8600 Fan noise

Sergey KN7K

Received yesterday 8600 and installed it today.

Still going through some AG/TGXL/PGXL troubleshooting and setup but would like to bring up the FAN noise issue.

It will be impossible for me to use 8600 almost 24/7 (like I used 6600) as Fan noise is loud, unpleasant and not suite to be on the desk (in my opinion of coarse).

I work from home, listening music during projects or FT8 and I do not see how I can manage it now with 8600.

I understand 8600 may need more cooling, but can Flex share FAN SPECification and advice for alternative? I can look for replacement myself if I know the spec's.

I do not want to return 8600 but need to find a solution. If I cannot find a solution quickly, I will return it.

Thanks,

Sergey, KN7K

Richard

Sergey, I have the 8600, moved up from the 6700 and have the 6600M as my 2nd station, and the only time I hear the 8600 Fan is when I first turn the unit on as it is powering up. If you are hearing the fan "all the time" I would believe something is wrong. Definitely, not a normal operation from my experiences. suggest you generate a Flex Help Ticket to get the right Technical Expertise.

Richard - N4RWG

Mike-VA3MW

When I add one local to me, I never noticed it. However, I guess it depends on how noisy or quiet your shack is.

As I test, I grabbed my iPhone with a sound pressure meter just to see what my shack ambient noise is and it was about 40db with bursts to maybe 50 db if I was typing. This is with 2 very big PCs running, a FLEX-6600M and its power supply.

If I turn on my Honeywell air filter, it gets to a constant 43db.

(if you don't know me by now, I am a fan of empirical data)

I also found out that the iPhone was pretty accurate for measuring noise. In a previous life, we had to measure the noise of a drone and we bought a $10,000 sound device and learned that the iPhone was really darn close (but not good enough for the customer we were dealing with).

Sergey, if you can grab some measurements and open a support ticket, that would help to make sure it gets tracked and we can then understand the root cause. It could be a bad fan or it could be normal.

johnn1jm

Mike, curious what app that is.

Phil_EBV

HI All, I am also experiencing an unbearable hiss that I have tried to attenuate with a trick....
I am just printing a one-month mini-review of my 8k6 rig, I will publish it on my web pages soon
www.qsl.net/ic8pof/iu0ebv not yet online.
The question is : would I go back to my Yaesu FT1000mkV_Field_modified RX in a
super_silent shack or ....
73
Phil_IU0EBV

ps: a second 8k6 with the same hiss stays at the home of a friend of mine, I am waiting for his report too


> @"Sergey KN7K" said:
> Received yesterday 8600 and installed it today.
>........cut for oil saving ....
If I cannot find a solution quickly, I will return it.
> Thanks,
> Sergey, KN7K

Mike-VA3MW

@Phil_EBV Before you publish your review, please give FlexRadio the chance to resolve the issue. It would also be good if you describe more of what you are doing.

I have also opened a support ticket for this.

• Frequency?
• Headphones?
• PC Audio or Radio Audio?
• RX EQ settings?
• Mode?
• AGC-T settings?

A bit more detail would be greatly appreciated.

Mike VE3CKO

I honestly don't know what all the fuss is about, I do not have any excessive fan noise from the 8600 at all. I have to put my ear within a foot of the radio to hear the fan. Same with 6700. I do have a hearing issue so I downloaded a decibel meter app on my Samsung phone with these results (average), using the phone mic at the bottom pointing to the direction of the radio :

• 34db - 1' from front of 8600
• 27db - 4' from front of 8600
• 27db - elsewhere in the shack five to 5 to 15' from radio
• 26 db - outside my shack door

Sergey KN7K

Wow -

"34db - 1' from front of 8600" - I have it at 52db

Mike-VA3MW

thanks guys… I passed this on to engineering.

Phil_EBV

HI Sergey and All.
I have measured with a DBMeter APP on the phone abt 33db in the quiet room, Flex OFF , and about 41-42 db with the Flex ON
after 10 minutes warming and only in RX; the distance of the phone from the RIG about 50cm.
I know that these values are low, but always audible even with the RIG in stby and baseband noise at low level.
The speed of the fans stay at minimum only few seconds then go to what I suppose be the middle run, and goes to
maximum (suppose so) when running some QSOs at 100W.
The SPE 1k5 in stby (with 4 fans) is barely audible.
But I have discovered the GOST in the bottle\chassis : with another APP called SPECTROID which shows the spectrum from
0 to 10000Hz in realtime, there is a peak at about 280Hz always running as the Flex is ON;
I have a short video but dont know how to attach it here, I will put on one of my web pages and paste the link here as I do it.
This continous whistle makes me very nervous. What to do is to be studied.
The room temperature is abt 19° Celsius.

73
Phil IU0EBV
ex IC8POF





> @"Sergey KN7K" said:
> Wow -
> "34db - 1' from front of 8600" - I have it at 52db

Mike-VA3MW

Phil, please open a support ticket and add the video to the support ticket.

