The Official Latest G4/G5 Firmware and PPS Thread

[APX8000]

Well then that's an issue for me so unless I hear back from Unication I will be rolling back to the older firmware.


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[krokus]

I would love to be positive on how Unication does things. Unfortunately, instead of making things "easier for the consumers", they are coming up with numerous obstacles to jump through to get things working. From getting the software, the firmwares, to pricing. These have been nothing but headaches in order for the consumer to get. Let me remind you, I didn't pay $225 for the device.

I'll be the first one to praise them when they hit a home room with anything. Just like I have praised them in solving the LSM issues of scanners.

This is not a "consumer" piece of equipment. It is made for professional users, and provides some benefit to consumers.

Not to minimize the importance of your purchase, but my county has probably purchased as many G4s as the all hobbyists have purchased. They are trying to meet the needs of their core users, while still helping out the wants of the hobbyists.

They can only fix so many issues at a time, and the hobbyists are wanting some features that the unit is designed to provide. That means the engineers are having to figure out how to add, and more importantly, how to control those features.

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[PVPD730]

Well then that's an issue for me so unless I hear back from Unication I will be rolling back to the older firmware.


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As others have mentioned, I'm also getting the 32 zone limit on mine. As such, I had no other choice but to roll back to the previous firmware version. It's apparent there are still some bugs to be worked out in the latest firmware release.

 

[APX8000]

Just checked this morning and I also cannot add more zones. Can someone send me the older firmware and tool so I can roll it back ?


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[APX8000]

Double tap....got the firmware. Thanks.


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[W8VFD]

Firmware rollback

I rolled back to the Firmware in use by MPSCS and got my audio back

 

[APX8000]

Now that I've had the opportunity to play with both firmware versions, here are my thoughts:

The only benefit I saw from the newer firmware was the faster processing of knob position changes.

The bugs which caused me to switch back:

-Talkgroups NOT assigned to knob positions passing audio.

-Loss of subscriber ID display to P25T during transmissions.

-PPS limiting the amount of zones to 32 (big issue for me).

-Increased instances of garbled audio. I actually switched firmwares back and forth in these locations and confirmed it due to the firmware. My APX also was used as a 'control' to make sure it wasen't system based.




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[BenScan]

I emailed David, about the zone limit, and he said that should be fixed in the next version.

I need to watch it some more, but the loss of subscriber ID might be due to the receiver returning back to a talkgroup that was interrupted by priority scan. Anyone else noticing that?

I'm sticking with the new version for now. The more responsive zone/channel position change is worth it to me.

I have noticed an unlisted talkgroup or two come through at times. I suspect that might be related to resuming scanning also.

Ben

Now that I've had the opportunity to play with both firmware versions, here are my thoughts:

The only benefit I saw from the newer firmware was the faster processing of knob position changes.

The bugs which caused me to switch back:

-Talkgroups NOT assigned to knob positions passing audio.

-Loss of subscriber ID display to P25T during transmissions.

-PPS limiting the amount of zones to 32 (big issue for me).

-Increased instances of garbled audio. I actually switched firmwares back and forth in these locations and confirmed it due to the firmware. My APX also was used as a 'control' to make sure it wasen't system based.




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[APX8000]

I emailed David, about the zone limit, and he said that should be fixed in the next version.



I need to watch it some more, but the loss of subscriber ID might be due to the receiver returning back to a talkgroup that was interrupted by priority scan. Anyone else noticing that?



I'm sticking with the new version for now. The more responsive zone/channel position change is worth it to me.



I have noticed an unlisted talkgroup or two come through at times. I suspect that might be related to resuming scanning also.



Ben

Ben I tested it with trunking talk group scan with and without priority. Did it in both instances. It was very intermittent and I personally think it's related to not be able to 'catch up'...But with the older firmware, I noticed that the subscriber ID will not drop sometimes if the other unit is quick to reply. I also tested this parked on one talkgroup only in a knob position to eliminate if it was related to scanning multiple talkgroups at the same time, but it still did it. So even if they implement let's say a longer programmable talkgroup delay/hold time, they would still have to work on the quick to the reply issue. Just a matter of figuring out the programming on their end. My PSR-800 displays each ID back and forth so it can be done, but my PSR-800 doesn't work half as good as my G5 so I take what I can get in the meantime.





