To Flex Radio

Bill -VA3WTB

I want to mention the latest SD card problems as it reflects on the customers.
It seems clear that a group, or maybe just one person has dropped the ball on this problem going back for some time.
It seems Flex was very slow on a response to this problem and did not pay much attention to it early on. I have talked to customers that state that  after warning about the problems, they were told that it must be something that the customer is doing wrong that causes the corruption on the Cards. Then also blaming the company that makes the cards for bad cards shipped to Flex, although to be fair there were some bad shipments. And that was corrected.

It seems clear that Flex should have been on top of this from the very first complaints and began looking into it. but after many customers were complaining, who knows how many, Flex looked into it. To late. I trust that in your next meetings you will discuss this in detail and talk about what could have been done differently and learn from it.

I am happy that the root cause of this was found and that we can all move ahead with this behind us, but it is the lingering un easy feeling customers have from the way it was, is handled.

The second thing I want to say is there seems to be a communication problem with customers. People want to be more informed about their radios in for repair. Or things happening in software that effects users enjoyment with their radios.

Flex has such an advantage over many companies when it comes to communications. We have this community, the only ham radio company with this kind of community format. It is a great place to communicate with us every day. Even if there is nothing to share, just drop in and say hi,,remember we are here to help. And we have the CEO of Flex dropping bye at times to give updates. and Flex staff read over the community and post to help us, and all this is good. Just keep taking advantage of this Flex!

I am not one as many people know fast to criticise, I will call them as I see them. I know Flex Radio will grow from this.

That is how many customers see this from our perspective. we don't have all the inside info and workings behind this, I would like Flex to give a rundown on what happened in the Flex world so we can better understand.

Rick WN2C

Dave - W6OVP

Bill -VA3WTB

Dave - W6OVP

Bill -VA3WTB

Dave, if you are not on the latest updates, your version has bad code, and that at any moment can corrupt you SD card, in witch you don't care bout from your comment. No problem, I hope nothing happens then you will need it fixed.

Dave - W6OVP

Thank You for your concern. Have a nice day.

K1ESE

Bill -VA3WTB

Dave did not say he was into CW, so the advice is good. As Tim and Ken knows, the code in V2..4.9 is bad. But if that is the only way people can use CW than yes stick with what your doing, then if the card gets corrupted deal with it then.

Bob Needleman

"Anything higher than that (2.4.9)  including any version 3 has problems."
Curious what problem you're referring to when operating CW with Versions above 2.4.9? I am a new 6600M owner, running the latest Ver. 3.1.12 and am primarily a CW operator. I am using it without any issues (I don't use QSK). I use an iambic paddle and the internal keyer. I haven't experienced any issues on CW (15-20 wpm)  so far so curious what problem you're referring to.
Bob K3AC

ctate243

With all due respect.. I support a major multi-multi contest station, We are standardized on 3.1.12.  We will be qrv in WPX cw, and one of our ops is a top ranking cwt competitor.  there are some minor issues sometimes and those have been communicated to the team for addressing, but overall it does not slow us down from being in the top competitive level in CW.    As far as the SD card, they have found the problem, and fixed it.  Sounds like according to time also fix 2.49 so I would hope we can move past this and look forward.

Bob Needleman

N8SDR

Bill -VA3WTB

Bob, I have no idea, you will have to wait  for Dave to to reply to you.

Ned K1NJ

ctate243

Bill -VA3WTB

Lasse Moell

Steven WA8Y

I am a CW operator, I've been using the latest version for about one week ( V2.6.2.50). The only difference, there is no TX in panafall. Is "TX is panafall " a setting I enable? If it is, where do I enable it? I don't use the ATU. I forgot that was a problem.

Bill -VA3WTB

Lasse,does it still do it on v2.4.9?

Bob Needleman

Michael N3LI

Welcome to the Flex community. For good or bad, anyone can post here, and they can post anything they want. If you read this group, you can come away with the solid impression that Flex radios do not work, have never worked, and never will work. I used to post here quite often, but find the place toxic today. and devolving to  the old rec.radio.amateur. policy netnews group level Coming back for a problem I was having, I see it has not changed. If your radio works - it works. We have a top notch contester using one of our club members Flex radios remotely to do CW. He hasn't complained. Peace out.

ctate243

Steven,  the answer is Radio setup > TX Tab and enable "Show TX in Waterfall"

Bill -VA3WTB

Bob, there are differences in the code and they are not fully compatible. Yes it is recommended not to go back. Tim posted a how to guide if you really want to.

Bob Needleman

Bill -VA3WTB

And Bob, nice work on your thoughts about profiles. You have spent a lot of time testing things to understand what is happening. I am now saving all my bands, modes and all possible settings with Global Profiles. Now as I jump around or play day to day, nothing changes in the profiles and they satay just like I want them. Thanks. I did much the same testing and study into the EQ in the Flex to understand what the sliders are doing and how they effect the sound of the radio. I ran tone test for each slider to find the cut off and all sorts of things and I did a far amount  of writing on it. it is nice to have time to play..lol

Lasse Moell

Honestly, it's been so long I am not sure. But it started to get frequent from 2.5.1 I was  about to try 2.4.9 again but as the SD-issue is still there I was adviced not to do it.  I may even drop down to 1.12 just to have a working radio.

Bill -VA3WTB

Lasse, As you know any update older than the latest has bad code in it. and not safe. It is up to you what risk you want to take on. Remember a fix for 2.4.9 is due out anytime. This will allow people to use that version and be safe from SD corruption. Many use 2.4.9 because of the ATU and a few other problems, so this fix for 2.4.9 will be important.

Lasse Moell

Bill -VA3WTB

Yes thanks for pointing that out. The problem is not a problem for every user. Maybe contact Flex and tell them that this is getting worse after every update for you. I hope it is better for you in V2.4.9. When the fix for 2.4.9 comes out, you don't want to go further back and put the radio in danger of stopping altogether.

I am not a Flex employee.

Mike-VA3MW

Hey Bill

I thought I would comment and share as much as I can on this.  I talked it over with Eric, our VP of Engineering, so he has also read your comments and we all feel the pain that people went through.  

If you watched the Friday broadcast we did you YouTube, we did discuss this and what happened.   Once we confirmed we had an issue (it usually takes 2 or 4 people reporting the exact same thing), we did start to dig into this.  And, it took a very long time to narrow it down since it was so intermittent.  

The symptom was that the card failed.  That was the easy part to find.  Narrow down the way too much longer than anyone wanted, including us.  There were lots and lots of engineering and support man months on this.  We never stopped looking and there was a  long period of time that we also thought that it was the quality of the uSD card.  

Once they figured out how to make it fail then debugging further got faster.  Then, they tried something as a fix and it worked.  Sorry, I can't go into details beyond that.  

Anyway, you have been heard and I am sure that sometimes we may look like we are ignoring you, but that is not the case.  It is that there are just not enough hours in the day it seems for all of us.  

You can always phone us and talk to us.  Everyone returns calls and you can reach me at x222 or even Matt at x204.  

Thanks for listening, Mike