - get a Mil-Spec circular connector.

And does anyone seriously use the stock mic?

I have a Kenwood TS-480, a Icom IC-761, My Flex, and a bunch of VHF radios. All have a different connector. Of the several Kenwoods I own, I have three different connectors. The wiring is different between the individual microphones. I have a number of adapters I've made up to connect the different mics to the different radios. And a lot of us find that no issue at all. 

And for a Maestro? I would use a computer mic and headset - many are much better than even the Heils.

Michael Coslo

I think Dave might not know that to computer people, calling a person a fanboy is like one ham calling another a LID.  It tends to get emphatic reactions. I kinda cringed when I saw that. 

At least I hope so. Because if he meant it in the way we use it,  that isn't nice at all. 

Michael Coslo

I suspect the issue is not the question, but not accepting the answers. It is FB to ask why Flex settled on RJ45 and small jack instead of a Foster. But after getting the answer, it was off to the races, including some insults along the way. 

Eventually it was no longer a question, but just anger directed at Flex, and those who disagreed with OP's opinion.

Jim Jerzycke

Well, I wondered when this was going to turn "nasty", and it has.

Personally, I don't have a preference in mic connectors, but to NOT include a $5 adapter in the box with a $1000 accessory seems a bit cheap to me.

Carry on, guys.....

Jim

Dave - W6OVP

Hi Michael. No anger for sure. Just increasing amusement. Some of the responses are quite entertaining. (Wish I knew how to put grinning icons on this board as I would have used them extensively... <ggg>.)

Regarding Fan Boy: Merriam-Webster Definition of fanboy

1. :  a boy or man who is an extremely or overly enthusiastic fan of someone or something. First used in 1919.

Works for me. Right on target. Every forum has them. Usually bring more heat than light.

But with all the fuss and feathers the original question by Mike in the very top line still hasn't been officially answered has it? I believe that is what we are all waiting around for:

"Why did FlexRadio decide to go with a RJ45 microphone connector for Mic1 on the Maestro?"

Maybe there really is a good reason. If so, I must have missed it.

-Dave

Bob - W7KWS -

Maybe FRS wanted to get rich by having us all buy a new Mic! LOL. I got three just in case. $16. Now I'll have to skip Starbucks for a couple of days. **** FRS. http://www.amazon.com/Microphone-Yaesu-FT-7800-FT-8800-FT-8900/dp/B00M2ULRY4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

Michael Coslo

Dave, a Lid was first defined a long time ago, also. If you call a Ham a lid, they won't like it. So okay, I'll say you were ignorant of computer geek use of the word. 

If you come into comment boards of a computer geek radio, don't be too surprised if you call one a fanboy and he or she gets upset. It is rude,  If I accidentally insulted someone, I'd be contrite and upset with myself.  

What manner of official answer do you want? I'll bet they did it for the same reasons any other company changed to RJ45 connectors. They just did it. If that isn't good enough an answer, perhaps there isn't one forthcoming, and you are either going to just annoy people here.

Have a good day, Dave. This conversation has become pointless. Carry on.

Dave - W6OVP

Isn't it amazing how a simple question like Mike's on line 1 can grow into all this nonsense? There seems to be a lot of free floating hostility here looking for a place to squat. Maybe it's the election. Maybe it's just indigestion. Maybe it is because Maestro is so late, but I'd much rather have it right than right now.

But is Mike's question really that difficult? Seems like FRS could end all this collective outpouring of angst in a heartbeat by simply answering it. <GGG>. Their  answer is the only answer I have any interest in hearing.

Reg

A few weeks ago I purchased a RadioSport RS60CF from FLEX.  I ordered two cables with the headset:  (1) the balanced input cable for the FLEX-6700, and (2) the RJ-45 connector cable for the Maestro when it arrives.  It's that simple.

Reg

Walt - KZ1F

So, if I understand you correctly, you want FRS to to enter the mode of feeling obligated to explain, and perhaps seek customer buy in, for business decisions they make. Remember, we are the customers, not the board of directors. Maybe they will get around to answering why they make the decisions they make. I would certainly understand if they don't.

Walt - KZ1F

Good idea Steve.

Walt - KZ1F

Mike, now you're just making me feel old. I've been intimately involved with software and computers for just about 50 years now.I don't believe I'd heard the term used until I joined this forum. I do recall the cartoon for iPhone vs HTC EVO. Which, BTW, if you missed it, it's a must see on YouTube, specifically iPhone 4 vs HTC. But they never used the term, fanboy.

