Update Please
- Thread starter VE3RADIO
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NWI_Scanner_Guy
SCANNING THE AIRWAVES SINCE 1987
joeuser
The Wretched
Well said TAC_66!!
The powers that be really need to put a "like" button on the forum.
agreed!
markbart
Member
Agree also.
omrail
Member
I think what most people want is regular meaningful update from Uniden.
While I understand that there are issues trying to get audio over wifi, why not at least put out the app without that feature, but still let us control the scanner? I would be more than happy to be able to control the scanner remotely while having the audio stream through the computer (without having to through RDP).
JamesO
Member
I think the community is owed monthly update moving forward.
We need separate updates for the Siren App on both phone platforms, the wireless dongle progress, the Analyze feature and general firmware for decoding and features.
I am really concerned with firmware being done by non native English speakers. Not that the non native English speaking firmware group cannot do the job, but delays, confusion and inability too actually monitor an operation trunked system seems to make things much more cumbersome. Uniden need to send test mules with remote software to difficult areas to finalize development.
The App/final firmware delays seem to be with the wireless adapter firmware. There are TOO many wireless standards and the firmware is getting too complicated AND things like buffer sizing and clocking are misunderstood and overlooked. Unfortunately most wireless firmware/drivers taken18 months to iron out the bugs! Give us a simple hardwired interface in the interim and we can do everything the wireless interface will with the addition of a router configured with 3rd party software.
We need separate updates for the Siren App on both phone platforms, the wireless dongle progress, the Analyze feature and general firmware for decoding and features.
I am really concerned with firmware being done by non native English speakers. Not that the non native English speaking firmware group cannot do the job, but delays, confusion and inability too actually monitor an operation trunked system seems to make things much more cumbersome. Uniden need to send test mules with remote software to difficult areas to finalize development.
The App/final firmware delays seem to be with the wireless adapter firmware. There are TOO many wireless standards and the firmware is getting too complicated AND things like buffer sizing and clocking are misunderstood and overlooked. Unfortunately most wireless firmware/drivers taken18 months to iron out the bugs! Give us a simple hardwired interface in the interim and we can do everything the wireless interface will with the addition of a router configured with 3rd party software.
BigC801
Member
December 31, 2017
The problems Uniden is having with delivering the advertised features in their latest products are indicative of a trend that has been happening for the last decade as companies which were thrived primarily because of their hardware products attempt to compete in an increasingly hybrid, software driven environment. They often have problems with the software engineering side because that has not been their forte. They will have to adjust quickly and invest more into their software engineering resources or watch their reputations and revenue streams suffer. Uniden is not alone in this regard. Music companies such as Akai, producers of the MPC sampler/drum machine series, have also been under fire in recent years due to competition from software driven hybrid products from their competitors such as Native Instruments. Akai has slowly gotten the message and invested more into software engineering resources. IMHO, Uniden must do the same.
mitbr
Active Member
January year 3045
Last edited:
NWI_Scanner_Guy
SCANNING THE AIRWAVES SINCE 1987
That soon, huh? LOL!!
Better than NEVER, but I still won't be around for it.
joeuser
The Wretched
Well that's it, I'm going to have to adjust my will!
jeffrogerson
Member
I've yet to wade into this siren app non release, but Uniden is essentially saying "eff you customers."
Seriously though, no other company could get away with selling such false claims about a product, especially one costing as much as these receivers do.
The problem with niche markets.
Seriously though, no other company could get away with selling such false claims about a product, especially one costing as much as these receivers do.
The problem with niche markets.
JamesO
Member
Another major fail by a company that is "distributed" and does not fully understand technology is actually harder and more time consuming than they realized. Add to this the group added networking to a traditionally non networked product, took a 3rd party interface spec at face value, did not fully vet the product and did not know that wireless networking is full of WAY more minefields than wired networking.
Then we end up with a classic case of "Over Promise, Under Deliver".
Uniden had too many cooks in the kitchen, firmware developer(s) outside of the US that are non native English speakers, this just means DELAY after DELAY with differences in cultures, Time Zones, Holidays, different management priorities and on and on. In my experience, there is usually a "Firmware Developer" ie singular not plural. So if you loose the 1 guy, you are screwed.
Then Uniden was sitting back waiting on the wireless dongle vendor to resolve things. Again, many of the problems above probably factor into what is going on with the 3rd party dongle vendor - firmware developer(s) outside of the US that are non native English speakers, this just means DELAY after DELAY with differences in cultures, Time Zones, Holidays, different management priorities and on and on. In my experience, there is usually a "Firmware Delevoper" ie singular not plural. So if you loose the 1 guy, you are screwed. Then add to this ALL the wireless standards and minor issues that have to be tested, fine tuned and vetted. Wireless stuff is a PITA to get fully sorted out and tested.
Then add to this the App developer(s). Not sure if they have a single person or group for the Apple and Android Apps or a person/group for the Apple App and a person/group for the Android App. What happened here is nothing major, if anything was accomplished with the Apps because the WiFi dongle was not working. So the old chicken and egg problem. How can the App guys move forward of the networking of the unit is not resolved??
Then add to this the entire centralized server aspect for the Siren App. Uniden or a sub contractor has been probably procuring hardware, configuring it, moving it around, changing/updating ISP connections and possibly even procuring/changing hosting companies, web and IP addressed.
So this probably will take a small army of people that were never planned for, budgeted for, hired/sub contracted for. There was probably details specs/statements of work ever developed as this was probably all back of the napkin/white board stuff buy people that had NO idea of the level of difficultly, time and labor requirements. How do you convey to a person what is needed with a few sentences? If there are no firm requirements, then you leave the design up to the firmware developer that may or may not know what is really needed to get the system/product to work.
