Flex Restarts On Its Own

David Holmgren · April 26

Hi group,

My Flex 6600 which I keep on all the time restarts itself once or twice a day on its own. So I'll be working in my office and because I have my Flex hooked up to external speakers I'll hear a click sound and when I look at the front of the Flex the green light is flashing signifying a reboot in process. When it finishes the reboot it will turn solid green meaning it's ready for operation. This hasn't happened while I'm operating the radio but if it did I'd lose the connection to the radio. I've worked with Ken in tech support and he had me do the full reset procedure with the power button turning white and it's still doing it. I'm running the latest version of firmware 3.7.4. Any ideas guys?

David

K9AT

Alan · April 26

I had the same problem.

I traced it to a third-party USB device, causing the Flex to reboot to protect itself from a current draw that was too high on its USB bus.

I added a powered USB hub, and the problem has not re-occurred.

I'm not saying this applies to you, but it's conveying my experience.

Mike-VA3MW · April 26

I created a support ticket for this.

David Holmgren · April 26

Thanks Alan for the tip. I use to a a USB A to a 9 pin serial when I had my Flex connected to a Tokyo Hy-Power for band switching control. I have since upgraded to an Alpha 9500 that has RF sensing for for band switching so that device is no longer connected to the USB A connector on the back of my Flex. In other words there's nothing attached to the USB A connectors on the back of the radio.

Best 73,

K9AT

Rick N0VT · April 27

Do you by chance use the "Remote Power On" feature? When the same thing happened to me, I traced it to the RCA plug into the radio shorting itself intermittently.

David Holmgren · April 27

I do use the remote power on with the remote contact closure switch that Flex sells although I bought mine on Amazon before Flex started selling them. I then have the AC plug plugged into a TP Link. Then use Alexa to turn on my Flex Radio with a voice command. Pretty cool I think.

Rick tell me more about your experience with it intermittently shorting. Was it internal to the radio or external to the radio? Did you fix it or do you not use that feature/connection to the radio any more?

Thanks,

David

K9AT

Rick N0VT · May 1

It had nothing to do with the radio, the RCA plug on the wire coming from the relay to the "remote power on" jack was bad. Despite solid, well insulated solder connections I decided to check it with my meter and lo and behold I could get the plug to show an intermittent short by wiggling the wire. Ever since I installed a new RCA plug I've lived happily ever after.

David Holmgren · May 1

Great, Rick. Thanks for the reply. I think I have a corrupt profile because after I did the full reset, wiping out everything in the radio. It hasn't happened again. Those profiles were really old going back to version 2 since I've been with Flex for almost 10 years. So now that I have a better understanding what all is remembered in a profile thanks to the PPT that Mike Walker gave a group of hams on a YouTube channel 5 months ago. the YouTube channel was AZ0 something and really informative. You should look for it too.

73

Flex Restarts On Its Own

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