ATU high SWR software bug

Neil D Friedman N3DF

I have only been a Flex owner for a little over two years.  In that time, I have installed updates from 2.3.7 to 3.1.8.  I don't ever recall seeing advance authoritative "word" as to when a future release of SmartSDR would become available.  Each release has come as a (usually pleasant and sometimes exciting) surprise.  

Tim - W4TME

Ken AG2K

Mark NS9N

Wow although a tragic set of circumstances it highlights an issue that all hams must take into consideration when running any station remotely. Fault conditions are going to happen and we must make sure proper safety fold back or shut down conditions are in place. It took me a long time to “harden” my internet connection again high SWR conditions but I did so and tested it before I went remote. And for sure a power supply must be protected against high current over current conditions. And this is not just short circuit conditions. Many power supply act very different in a over current condition then a short. Sounds like that may have been the case in this event. I too am waiting for the SW update to fix the SWR tuning issue but as a station owner operating remotely, I have stresstested my station to make sure it is as safe as it can be. Yes I know nothing is perfect but without testing you never know. Not doing this is not an excuse. Finally, as a repeater owner I add a circuit that samples the xmit RF. It had a built in timer of 5 minutes. If a keydown lasted over 5 minutes, it shut the power supply down. This is actually a great reminder that I should add this to my remote station to give me even more fault protection and keep me compliant to all our rules and regulations..

Neil D Friedman N3DF

I guess I don't understand.  If my Flex somehow locked in tune mode because of high SWR, couldn't I remotely turn off the radio and/or the power supply?

Ken AG2K

Neil D Friedman N3DF

OK.  High SWR causes household wifi to lockup.  

Lionel

watchdog timer - good idea.

Harold Rosee

Mark NS9N

Hi Harold, sounds like you have done some hardware investigation. Can you please detail what you have found so we can all understand what is going on?

Burch - K4QXX

Could you explain this?  How can high SWR **** your internet connection?  Were you getting RF into your router some how that disconnected your internet?  I run remote and sometimes have my PGXL running so I am curious what this issue was as I surely don't won't to have my radio transmitting when I'm not able to stop it.


Harold Rosee

Erika - KØDD

W7NIK

Wow nice writing skills, I enjoyed that. I also have windows 10 problems . My Ftdi usb devices are not working anymore. If i remove the usb com # then update the driver. 2.28 Ftdi . Then I get a pop up reboot your computer for it to work . I tested the usb connection before the reboot it works great both devices, erc controller and the wavenode sensors. . Reboot I get errors message and the devices do not work anymore. I plan on doing a computer reset now. Why can’t we stay with win 7 ?

Chris DL5NAM

i am using since years W10 and using FTDI USB-cable on 3 PC here in my shack = not one problem with USB or FTDI

So, maybe you search the problem on the wrong end 

Chris

Tim N9PUZ

Erika - KØDD

Its wonderful you don't have any issues. This doesn't mean others are NOT. It doesn't mean RF doesn't get into stations' cabling, it doesn't mean the tuners don't work, it doesn't mean there's not software conflicts on various machines.

BUT What FIX are you talking about for the VSP port issue?  UNLOADING and Reloading IS NOT a fix.  And which version of win 10 are you referring to?  My machine was a clean install including a brand new SSD as one of the previous explosions left my system drive unbootable.  We're using v1909...the latest. There's been a problem about every 5 days.  You can only remove and reinstall software so many times before something becomes an issue/ unstable...  Its NOW an issue and the computer after only 2 months is going to need a complete reload AGAIN...

This is a pretty powerful machine...  and I DO run Everything on this box as it is my only windows computer.  From  TURBO TAX, Microsoft OUTLOOK and all of OFFICE 2013 PRO... Internet browser...  The audio was reconfiguring  too with windows defaults...  I had Skype ringing on DAX channels and I flat had to take ECHOLINK off of this machine....

The last explosion occurred after a security update to OFFICE.  Thats when the page fault thing started and I got the VSP trial period had expired.  All the rest of the times it was just everything stopped working. It looked great...  WSJT-X looked like it was working fine, but nothing would decode...  1/2 the time it's DAX the other half its CAT... DAX usually just needs closed and reopened, other times its close ALL software and attempt a reboot...  The blue screens just started last week.

