AR-DV10 very serious hardware issue

[marlbrook]

Thanks Woodpecker

A new firmware update was released on 13th July 2018 (1807A 2018/07/13). It allegedly addresses many issues, most importantly frequency stability and digital signals.
Currently DV10 owners are trying to test the new firmware. It is VERY important to remember that it was Forum Members who discovered these faults, and 'persuaded' AOR to eventually admit they existed and address them.
MOTIVES are an issue. Our motives were and are the same. All we want is for DV-10's to REALLY work correctly.
The motives of the Manufacturer, and some in the Retail chain MAY be only to make people 'THINK' the problems are 'fixed'.
I really hope they are fixed, however you may believe it 'wise' to keep up to date on what the Forum Members here, and at the Facebook Forum find regarding this latest, and any subsequent firmware updates.

Thanks Woodpecker. I know you are a trained Radio Engineer and have good testing equipment, and like mine, your motives are to help others who have, or are considering the DV10. Seems as important as ever to follow these posts, and on other Forums.

 

[F5HPE]

...., this would equate to around +/- 3ppm which although may be in spec is pretty dismal for a modern radio. It would also make it unsuitable for search and rescue use as you be in between cospas channels that are only spaced 3kHz apart.....
.

Hey woodpecker
My offer I done some days before is still valid !
If you have planned to spend a few days of summer vacation in the country of Football World Cup 2018 Champions , do you think to make a hook by Paris?
If so, I invite you to share several beers at the feet of the Effeil Tower.
And I will give you training on COSPAS, PLB and SAR.
Be reassured you will not have to pay anything.
It will be my pleasure to share this knowledge with you.
Cheers

 

[woodpecker]

Reading AORs description about discriminator recording, what exactly were they thinking when:-

1. Each time you want to swap between discriminator audio and just audio, you have to remove the SD card, insert it into a PC and add a blank file with DISC in it, what happened here, was the firmware guy on holiday and the janitor wrote some botch code, how about a menu option to activate and deactivate it?

2. It says "use to decode CTCSS, SCA, FSK, RTTY, FAX, Pager data, and trunked system control data, etc... For details we invite you to ask Google."

So each time you want to decode something you have to remove the SD card, put it back in the PC and then play back your discriminator recording, does this sound like a professional solution on a very expensive radio or some kind of after thought botch?

 

[Ubbe]

Guys, please! This is an open forum where everyone are allowed to view his own opinion. If a product do not live up to its advertising or its performance are not what to be expected in relation to what you paid for it, then you should try and inform as many presumtive buyers as possible to let them know what they might be getting into. But never ever try to impose your own opinion onto others.

If you buy a new expensive car and you notice that it drifts all over the road, you'll want it fixed. Then you might hear that other have the exact same problem and it is a manufacturing fault. You take it to the repair shop and they try to correct the problem but the adjustments are bottoming out and they return a car that drift a little left at low speed and a little right at high speed. The manufacture says it is withtin specs and you only have to steer a little right at low speed and a little left at high speed to correct it. It would not only be annoying driving that car it would also give side effects like excessive tyre wear and higher fuel consumption.

I would never accept such behaviour from a manufacturer of an expensive car that I would expect to have better road handling than less expensive cars that doesn't drift at all. I would demand to have the hardware replaced so that a full adjustment can be made and would let everybody know in any way I can about the problem that the manufacturer have no acceptable solution presented at this time and make certain that the information is found during a google search for a very long time.

/Ubbe

 

[EricCottrell]

Reading AORs description about discriminator recording, what exactly were they thinking when:-

1. Each time you want to swap between discriminator audio and just audio, you have to remove the SD card, insert it into a PC and add a blank file with DISC in it, what happened here, was the firmware guy on holiday and the janitor wrote some botch code, how about a menu option to activate and deactivate it?

2. It says "use to decode CTCSS, SCA, FSK, RTTY, FAX, Pager data, and trunked system control data, etc... For details we invite you to ask Google."

So each time you want to decode something you have to remove the SD card, put it back in the PC and then play back your discriminator recording, does this sound like a professional solution on a very expensive radio or some kind of after thought botch?

Hello,

The DV-1 also has discriminator recording. I can see it has some utility when you want to record raw audio for decoding later. The missing piece is using discriminator audio for real-time decoding. I thought the aux jack on the DV-1 might provide it, but it appears to be bandwidth limited. It could not decode a 9600 baud EDACS control channel. One thing I should try to determine is if the discriminator recording setting affects the aux jack output.

73 Eric

 

[marlbrook]

Makes one wonder

Who are you to offer me choices?

A random unknown person who appeared on a forum a few days ago on the other side of the planet, hmm

And you'll buy it from me? Of course LOL

A casual reader might think that certain people believe it is in their interests to have Woodpecker return his DV10 so he is no longer in a position to report on it using his well conducted tests, professional expertise and conclusions.

