Regarding obsolete parts, as Jim/Stan drafted in the announcement letter,
the Orion 2 has components that are obsolete which we can no longer get in
production qtys. We have sufficient quantity in house to handle repairs for
failures related to these components for at least 8 to 10 years. The number
we have in house and the number of years we think that they will cover is
based on the current failure rate of similar parts in the Orion. So we
should be covered for Orion 2 repairs for quite some time.
Regarding firmware updates, well, discontinuing firmware updates for the
Orion 2 is not in the plan. In fact, unlike our competitors, discontinuing
firmware updates for it's predecessor, the Orion 565 is also not in the
plan. As you will see soon, we have an update in the pipeline for the
original Orion 565 firmware. We will soon release it to the beta testers,
and as soon as they thrash it completely, and we have ironed out any
issues, we will then release it to the public. Once we are through with
that release, we will assess the requests for all of the other rigs,
including the Orion 2. Schedule the software changes to work on next, and
follow a similar release path. Let the beta testers thrash it, then again
assess the next rig to work on. Including the Orion 2. I still want to
address specifically the "Smeter affected by AGC or not" issue, and also
work with experts on the ability of extremely fast impulse noise spikes
loading up the AGC attack. Addressing Rob's concerns on the Orion 2 and our
other rigs regarding this same issue.
There is no exact specific plan yet for a real high end Orion 3 type of a
rig, but there is always "something" in the works for new rigs, and various
other products. I cannot divulge yet what these are, but as I have always
tried to tell this and other TEN-TEC reflectors/yahoogroups/etc.... TEN-TEC
is working on new products, TEN-TEC is not sleeping. We are going to
continue to address traditional user interface type rigs, and also going
into open source where we can to let the rigs themselves take a life of
their own, etc. We aren't sleeping, and yes, MANY in TEN-TEC read this
reflector, and others.
Thanks, and 73,
John Henry, KI4JPL
TEN-TEC Engineering
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