Yaesu FT-710 AESS: Firmware Update (video #14 in this series)
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- čas přidán 13. 11. 2022
- I’ve had a number of requests to shoot a video series about the Yaesu FT-710 AESS (Acoustic Enhanced Speaker System), similar to my FTdx10 series. Ham Radio Outlet loaned me a Yaesu FT-710 AESS for just that purpose.
In this video I installed the first available firmware updates for the FT-710Aess. According to Yaesu, the improvements included are:
1. Fixed a bug that "Key up" noise appeared when operating in CW mode on 28MHz band.
2. Fixed the problem that COM Port Baud-rate becomes 4800bps when power is turned ON with "PRESET" ON.
3. Fixed a bug that sometimes-prevented transmission when a linear amplifier (VL-1000) is connected.
4. Fixed a problem that continuous operation or hang-up may occur
when playing/rewinding/forwarding recorded data while receiving a signal.
5. Optimized variable volume and minimum headphone volume when turning VOL knob.
6. Fixed a bug that caused a delay when an external CW KEYER is connected.
7. Fixed the problem that CW transmission may not be possible with the straight key.
8. Fixed a bug that CW does not work properly when "BUG KEY" is selected in "KEYER TYPE".
9. Fixed a bug that PC KEYING did not work partially in CW mode and CW AUTO mode. 10. Fixed a bug where changing the Baud-rate of COM Port is not reflected correctly.
11. Other improvements and optimizations have been made.
I hope number 11 includes an improvement to the Digital Noise Reduction. I will explore that in this video.
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73, de N4HNH - Věda a technologie
Your videos are so instructive Doug…learning every day. I just purchased the FT-710 and love it! Be safe, 73,
I’m so glad you are finding the videos helpful, Alejandro. I just want everyone to enjoy their radio to the maximum and get the most from amateur radio without breaking the bank. Thankfully Yaesu makes great radios that are affordable. And, while no company makes a flawless radio, Yaesu gets close.
73, Doug
I’m glad you mentioned the dirty potentiometer. It’s January 2024 and I just got my ft-710 and I was shocked that the AF Gain reminds me of my Pioneer SX-980 and needing deoxit.
It’s the RF Gain that sounds scratchy. It only does it when you rotate it. The FTdx10 and the FTdx101 do it too. They don’t use a potentiometer. They use a digital encoder. The noise is from the firmware.
My new ft710 arrives tomorrow, good information for a dummy like me, thank you!!
Congratulations! It's a great time to be buying HF transceivers. You get so much more for your money than we did 25 years ago. Radios are still priced about the same, and in some cases, much less, but you get more. My FT-920 was $1339.95 on sale, in 1999. But that didn't include the CW filter, FM board, or TCXO. It was closer to $1700 after adding all of that. Today, those options are usually included.
I'm a total newbie (just pass Tech/General, awaiting callsign) and have watched a LOT of videos. Your instruction is exceptionally clear and easy to understand - subb'd with notifications on! Thanks!
I’m glad you are finding the videos helpful. Videos 1 through 17 in the FT-710 series are available for public viewing. The remaining videos in the series are available on Patreon.com/N4HNH. The same is true of the FTdx10 series and the FTdx101D/MP series. You must subscribe at S7 (Executive) or S9 (VIP) level in order to gain access to them. Annual members can also receive my menu optimizations PDF and my FT8 configuration PDF via email request. Those documents are a thank-you for those who have supported my work for a year or more, or who subscribed annually. 73, Doug
Would’ve been nice to update by direct connection like most other modern devices.
@aerodicus Telling me won’t help. Yaesu doesn’t listen to me.
Thanks, Doug. Good video. 📻
You’re very welcome, David! 73, Doug
Awesome videos Doug! Trying to watch as many as I can. Plan to buy me a Yaesu after xmas. Just cant decide what radio. Hard to justify the price of a FTDX10. we'll see.
The FTdx10 beats all other transceivers in the world for receiver dynamic range, with the exception of the FTdx101D or MP. The receiver in the FTdx10 ranks higher than the $17,000 Hiberling PT-8000A, the $13,000 ICOM IC-7851, the $8,000 Kenwood TS-990S, the $6,000 Elecraft K4D, the $3,000 Kenwood TS-890S, and the $3,000 ICOM IC-7610, to name a few. Even at the retail price of $1699.95 the FTdx10 is an easy choice. When all the sale pricing ends, I'm not certain that it won't go back up to $1699.95. Maybe it won't. Maybe it will settle at $1599.95. I still can't believe that it costs less than its predecessor, the FTdx3000D. It came out at $100 less than its predecessor.
