Keep radio on or power off

Tormod LA9VKA

I'we been unable to find a previous discussion about this.

What is better for the radio, keep it on or power off when not in use.
My 6400 is in daily use, some days for short periods and others for more.

I'm thinking of implementing automatic shutdown when there has not been any client connected for some time.
Or is it better to just keep the radio on (except for thunderstorms)?

Rob N4GA

Don't know THE answer, but here's a datapoint. I left my 6300 on 24/7 for ~2 years. It eventually died due to the well known CPU fan issue. Since had it fixed and it's back on for another run.

Rob N4GA

George KF2T

 I'm a fan of "always on," since that keeps the rig at a nice thermal equilibrium. Leaving the power supply on and the rig off is also helpful, since the frequency-determining components are kept warm and stable. An always-on radio is easier to access remotely, too (fewer steps to get on the air!).

In actual, real-world situations with the radio in your house (or other climate controlled environment), it probably doesn't make much difference. Either way, keep good airflow around it, keep an eye on the fans, and all in all, take good care of your baby.

Your mileage may vary.

Rick - W5FCX

My 6700 is remote. It gets powered down when not in use, then powered up to use and back off when done... for 3 years.

Bob G W1GLV

Mine has been on for 4 years. Not a fan of turning electronics off.

Steve K9ZW

@LA9VKA - Tormod either power strategy works. 

In my personal experience, I have several Flex-6000s.  Usually one or two are on 24/7 while others are only energized for operating sessions.  The oldest is one of the first handful of Flex-6700s released outside of the FRS organization (serial # 11) and it has been on 24/7, most of the time since it was delivered in June 2013.  https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2013/06/

The radios are designed to act like a "server" and remain powered on if the owner chooses.

That said the 6700 at my island home only is on when I am there.

Currently I also have a 6600M running 24/7, and a 6300 that is only turned on when I am testing antennas.

Again FRS in other threads shared how the radios are designed to work well either left on 24/7 or in typical on/off shack usage.

73

Steve
K9ZW

Blog:  http://k9zw.wordpress.com 

John - AI4FR

Excellent question and all the posts above are valid. I did a lot of research on the issue a while back. I read ever post on this site about it and then read everything on the net I could find. Reading several of the post from the members at Flex, they leave it on for the most part.

In short, there is no correct way as there are basically two schools of thought. One is that the initial inrush of current is not good and will prematurely cause component failure especially where fans are concerned. The other school of thought is that by leaving it on you are prematurely wearing out components. Which is right? No one knows.

For me, I have been shutting down at the end of the day. My thinking behind this is that we do the same thing to our TV sets. We leave the house for a bit and shut them off then turn them back on again when we get home. These power cycles do not seem to hurt the electronics in TV's.

In the end, it's personal preference as I do not believe that studies have proven a "best method" as of yet.

Bill W2PKY

I asked Gerald this very question several years ago at Orlando. He said Dell Service advised him to turn off electronics when not in use. There are some components that have a rated MTBF that might be exceeded when running an electronics device 24X7. Usually run my 6700 24X7 and have gone through a handful of fans. PC power supply capacitors have a finite life and have replaced a few power supplies in my tower PC. So there seems to be an accelerated failure rate of some components by running devices 24X7. 

jwinner

What about a possible fire hazard leaving it on 24/7? Safety wise I think turning it off after use is a better idea than leaving it on while your not at home. Just a thought.

John K4NHK

N8SDR

The other issue that comes to mine,  while I do leave my servers run 24x7 I do turn off the rigs when there not in use,

Storms power surges, lighting nearby or even worse (direct), all of which can do harm.

Even though my supplies are running off a server grade UPS I still would rather not take a chance, which is why all antennas are disconnected as well when not in use.

Granted even with the above its still possible to have a surge or failure

Greg N8GD

My experience after professionally servicing computers (PCs) for 15 years is that any mechanical rotating devices have a longer life when exercised on-off.  I've seen file servers (essentially fancy PCs) left on 24/7 with a backup UPS to keep them powered through outages, and the hard drives failed to spin back up when they got powered down after several years of continuous on time.  The same goes for cooling fans - if they're on constantly they may not start up again after years of on time when the power is cycled off then on.  I personally exercise the rotating fans in my Fllex 6K with a DLC Web Power Switch that is programmed to turn the radio off at my bedtime each night and turns it back on every morning after I get up.  I have one of the first Flex 6300s made in 2014, and it's still going strong, with the original fans after 5+ years.  I'm either lucky or doing something right!  Just passing along my experience.

