Is it necessary to “Cold Boot” your FLEX-6000 after upgrading the radio firmware?

WY1U

I upgraded to v3.6.8 last night, but forgot the cold boot step. Everything seems to work fine. I did follow the “Cold Boot” on my FLEX-6400 this AM.

Thanks and 73, Tim WY1U

VE7ATJ_Don

While it's not 'Absolutely required', it IS recommended :-)

David Decoons, wo2x

It is stated to cold boot the radio after upgrade in the release notes.

Dave wo2x

John G3WGV

I am at a loss to understand why a "cold" boot should be any different to just turning the radio off and back on a couple of minutes later (to give the caps time to discharge). That's what I always do and, so far, so good.

Al_NN4ZZ

John wrote:

"I am at a loss to understand why a "cold" boot should be any different to just turning the radio off and back on a couple of minutes later (to give the caps time to discharge). That's what I always do and, so far, so good."

Hi John,

I suspect that the "cold boot" process of disconnecting the power supply insures that there is not any power to the radio since some power supplies can hold voltage longer than others. And they want to avoid the case where someone just turns off the radio or the power supply and then turns it back on before the voltage supplied is fully depleted.

I just turn off the radio, then turn off the power supply ( but not disconnect the power cables) and wait a few minutes after the meter on my supply shows 0 volts. Then I turn on the power supply and then turn on the radio power button and wait another 2 minutes for the radio to boot up before starting up SSDR. The Flex "cold boot" process is 100% going to work every time. My process relies on making sure I watch the power supply meter go to zero and wait the additional time but I've never had an issue....and don't have to disconnect the power cables.

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ

al (at) nn4zz (dot) com

6600 SSDR V3.6.8

TGXL 1.1.20

PGXL 3.7.32

Win10 Pro V2004

Trucker

Like many devices now, a Flex radio,with it's power switch turned off and connected to a power supply that is still on, is not all the way off. There are internal components ( processors) that are still powered on. That is why a cold boot ( powering off the power supply as well as the radio) helps to clear things up that may not get flushed from the system after an update if it's not completely cycled.( cold boot)

Many times you can get by without doing a cold boot. But, not doing so can occasionally cause problems that would make you think there's a bug in the new software when it is actually not the problem. Best practice is to follow the update instructions, including doing a cold boot.

James

WD5GWY

Neil D Friedman N3DF

So power is running from the power supply to the processors even with the supply turned off and showing zero amps on its meter? The question is, is it really necessary to physically disconnect the supply from the radio?

Neil D Friedman N3DF

Trucker

Yes, the current draw with the radio off is very low. But no,you should not have to physically disconnect the power cable from the radio or power supply. The Flex power button will illuminate ( red) as the charge in the power supplies capacitors discharge. Once the button on the radio goes dark, there is no power being drawn from the power supply as it is completely off. You can verify this with a volt meter.

James

WD5GWY

KD0RC

Hi Neil, depending on what all you have connected to your power supply, it can take a long while for the voltage to decay far enough to stop powering the Flex internal processor.

At my station, I have all kinds of junk connected to my Astron RS-70M supply (speakers, WiFi 4 channel switch, 2 meter transverter, KAT 500 tuner, ANC-4 noise gizmo, etc.). When I shut down the supply (after powering off the FLex), it takes about 20 seconds for the voltage to decay enough for the Flex to blink the low voltage pattern on the power button and all of the other gear to shut down (LEDs totally off). A few seconds after that, the voltage shows zero on the supply voltmeter. The ammeter on the supply is too coarse to show the few milliamps drawn by the Flex and other equipment, so I can't use that as an indicator.

In my case, 30 seconds or so is enough to ensure that the power supply is at zero volts out. When doing a cold boot after an upgrade, I give it a couple of minutes before powering back on, just to be sure.

If you want to be absolutely sure that the big caps in the supply aren't still sourcing a bit of power, you need to unplug the 13.8 V line from the radio. That is why Flex recommends disconnecting the power cable.