The FTdx10 has a direct connection for an external monitor, and it has a built-in CW decoder (FT-710 doesn’t include the CW decoder), in case those are features you are interested in. The FTdx10 also has superior DNR, compared to its little brother, the FT-710 AESS.
73, de N4HNH
@@n4hnhradio Thanks for the info Doug, I had been away from ham radio for many years. Novice in 1979 and finally upgraded to General and got my Dads call K0CXF in Jan 2020. Have a TenTec Argonaut 5 so a FTDX10 would be a step forward lol. Thanks for all your awesome video's! I think Icom dropped the ball not having a video out on the 7300.
I think you will find many videos about the IC-7300 on CZcams. That radio has been out for 7 or 8 years. I shot a few videos with one, at the request of viewers who wanted a comparison between the 7300 and the FTdx10. But they are really two different classes of transceivers. The IC-7300 is user-friendly and fine for general use (rag chewing). The FTdx10 has a steeper learning curve but is more capable in crowded band conditions. It also has much more effective DSP, including a Contour Filter and Audio Peak Filter, which ICOM doesn’t have.
73, Doug
I have one and just got another one. nice little rig perfect price point
I’m glad you like it. It’s a great little rig for sure. Great starter, backup, or portable rig. After all, it is the highest ranking direct-sampling radio Rob Sherwood ever tested. It is beaten only by the hybrid Yaesu rigs. That’s a great place to be.
Does not having the USB cable plugged in also apply when saving or restoring configurations?
Yes. If something like a logging program or WSJT-X is connected and polling the radio via the USB port, the SD card will not be available. The radio will freeze up if you try. You can power down and restart to clear the freeze up.
73, de N4HNH
Thanks Doug
I like that it's pure SDR, way to go.
Let's hope that Yaesu improves the DNR?
73
Rob G3RCE
Hi Rob! Pure SDR is why it didn’t beat the FTdx10 for dynamic range. It doesn’t benefit from the superheterodyne front-end. I sometimes wonder if Yaesu made this to just to prove that they could build a SDR, and also to prove that direct sampling can come close to, but not beat, a superheterodyne/SDR hybrid.
Msybe in another 10 years there will be SDR technology that can beat the hybrids from Yaesu but there are none yet.
73, Doug
Do you think Yaesu will come up with a fix for the noise with the AF Gain or should I send it back?
I doubt it. It’s in the firmware. If they fix it, it might adversely affect another, more important function. It’s called regression, in the programming world.
HI. Is the noise it makes every time you turn the volume knob up from zero normal? It's very annoying and I don't know if it's a defect, like a damaged potentiometer or the radio was born like this. Thank you.
Can you tell me something please my friend, you who have tried and tested it thoroughly? Do I have to send it for assistance? Thank you. 73
It is a normal noise for the FT-710 AESS. The RF Gain does it too, if you rotate it while listening to a fairly strong station. The noise is not a dirty potentiometer. It is digital noise. The FTdx10 generates the same noise when you rotate its RF Gain knob. But the FTdx10 uses a digital encoder, not a potentiometer. The FTdx10 doesn’t make the noise when you rotate its volume knob.
It’s not a big deal. I rotate to the level I want and leave it alone. No one makes a perfect radio. Sometimes the idiosyncrasies are a tradeoff for better performance in a more important area.
@@n4hnhradio Thank you, my friend. 73.
You’re very welcome!
I noticed the grungy sound near full CW rotation of the RF gain control is still there after the update. Also, the "COMP" meter is still acting wonky. It shows almost 0 deflection with the speech processor set to reasonable levels (microphone EQ, gain, processor, etc.) set per your other videos).
Yes, I noticed that too. COMP meter issue and RF Gain noise still there. It seemed to me that the RF Gain noise might be improved slightly but, as one viewer noted, it isn’t as noticeable until you adjust it while listening to a strong station. I can live with it. I cannot tolerate the poor DNR.
@@n4hnhradio Yes, DNR above "3" is still awful!
I’m so glad I didn’t purchase a FT-710. Listening to it for a while, I get accustomed to it, but then I switch to the FTdx10 and it’s as if I took a blanket off the speaker. The FTdx10 with the SP-30 sounds much better than the FT-710 with the SP-40. Yaesu did a great job maximizing the sound quality from smaller speakers/enclosures but it still cannot compete with the larger speaker/enclosure of the FTdx10.
