Remote start is disabled by default when upgrading to 1.10.8 Beta

K9SO

Not a big general problem, and it's resolved this time, but it was a big problem for me when I tried to upgrade to the new Beta SW remotely. I operate one of my 6500s locally in North Carolina and another 6500 remotely in Illinois (and vice versa depending on where I am). I access both either with my Maestro or SSDR so actually I can operate two stations in two locations simultaneously.

As posted in a separate thread, I upgraded flawlessly using the Maestro locally (in NC). Very simple.

But when I tried to upgrade Illinois, I bricked my remote system and could not connect to the Illinois 6500. (NC still worked FB locally).

After an 800 mile drive to investigate (OK ... I was going home anyway :-) I traced the problem to a restart. I restart by enabling REMOTE and then power cycling. I discovered that the DEFAULT settings when upgraded have the REMOTE setting DISABLED. Therefore, when the radio was power cycled during the upgrade my radio was waiting for my magic finger to physically restart the radio.

So the update went well, but when it rebooted, I could not remotely restart because of the disabled REMOTE setting. When I got home and physically pressed the front panel start button, all was well. "Problem" resolved. 

It would be nice if the settings could transfer to new SW upgrades (especially REMOTE!). Nice in the sense that it would save me gas. 

73,
Fred
K9SO

Tim - W4TME

This particular caveat was well documented in the Important Release Details section of the release notes for SmartSDR v1.10.8, especially the concerns with updating remotely.  This is why it is always a best practice to completely read the release notes before upgrading your radio to a new version of firmware.

I have reprinted the paragraph.

If you operate your radio remotely, please read this before upgrading.  As a result of correcting defect #4046, where the power LED would incorrectly indicate the presence of a GPSDO, the setting for the Remote On feature has been reset to its default state (disabled).  If you are using the Remote On feature of the radio, you will need to change it back to enabled once you have upgraded to SmartSDR v1.10.8.  Upgrading the radio remotely may result in the radio not rebooting after the upgrade if the Remote On feature is required.

K9SO

Thank you Tim ... no, I missed that. But really, I know better than to do things like that after 2 decades of remote operating. I would not have tried if I weren't heading back.

I hope this can be corrected in future releases. Not having the ability to remotely start is a problem for many of us.

Thanks for the support as always.

73
Fred
K9SO

Tim - W4TME

If the issue could have been corrected and this was not necessary, it would have.  This wasn't because of some sort of lazy short cut we took, it was due to a defect and due to the nature of it, the previous state could not be retained.

Rick - W5FCX

This explains why my remote 6700 did not come back up after the update. Easy enough fix. Thanks!

James Nelson

Oh ...... My god .... I had to read the documents and release notes, then lower my pride and go to the community for help .... Shhhh don't tell anyone pleaae LOL