Profile Auto Save Discussion

KC2QMA_John

Yes it should be set to OFF by default and let users decide if they want to use this feature and turn it ON.

Roger_W6VZV

I will never want to use this feature.  Please make the default "off" so that this problem (and all it is is a problem, not a feature) goes away.

KC2QMA_John

I think FRS got the message LOUD AND CLEAR, lets just give them some time to work on this and see what they come up with.

!!! I VOTE TO CLOSE THIS THREAD... PLEASE !!!

Lionel

I didn't feel like opening this can of worms again, but my experience this morning, and the lack of any action whatsoever to change compels me to open the can.

So, I have set up a number of transmit, mic, and global profiles after input from several on this site, and they worked. I now use profiles nearly all the time. I have five transmit profiles 5, 10, 50, 75, 100. Since I mostly operate CW they are of course attached to an appropriate global profile, such a 80CW50, 80 meters, CW, 50 watts. This has worked as I intended.

Except, I found that the transmit profiles sometimes changed and affected the global profiles. So this morning, setting up to operate a contest I selected 40CW75 and it came up set to 40W because at some point yesterday I reduced power during a QSO to see how little I could run and maintain the QSO. Then I moved on to other operating.

This morning, guess what, yes, 40CW75 power was set at 40W.

I checked the "TX Band Settings" and of course several of the bands were set to other than intended power levels. I simply reset these and went back to operating.

But this is a pain, it is aggravating, and I've noted before that it seems like a system of auto save that's made for someone other than me. I can't turn it off. I can and do have to periodically reset transmit power levels.

Since I have a power slider selecting power levels during a qso, using transmit profiles can be convenient but is also unnecessary. But if I make any change in the power slider my selected transmit profile is changed - and there is no way to know this until the next use. It is very easy to lose track of such changes.

Okay, all of this has been said before but the fact that I am using operating time to write this comment should be an indication of how aggravated I am with this auto save feature(?).

I notice that last post here was July 2019 and somewhere in the thread Flex admitted that it was something they recognized as needing more consideration.

I think it is now October 2020, I must have missed some point update that addressed the issue, or not.

Since it is a mystery as to when, or if we'll see another SSDR update all I can do is post a whiny sounding post expressing this morning's aggravation, an aggravation that is rising in importance each time I have to go in and repair transmit profiles due to auto save.

Please fix this, get rid of it or give the user a check box to turn it off.

Now, back on the air for a little while.

tnx

Lionel

The last post prior to mine this morning:

"I think FRS got the message LOUD AND CLEAR, lets just give them some time to work on this and see what they come up with.

!!! I VOTE TO CLOSE THIS THREAD... PLEASE !!!" (June 2019)

Excellent suggestion ..I wish it was indicative.. but how much time and maybe it wasn't so loud and clear.

Gary NC3Z

Yeah, I have lost all confidence with FRS, I still have several bugs I have discovered that have never been addressed other than logging them. I think your above mentioned request to close the thread is akin to sticking your head in the sand!

Lionel

The "close the post" comment isn't mine, its quoted. I don't want the moderator to get the wrong idea. This discussion, if for no other reason than to serve as a constant reminder of various update issues remaining open, should not be closed.

Gary NC3Z

Sorry, no that was not addressed to you, it was addressed to the request to close the discussion of unresolved issues. I knew it was not your suggestion.

VK7WH Winston

I support you 100% Lionel. Please give us the option to turn the “feature” on or off. I’m still stuck on 2.4.10 with $200 burning a hole on my pocket.

Winston VK7WH

IZ1OQT

100% shared insert the on off button.