@@n4hnhradio If I bought that radio I would probably use one of the external speakers I use on my other radios a nice Polk audio center ch speaker which is made specifically for voice quality in surround systems and forget about the aess sp40 crap speaker or internal speaker altogether
If I was thinking about buying a FT-710 I World buy a FTdx10.
QUESTION FOR DOUG: Have you tried 9 and above on 710. Maybe it will clear up the water after 9 and above. thx Doug from KJ4TN Patreon member
Hi Matthew! I thought I showed that in an earlier video. Maybe I didn’t. From 4 to 15 is gnarly. In fact there isn’t as much difference from 4 to 15 as there is from 3 to 4. This DNR is weak. After this firmware update didn’t address it, I’m beginning to think that it is a limitation in the NXP chip.
73, Doug
It seems to me at the higher settings like between 8 to 9 the dnr seems to be working better, after the update. The watery sound is still there when there is no signal. I listened to a very weak station last night who was only barely coming in as a 1 to 2 s units and with the dnr set to 8 I was able to copy him. May be I am imagining an improvement, time will tell. I think dnr 4 is not a good algorithm.
The distortion is mostly noticeable with stronger signals. The same thing happens with the noise blanker in the FT-891. I use IPO and RF Gain to minimize the gargling sound. The NB in the FTdx10 and the FT-710 acts similar. The DNR in the FT-891, FT-991, and FT-991A is good, better than most, but only at algorithm 9 or higher. At algorithms 1 through 8 the watery sound overshadows the audio.
The DSP technology struggles to separate noise from voice when the voice is so much stronger than the voice.
Until the FTdx5000MP, I viewed DNR as a stop gap measure to pull a weak signal out of the noise, accepting the degraded audio quality in order to complete a contact. The FT5000MP was the first transceiver I found that allowed me to use DNR all the time, without degraded audio. The FTdx10 continued that stellar DNR performance. The FTdx101D and MP received a DSP update after the FTdx10 was released with better DNR. So, I’m very disappointed that Yaesu has taken a step backwards with the FT-710.
73, Doug
Do you think , the DNR issue or difference is because the 710 is a pure SDR radio ?
Not at all. The FTdx10 also has an SDR stage that precedes its DSP. The issue with the FT-710 DNR is related to its NXP Semiconductors DSP chip, versus the Texas Instruments chip in the FTdx10.
Thank for the good question!
73, de N4HNH
@@n4hnhradio thank you for taking the time to respond to my question and I leaned something!
You’re very welcome! I want to help viewers make informed decisions and get the most from whichever transceiver they use.
73, Doug
@@n4hnhradio Doug, have you verified with Yaseau if possible that it is the chip that makes the watery sund above 3 or can a Firmware update be able to correct the problem. from KJ4TN
The guys at Yaesu USA don’t know. They aren’t kept in the loop. Decisions are made in Japan. They seem to find out about the same time we do. They had no more advanced knowledge about the FT-710 than we did. Rodger in tech support didn’t even get to see a FT-710 until he worked the Yaesu booth at a Hamfest the week the FT-710 started selling in the USA.
Since this update didn’t address the DNR issue, I’m beginning to suspect that the NXP isn’t capable of any better.
It’s weird that the DNR in this chip functions opposite of the Texas Instruments chip in the FT-891, FT-991, and FT-991A. Their DNR is watery from 1 through 8 and then gets clear. The DNR in the FT-710 is only clear at algorithms 1 through 3.
Even more interesting is the fact that the FTdx10 uses the same Texas Instruments chip as the FT-891, FT-991, and FT-991A, yet the DNR in the FTdx10 has never sounded watery. Looking at the schematic diagram I noticed that the older transceivers don’t have as much memory for the DSP chip to use as the FTdx10. And yes, the FTdx101D/MP had the same chip as the FTdx10.
73, Doug
A serious new firmware bug I found. When the screen saver activated today, the screen awoke when the mouse was moved, but all controls were non-responsive. I could shut the receiver "off", but the receiver itself continued to operate and output normal audio, although the screen darkened and the relay clicked. Turning the receiver "on" through the power switch went through the normal boot screen, but controls were still non-responsive, through mouse, touch-screen or controls. Audio from the last tuned frequency continued throughout. Removing or restoring power did not fix the issue initially. Repeated power cycling at the power supply eventually restored normal operation. I did not have to resort to a full reset. I set the screen saver to 15 minutes to see if I can reproduce the issue.
Very weird.
Don
K9CLF
You should report this to Yaesu via their Contact Us page. That gets reviewed in Japan. The American Yaesu staff tell me that Japan doesn’t necessarily listen to them.
