ACC's RC-850 repeater controller, bugs, mods, and support
Mike Shirley__Wb6wui
looking for anyone with experience with the same controller. I have found numerous bugs with the firmware and would like to discuss mutual problems.
We started with firmware version 3.41 and upgraded to 3.42 as soon as it was released. The revision was nice in many respects but somewhat clunky in
others. We are runnings the 850 with the voice option, no DVR, UF functions in latched, 3 remote bases, control receiver, home-brew autopatch at the site
and 1 remote auto-patch using firmware support of REMOTE PHONE 1.
Overall, we have been very pleased with system even with some of it's short-commings. I have talked to ACC by phone a few times about the clunker bugs,
but they were'nt to concerned by them and, I doubt, that they even logged them for fixes in later releases.
I would now be interested in a MS-DOS based controller with voice support. Anybody want to comment on this aspect of computer-controlled Ham repeaters.
Thanks, 73's
...Mike
____________________________
| | President, Muth Valley Flood Control Dist
| Mike Shirley, WB6WUI |
| PO Box 460 | UUCP: {nosc, ucsd)!crash!pnet01!mikey
| Lakeside, CA 92040-0460 | INET: mi...@pnet01.cts.com
|___________________________|
SLIC as snot, but the communication path is better...
Alan Barrow
Sorry to have to tell you, but welcome to the world of ACC! Most firmware
revs. seem to introduce more bugs than they fix, and ACC is not very
helpful. The first answer is denial, second is that your site is the only
one experiencing the bug. When pressed, they give the "don't have the resources"
to fix it right away answer, and when they finally fix it, the cycle restarts.
Personally, I think their code has been patched & mutated until it is unstable, and unmaintainable.
The least expensive S-COM has technical features & sw capability that only
the RC-850 (top of the line has), and packaging on the 85 is poor, to say the
least. Things like minimal audio adjustments on the 85, which results in what
we call "ACC syndrome". (15kc deviation on the voice ID when Adjusted for
normal 5kc repeater audio. The fix is to tack an extra pot onto the pc board.)
We won't even talk about the DVR, and allthough the ICOM 900 remote base
feature is nice, it still has severe quirks that can cause it to lock up.
I am sure this will bring out the ACC defenders, who love the features, but
I have had my fill. (85,850,dvr,IC-900 remote)
To answer your question, a local ham Dan wb4pyl developed a nice PC based
controller/autopatch/DVR that has been used in atlanta for 12-18 months.
I don't know the status of his sw/hw regarding purchase, but you may
want to drop him a line. (..!gatech!kd4nc!wb4pyl)
I am sold on S-COM for most purposes, but am also interested in PC based
controllers.
73 & good luck with ACC.
Alan Barrow km4ba
..!gatech!kd4nc!km4ba!alan
..!hplabs!hp-col!hpuagaa!km4ba!alan