Patrick

This is the issue, that bothers me the most. Conflict between profiles and persistence. There are conflicts between power settings and what is setup via profiles. Band settings are also in conflict. If you were operating SSB on 80 meters for example and then then switch to FT8 on another band band being selected via the profile then use band switch to change the band while operating FT8 you will end up with the SSB settings foe 80 meters. I usually have to make an interim move that forces persistence to be in FT8 mode. Then I can use band switching and band hope in FT8. But that is not guaranteed that it will work. My current solution as I have said before is to do duplicate FT8 settings per band. Which makes for a big list of profiles. It may be possible to make code that sets a profile as the priority setting and keeps persistence from influencing the settings. The exception would be if you made a manual change, so that one can make a change or adjustment. Saving the current profile would then make it permanent. I also believe that persistence and profile conflict can crash the radio. Which becomes more prevalent with multiple pan adapters or multiple slices. Investigation and solutions should be the highest priority. I believe that Flex is loosing customer’s because of this. I recently traded up and the 6700 is doing the same thing as my old 6500. I really like doing the advanced things that use multiple pan adapters and slices but in doing so has high lighted the reliability issues caused by profile persistence conflicts.

Lionel

I just noticed that the thread is noted as "answered" but that was in 2019 and today I'd say the thread remains unanswered.

Marking this answered in May 2019 seems to have been a bit hasty.

That said, I wonder if anyone at Flex reads posts on a supposedly answered thread. Maybe they are not reading any of this thread.

IZ1OQT

No solution to date?

Steve KD2OM

FRS, Please fix the profile autosave "feature" to default to OFF. I for one find this the most irritating aspect to my 6600M.

73

Steve KD2OM

Lionel

This still catches me once in a while, like this morning when my 40 PWR OUT was set to zero. This probably happened while I was testing something or other, but at no time was it my intention to leave it set to zero or save it at zero.

I would have thought my 40m profile would have stayed at 100W. But noooooooooooo. I forgot to check, you know, profile and all, but calling CQ at 0 watts (QRPPP?) doesn't work.

Yeah, please fix it.

Don AI6RE

[{"insert":"100% agree. This is crazy. I can't believe anyone thinks it is OK to change a profile without the owner doing a save. Autosave could be a major contributor to the SD card contamination problem. Without autosave it is very rare for me to save an old profile. I save them a lot now to fix them from autosave.\n"}]

Bill -VA3WTB

Question,,,with a icom,,yeasu,,or Kenwood, if you leave the drive at 0, does the radio not start up next time at 0 were you left it? The way the profiles are working is much the same as most conventional radios. I personally don't have an issue with how it works. I just know I need to take command of my radio and remember were I left the drive settings.

Neal Pollack, N6YFM

MAKE AN OPTION TO TURN AUTOSAVE OFF!

I have never had any other radio that suprises me by changing my settings without me noticing the change was done.

Don AI6RE

That's why none off those radios have profiles. They are hardware controlled and do not have the abilities of a Flex radio. Autosave turns the SDR back into a hardware radio and defeats part of the advantage of owning an SDR.
If I turn on my Flex6600 it will come on with everything set, like I left it, when I shut it off. That is called Persistence.
If I elect to run a predefined Profile, the radio should then be set to the way I programmed it when I saved the profile. With autosave I can never be sure how it will be set and I need to check all the settings to see if autosave changed my profile without my knowledge.

Lionel

Here it is, 1525h 80m SSB profile selected, just now. The transmit profile selected by the global profile is 100w, as it has been for months, and yet, RF Power this morning is set to 0w. It was okay yesterday morning (100w), but clearly I did something later that caused this.

I did not create or save any profiles yesterday or this morning. Looking at TX Band Settings, I see 160,80,20 set to 0w, with no idea how this happened - surely not intentional, except for Autosave intrusion. TX Band Settings changed on these bands - I did not want that to happen.

I can fix of course, until next time.

Look, when I crank up my T4X the power out is one to watch, every time, and may need some tuning. But, the T4X is NOT a Flex 6400 and I expect a 50 year old radio to need settings checked. I shouldn't have to verify power out each time I use my 6400 with profiles.

Why have profiles if one needs to check power settings before use, after having selected a saved profile?

I think Autosave is loved. tolerated, or hated by us users; only the lovers are considered by Flex, apparently.

I know this is preaching to the choir, but how else to explain except by saying it over and over to Flex since they don't respond. So, Flex please let me turn autosave off. Same message, different day.

Rick WN2C

You are all beating a dead horse. This has been discussed since it was implemented some time ago.

