Wouxun KG-Q10G vs. rt systems software.

[Willie]

I've got 2 new KG-Q10G radios that I'm trying to program via the rt systems software and associated rt cable. Purchased directly from rt systems. Software install went perfectly. Com port was found and identified. Opened a new file, downloaded radio #1, made my changes in the file and saved it. Uploaded the new file to radio #1 and again everything went perfectly.

Moved on to radio #2. Software will not communicate with radio #2. Went back to radio #1 and everything worked perfect again. I've tried rebooting the computer several times and I did a full reset on radio #2. The software will still not communicate with radio #2 but works every time on radio #1.

Both radios work perfectly fine on their own. I can program both from the keypad with no problems. I can't imagine it's a problem with the software or the cable because it works every time on radio #1. Am I missing something or is one of my new radios defective?

I've got other misc radios and software and have never experience this kind of problem before between radios. Please just let it be user error!

[Willie]

P.S.

Just for the record, I saw a down vote for Randy's post that I don't feel he deserved so I gave it an up vote from my view. What he posted was correct. The second radio I received was not "DOA". It worked as it was supposed to except for a failure to communicate via a programming cable connection. He gave fair advice to send the radio back which I agreed with. He has no control over what happens beyond that so I don't understand the reasoning for the vote.

While I don't have an issue with anyone voting any way they want, I just wanted to add my $0.02 as well. Anyway... I hope everyone has a great holiday season!

 

[OffRoaderX]

10 minutes ago, Socalgmrs said:

I’ve personally seen many woxouns DOA

Of course you have...  And here i've owned probably 2 dozen Wouxuns and have at least 50 friends/acquaintances that have them, usually based on my recommendation, and here i've never seen one DOA.. I guess i'm doing it wrong.

 Willie: Call BuyTwoWayRadios on Monday and tell them to send you a new one.

[Willie]

1 hour ago, OffRoaderX said:

Of course you have...  And here i've owned probably 2 dozen Wouxuns and have at least 50 friends/acquaintances that have them, usually based on my recommendation, and here i've never seen one DOA.. I guess i'm doing it wrong.

 Willie: Call BuyTwoWayRadios on Monday and tell them to send you a new one.

Yeah, I'm afraid it's not looking good. I've been sitting up all night downloading the Wouxun software and installing it. Using a Wouxun PCO-001/PCO-009 cable too. With the Wouxun cable and software I ended up back in the very same spot. Reads and writes to radio #1 just fine but won't communicate with radio # 2 at all, just like the rt systems software and cable.

Disappointed to have to ask to return it because that is the only thing that doesn't work right on the second radio. But having to program everything with only the keypad would bum me out even more.

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, Willie said:

Yeah, I'm afraid it's not looking good. I've been sitting up all night downloading the Wouxun software and installing it. Using a Wouxun PCO-001/PCO-009 cable too. With the Wouxun cable and software I ended up back in the very same spot. Reads and writes to radio #1 just fine but won't communicate with radio # 2 at all, just like the rt systems software and cable.

Disappointed to have to ask to return it because that is the only thing that doesn't work right on the second radio. But having to program everything with only the keypad would bum me out even more.

It sounds like you’ve done all the right things.  Obviously you have the cable and computer working. The only thing I can think of that would be specific to the second radio is two pin speaker/mike port on the second radio.  Is the volume turned up enough? Is the two pin plug pushed all the way in?  I’ve seen some radios where they seem to stop and it requires a harder push to seat them fully.  If you have an external speaker/mike, see if it works on that radio.  The speaker and microphone jacks are mechanical and could be faulty.
Otherwise, yeah, I think a call to customer service is next. 

Like @OffRoaderX, I don’t recall hearing about many (maybe any) Wouxun radios arriving dead. And this one isn’t truly dead; it just has a problem with the speaker/mic jacks. Sooner or later every manufacturer has at least one problem slip through.  I read through the manual while looking for anything that might be helpful for you.  Obviously I didn’t find anything, but I am impressed by the quality of the manual and the features of the radio.  I might have to look at one of the ham variety.

[Willie]

8 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

It sounds like you’ve done all the right things.  Obviously you have the cable and computer working. The only thing I can think of that would be specific to the second radio is two pin speaker/mike port on the second radio.  Is the volume turned up enough? Is the two pin plug pushed all the way in?  I’ve seen some radios where they seem to stop and it requires a harder push to seat them fully.  If you have an external speaker/mike, see if it works on that radio.  The speaker and microphone jacks are mechanical and could be faulty.
Otherwise, yeah, I think a call to customer service is next. 

Like @OffRoaderX, I don’t recall hearing about many (maybe any) Wouxun radios arriving dead. And this one isn’t truly dead; it just has a problem with the speaker/mic jacks. Sooner or later every manufacturer has at least one problem slip through.  I read through the manual while looking for anything that might be helpful for you.  Obviously I didn’t find anything, but I am impressed by the quality of the manual and the features of the radio.  I might have to look at one of the ham variety.