I spent 20 years in IT supporting 30 separate business all at the same time with my own consulting firm, The only time I had real headaches was a GOOFY microsoft update to EXCHANGE SERVER 2007 they put out one weekend that caused ALL THE MAIL configurations to delete and turn the mail server into a brick until I spent 1.5 hours reconfiguring what got deconfigured...  Including unloading that update. The thing auto updated with that defective update three times in one week before they said oh **** and took it off the update cycle and actually fixed it.  It was taking out EVERY EXCHANGE SERVER IN THE WORLD.... We're talking 100,000's of them....  The response was SORRY everybody, our bad.....

Other than the Chinese hacker island stuff from 2008 where they were seriously data mining and we needed to block all the IP's out of china to our system in the firewall... 

Note: I had the IT contract for a US Senator's reelection campaign and china had an interest in trying break into and **** the brains out of our 16 servers...  Of which all of them had internet access...  PLUS we had 300 remote workstations to the data storage.  SOOOO.

Two serious headaches in 20 years... The pain lasted only 2 weeks and they were not consecutive weeks.  I've had more issues since buying this radio than I had combined in 20 years spread over 30 businesses. PowerSDR on the FLEX 1500 wasn't an issue at all...

I just hope they get with the program soon.  But I seriously suspect programmers are way over their heads and have zero clue what to do next.  I'll probably need to pull every app off this machine and bring up a second computer to handle my office stuff.  Every time I was bringing up YOUB TOOB on a browser FT8 stopped decoding. sigh

Ham Radio goodies:

SSDR v 3.1.8, WSJT-X v 2.1.2, JTALERT v2.15.9, DDUtil v 4.0.1.09, HRD 6.7.0.262.

Just don't try to reboot the computer it will blue screen several times... and no matter what make sure if you're going to reboot it make sure SKYPE and OUTLOOK are definitely closed or it will not even come up until VSP is BLASTED out of the way..  double sigh

Have a nice day, DD

W7NIK

WA2SQQ

Robert-KP4Y

Hi Tim,

We had exchanged emails but now that my 6600 will be shipped to Austin, it seems like Dan has taken took over my case. Any change the sudden high SWR and no power issue with my 6600 is related to the firmware issue? I believe it all started when the ATU started to behave weird after installing version 2.61. As an update (Dan is aware of this), the issue seems to be worst with ANT-1. When switched to ANT-2, the SWR seems to match my external Wavenode meter, although there is a constant beep sound as though the SWR is above acceptable levels, and the radio puts out 90W (still some foldback). 

BTW, as you know, the warranty on my radio expired just a couple weeks ago. Moreover, I'm an extremely busy person who uses this radio sporadically, so it very unlikely that wear and tear, or even misuse since I'm a professional engineer, broke this radio. I'm about to ship this radio at my expense and just hope that I'm not paying for something that Flex **** up!

PS: I do recognize your excellent customer service and quick turnaround processing my service request.

73,
Robert-KP4Y/W4      

W7NIK

I  have reset my computer back computer months , loaded the devices, wave node, ERC , streppir all working again . NEVER update , Like the movie Apocalypse  Now , never get off the boat>

k3Tim

bobby

Bill -VA3WTB

Chris DL5NAM

>>> I know many people seem interested in my thoughts. <<<

LOL

Bill -VA3WTB

yea, go figure.  lol

bobby

Since I dont do remote I never have set the time out lockout since I am always there and can prevent the issue which I never experienced locally except when my very first desk mic I used had the ptt lockdown button on not realizing the cause I just unplugged the mic quickly and it went back to receive. Operating remotely is a whole different animal and one I care not to release from the cage, I wont even leave a washer or dryer run if I am not at the house. Thanks for you comments.

Tim - W4TME

It is highly unlikely that the sudden high SWR and no power issue with your 6600 is related to the firmware.  SWR issues with the radio by itself (ATU bypassed) on one ANT port is generally a problem with a relay in the RF signal path,

Bill -VA3WTB

bobby, I don't use the time out feature either. I only have my radio on while I'm at home. Not because it's dangerus but that is how I operate here.

Flex radio is known as the remote king in ham radio because it works so well with little effort.
In the future, if you ever think of using remote from away from the home, just take the proper precautions. It really is very safe.

Neil D Friedman N3DF

I'm still wondering how a high SWR on my 6600M, if I ever had such, would shut down the wifi in my residence?