Kudos to Adam Plumley

I had some trouble last wk getting range out of my 35 watt radio.
Today, it went downright disgusting. I could not get 800' through minor trees.
I tried all things. It would run at 1 watt.
But, at about 500' no more signal.
I tried 4 watts. 600'.
I tried 16 watts. about the same.
I gave up, and came home. I called Javad Tech support. I got Adam Plumley.
After a bit of careful checking, we found it was just one number behind, for FIRMWARE update, through NETVIEW/MODEM.
(The LS radio update said it was up to date)
After updating the Firmware, it looks like I'm back in business.
I blew a day, but, it seems I did not have to send it "back to momma" for repairs.
Thanks Adam

Here is the Radio Firmware I am on now:

FW_HPT435BT_V3_2_Rev_02_B28.xmd

Nate

I am a little curious as to how a radio could have decent range and then that degrade due to not updating firmware. The only thing I can think of is an update of the base or rover made that radio firmware obsolete somehow.

Yes, I don’t think the firmware version was the problem either. It’s possible that reinstalling the firmware fixed some problem with it.

I have seen this numerous times in the past with radio modems manufactured by others.

They simply lose their minds. That is the best technical explanation I can come up with.
Whether it was due to heat, cold, ground current or electrical interference of some sort, full moon, a bad case of food poisoning or any other reason, we could not pin it down.

We simply reprogrammed the modems and all was well again after that.
We adopted a policy of reprogramming the radios at least once a year after that. It worked for us.

Well, I'm going back to the job, where it quit.
If it runs a few hrs, then goes into "reduced range" mode, then I have a hardware problem.
As matt says, the re install of firmware may have fixed it, due to garbled code... But we shall see.
I'll report tonite.
N

Recently had similar problems with the 4 watt radio. Kept losing connection/link to base ID, so no corrections even though getting signal on the rover. At 4 watts would not connect, at 1 WATT would connect and then have the problems. I think it was a battery problem. I put the volt meter on the battery while operating, two batteries freshly charged reading about 12.80 volts sitting. One battery dropped a full volt while operating (the one I was using while having problems), the other dropped only a couple hundredths of a volt while operating. I switched out the batteries and everything works fine.

Update: it seems that it's fixed.
I go crazy places, and get good data.
Looks like were "back in business".
Nate