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[TenTec] Orion Beta Firmware

To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec@contesting.com>
Subject: [TenTec] Orion Beta Firmware
From: John Henry <jhenry@tentec.com>
Reply-to: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec@contesting.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:01:04 -0500
List-post: <tentec@contesting.com">mailto:tentec@contesting.com>
The reason for this posting is for two reasons.
1 - To inform people of the progress of the V3 firmware.
Current Status:
Over the last two weeks I have received several emails and have seen
postings on several reflectors on issues that the customers have seen in
both the 565 and 566 firmware. We made a beta test build for both models
late last week, and feel that those beta releases bring resolutions to some
items that customers may want to see now. We are not finished implementing
all of the changes yet, but felt that it better to send out to the
customers incremental changes with a few items resolved, and in the
meantime continue on resolving the issues seen by the general public.

For the Orion II 566, we felt it important to make public the release that
resolves the HW Mic Gain Issue and also resolves the handling of the serial
command to enable/disable the tuner.

For the Orion 565, we felt it important to make public the release that
"starts" to resolve the screen gibberish issues seen with logging programs.
Note, this resolves some of the screen gibberish issues, and does not
address yet the invalid responses to logging programs. So programs such as
WinTest may very well get invalid responses and show empty fields, we still
have a problem where trying to use DUAL and DIVERSITY in N4PY when using
the RX366 subreciever installed (works just fine with the stock sub
receiver though). Etc. There may be other issues that we have not seen, but
will eventually as more customers using more control programs speak up.

We have made MANY more changes to the two models firmwares, and believe we
have resolved completely the issues with reporting invalid data items to
all control programs. However, this build was just made and since it has
not gone through at least a weekend of the beta team and others beating it
up, I don't feel comfortable sending it out yet.

So, that is where the Orion 565 and Orion II 566 firmware bases are at the
moment.
We have MANY issues resolved, and will continue to test them through the
weekend.

2 - The second point of this post, is to let everyone know that we have
posted the beta firmware to the TenTec Transceivers Download page that
resolves the following:
Orion II 566v3.027
The changes include:
- Fixed HW Mic Gain in SSB Menu. – This is necessary for people who do
require changing the
hardware mic gain to be compatible with certain microphones
- Resolved an issue where the TT0 serial command could cause various issues
with display and
front panel controls in the 566. (*TT0 disables the internal tuner)
Orion 565v3.027
The changes include:
- Corrected several instances where the main display and menu can get
overwritten with
“gibberish” when running certain logging programs.
- The “S” text in “SAF” can get partially corrupted when RIT is engaged and
adjusted.

The files are located at:
http://www.tentec.com/pages/Transceiver-Downloads.html
Scroll to the bottom of the page where you see a new section titled:
 565 &566  Beta  Firmware  Ruf Files
ENSURE that you read the "README" file in the center column BEFORE you even
attempt to use the .ruf files located to the far right.
There is one for the 565 and one for the 566.

This is being done so that people can benefit from the improvements we have
made thus far on the Version 3 code.

We are NOT done.

We should have an official release next week which will contain a newer
version, and when that happens, these two ruf files will be removed from
the web site.

CAVEAT: - Use at your own risk. These are not officially released builds
and do contain several issues. These issues are being worked on and will
hopefully result in an official release by February 23.

If you are not familiar with how to download and use ".ruf" files, then
please read the readme file in the center column BEFORE attempting to use
them. They are text files, and if you left click on them, Chrome/Firefox/IE
will most likely just open the file up and you will see a bunch of hex
records. Seeing the file does you no good. You have to download it first to
use to. Hence, Read the readme file first.

Or, make life easier, wait until next week if you can, and benefit from a
more tested/reliable file.

Sorry for the novel, but felt it important to state all that was mentioned
above.

Good Luck, and it WILL get better.

Thanks,
John Henry
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