Steve K9ZW

Isn't it all about managing your risks?

I lean strongly on both the advice of our community, as we all have been sharing, on emulating the best practices of those who depend on their practices being effective in risk management, and by what the tell tale of insurance says - especially with their costs reflections.

In my personal case the only Flex-6000 issues have been a dead fan on the least used one - a Flex-6300 that is both a backup to the 6700s and was my field radio until the 6600M arrived.  

I do agree with the perils of turning off an ultra-long running device and expecting it to restart without issues.  

Gear and components in some critical use areas have two MTBF ratings, usually an hourly overall MTBF and a cyclical shutdown/startup MTBF. 

In mission critical aircraft management both overall hours and cyclical events are tracked - with the cyclical typicality including landings/takeoffs, starts, count & duration of max output time and so on...

I like the idea of exercising one's gear by periodic reboots.  

But then again I had an OS2 Warp Server I left running for some six years before deciding I should shut it down to at least clean it!  For what it is worth, it restarted and ran on.

The one commonality we all share is that it is pretty good to run a Flex-6000, and whether the radio stays on, is on an exercise schedule, or used occasionally that we're good.  

73

Steve
K9ZW

Blog:  http://k9zw.wordpress.com

Andrew O'Brien

and while on this subject, do we simply turn a 6400 OFF via the power button ? My old brain is used to legacy stuff where we close software before turning off the rig. However today is my first day with the 6400 and it seems the only way to turn it off is via the power button. If using Smartlink on the LAN is there no way to cause the 6400 to turn off ?

KD0RC

Hi Andrew, yes, the power button is the proper way to turn it off. The persistence data (and I don't know what all else) are saved during the power down process. If you have an M model with a front panel, you need to wait a couple of minutes before removing power after the front panel light goes out (or turns amber if you have an internal GPSDO unit).

I have a plain 6400 and power it on and off using a switch connected to the Remote On jack on the back. This has exactly the same effect as using the front panel button. Once the power light goes off, I shut down my computer. When it finishes, I turn off my Astron supply.

The trick is not to power the radio down by removing power.

You mention SmartLink on the LAN, but SmartLink is only for use remotely over the WAN (Internet). Are you operating remotely using SmartLink? In any event (local or remote), there is no way to use SmartSDR or SmartLink to power off the radio.

I bought a cheap ($20 ish) WiFi four channel switch. One channel goes to the Remote On jack so that I can power the radio on and off using my Android phone anytime I have a cell signal. The other three channels are used to select among three antennas. When I am remote, I just leave the power supply on. If I were always remote, I would get a remote switch for the power supply.

Bottom line is that you are doing it correctly if you are using the power button or Remote On jack.

Andrew O'Brien

Thanks Len, that helps a lot.

I'm still a bit confused by LAN use (I have only used WAN once, just to test if it works ). Using LAN via a laptop, wandering around my home and back yard , I am always surprised that the Flex 6400 is immediately active as soon as I open my desktop lid. It's as though it never really was disconnected. Today I stopped using the laptop for 5 hours. When I opened it, there was SmartSDR with lots of signals within 2-3 seconds of opening the laptop. I guess I should experiment with "disconnect", X-ing out SmartSDR, and shutting down the laptop.

Andy K3UK

KD0RC

Hi Andy, When I start SmartSDR, I get the same thing. It is the speed of the computer that dictates how fast SmartSDR will start and connect to the radio.

Once connected it should stay hooked up to the radio, which sounds like what you are describing. If you leave the radio on, but shut down SmartSDR, you will get a good sense of how long it takes to start from scratch. In my case that is maybe 2 or 3 seconds (I have a really fast computer).

Andrew O'Brien

Thanks again. This morning , with Flex 6400 completely powered off over night, I turned it on and a few minutes later booted SmartSDR on my LAN and laptop . As soon as I booted SmartSDR I saw a live panadapter full of signals . I did not log in or anything. Is that normal.

Andy K3UK

Andrew O'Brien

I think I understand better now . I noticed that in the settings I had auto-login checked , so it was doing everything lickity-split .

Andy

KD0RC

Yep, that is exactly it!