Phil_EBV

HI Mike, of course I will do that... and ok that I have plenty of free time now, but I would spend more time being active on the bands than cutting\pasting videos HI as running after a possibly defective fan.
Anyway I am glad that all the rest works fine, it still lacks some features but it is only software no hardware to solder\tune etc....
I keep cross_fingers with both hands HI HA HO
73
Phil

SIINC

I have my 8400M not even a week now and I can tell you that the fan noise is hard to live with no matter what you guys are measuring. I was shocked when I first turned it on. I never owned a piece of equipment with his much fan noise. I was about to create a support ticket for this issue and then came across this post. I guess not much can be done at the moment, but I hope it can be addressed.
Al

Trucker

Flex Radio is aware of the problem and has a fix for it. You really should go ahead and open a Help Desk ticket to get it resolved. The longer you wait the more you will be annoyed by it.

James

WD5GWY

Mike-VA3MW

We are aware of the fan noise and it is an issue with some (not all) fans. If you have a loud fan, open a support ticket and we will move forward from there.

Sergey KN7K

SIINC, I originated that post for a loud fan issue and open ticket with Flex. Fan noise from my 8600 was not sustainable.

I was told by Flex to open radio and check if there any cables touching the FAN. It was not the case. However, I turned radio ON without cover and after initial Start UP Fan speed up and lowering speed to a "normal", the noise was still very noticeable. I pushed slightly FAN back and force and it did not change the noise, but, when I pushed it a little bit side to side, noise was GONE!

Now, you have to distinguish if you have a vibration noise or normal fan noise that you do not like or think it is too high.

In my case, I installed 3 pieces of foam - 2 on each side of the Fan and 1 between the panel where is Fan sitting and the the front panel of the radio. I sent video demonstration to Flex and I was told they are working on the fix (I do not know what and when the fix will be). Noise on my radio was related to a Fan vibration and 4 rubber studs did not do a job to prevent it. Now my 8600 at the same noise level as my old 6600 that it is acceptable.

Sergey, KN7K

Mike-VA3MW

We do know the root cause of the problem and it turned out to be something apart from the obvious. Sergey, when you can and it doesn't impact your contest schedule, send it back to use for the permanent fix.

DM2DZM

Hi, I have a 1 day 8400M and was very happy when it arrived. Now I am very sad because of the high noise. I used to have a 6400M and it was very good! What can I do now? It may be difficult to send it to the USA.

Mike-VA3MW

We have a support center in Germany. Please open a support ticket.

DM2DZM

I have already done that, but I bought it from a dealer in DL 3 days ago and if you know about such problems, you can't sell these devices. The return shipment to the dealer also costs me another 100€, which is probably not much fun. My previous FLEX 6400M was also supposed to be unrepairable, still had 6 months warranty, didn't get an exchange and only trouble with it and new costs, then it was suddenly repaired and sold new but not returned to me. Now I had waited a good 8 months for the 8400M and am supposed to have a lot of trouble with it again.

Mike-VA3MW

@DM2DZM

We are sorry that you had to go through all that. Make sure you mention that in the support ticket. I am not at liberty to provide any guidance at this time.

DM2DZM

ok, tnx

DM2DZM

Yes, the 6400M is now back from the rebuild by DC6UW. It's gone down from 60db to 45-50db but it's still very loud when you're working with speakers and it's on the table, unfortunately. Does it make sense to install another fan from "Nocuta" or similar and which one should it be? Does anyone have a suggestion?

tnx 73 de Peter DM2DZM

DM2DZM

Trucker

Not very encouraging. I had hoped they solved the noise problem. If the 8600M I ordered shows up and is that loud, it will be returned for a refund. My 6600M with a new fan I bought from Flex Radio is quiet and runs cool. I would have thought that the new radios could be designed to be just as quiet using a better fan.

James

WD5GWY

Gord-VA7GP

😮

My Collins 30S-1 tube-amplifier from the early-60s is retrofitted with the loud Dayton 3600rpm blower for better cooling… and I get 48dBA from that when I'm at the radio-desk. Not what I'd called "quiet", like the Dell small-form factor computers at 28dBA that I use…

DM2DZM

@James ok sri

My previous 6400M was also very quiet but unfortunately a total loss under warranty

However, if I install a new fan myself, the warranty will probably no longer apply

73 de Peter DM2DZM

DM2DZM

Could some one tell me the air flow rate so that I can look for another one if necessary?

I have not found the data from the built-in RoHS

tnx 73 Peter DM2DZM

DM2DZM

Hello an new Test FLEX 8400M

I measured a simple PC fan for comparison, also 14x14x2.5 cm at 1400 rpm

73 der Peter

DM2DZM

an here is is a test from my Friend HB9BMD with FLEX6400M

is vy nice hi

DM2DZM

I have now done a test in FT8 with 30W power, the fan starts up to 12V after about 10 minutes and appears to be at full speed. The noise level is then at about 80-90dB unfortunately. I have also put whole thin rubber washers under the bracket but that does not help much, whereby the fan now no longer touches the metal

73 de Peter