Lionel

I'm sorry, but what was implemented some time ago? The ability to turn off autosave, or autosave. If the latter, I believe users have a right to continue to comment, or an obligation to keep reminding Flex that the issue exists.

If the former, some did not get the message. Has anyone seen a Flex comment about a path forward on this issue? It is on no known list to the best of my knowledge.

You are absolutely right, the dead horse should not need further beatings after having taken it for years.

To stop the dead horse beatings all Flex has to do is say they (will/will not) revise the autosave feature in the next release. Seems simple enough.

With thousands invested, I'll beat the dead horse to a second death if necessary, pending some Flex feedback.

Rick WN2C

The auto save profile was implemented and it was discussed when the Flex Community was on Get Satisfaction. Flex has no plans to change it or add a switch to turn it off / on. I don't use it because I do not save any band profiles. I set the radio to what I need for the operating that I am doing at the time.

Steve - G8KNC

Such a simple fix (or at least it would appear so).

I have to say that I am shortly leaving the Flex community, in no small part because of this issue.

It really is a major problem for me - not just the actual issue of autosave, but even more the lack of response from Flex Radio. It is as though they really could not give a toss (as we would say in the UK).

John Mikucki

I think I figured out how to articulate what bugs me about the autosave behavior. For the Flex software engineers reading this, imagine this was how your source code management worked. Imagine your git repo just committed your changes to your main branch as you tinkered with some code, without prompting you--in effect, publishing your changes to your team and your CI pipeline before they were even written, much less tested and ready for release. What we want is a 'git commit' button. (Actually, what I personally want is the ability to import/export these profiles in a human as well as machine-readable format, so I can stick them into my git repo and share them / import others'/manage my own changes over time.)

John Mikucki

I think I figured out how to articulate what bugs me about the autosave behavior. For the Flex software engineers reading this, imagine this was how your source code management worked. Imagine your git repo just committed your changes to your main branch as you tinkered with some code, without prompting you--in effect, publishing your changes to your team and your CI pipeline before they were even written, much less tested and ready for release. What we want is a 'git commit' button. (Actually, what I personally want is the ability to import/export these profiles in a human as well as machine-readable format, so I can stick them into my git repo and share them / import others'/manage my own changes over time.)

David Decoons, wo2x

Each person has their individual likes and dislikes about the new and old profile format.

I look at the new format as being like a traditional Kenwood TS-850. If I move a knob on the 850 it stays moved. So with that in mind this is how I do it at my station.

I set up the profile for let's say FT8 for all bands then save the global profile as FT8_golden. Then save it again as FT8_working. I use the FT8_working for day to day. If something gets changed and I want to revert back to a known good point I load the FT8_golden then save it as FT8, overriding the old FT8_working global profile. Once I have all of my golden profiles created for different modes, contest vs ragchew, etc, I export them. If something really gets messed up I can quickly import the profiles and be up and running in seconds.

I do not need to be changing power out on the fly to squeeze the last 50 watts to meet legal limit so I do not worry about transmitting too much power into my LDMOS amp.

The biggest trick I have found to creating profiles is start at the lowest band and adjust your MIC, TX, and other settings to your liking then create a mic profile, create a transmit profile, then save the global profile under a new name (FT8_golden for example). Go to the next band and adjust your settings. Save the MIC and TX profiles using the same name and save the global profile as the same name as previous band. This adds the new band's info to the profiles. Repeat for remaining bands. Once done then save the global profile to a new name such as FT8_working and use that profile. That way the golden profile has your original settings that can be quickly loaded.

Each person operates differently and I understand the desire to have the radio revert back to a preset known condition. While my method is not automatic, it is a two step process. Load the golden profile of choice then save as the working profile.

Personally for me I much rather prefer the ability for settings to be sticky. But that is why there is chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.

73

Dave wo2x

David Decoons, wo2x

Al_NN4ZZ

@Eric-KE5DTO

Hi Eric,

From your earlier reply below, it sounds like the Autosave switch is coming, just not a date yet. Is this still true? Any updates would be appreciated.

Thanks, Al / NN4ZZ

k0eoo

I love the autosave feature, thanks!

Dennis, k0eoo