[aprssig] Lasting Compatibility of the D700a

[Jason Rausch]

I think the thing that bugs me the most about Kenwoods
lack of user-flashing capability is the fact that you
have to take the time and money to ship the radio to
them, so they can reflash it for a fee.

The way I see that, you are paying for their mistakes.
 I understand that nothing is perfect when it ships,
but geez, you would think they would throw a bone
here.  You already pay a small fortune for the radio
as is.

Jason KE4NYV
RPC Electronics
www.rpc-electronics.com

--- 'Scott Miller' <scott at opentrac.org> wrote:

> >From an economic perspective, there's a major
> advantage to field updatable
> firmware.  If updating the firmware requires factory
> service, then the cost
> of any bug is going to be high - either the cost to
> correct it, or the
> dissatisfaction of the end user in having to use a
> flawed product.
> Accordingly, the cost of testing is high, and it
> multiplies the cost of any
> new feature added.  There's not as much incentive to
> include all the bells
> and whistles when they introduce more potential
> bugs.
> 
> I'm not saying "ship now, patch later" as practiced
> by some software
> manufacturers is a good policy (I've seen games in
> particular that were
> almost totally broken out of the box) but when you
> only have to catch 99% of
> the bugs instead of 99.99%, you can save a lot of
> time and money.  You can
> also make an upgrade to the latest firmware the
> first step in your support
> process, so you only have to support one firmware
> version.
> 
> Scott
> N1VG
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org 
> > [mailto:aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org] On Behalf
> Of Matt Werner
> > Sent: Friday, May 11, 2007 9:38 AM
> > To: bruninga at usna.edu; TAPR APRS Mailing List
> > Subject: Re: [aprssig] Lasting Compatibility of
> the D700a
> > 
> > Some of the Garmin updates (maybe half of what
> I've seen) are *bug
> > fixes* as well as bells and whistles.  The Kenwood
> doesn't deal with
> > compressed objects, correct?  It sure would have
> been nice to be able
> > to update one to comply with the published spec...
> > 
> > You talk about maintaining on-air-compatibility -
> that's something the
> > Kenwood lacks in some areas BECAUSE of it's lack
> of updates.  On top
> > of that, we're now left with a spec that is
> catering to a device that
> > can't be updated.  We're left with a system that
> will never evolve
> > with the times.
> > 
> > On 5/11/07, Robert Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu>
> wrote:
> > > >... the only bad thing about the d700a is the
> > > > fact you cant flash it.   The way Garmin
> > > > does updates works VERY well...
> > >
> > > Garmin's are personal devices that have no need
> to be compatible
> > > with each other.  On the other hand, the
> stability of APRS as a
> > > common protocol instead of a constantly moving
> target of bell's
> > > and whistles has a certain value in maintining
> > > on-air-compatibility.
> > >
> > > As a communicaitons system, the intent of APRS
> was to make sure
> > > that all recepients saw the same tactical info
> in the same
> > > context.  Without consistency, a tower-of-babble
> results and
> > > communications reliability is deminished in some
> cases instead
> > > of enhanced.
> > >
> > > In that sense, there is value in the fact that
> the radio cannot
> > > be flashed and will always be compatible with
> all the other
> > > tens' of thousands of D700's out there, without
> having to
> > > download a new "version" every month or so for
> the life of the
> > > radio.
> > >
> > > Just the flip side.
> > >
> > > Bob, WB4APR
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > >
>
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> > >
> > 
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> > 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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