[TenTec] WAS: Omni 6 Logic board failure

[NL7VL]

Ron,

>Well, as a "new" (to me) owner of an Omni VI since last fall, of
>course this is of more than academic interest to me.  I like this
>rig!  I'd hate to see it become nothing more than a paperweight and a
>display item in the shack.

I have not had mine for years and years, either. In fact, I waited a
long time for one reason or another to get one of these. When they
first came out I went through quite a WOW factor experience! Kind of
leaves a bad taste in you mouth, doesn't it?

>But at least Ten-Tec's service people were willing to talk to you.  I
>know quite a few owners of, ah, radios of other (off-shore)
>manufacturers who have questions of a similar nature, and simply get
>told "sorry, can't be fixed" and nothing more. 

I think this is a VERY important point that people involved with this
issue need to understand. I doubt that the average ham realizes the
kind of abuse a service department can go through - especially if you
actually give a rat's *ss about your customers. This is not a "kinder,
gentler world" that we live in today.

The use of the term "academic" was not meant to minimize the
situation, but to put things into perspective.  As the famous John von
Neumann quote goes: "There's no sense being exact about something if you
don't even know what you're talking about." (paraphrase?) IOW we
have to know what's wrong in order to formulate a *specific* plan of
attack. But it's good foresight to have some extra ammo no matter
what.   

Many of us could kludge a daughter-board arrangement as a fix, but as
Geoff, N3OWJ pointed out, the costs of board development are
prohibitive - even to Ten-Tec.

-- 
 Neal, NL7VL

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On Wed, 19 Jan 2011 10:54:32 -0600 (CST)
Ron Notarius W3WN <wn3vaw at verizon.net> wrote:

>Hi Neal,
>
>Well, as a "new" (to me) owner of an Omni VI since last fall, of
>course this is of more than academic interest to me.  I like this
>rig!  I'd hate to see it become nothing more than a paperweight and a
>display item in the shack.
>
>Also, we need to keep in mind that this is not just an academic
>discussion for the Omni VI, but will happen with more and more radios
>of that era going forward as time goes by.  And not just those by
>Ten-Tec.
>
>I guess the first specific question I'd have in mind (and I don't know
>who at Ten-Tec could answer this) is whether or not the original bare
>circuit board either is available or if a few more could be run off?
>If that's possible,  then the next obvious question is what part(s)
>are now made of Unobtanium & what would be involved in replacing them?
>
>That would strike me as the most cost-effective way of coming up with
>a direct "plug-in" replacement.  And it MAY be a case that IF someone
>was willing to build a quantity of the boards on behalf of Ten-Tec, a
>deal could be worked out to do just that... or if not on behalf of
>Ten-Tec (as that may not be practical for any of an unknown number of
>reasons), on behalf of those willing to service their radios
>themselves.
>
>However:  If the original board is no longer available and can not be
>recreated, we are dealing with a complete re-engineering effort.  At
>what point does it become worth it regardless of the cost?
>
>This all being said, we are now getting into a realm beyond my own
>level of knowledge, and I don't want to make a presumption on what can
>or can't be done when I don't know what I'm talking about.  (I know,
>famous last words).  
>
>But at least Ten-Tec's service people were willing to talk to you.  I
>know quite a few owners of, ah, radios of other (off-shore)
>manufacturers who have questions of a similar nature, and simply get
>told "sorry, can't be fixed" and nothing more.  
>
>73
>
>
>Jan 19, 2011 11:14:33 AM, tentec at contesting.com wrote:
>
>Hi Ron,
>
>I'm happy that other people are thinking about this! It's complicated.
>
>>It sounds to me that the solution would be for a third party to
>>design, build, and stock a replacement logic board.
>
>Whew! That's quite a task, and as you alluded to, but I don't imagine
>the company would be interested in helping - and they might have
>intellectual property issues with some of this, too. It's one thing to
>do a run of custom chips if there was a SPECIFIC part that was
>failing, but to re-engineer a board ... The other idea would be to use
>a "daughter-board" scenario where an add-on board with replacement
>circuitry would plug into an IC socket. 
>
>But this is all academic unless we can zero in on a specific part of
>the board, and apparently we are not going to get that from the
>company. Someone has to troubleshoot to the component level, be willing
>to pay for it, and then share the information. Or a user group takes a
>collection and pays for a radio to be fixed. How much are you going to
>donate to the cause? It could easily be in the $500 range. 10 people X
>$50 = Hmmm.
>

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