Lockup issue and V2.0 / V1.11

NM1W

How often did you experience the hangs? Some of us get multiple hangs  per week...

Paul M

Ria -Yes I am familiar with the term but what is your point?  So I will get a back ported version, WHEN?   The company is mute to any commitment except to get 2.0 out and in reality the only commitment to 2.0 is RSN (Real Soon Now).   

If a company is so poorly capitalized that they cannot do development and support at the same time then the company is more than likely headed for major issues.   

Bill -VA3WTB

Paul, you still did not answer the question. What makes your radio Obsoleted ?
How does the new radios make it obsolete?

Tim - W4TME

You can't compare the past "hang" experience from any Alpha team member as definitive data because they are constantly testing code that is by its very nature unstable.  This question is only applicable to late version release candidate versions which we hope to be testing this weekend.

Ria

Definitely not that frequency. I believe I've only experienced it once during testing the 2.0 code. 

Paul M

I did answer, the company is discontinuing the model.  

Tim - W4TME

Please let me remind everyone of the Community's guidelines for posting.  Here they are for your convenience.

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Ria

I should also echo Tim's comments - our experience is not going to be yours, ours will be more unstable. However, I really don't think that the comments that the hangs are being neglected is fair. The dev team has spent a fair amount of time addressing it and alpha testers do diligently report it. Like Tim, I am hoping it gets better. But it is a difficult issue to track down and duplicate, for sure. 

Ria

The point is that 2.0 is built on the  1.10 code base and that by developing fixes for 2.0 they are also developing fixes that can and will be put into 1.x, i.e. backported to 1.x. 

Ria

Bill -VA3WTB

Paul, my Flex 3000 still works fine with fire wire and PSDR still works great on computer, it has been discontinued for a time now,,I don't see it as obsolete because it still does everything it is supposed to.

And the 6500 will still use all the same updates as the new radios,,I guess it is how you see it.

Because of that, I just bought a 6500.

Bill -VA3WTB

Ria, some of us were just talking about on 40M about 10 min ago,,we want to know why your so smart. lol

David Livingston

Yes I have and the problems continues. I have tried three different computers. Two new computers with new Windows10 installs with all updates.  No other software installed.  With heavy use during a QSO party and with just being left on for and extended period of time. K4CAE. My mobile phone is on QRZ if you would like to contact me.  Regards, David

Ria

I don't know if I am all that smart... I do know a lot about software, I am immersed in it 24x7...

Ria

Changing computers likely won't help. For sure this is in the radio firmware. 

Rick Ciotti W3DIY

My 6500/Maestro have been in operation daily since 12/16. No hangs, just a few disconnects between the two.

For my logging PC there is a Netgear Gigabit switch between the Maestro and radio. Not sure if this helps anything...it works FB so it will remain configured this way.

Rick W3DIY

Gerald-K5SDR

Paul,

I understand and sympathize with your concerns.  I wish I could wave a magic wand and resolve it.  Our engineering team invested considerable time and effort into trying to reproduce the problem in house on v1.10 but have been completely unable to do so.  

The v2 code base is built on v1.10 and we have put considerable effort into bug fixes and performance enhancements since the v1.10 release.  Since we are not able to reproduce the problem, our team believes the most timely approach is to backport v2 to v1.11.  We will need a little time after release to see if v2 resolves the problem before doing the backport.

As Ria said, backporting is a common approach even for companies many times our size.  It is simply impractical and not possible in this tiny industry to manage separate teams with different code bases.  I personally know of companies with hundreds of programmers who split code bases and teams with totally disastrous results.  

The technical underpinnings of how the backport gets done whether through license management or otherwise is yet to be worked out.  It may take more time to implement it with license management since that could involve brand new architectural complications. We will take the most expeditious route given time and resource constraints.  As I have explained this on the Community several times now, we want to see if v2 resolves the issue before doing the backport through whichever method is best.  

We are down to final testing now on v2 as we speak.  I don't know the exact day we will release myself but I know for a fact to use your term it is "RSN."

The good news is that your FLEX-6500 will continue to be compatible with many new software features and enhancements to come over the upcoming years should you choose to take advantage of them.  Respectfully, I don't think that meets the true definition of obsolescence.  

I trust that you all appreciate that we take your problem seriously and are taking what we believe is the most expeditious and practical route to a solution.

73,
Gerald

Craig Williams

I can't help myself. Will V2 work on my Yaesu FT-101?

Bill -VA3WTB

I see no reason why not...

