Requesting an update on new units/manufacturing status
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markjrenna
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In an extremely bad simulcast area here in NJ. Looking to get my hands on this. Any ETA?
Production boards have been ordered. There was a minor change to the hardware (before boards were ordered). The prototype receivers will be updated to include the change this weekend. They will be sent back out for further testing / validation. Initial reports regarding performance are excellent from one area (10/10), and some remaining improvements are needed in the other area. The HW changes should take care of the issues in the more problematic area. I should receive the partial pcb assemblies in 1 to 1.5 weeks. I will immediately start assembling the first batch when the boards arrive. The first few may be ready to ship as soon as 2 weeks.
Todd, is the cost for the new P25RX-II going to be a significant increase compared to the current model? I know that's a subjective "relative" thing but, just want to get an idea. I would gladely pre-order if the cost is not too much more but have to be carefull these days.
markjrenna
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Thank you for the update. Will we get updated here as to when we can order?
I'd like to know if there is a list too. If so I'd like to be on it. I tried emailing inquiring about it but not sure if it went through
Mike, there will be an increase in the cost. It will remain one of the lowest cost options. I hope everyone understands that there is no way around price increases in order to keep BTT going. I've borrowed money to try and stay ahead of the parts shortage by stocking up on various parts. I am commited to keeping this going. I will provide a discount code within the product announcement in the BTT sub-forum.
I will create a new thread in the Bluetail Technologies sub-forum. The new product announcement will contain more details, specs.
I'll have more details on the design differences between the P25RX and P25RX-II in the announcement.
Time for a status update. The feedback from the prototype in IL has been very positive. This includes P1, P2, and mobile testing on Linux, Windows, and Mac platforms. The prototype in the PA area is undetermined at this point. The tester there has been very busy. The reports to this date have not been good, but I haven't heard back since an issue was fixed with P2 after the unit was modified. In addition to the feedback from IL, the ACPR measurements and local mobile testing also indicate that the P25RX-II is ready to go. I will be building a small run of production units over the next couple of days. I will also be putting a brief document with specs and comparisons together. I will post that here before the new product announcement. After the announcement, they will be available on the web site. Assuming there is interest, don't worry if the first small run sells fast. There will be more available soon after. I'm only short on a few parts that shouldn't be difficult to get. The first few batches will have the same blue enclosure as the P25RX. After that, they may be a natural brushed aluminum look (due to availability).
I was not able to make the progress I had hoped for this weekend with regards to production. I was able to get a few production units assembled, calibrated, and tested. They are going together very nicely and will start to be available on the web site soon. I was also able to order the parts that I was low on (they were all in stock). I also didn't make the progress on the documentation that I hoped for, but I will share a link to what I have so far. It will continue to be updated. I received an update from the tester in PA. He took the receiver to work and tested it indoors with a telescopic antenna. The results were good in this simulcast area. This is a location a few miles outside of Philadelphia. We still need to figure out why the antenna on his roof is not working well. Here is a link to where you can find the P25RX-II document.
Awesome. Thanks for sharing! Any plans to add Cap+ functionality in the future?I was not able to make the progress I had hoped for this weekend with regards to production. I was able to get a few production units assembled, calibrated, and tested. They are going together very nicely and will start to be available on the web site soon. I was also able to order the parts that I was low on (they were all in stock). I didn't make the progress on the documentation that I hoped for, but I will share a link to what I have so far. It will continue to be updated. I received an update from the tester in PA. He took the receiver to work and tested it indoors with a telescopic antenna. The results were good in this simulcast area. This is a location a few miles outside of Philadelphia. We still need to figure out why the antenna on his roof is not working well. Here is a link to where you can find the P25RX-II document.
Currently, the P25RX-II can receive P25 I/II, DMR Con+, and the new TDMA P25 control channel that some energy companies are using in Texas and Florida. There aren't any Cap+ sites close to me, so I'm not really sure what it is missing. I thought that the Con+ mode allowed monitoring a Cap+ system to some degree, but I'm not sure about that. I'm willing to add new features to DMR in the future, but adding scanning and channel search are higher on the priority list right now.
Gotcha! I deal mostly with Cap+ in my day-to-day work so was just curious! With Connect+ dying out in most places (atleast in MD) I'm not super familiar on the differences either. TDMA CC should be able to capture most of it but not sure. Ill research the differences and see if there's anything notable.
Sorry for the confusion. The TDMA CC thing is a new, rare P25 mode. Support was added recently to the P25RX receivers for this mode. When the time comes to add support for Cap+, I would probably have you record a Cap+ control channel for a while, so I could play it back here and figure out what the differences with regard to voice grants (I may have already added some support for this). I haven't added it to the interface yet, but I plan on adding a record-symbols feature.
Yes you could, but I have to add the record feature first. I have most of it already done, but still need to add it to the gui. This is what I had to do back when I was adding P25 P2 support last year in order to get the scrambler code working.
Manufacturing status update: I've taken about 30% of the gross income from P25RX-II sales up-to-present and invested it in more parts to try and stay ahead of any outages. I've started to check for MCUs frequently to see if any have become available. I found some (for P25RX-II) available from a trusted vendor a couple days ago. I bought them all. I learned my lesson on that. They might not be fabbed for a year or more (nobody knows right now), so you have to get them when you can. The same vendor also had the RGB led when nobody else did. I bought a good supply of those too. Thanks unnamed vendor! An order for some of the other parts showed up today. Things are looking good right now. I need to do a complete inventory, but I think I'm doing ok on the hard-to-get-stuff right now.
freqseeker
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