Add to this the need to get the Analzye Feature released, basic decoding and feature updates and tweaks, what is the priority, who's on first, who's responsible, where are the people, how long with this take, who's budget will all of this come from and there are WAY too many unanswered questions!!
Yes, I have read this book, seen this movie, been on the edge or had to support some of these endeavors, so I know all well how easy it is for some Non Technical Manager to say this is what we are going to do and lets get this done by the end of the month!! Little do these Non Technical Managers have an idea of the scope of some of these seemingly simple things they want to deliver can bankrupt the company in many hours of development and endless delays.
As this all starts to spiral out of control, the firmware developer get crapped on time and time again, given unrealistic deadlines and are worked like dogs. I have seen the very unfortunate situation where the firmware developer just throws their hands up and the air and almost goes postal, many times walking off the job and often away from the company for good. If Management does not "Manage" the firmware developer(s) tasks, workload and priorities and "insulate" the developer(s) from the chaos thing can go bad very quickly.
I hope I am totally wrong on all of this, but I have seen this over and over with many different companies doing very unique and cutting edge things and it is sad to see things that should work, be delayed and fall apart after a lot of effort has been expended.
Technology is neither quick or simple these days, especially when you have cross discipline folks involved with product development.
I stay optimistic we will see some progress this year, but being in the trenches I know how slow and difficult these tasks can be.
Good luck to everyone on both sides of the product. I hope money and time does not run out.
Then we end up with a classic case of "Over Promise, Under Deliver".
Uniden had too many cooks in the kitchen, firmware developer(s) outside of the US that are non native English speakers, this just means DELAY after DELAY with differences in cultures, Time Zones, Holidays, different management priorities and on and on. In my experience, there is usually a "Firmware Developer" ie singular not plural. So if you loose the 1 guy, you are screwed.
Then Uniden was sitting back waiting on the wireless dongle vendor to resolve things. Again, many of the problems above probably factor into what is going on with the 3rd party dongle vendor - firmware developer(s) outside of the US that are non native English speakers, this just means DELAY after DELAY with differences in cultures, Time Zones, Holidays, different management priorities and on and on. In my experience, there is usually a "Firmware Delevoper" ie singular not plural. So if you loose the 1 guy, you are screwed. Then add to this ALL the wireless standards and minor issues that have to be tested, fine tuned and vetted. Wireless stuff is a PITA to get fully sorted out and tested.
Then add to this the App developer(s). Not sure if they have a single person or group for the Apple and Android Apps or a person/group for the Apple App and a person/group for the Android App. What happened here is nothing major, if anything was accomplished with the Apps because the WiFi dongle was not working. So the old chicken and egg problem. How can the App guys move forward of the networking of the unit is not resolved??
Then add to this the entire centralized server aspect for the Siren App. Uniden or a sub contractor has been probably procuring hardware, configuring it, moving it around, changing/updating ISP connections and possibly even procuring/changing hosting companies, web and IP addressed.
So this probably will take a small army of people that were never planned for, budgeted for, hired/sub contracted for. There was probably details specs/statements of work ever developed as this was probably all back of the napkin/white board stuff buy people that had NO idea of the level of difficultly, time and labor requirements. How do you convey to a person what is needed with a few sentences? If there are no firm requirements, then you leave the design up to the firmware developer that may or may not know what is really needed to get the system/product to work.
Add to this the need to get the Analzye Feature released, basic decoding and feature updates and tweaks, what is the priority, who's on first, who's responsible, where are the people, how long with this take, who's budget will all of this come from and there are WAY too many unanswered questions!!
Yes, I have read this book, seen this movie, been on the edge or had to support some of these endeavors, so I know all well how easy it is for some Non Technical Manager to say this is what we are going to do and lets get this done by the end of the month!! Little do these Non Technical Managers have an idea of the scope of some of these seemingly simple things they want to deliver can bankrupt the company in many hours of development and endless delays.
As this all starts to spiral out of control, the firmware developer get crapped on time and time again, given unrealistic deadlines and are worked like dogs. I have seen the very unfortunate situation where the firmware developer just throws their hands up and the air and almost goes postal, many times walking off the job and often away from the company for good. If Management does not "Manage" the firmware developer(s) tasks, workload and priorities and "insulate" the developer(s) from the chaos thing can go bad very quickly.
I hope I am totally wrong on all of this, but I have seen this over and over with many different companies doing very unique and cutting edge things and it is sad to see things that should work, be delayed and fall apart after a lot of effort has been expended.
Technology is neither quick or simple these days, especially when you have cross discipline folks involved with product development.
I stay optimistic we will see some progress this year, but being in the trenches I know how slow and difficult these tasks can be.
Good luck to everyone on both sides of the product. I hope money and time does not run out.
bee
Member
WHAT??????? LOL
JamesO
Member
Never been around development??
You see and learn things you would rather not know!
You see and learn things you would rather not know!
woody_46
Member
What is interesting is how quickly firmware updates were made during the beta testing stages of the radios before their release...
yup.. that is a excellent observation... the whole thing is really quite upsetting.
oh.. and Uniden.. I just dumped $1200 dollars on a couple new commercial radios.. if your product did what was promised I might have bought a couple more 536 instead..
and for the flagmen out there.. (I realize the commercial stuff can't stream or fill the siren app need.. but at least I know the product will do EXACTLY what it says it will)
and for the flagmen out there.. (I realize the commercial stuff can't stream or fill the siren app need.. but at least I know the product will do EXACTLY what it says it will)
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