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[ffexpCP]

I once heard IDs are only sent at the start of a transmission. So if the radio missed it, it won't display.

 

[ResQguy]

I have never gotten better battery life than I do now with the new firmware. Both my G4 and G5 are performing very well, but still exhibit some of the quirks mentioned here.

 

[troymail]

I've now been running the new firmware for about a week. Best I can tell, at least some user interaction is improved. I seem to be able to switch to a different knob position with a bit more ease and responsiveness. The other thing I saw today was the radio interupting playback when live transmissions occur... not sure if this is something new or not (or if I like it).

I have seen some activity where I believe it was coming up on the wrong talkgroup but haven't determined yet if that was a mistake or some type of temporary patching by the dispatchers.

The real test will be a road trip next week to places where I've seen the radio just go into never never land off the deep end.

 

[brucebuck1010]

The other thing I saw today was the radio interupting playback when live transmissions occur... not sure if this is something new or not (or if I like it).

No, that has been like that before the latest update. It's just like a live transmission also interrupts something that you are doing in the menus.

Troy, thanks for all your testings and wisdom!

 

[troymail]

No, that has been like that before the latest update. It's just like a live transmission also interrupts something that you are doing in the menus.

Thanks - guess when I did playback in the past, it was on a system or knob that wasn't busy.

In this case, I had just come outside and was hearing of a large accident causing a traffic backup. Naturally, I wanted to know where it was to avoid it so I was doing the playback to hear the dispatch but the radio kept reverting to live voice (which was frustrating).

For first responders, this would be equivalent to trying to playback the dispatch to respond to the scene.

I suppose next time I'll have to try to switch to a different knob position that is (hopefully) less busy to have more user control over the playback.

Perhaps down the road, Unication can provide an user option in the PPS to allow the user to decide how this works. I'm not a fan of any radio having more control than the human operating it.

 

[krokus]

For first responders, this would be equivalent to trying to playback the dispatch to respond to the scene.

Knowing that you have been cancelled, or redirected, is critical.

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[APX8000]

Now that I've had the opportunity to play with both firmware versions, here are my thoughts:

The only benefit I saw from the newer firmware was the faster processing of knob position changes.

The bugs which caused me to switch back:

-Talkgroups NOT assigned to knob positions passing audio.

-Loss of subscriber ID display to P25T during transmissions.

-PPS limiting the amount of zones to 32 (big issue for me).

-Increased instances of garbled audio. I actually switched firmwares back and forth in these locations and confirmed it due to the firmware. My APX also was used as a 'control' to make sure it wasen't system based.




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So I reloaded the new firmware and ran it side by side with Unitrunker to do a little more testing.

It seems the issue of hearing talkgroups NOT assigned to a knob position are occurring on the same voice channel grant as the previous talkgroup assigned to that knob position. I did not have an issue of just hearing a random talkgroup pop up without hearing the audio of the assigned talkgroup first. So either Unication has an excessive hang time on the voice channel in the new firmware or the pager isn't processing the digital end code properly.



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[troymail]

Playing with wildcard talkgroup and noticing a couple of things...

I am seeing voice calls mid conversation when an active call ends. Still, there are times where other calls are totally missed.

The wildcard (ffff) talkgroup - even when set the record - does not record.

 

[fdnybuff18]

Has anyone noticed since the new firmware upgrade, the "Call ID Display Format" only shows up in Decimal Format? This would be whether it is set to Decimal or Hexadecimal.

Is this just me?

 

[BSchaner]

So it's been about a month now, does anyone know if the MPSCS has approved the firmware?

 

[IAmSixNine]

Since the new firmware i saw one post mention better audio. I also saw a post or two about better audio on bluetooth.
Can some of the other users of the new firmware chime in and maybe give some thoughts on how the audio is performing on the new firmware, not bluetooth related.