Yes I spent plenty of time pushing, pulling and tweaking on the Kenwood K1 plug trying to see if I could get a connection. No success holding it firmly against the radio either. What I suspect is a bad connection to one or both of the data lines inside the radio going to the jack(s). I say this because I also bought one of the cheap headsets (earbud & lapel mic) when I bought the radios as a way to not disturb the rest of the family late at night while I'm futzing around with them. On both radios this headset works just fine, both earbud and mic. The audio signals are getting through so it has to be the data lines are the issue here. If the radios were out of warranty I wouldn't have any qualms about opening them up and having a go at the problem, but these are fresh out of the boxes soooooo....

On a side note I originally thought there was a problem with both radios because they would only transmit on the lower area of the display when using the lapel mic. Using the PTTs on the radios however worked normally upper and lower. I recall seeing something somewhere about the user manuals not working under certain conditions. Yup, guilty as charged.

[Willie]

On 11/16/2024 at 2:24 AM, OffRoaderX said:

Of course you have...  And here i've owned probably 2 dozen Wouxuns and have at least 50 friends/acquaintances that have them, usually based on my recommendation, and here i've never seen one DOA.. I guess i'm doing it wrong.

 Willie: Call BuyTwoWayRadios on Monday and tell them to send you a new one.

Update:

I sent radio #2 back to them and they received it today. Within minutes of the tracking # saying it was delivered, I got a call from them saying they already tested it and it was working fine. They connected the radio to their computer and said it read the radio, no problem. Why did you send it in? I explained again all the testing I did with both radios, and two different software/cable packages, and neither would read or write to radio #2.

Then he said well... I checked to see if it would read from the radio, but I did NOT check to see if I could write to it. Hold on a sec...
Then he said hmmm... I got an error, hmmm... no communication.... port 3....

Being a late Friday afternoon he said he will check it again next week, and if it works he would likely send the same radio back to me and maybe with another cable. Having already told them I used two different brand new cables and software that works every single time with radio #1 but NOT radio #2. They still want to blame the cable(s) I'm using - after having a failure while using their own cable? WTF?????

I can't say I'm impressed with their diagnostic skills thus far, but will have to wait until next week to see what call they make on it. But if they send me the same radio back with an internal  open circuit (intermittent?) in the radio itself - lets just say I will not be pleased.

[Willie]

Epilogue:

Well my 2nd Wouxun KG-Q10G radio is finally fixed. Buytwowayradios sent it back to me untested ie. they did not open up the radio to do any visual inspections or continuity testing. They plugged a programming cable into the radio and said it would read/write to the radio consistently. I have no idea how many cables they went through to find one that worked, but they did send that cable to me along with the radio. After I got the radio back it did indeed work with the cable they sent with it. I even bought another Wouxun cable and it works as well.

Then I tried using my rt-systems software and cable again.... and again it would only connect with the first radio but not the second one. Since buytwowayradios would not replace the radio under warranty I opened it up myself to have a look since the 'warranty' was useless anyway. After a good look I found the upper 2.5mm phone jack on the PCB sat farther in on the board edge than the lower 3.5mm jack. Those two make up the 'mic ports' in the side of the radio. They used two individual jacks instead of the more common dual phone jacks I often see.

I tweaked the upper jack to get it to stick out a hair more (not much ~ 0.020") from the edge of the PCB into the radio case so the opening was closer to being parallel to the lower jack opening. After reassembling the radio I redid all of my previous testing and now both radios work with all cables and both software packages. Even mixing cables between the software packages... it all works now.

So to celebrate my now voided Wouxun warranty on a one month old radio, I bought myself a second Yeasu VX-6R radio (NOT from buytwowayradios) and just did a MARS mod on it, which is what I should have done in the first place. Once bitten...

[OffRoaderX]

2 minutes ago, Willie said:

I saw a down vote for Randy's post that I don't feel he deserved so I gave it an up vote from my view. What he posted was correct. ...  I don't understand the reasoning for the vote.

Because "some people" have "N.D.S." and will hate/downvote/rage-against anything I like, say, or do.. Funny thing is, every time they do that, they prove to everyone that most of what I say about "some people" is correct.

[SteveShannon]

5 hours ago, Willie said:

Just for the record, I saw a down vote for Randy's post that I don't feel he deserved so I gave it an up vote from my view.

Good job!!

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Willie said:

is one of my new radios defective?

Could be.  Would not be the first time a radio was bad out of the box.  Especially with a cjr.  I’ve personally seen many woxouns DOA.  

 

make sure programing cable is pushed in all the way.  Might have to hold it the whole time.  One of the many reasons I won’t pay for a woxoun anything. CjR < ccr