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Is it true that there is a problem with the 7000 MkII Black edition running Thetis on Protocol 2?

Is there a problem with the Gigabit interface?

Is Apache shipping radios?

-NJ2US

Mine is working FB here.
What's the problem?

73

Can't imagine what the problem would be. Every 7000 and 8000 variant uses an Orion MK2 card. The only issue so far was the few that shipped with the memory type jumper in the wrong configuration, but that was not a P2 specific problem.

Possibly a problem limited to a few late manufacture 7000’s, and that Doug is aware, and certainly not all radios are affected ..overheard in a discussion earlier this evening. It doesn’t appear that HRO is stocking any Apache equipment.

Jeff

Can you elaborate, Jeff? What is it, something like the wrong speed grade FPGA or something?

I don’t want to put anybody on the spot, but we were in QSO on 160 meters and a couple of us were considering a purchase of the 7000 black, when a regular jumped in cautioned us that there were at least two “documented” cases of P2 being flashed into a black edition and Thetis not working. Flashing back to P1 and MRX was OK. That led to a discussion about a problem with the gigabit interface. A comment was also offered that Doug W5WC is aware and investigating. But it was being treated like it was a guarded secret, or maybe not, I don’t care. But it did push me away from contemplating a purchase, and none are in stock at HRO anyway.

Jeff

Hmmmm. Can't imagine what the problem might be. Can only thing a wrong part went on the board somehow. Similar to how radios were escaping with jumpers misplaced, or speaker connectors misplaced, but having a wrong part on the board would be worse, of course.

Maybe that's why there's no stock, i.e. maybe they are reworking all the inventory.

I've heard of one instance of this on the larger 7000 chassis, the one the used for the PC-equipped models.

This is an isolated problem in two units that both Doug and the factory are aware of, we have not seen this in any other units so seems like an isolated problem.

Like all Manufacturers we are also having issues related to the supply chain due to the shutdown in China, HRO should have some units in stock by the end of this month, they seem to be selling them faster that we can supply the units.

Please note that HRO are the ONLY authorized distributors for the US.

Regards,

Apache Labs Support

It arrived P1. Currently using mine P2. No flash issue? Works FB.

Learning from on air discussions with the relevant folks that at least one of the suspect 7000’s will be on Doug’s bench in a few days, so there is no doubt he will be able to validate any problem and establish a root cause if, in fact, there is a hardware issue. The suspect 7000 is serial number 89. Worked serial number 79 last night and W4OCO is FB with P2 Thetis 2.6.9 (1/25/2020).

Jeff NJ2US

My new (black) 7000DLE MK-II (no internal PC) arrived from AU two weeks ago at the end of February. I can freely flash between Protocol 1 / PowerSDR and Protocol 2 / Thetis and SDR Console. I am not experiencing any problems.

There was a small hardware problem with the gigabit interface.. i’ve heard the problem was quickly identified by Doug, and corrective action taken.

Jeff
NJ2US

FWIW, I also had the problem of losing network connectivity after flashing protocol version 2 firmware. After flashing back and forth between version 1 and 2 and scratching my head, I finally found out that my (very old) switch just doesn't like to actually speak Gigabit Ethernet, despite that being advertised. And protocol 2 actually speaks GE only.

Solution was spending 10 bucks on a tp-link 5 port GE switch. I'm a happy user of the 7000 Black Edition with Protocol 2 and Thetis now (Firmware 2.0b, Thetis 2.7.0a3).