Applied power to 6300

Pat Eastman

I have a question about the applied power to my 6300.

Is it better to leave the 13.8VDC applied or is it OK to turn the power supply on and off after use?  I turn the PS on and then the button on the front of the 6300 and use as normal. Power down is 6300 first then the PS.

Which is best or does it matter/

Thanks in advance for the response.

Pat

K5ROX

I'm not recommending or not recommending anything.

But you should know when you power off most power supplies they don't instantly drop all voltage, they fade away, various factors can control how fast they fade.

Ken Hansen

Just an opinion, but I think anything with a 'computer' in it should be turned off under power, not left to just halt after the power slowly dies... I leave my Flex 6300 on, only turning it off from the front power switch if/when needed.

Mike va3mw

Personally, I never turn mine off.

Bill -VA3WTB

The radios do not have hard drives to go crazy when not turned off the way you normally would, All the data is stored on embedded chips, so losing power while it is running is not likely to scramble things. No harm should come to the radio.

I leave my power supply on all the time, I have a GPSO installed. Leaving the power connected keeps the GPS warm and locked.
Also there is a remote plug on the back, when the contacts are shorted the radio powers up or off without using the power switch on the front.

K1DBO

Issues related to yanking the power from a computer are not really about there being a harddrive or not... especially in these days of solid state "drives". It has more to do with the way the operating system interacts with it's non-volatile storage. 

Some operating systems (well, file systems really, but let's not let the technical details get in the way of a good story) are designed to allow the power to be dropped with minimal chance of damage.  Others are not. 

If your drive is corrupt after a power outage it's usually because an important piece of information about the files on the drive was not yet saved to the disk.  Hard drives make this even worse by lying to the operating system... telling it that the data was safely written to the disk when all it did was copy it into it's own volatile storage. 

The ability to remove power and not suffer damage depends on a few things.  If the operating system on the device is constantly writing to it's non-volatile storage the chance of damage is relatively high.  If it rarely writes or uses a file system designed to expect a power outage, the chance of damage is lower.

So, as a rule of thumb... if you are going to pull the plug, be kind and shut the device down first.  I'm not saying you will sustain damage if you dont, but you are greatly increasing the risk.

As to the the specific case of the Flex... I really dont know and I too keep mine on all the time.  But I do know there's a real operating system in there that relies on non-volatile storage.  So before pulling the plug, the question you should ask yourself is "Do I feel lucky?"  ...well do ya?

Craig_KØCF

The official Flex recommendation has always been to turn on the 13.8V, then power up the radio. To power down, turn off the radio and wait until it has completed its power-down procedure (all lights on the front of the radio are off), then turn off the 13.8V power supply. This is the routine I always use, but with the remote power-on jack on the back of the radio rather than the power switch on the front panel. Tim has always said there is a possibility of scrambling things in the radio if you just remove the 13.8V power to turn it off.

73,
Craig, KØCF

KC2QMA_John

Pat,

The way you are sequencing the radio on and off is correct and best practice. 
ON> Supply first then > radio. 
OFF> Radio first then > supply. 
I don't think it will harm the radio either way but in theory powering the radio on/off in the correct sequence may prevent any damage to the radio from spikes & surges during power up and allow the radio shut down correctly.

The only time I power off my supply is if I will be away from my shack for an extended period of time or if electrical storms are in the weather forecast. These radios are designed to run 24/7 as servers but if you won't be using the radio for a while no sense in wasting electricity.

Pat Eastman

Thank you all very much. I was doing it correctly and now thinking about just leaving it on all the time unless gone away for a length of time or electrical storms.

Thanks again!

Ross - K9COX

Make sure that the filaments are on before applying B+ if possible

Jim K4JAF

You are using the correct procedure.  Been doing this for years and no problems....  PS power on, rig on,, Rig off, PS power off..

Steve W6SDM

I rarely turn my Flex off.  I think there's more trauma to the components from the on/off process than there is just leaving it on all the time.  But when it is necessary to pull the plug, I use the same process that you're using.

Delbert McCord

If you are going to leave a 6300 on 24/7 you may want to review some of the problems people have had with the fans doing that. There are some conversations on there just search for fan problems or 6300 will not turn on problems. 

Bill -VA3WTB

It may or may not....

Steve W6SDM

Thanks.  I've been lucky, I guess.  My 6300 is one of the first ones and I've had it on since I bought it.  It's been off only when I leave for extended periods.

Is the fan something that can be replaced by the user?

KS0CW

it can be albeit a little tricky to enter/exit the RF cage and not recommended by the vendor-- but, we know how HAMs are...hihi

Bill -VA3WTB

It can be yes, it is not recommended by Flex, but it can be with lots of care.
Steve search this here on the community, lots of comments and pictures if you are interested.