NM1W

Its very disappointing that DAX will continue to be unreliable in V2.0.... It has yet to be a viable solution, with its frequent receive corruption and xmit corruption. I would hope Flex has been able to repro the frequent DAX issues....

Bill -VA3WTB

mm1w
You know for sure dax will be unreliable?

NM1W

VA3WTB - per Tim's commetnts: "For SmartSDR v2.0, DAX has not undergone any changes.  It is, however, one of the items we have scheduled to address in a future version of SmartSDR v2.x."

Since it hasnt changed, I expect the same problems; FRS had acknowledged the DAX issues.

Ria

I only really have occasional problems with DAX, and nothing a reboot won't fix, even on production versions. Yes there are issues with occasional corruption but nothing like some want to make it seem. But that's just me I guess,

Ria

No. Sell me your useless rig for $5.

Michael Aust

Just upload v2.0 via the USB port on that Yaesu FT-101 !! Hi ! Hi !

Paul M

Gerald,

I have disabled my Flex RSS feed but was alerted to your reply by a friends email this morning.  Thank you for the reply and update.  

Unreproducible or not this is a problem that has been around for over seven months and is the cause of much frustration for many of your customers.  Imagine turning on your Flex and just listening; the radio freezes; turn off the power, reboot the computer and five to thirty minutes later it freezes again.  Now imagine these five or six iterations over a few hours.   For many of us we do not have to imagine we have lived or are living it. 

Now read Tim’s post. Now read my reply. 

No one who runs a company wants this issue and I have great empathy for you and all at Flex that are dealing with the issue but I see no reason to use something that without cause or reason becomes so unstable that it will not stay working.   Until last Friday evening I was living with one or two shutdown/freezes a month after implementing all of Tim’s solutions and clearing my COM ports every day, but on Friday about 9 pm the gremlins returned.   The scenario above was my Friday night.  At midnight I decided that the radio/software/firmware was too unstable and I packed it up. 

I do not normally (even though the other day I  did) tell anyone how to run their company. God knows I told many people over the years who tried to tell me how to run mine ‘Write the Check!’.  Thanks for not giving me a taste of my own medicine.   When 2.X is stable I will buy the update, run the machine again and at that time decide its destiny.   For now I have found a way to avoid the frustration and that is to not use the radio.  

As for the word obsolete, unless I am mistaken and the 6500 is remaining in your line making it not at end of life, then Obsolete is correct.   The Oxford definition of Obsolete is 1) No longer produced or used; out of date 2) Cause (a product or idea) to become obsolete by replacing it with something new.  But then again many of the first sites in the original Oxford English Dictionary were written by Dr. W. C. Minor who was a patient at the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum so that one may be in question.

Best of luck with the launch of 2.0, the new products and wishing you continued success with your company.  

Paul – W4PGM

   

NM1W

When running 4 slices on wsjtx one gets to see the dax issues fairly often..
Rebooting due to dax issues, or radio crashes is a PITA. (having now had 4 radio tonal crashes in the past 4 days while only running cw, nothing advanced like using dax or wsjtx...)

Andy M5ZAP

Gerald,

I understand you are struggling to reproduce the problem (as I am a sceptic / Realist I also think the development of V2.0 and the new hardware has taken priority to fixing the problem), unfortunately the route of hoping that the V2.0 changes will hopefully inadvertently fix the issue is a bit of a long shot.

I also challenge the statement it affects a tiny minority of users.

I will as Paul purchase the V2.0 and if the issue is not fixed be returning the radio under warranty and looking for a refund of my V2.0 purchase.

I am a believer in voting with your feet!

Michael Coslo

Out of curiosity, Paul - have you tried running SSDR on a different model computer? Having had the problem one time, then gone away because of a Windows update and reinstall, as well as Flex having difficulties finding the problem, I'm conjecturing that looking for the problem in radio hardware might be  a goose chase.

Side note. Those multitudes of hams who have the same problem as you - it might just help Flex if they complained. Otherwise they simply accept what I think is a computer issue that might be solvable.

David Livingston

This is from a previous post from RIA...N2RJ...Elmer...Two days ago..

Changing computers likely won't help. For sure this is in the radio firmware. 

NM1W

Michael - I and I know at least 2 others, who have run into the crash using different computers; reinstalled win7 from scratch same issue; install win10 as upgrade same issue; install win10 as fresh install same issue; switch to even more robust system, fresh win10, same issue...  The radio crash isnt the computer... One could argue dax corruption is, but short of a 100 core computer at 12GHz/core I'm not sure what would make dax stable..