Of course that could not possibly be true, and their motives are above question. I for one am 100% certain they are not in collusion, or have any questionable motives. I wonder why anyone could even think such a thing?

Without the tests, Woodpecker and some others have carried out, using bona fide testing equipment, current DV10 owners, and those hoping to purchase one would have been faced with the lack of vital information.

One day, I really hope Woodpecker can report back that the DV10 has been totally and correctly fixed. His is one opinion I would trust.

 

[KevinC]

Please re-read this post from the CEO of Radio Reference...

https://forums.radioreference.com/a...ery-serious-hardware-issue-5.html#post2965894

Gentleman, cut it out, or the ban hammer is going to come down.

This is your one and only warning. Quit sniping at each other or find another place to participate.

 

[woodpecker]

Hello,

The DV-1 also has discriminator recording. I can see it has some utility when you want to record raw audio for decoding later. The missing piece is using discriminator audio for real-time decoding. I thought the aux jack on the DV-1 might provide it, but it appears to be bandwidth limited. It could not decode a 9600 baud EDACS control channel. One thing I should try to determine is if the discriminator recording setting affects the aux jack output.

73 Eric

Hi Eric,

The audio jack is a no go for live discriminator use, I also tested the playback of recorded discriminator audio via the audio jack, it gave a high error rate and poor decoding, I checked the response and there was quite a steep roll off below 100Hz, guess they either filtered the audio jack or capacitor coupled it with a value too small to pass low frequencies. Low frequency plot below.

 

[TMac20]

A casual reader might think that certain people believe it is in their interests to have Woodpecker return his DV10 so he is no longer in a position to report on it using his well conducted tests, professional expertise and conclusions.

Of course that could not possibly be true, and their motives are above question. I for one am 100% certain they are not in collusion, or have any questionable motives. I wonder why anyone could even think such a thing?

Without the tests, Woodpecker and some others have carried out, using bona fide testing equipment, current DV10 owners, and those hoping to purchase one would have been faced with the lack of vital information.

One day, I really hope Woodpecker can report back that the DV10 has been totally and correctly fixed. His is one opinion I would trust.

---------

WI for one am grateful (and certain others will be too) for Woodpecker's tests so far. I think in the end he should get his DV10 for free (I have just offered him $250 for his efforts so far).

 

[c0ne]

DV10 and a random crash during bootup with cryptic message. What a mess

 

[c0ne]

It also said CHARGING, without any cable connected to, i was to late with taking a picture because i was completely baffled by it...

 

[woodpecker]

Still nothing from AOR on the piece of junk

Still heard nothing from AOR on their DV10 piece of junk problems, another bug today, DV10 had stopped decoding anything digital in Auto Mode, also lost all audio in AM and FM modes, only FM in Auto Mode gave any audio, what a piece of crap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYrUEGLKCeg

 

[c0ne]

I had the same in AM, radio did receive but was like the audio was muted. I had to restart the brick and it worked again. What a complete mess, never had such a pathetic kit.

 

[c0ne]

They took software engineering back to the 80’s, this company is a complete joke. The level of incompetence is proofen by now. And this is supposed to be sold to governments lmao

 

[c0ne]

Updated manual specifications

In order to get away with the drift, AOR decided to just mention it in the manual.

 

[c0ne]

Correction, they added this single sheet of paper. Its not in the manual.

 

[palmerjrusa]

Aor ardv-10

And to think I was on the point of buying an ARDV-10.

This receiver is unfit for sale, new flaws are being discovered daily.

It's going to be interesting to see how AOR deal with this situation, ignore or be pro-active and resolve the problems.

I wonder if AOR felt forced to release the ARDV-10 prematurely before production issues could be ironed out because Icom had just released their ic-r30 receiver and that's its main competitor in the wideband receiver market. I own an ic-r30 and so far have been very pleased with its performance

 

[c0ne]

If you want something that does DMR/NXDN you are better of with a Uniden/Whistler fir the simple reason it shows detailed signal info wich is kinda needed so you know what/who you are listening to. If you are into HF the icom is most likely a better choice because its frequency is more stable on that.

 

[c0ne]

I assume trunk tracking receivers are more popular in the US, they lack of detailed signal info doesn’t help the DV10 much either.

 

[marlbrook]

Luck us - a page in the Manual that put everything right!

I may be old fashioned, but if I enter an eight or nine digit frequency into a Receiver, I expect not only that it shows them on its display, but it actually 'listens' to exactly that frequency. Not a frequency that may be'close' to it, depending on the actual frequency, or the temperature, or any other factor.

Imagine a Manufacturer releasing a mobile phone that sometimes dialled the digits entered, but often dialled the last 3 digits randomly, if it was warm, or depending on the first few digits entered. OK, I know, they could issue an addendum to their Manual just mentioning that a lot of the time you may actually connect to someone other than the person you wanted.

If it was not so horrendous, it would be a very bad joke.