Roadmap for SmartSDR+

iz7auh · November 3

This evening I'm in a mood for reflection and I want to share with the community. This is the place for sharing, and I'd like to get the attention of the wider user base and the FRS staff. I'm wondering if I did the right thing by trusting this company by investing my financial sacrifices in SmartSDR+ EA. I don't know what their plans are for the next few months. It would be nice to know what they'll do. It could be a draw for other users. If there's only one more update in the next 12 months, what's the point of spending $300? I also think the choice I made wasn't the right one. A one-time payment policy for the major version and multiple minor fixes would have been better, and it would have attracted less criticism. Instead, I see a lot of negative feedback on choosing an annual subscription plan. What do you think? Are there ways to find out what I'll get and when?

Erik Carling EI4KF · November 4

Flex discontinued publishing a roadmap many years ago. So the absolute answer is no, there is not any way to find out what you will get except of course immediately ahead of any version release as is currently the case with 4.0.1.

Flex publishes "Flex Insider" that usually describes the latest software updates and perhaps some new products or planned software. There are not any promised dates included. You can subscribe to it by going to https://www.flexradio.com/ and a pop-up will prompt you for your email address.

I think the choice you made was not the right one. However, there will be numerous Flex users who believe the opposite.

Mike-VA3MW · November 4

We often get asked why we don’t share a public product roadmap anymore, and it’s a fair question. The short answer is that product development is fluid — priorities shift, technologies evolve, and new opportunities appear faster than ever. What looks certain today may be completely different three months from now.

In the past, we found that publishing a roadmap created expectations that were difficult to manage. Some items that were listed as “in development” never made it to release for a variety of reasons — sometimes the feature turned out to be too complex or expensive to complete, or it didn’t ultimately add enough value to justify the engineering time required. Every project requires staff, testing, documentation, government and worldwide certifications (most people do not think of this one) and post sales support (which we offer for free)— all of which are real costs. In the end, we must focus on features that have the greatest impact for the majority of our customers and the long-term success of the company.

Another big factor is communication overhead. Once a roadmap is public, customers understandably want regular updates. We absolutely value that engagement, but responding to daily or weekly “when is it coming?” questions across email, community posts, and social media takes time away from actually developing and delivering new features. If updates are delayed or plans change, we can also face frustration or criticism — even when the changes are for good reasons.

We are constantly working on new ideas and innovative features behind the scenes. Many projects never leave the lab, but the ones that do are well-tested, stable, and ready to provide real value to your experience.

We’d rather surprise you with something great than promise something we might later have to take back.

73, Mike

p.s. if you have ever worked in a manufacturing world, you fully understand all the challenges

Trucker · November 4

Mike, I am curious, when did improvements in DSP functions require Government and Worldwide certification? Except for Adaptive Pre-Destortion ( Pure Signal) which involves a transmitted signal which could impact other spectrum users, I cannot imagine something like Noise Reduction for received audio processing would require any kind of certification.

James

WD5GWY

Mike-VA3MW · November 4

James, that was a global statement.

iz7auh · November 4

Dear Mike, I disagree with you. It's too banal to say that you stopped because some projects turned out to be more expensive than expected. In fact, I'd say your answer has provided me and my readers with a very important insight: now that we users are paying an annual fee, do I think we'll settle for banal features that even the cheapest radios have had for decades? For example, see voice calls and CW autotune. Now you really have to commit to something unique because if you don't, you'll lose credibility and customers will start looking elsewhere. So, your financial operation is a double-edged sword. Be careful and make the expense worthwhile. Share your future projects and ensure periodic updates and implementations. Otherwise, I'll be the first to not confirm my subscription for the future, and like me, there are many who think the same way.

K9YK · November 5

I've been a co-founder and CTO of a business that serviced millions of POS transactions at some of the largest grocery retailers in the country, where processing speed and accuracy are of the utmost importance. That business was successfully sold to a much lager company. I've worked for a small start-up to a very large company and in between doing everything from database design, software engineering team leadership and have 12 years of software product management experience (the guys who are responsible for creating and managing a product roadmap).