[Deleted User]

Some of you are just too **** with too much time on your hands. Why does Kenwood or Yaesu make some radio's with an RJ-45 and some with a Foster. WHO CARES. Don't like it don't buy it. I'll just go and buy the cord for my Radiosport and enjoy it while some just **** about it.

Michael Coslo

Oh, if you go over to Slashdot, the forum for nerds, and call someone that, riots may ensue. Even worse if you use the deliberate misspelling "fanboi"

Rick Hadley - W0FG

I'm sorry if I raised the heat level of the discussion with the use of the word "pointless".  it seemed harmless enough at the time.  It seems obvious to me, but apparently not to the OP, that the RJ45 jack was likely chosen because of its form factor, just as on my Icom 7100 and FT-817 both of which are relatively small.  From an industrial design standpoint it should be an easy and clean fit.  As I said earlier, a case could be made that a microphone should be standard equipment, but given that our individual taste in microphones is so widely varied, I don't see it as a problem.  My FHM handheld mike has never been out of the box, and the Foster connection unused, as I prefer a studio-grade balanced setup, even though only 1-2% of my time is spent on SSB.  I'm much more concerned about the CW capabilities of the Maestro.and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of mine.

k3Tim

Answer to Question: Why did FlexRadio decide to go with a RJ45 microphone connector for Mic1 on the Maestro? 

I would conjecture it was due to SMT versus hand soldering. Consider producing, say 500 units. With all external connectors solder directly to the PWB, the boards are ready to go.  With a 8 pin foster, a skilled tech has to cut / **** / solder 5? wires to the PWB as well as the connector. Think about that task closely compared to a pure SMT build (where pure means all solder mounted components). The time savings for the hypothetical pile of 500 units is rather large, let alone possibility of a bad solder connection.

Who hasn't built a QRP kit radio with "100" wire leads going to controls / jacks and found what a pain that was to deal with and also making a mess of the pretty PWB?

Tim has mentioned unplugging the RJ 45 cable from the one supplied with your 6000 series radio. I have tried this with a very flexible ethernet cable that wassupplied with a wireless router. Said cable is 3 feet (about 1 meter), flat and very flexible. It looks like it will work well. His (Tim) other comment about using a small headset is on target.

Be cool / be calm....


K3Tim

Mike Smoot

As the perpetrator who asked the original question, I'd like to assure everyone that it was not my intention to kick a hornet's nest, and that I fully appreciate the numerous responses!

Having experienced RJ failures, and after reading of others (e.g., Flex-3000 connector separation) I was puzzled by their choice.  I greatly enjoy using my Flex-5000 and Flex-6700 radios, and I wish FRS every success with the Maestro.  I'm looking forward to receiving mine....and soon, I hope!

After looking again at the Maestro front and back photos - and giving it more thought - I suspect the connector location - on the rear panel, lower right side, may have been one factor in their decision.   I'm thinking any coiled-corded mic attached to that location would have a tendency to pull the unit forward from the (operator's) left side.  A Foster connector at that location would also project further to the rear - increasing the lever moment and worsening the tendency, while possibly stressing the board if soldered directly.  Perhaps FRS was thinking more along the lines of a flat flexible cable, or thin round one from a headset, etc,  that would make the 180 degree turn around to the front more gracefully.  

Whatever their reasons, I'm sure it was an informed decision.  Maybe one day we'll know for sure.

FRS must, however, proactively inform Maestro purchasers that the Flex-6xxx hand microphone will require an adapter. I suggest they toss one in for free (or offer it at cost) for Maestro buyers who purchase(d) a foster-style mic from FRS.  With RadioShack gone, some folks might have trouble finding a male Foster to build their own adapter in short order.

73,

Mike - KB1MH

Peter K1PGV

"Fanboy" or "fanboi" are both popular internet terms.... Used to dismiss somebody's opinion as coming from bias or strong personal preference... As opposed to dispassionate analysis. Or fair comparison. I'm accused all the time in Internet forums of being a MSFT fanboy. There are Apple fanboi's galore out there ("oooohhh... Apple made it... It must be AMAZING!" -- and there are surely Flex fanboys. It's not that the term is inherently offensive. What's offensive about it is having what you think is a st one logical analysis being dismissed as blind brand loyalty. I now return you to you microphone connector argument. Peter K1PGV

David Decoons, wo2x

Reg, see if Flex will exchange the RJ-45 cable for the dual 1/8" TRS cable with right angle connectors. It plugs into MIC2 and should be more durable over time. When I ordered my RS60CF from Radiosport, Dave recommended the dual TRS cable for Maestro.