Hello Don, It is prefectly understandable for a slower rate of firmware changes because K3 is now quite a mature radio. In other words, K3 is no longer a 'work-in-progress' radio.
Once a product is mature, company may spend its effort to develop next generation product or consider additional features to enhance the product life of existing products. All those are typical business school theories. Elecraft is just moving in the right direction as it should be. I would only concern about the 'reserved processing power / capacity ' in the DSP of K3 so that the chances of future improvements are not too limited. Having said that, elecraft may be clever enough to let us swap a newer / higher power DSP board. 73 Johnny VR2XMC ________________________________ 寄件人︰ Don Wilhelm <w3...@embarqmail.com> 收件人︰ elecraft@mailman.qth.net 傳送日期︰ 2014年04月4日 (週五) 8:47 AM 主題︰ Re: [Elecraft] K3 - Ergonomics I have to compare the K2 firmware development and its time span with the firmware development of the K3. The K2 was introduced in 1999 and its firmware was improved to add new functions up until about 2006 (about the time the K3 was being developed). Yes, the update rate slowed considerably over time, and besides the K2 firmware cost the builder extra dollars. Since 2006, there were only 2 additional firmware updates - MCU 2.04P/IOC 1.09 to support the addition of the K2 Keying waveshape mod and the K60XV and then later MCU 2.04r was released with the only change being the selection of a sidetone source between U6 pin 25 and U8 pin 4 was restricted to U8 pin 4 because of numerous support calls and emails because "My K2 has lost its sidetone". There will likely be no more K2 firmware updates unless it is required to support a change required by an obsolete component that is no longer available - the K2 is a mature product. The most active firmware development was in the first 4 years. As for the K3, yes firmware updates slowed as development work on the KX3 was coming on line at Elecraft which kept the K3 MCU and DSP firmware (and hardware) developers busy with KX3 tasks, but there *have* been K3 firmware updates during that timeframe too, they were just slower coming. The K3 was first available in 2008 which makes it now almost 6 years old - like the K2, firmware upgrades were most active in the first 4 years - plus, the firmware upgrades for the K3 are at no cost to the owner. Development cost for firmware upgrades do exist, and there is no cost recovery for Elecraft except that produced by new K3 sales and the introduction on new products to amortize that cost. Keep in mind that there are two primary firmware developers who share their efforts between the K3 and KX3 (one for the K2). Other firmware developers were brought on line for the P3, the KPA500, the KAT500, and the KXPA100/KXAT100, but those developers are multitasking too, and they have to focus their efforts on the higher priority items - one of which *may* be the new product that is to be revealed this weekend. That is not to say that things still "on the K3 list" will not get attention, I am only saying that the rate will slow down given development time taken from the necessary attention to the 'new goodies' from Elecraft. Elecraft is not large enough to allow one employee to dedicate all his time to a single development task, so all are multitasking at all times. When I was with IBM, such dedication to a single task was possible, but Elecraft is nowhere the size of IBM and does not have those huge resources available. 73, Don W3FPR On 4/3/2014 8:01 PM, Ian White wrote: >> I have to admit, I find most of this discussion a bit odd. >> >> Why, is the K3 less "fun" today than it was two years ago? Why do you >> expect Elecraft to deliver more radio than you purchased? > Because that is precisely what Elecraft did deliver in the early days of > the K3 - both the "fun" part and the "more radio". > > The early adopters purchased the K3 with a lot of rough edges, on the > explicit understanding that there would be ongoing firmware upgrades; > and for a while, Elecraft delivered on that promise. We did get more > radio than we had originally purchased because that was part of the > bargain. > > While major features were still being worked on, K3 owners were happy to > cut Elecraft some slack about numerous issues of lower priority. We were > content with Elecraft's acknowledgement that "It's on the list". > > The cause for disquiet now is that the K3 upgrade process has tapered > off prematurely. As Elecraft's attention has turned to other products, > many of those "on the list" issues remain unaddressed. > > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net/ Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to vr2...@yahoo.com.hk ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
