[Elecraft] Firmware development

[Bill Frantz]

While I agree with Skip here, my agreement is based on 
practicality, not physical ability. The internal K3 hardware 
design is quite modular, and replacing the DSP boards for the 
main and sub receivers should be straight forward. We have seen 
how the K3 can be improved by replacing boards. Upgrading the 
DSP is just another kind of new board.

BUT, designing, coding, and manufacture engineering these boards 
is a big project. The boards will be quite expensive. How many 
people are likely to upgrade? And, we already have the K4, built 
to remain competitive in the market. The K4 is probably a better 
radio than the mythical upgraded K3. The upgrades to the K3 are 
also likely to cost more than a K4. All these considerations 
make this project a non-starter. As I said, practical considerations.

73 Bill AE6JV

On 11/24/20 at 6:03 PM, k6dgw at foothill.net (Fred Jensen) wrote:

>There's an inescapable rule in electronic product development: 
>Once you commit to a physical design in year XXXX, it will be a 
>design that uses the parts of year XXXX forever.  I think XXXX 
>about 2006 or so for the K3 [mine is S/N 642 and that's about 
>when I bought it].  Yes, the firmware can be upgraded over 
>time, but only within the constraints of 2006 components [like 
>memory and CPU].  There is also the fact that eventually, you 
>will run out of bells, whistles, and horns for updates.  The 
>K3 hit that point some time back.  Elecraft had fixed all or 
>nearly all of the bugs, they'd supported all of the add-on 
>accessories, and I'm fairly sure the MCU is approaching it's limits.

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