The risks that you mentioned Mike are mitigated with proper product management. Feature design, business value, and level of effort are all evaluated before commitment to publicizing a roadmap or beginning development (proof of concepts not withstanding). I've been on a team of 3 engineers writing mission critical POS software for the 2nd largest grocery retailer in the US and not communicating a roadmap an delivering on it was not an option. Every business environment is different, but I believe product roadmap execution has to be possible at Flex with proper focus and management. I want nothing but the best for Flex, it's products, and customers because I believe the potential of the product line is tremendous and very exciting.

ik7ezn · November 5

Dear Mike, I cannot agree with your comments. I was a software project manager for a major international bank for about 40 years.
I assure you that the roadmap and periodic updates on projects and scheduled releases have always been a priority.
Especially now that you've decided to charge users a fee, it's at least necessary and desirable to have an overview of the releases
scheduled for at least the year. Commitments must be honored. I disagree with Flex's current policy, which, from your words, I would define as "day-to-day."
For example, with the new update, I saw the NB NR APF sliders, etc., disappear without a detailed explanation, at least I didn't find one.
In this regard, I chose Flex precisely for these features, which are now being arbitrarily eliminated, and I don't think it's fair for us customers.
I would also agree to annual payments, provided I know the exact dates and release. Also, one thing I think is fundamental: if I have a 6400
and many features won't be available, I think there should be a lower fee; otherwise, I'll be paying for non existent features.
In addition, when on the market do I buy and can have it available after 30 days !!... it's just absurd
Ermanno / ik7ezn

Mike-VA3MW · November 5

Hi Ermanno

Thanks for your comments and I will pass them on.

73

Stan VA7NF · November 5

Anyone that lived through the public (Hams and trollers) response when Flex missed a roadmap date by 1 week will understand that they (Flex) backed off the roadmap. We have ourselves to blame.

Personally I would like to see the roadmap return as both "general" expectations and marketing "futures". Re real roadmaps, I remember a bridge being built that eliminated 8 miles of mountain switchback. i.e. As Mike said, simple things change any roadmap

John Mikucki · November 5

I think the fundamental confusion/frustration here is that Flex is a radio shop that markets itself as selling a software product, but which acts like the radio shop it is rather than the software shop its marketing suggests it to be. Folks (myself included) have/had anger and frustration over the cognitive dissonance of Flex telling us "the software is the radio" (read: a significant amount of, if not the majority of, the product is the software) and then not having interactions like those of a software shop: regular updates, feature roadmaps (plus or minus schedule slip), cross-platform support, etc. This isn't to cast stones or say "it's easy" or what-have-you; just to identify the impedance mismatch.

IMHO the solution to this problem on the customer side is to engage Flex as you would Elecraft, Kenwood, ICOM, or the like: when the product (HW+SW) available to purchase actually delivers the value and features you want — and not a moment before — you spend your money and get a product. I think @Mike-VA3MW elsewhere on this board has represented Flex as saying precisely this: buy the software when it does the thing you want. Fair enough.

Flex has an opportunity here to grow into software-company behavior, and to thereby earn software-company benefits (like customers paying money in advance, with a reasonable expectation of receiving feature X or Y). And I hope they get there! I may take a throw on a first year of Plus, after the DSP sliders are restored to the UI and the 4.0.x kinks are worked out. And with luck, by the time I upgrade my 6700, it'll be a card-cage backplane and I can add as many* SCU cards, receiver cards, DSP cards, mgmt cards, etc as I have disposable dollars— both when I buy it, and 6 years down the road when the DSP isn't powerful enough/doesn't have the right ports/needs a sampler/… whatever the next problem is. :)

John KB4DU · 12:38AM

It would be more beneficial to me for Flex to fix some of the long standing bugs instead of adding more features that may well introduce more bugs. I don’t expect perfect software. IBM hasn’t been able to do that, but the buglist for Flex is pretty long.

Dan Trainor · 12:43AM

I would also like stable firmware with less bugs, first and foremost. Once stable and long standing bugs fixed, then yes some new features built on top of a solid code base.

John Mikucki · 2:23AM

@John KB4DU Good point, owners having access to a known-bug list (so we can see that we may not, in fact, be nuts or the only person experiencing this one weird crash-loop) would be lovely. I will stipulate in advance to not sharing ticket details (or, ideally in future, making it clear when submitted info would be public) as well as not-sharing security-related bug reports.

Greg SP7QJF · 9:49AM

I have two FlexRadio 6700s and can't use both radios on one computer. This is the only feature I've long been waiting for. Why buy a second FlexRadio if you can't use both together?
My FlexRadio 6700 always has 8x FT8 RX enabled, only v2.9.2 and v3.4.24 can receive 8x FT8 without DAX breakdown.
In my case, subscribing only makes sense if v4 will work with 8x FT8 and two radios on one PC.

Mike-VA3MW · 2:23PM

Greg, the upgrade to v4 is free. No subscription is required.

iz7auh · 2:36PM

I'm glad this post has gotten a buzz. My goal is to give FRS food for thought on hasty decisions. I recently received a survey, and this gives me hope that FRS is realizing its mistakes. It's better to fix them before it's too late. I've seen companies end up badly for making bad choices. I never wish that on anyone. I confidently await a roadmap, improvements, a return to the origins. We need to be able to say that flexradio is the best choice, not the worst.

Roadmap for SmartSDR+

Comments

Leave a Comment

Categories