marvindj
Why? Because it leaves customers with a product that doesn't work and no immediate way to correct it. This isn't about 24x7 uptime or six sigma level performance, this is about a product that's working, you change the software, and it doesn't work. That really doesn't seem to be too much to ask. You upgrade some program on your PC and it doesn't work, you go back to the previous version. I've never had to look for a back-rev for an apple product, I've yet to have an update that leaves a product nonoperational. I'm guessing they have more testing resources available. Customers accepting, or even worse, defending a baseline shift towards mediocrity in a consumer product deserve what they get.
There was a small group of fellow astronomy enthusiasts who wanted to see my new telescope. What they saw was a telescope that didn't work and no way to get it working. I wonder if anyone will rush out and buy one?!?
I'm an ee/cs type working in the embedded systems development field. We design and manufacture electronic test equipment for the telcom industry. I've spent almost forty years in product development so my perspective is probably a little different on how a device should work and, more specifically, what it takes to make it work that way. Software/firmware rollback is a standard feature. You NEVER leave the customer hanging with something your latest software made inoperable. Again, I fail to understand why anyone would accept this type of practice as the norm. "Just because everyone else does" isn't a rational, logical, or defensible position.
A little more detail on the situation with the scope.
I had installed the android app back in the spring after a friend gave a demo of his new telescope. I finally got around to buying one for myself not all that long ago and it's worked flawlessly... until I installed the "upgrade". Now, the upgrade came in two parts, a new app for the android, v2.0.0, and a new firmware load for the telescope, v2.95.
There were three issues I found:
1) The compass calibration, which only took two to three revolutions of the scope with the previous software, now took thirty or so. The green arc wouldn't advance in the manner it had before.
2) The location data was not being read from the tablet and I had to enter it manually. Neither home page refresh nor "try again" would read the data.
3) The telescope would never find an object. The scope would point in the general area - the elevation appeared to be close but it was 15 degrees or so off in azimuth. I tried on a couple of other objects with a similar result. This could have been an issue with the manual entry of the location. I also question now if the app had read the time correctly from the tablet, that could contribute to this issue as well.
Thinking at the time there was a mistake or issue with 1 or 2 above, I restarted the scope and app and also moved the scope to another location, well away from a vehicle that was in proximity during the initial attempt. The results were the same and, with no working telescope to demo, the star party came to an abrupt conclusion.
I've already posted about the issue with rolling back the firmware but I also couldn't roll back the app. I had been using an older version of the app all along and the new app ended up being the issue, at least for numbers 1 and 2 above.
After some searching on the net, zwo didn't have these available either, I found a repository of the previous android app releases and started installing them in reverse order.
1.20.2 - the app would not read the location data from the tablet
1.20.0 - the app would not read the location data from the tablet
1.19.0 - the app would not read the location data from the tablet
1.18.0 - success. The app would read the location data from the tablet. I then tried the compass calibration and it worked as it did before, taking only two or three revolutions of the scope to complete. It was cloudy last night and no opportunity to see if it points in the correct location. If the weather permits this evening, I'll give it another go.
I'm guessing too that 1.18 was the version I had installed back in the spring and had been using all along. The other app versions didn't look familiar at all. So the issue here, at least to the first order, is with the app.
I'll update the results if I can test on the night sky in the next few days. It's still going back at this point though, regardless of the outcome. I'm not going to be left hanging again with a similar problem and the only recourse being sit around and wait. Sorry if I'm in the minority here but that's extremely poor customer/product support.
Randy