I reported this to Rodger Kerr at Yaesu support but you are better off reporting this directly to Japan via the Contact Us page at Yaesu.com.
@@n4hnhradio Done!
Rodger let his test bench FT-710 time out for 15 minutes. He has a mouse connected. It is a wired mouse. His FT-710 was updated to the latest firmware. He called me after the radio went into screen saver mode for 15 minutes. He moved the mouse and the display turned on. He started using the radio again. I could hear the beeps. So Rodger asked if you had tried a reset? Are you using a wireless mouse?
Maybe try letting it go to screen saver with no mouse plugged in. The touch the display and see if the radio wakes up and allows full control.
73, de N4HNH
@@n4hnhradio Rodger from Yaesu gave me a call to discuss. He wanted to know if I had performed a factory reset after the update, which I did, followed by restoring the saved Menu settings from the SD card. I was also careful to perform the updates in the prescribed order. I was using a standard USB wired optical mouse. I was not able to reproduce by setting the screen saver timer to 15 minutes with mouse connected.
I should be receiving my FT-710 this next week! It appears I may be required to purchase a laptop? I only have a tablet IPad at the current time. I was not aware the radio may not be up to date. Being disabled I will need to find someone to do this! Thanks
WB9VVH Joe
You might be okay with a new FT-710. The firmware matured with the 2023 updates. But yes, to update the firmware, you need to download the new firmware to an SD card. Then put the SD card into the radio and proceed with the update as shown in this video.
hello, Could you upload the version of the software to google drive or another server? After updating to version 202307, I'm getting error number 1 after boot... I'd be very grateful.
I don’t have an FT-710 firmware archive. I have one for the FTdx10, via my Patreon site. You should contact Rodger, at Yaesu. I haven’t heard of any boot issues related to the July firmware update. It sounds like a glitch happened during the update process.
@@n4hnhradio I didn't receive any error message. However, something must have gone wrong. Thanks for reply
You’re welcome. Maybe Yaesu can help. But I recommend reinstalling the update. Be sure to perform the reset afterwards. Back up your menu and memories to an SD card, so you can reload them. But try the radio after the update to see if it is working okay, before you reload from the SD card.
Doug my ftdx 10 only has scratchiness in the RF Gain If I turned it while receiving a fairly strong signal no scratchiness in the game control if the signals a week on there's no signal check that out against your FTDX10
No scratching if no strong signals or no signals at all while adjusting rf gain control
Yes, I can hear the scratchy sound from the FT-710 with a very strong signal. The scratchy sound is definitely associated with RF Gain, which is part of the SDR stage. I guess this is an issue for both the hybrids and the pure SDR transceivers from Yaesu. Fortunately, it’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. I would rather Yaesu devote time to possibly fixing the DNR, if the NXP chip is capable.
73, Doug
@@n4hnhradio Yes if it's capable but I bet you would highly doubt it
I do doubt it.
@@n4hnhradio Thank you Doug for all you do on these teaching videos I watch every single one of your videos even on the FTDX 5000 which I do not own I love your videos and I learn a lot from them I think we all do thank you so much
Shouldn't it of powered back on on its own?
I don’t think it did. I shot that video months ago.
TNX for video. Unfortunately I did a firmware upgrade. Why unfortunately. With the new firmware, the internal cw keyer is unusable. After the first dot, it generates a second unwanted dot. Sometimes yes sometimes no. it's random. For cw operators I recommend not upgrading until they fix it. For me, this is a pretty significant mistake. I don't know if I should return the TCVR to the dealer..
I still operate my FTdx10 with original firmware. I prefer being able to double-tap Band to cycle through the band stack registers. I don’t install a firmware update unless I’m having problems. But in this case, there were numerous issues with the FT-710 AESS. And some are still not resolved with the firmware update. I would return the FT-710 and get a FTdx10 if I could.
any more updates for this video?
The entire video series is at Patreon.com/N4HNH. There are more updates for the FT-710. I didn’t shoot a video for all the updates. They all install using the same procedure.
@@n4hnhradio pay???/
Mine arrives today, i think i wont update firmware yet.
If you operate CW, you will want to update the firmware to the latest version. There was another update after the one in this video. It corrected the CW problems this one didn’t.
@@n4hnhradio Thank you for your answer! i am not planning to CW, i did it 30 years ago but now i am too old :)
Looks like a cheap radio the icom 7300 I would definitely take over it
Yes and the cheap little radio is 3rd in the world for dyanimic range, and it has a direct connection for an external display. The IC-7300 is 23rd in the world for dynamic range and has no connection for an external display.