I gave a presentation recently at my radio club (Newport County Radio Club) that was partially based on my QRM+ Transceiver; a nice kit, inexpensive, and easy to use with FT8.
My version was 1_00_27, pretty old. The current version was 1_02_03, which has the newly supported SSB mode and took care of some other issues (See “Firmware” partially down the page here: https://qrp-labs.com/qmx.html ).
I had never updated the firmware before, and I will admit that the process is rather simple, but the manual “Section 7 Firmware Update procedures”, leaves some rather important details out.
To begin with, using the Menu button to find the “Update firmware” menu is simple enough, but it doesn’t mention anything about how to select it, or using the TUNE button to confirm it. Once you do that, the screen goes dead and the Flash Drive appears on your computer (probably need to warn folks to have it plugged in before starting the firmware update process).
Once the drive showed up, it was as described in the manual, with an EEPROM file and in my case firmware 01_00_27.QMX. Per the manual, I drug the new firmware 01_02_03.QMX onto the drive. The manual said that dragging a new file would erase the old one. That didn’t appear to happen, as I now saw three files. But patience was rewarded – several minutes (3 or 4) AFTER I drug the new firmware onto the drive, the computer beeped at me and said the USB Drive was no longer available, which was cryptic to say the least.
Losing the drive seemed reasonable, and I suppose it was the result of the new firmware loading. However, there is no status indication to let you know what is going on. I waited about ten minutes and the screen was still blank. I unplugged and re-plugged the USB cable, and nothing was there. I waited another ten minutes, and finally removed power from the QMX+, waited a minute, then plugged it back in. At that point I could power the unit on as normal using the VOL knob, and it reported that it had the latest software installed.
The manual does says there are TWO ways to exit the firmware update mode. The first is simply doing the update, and it claims that the QMX will automatically reboot in normal operating mode. That did NOT happen in my case. The second way is to remove power and apply it again. That worked for me.
I have NO idea how long one has to wait after dragging new firmware onto the drive folder; Seconds, a minute, ten minutes? But patience did pay off, as did the silent prayer when I cycled power after waiting about 20 minutes.
Hi WB4SON, your post showed up at the top of my search in Duck Duck Go. Not bad, one day ago.
I just received a QMX+ and noticed it was on version 2_00_00. Since I’m having issues getting it to talk to WSJT-X, I thought a firmware upgrade to 2_00_03 might help if there were any bugs to fight.
Update was very fast here. As you mentioned, select “Update Firmware” while connected to the computer via USB. This rebooted the radio and gave me a USB drive labelled “QMX” in Windows.
I unzipped the file 2_00_03.zip into a folder before copying it – too many things can go wrong trying to use a virtual folder within the file manager. I copied and pasted the “2_00_03.QMX” file from that folder into the QMX drive (D: on my computer). This took a few seconds to copy, then rebooted the radio and very quickly (< 10 seconds, certainly) it was running the new firmware.
I wonder if the older firmware isn't as efficient at the upgrade for some reason. Since it's a major upgrade from v1 to v2, there could be some squirrels running around in there. You might try an intermediate upgrade within v1 if there is one.
Also, check your USB cable to be sure it's up to the task, and that the data speed in Device Manager makes sense. I use 19200 bps for my old rusty ham laptop. Since you had a drive appear though, it is communicating somewhat. Might just be the blob of data being sent that is being corrupted on the way.
Hi Jack,
Glad your update went more smoothly. I’m sure you are correct, my much older firmware was probably balky with updating. But things eventually worked and I’ve gotten 2.00.3 running just fine. I haven’t tried a mic yet, but will some point in the future. After giving a presentation to my club on the QMX+, a number of members bought the kit and are working away at it.
73, Bob, WB4SON