FM Broadcast Products

06/08/26 FIRMWARE UDATE

NOTE: This is a NON-CRITICAL update for engineers looking to compensate for parsing errors present in some models of consumer radio sets

Applies to certain models of: FMTX50, FMTX100, FMTX250, FMTX300.

Over the years, a small number of radio manufacturers haven't implemented the RDS protocol correctly, particularly the RadioTEXT 0xD termination. This means that the displays on a very small number of radios will display an extra character, whilst ignoring the command intended to signal the current RadioTEXT message end point. This not only applies to our RDS Encoders, but those from other manufacturers too.

This is why some radio stations configure their data or encoder to pad the remaining empty characters of a 'Now Playing' field with intentional empty spaces.

Despite the fact that we ceased manufacturing and supplying broadcast equipment a number of years ago, with our customer's interests still in mind, we are offering this update to our encoder firmware 'engine'. It automatically appends spaces to a RadioTEXT message, thus aimed at those broadcasters and engineers looking to prevent this erroneous behaviour exhibited by 0.01% of FM radios available on the market.

This requires reprogramming of the firmware of a microcontroller device on the main transmitter circuit board. It is aimed at engineers with knowledge of - and the correct programming device for - the microcontroller IC device in question. Alternatively, a pre-programmed replacement device is available from Lucoro Ltd. If preferred, the transmitter - as a whole - can be returned to us. For more details, please get in touch.

Please note that it is ESSENTIAL that the update instructions are read thoroughly before attempting to update any transmitter, or replace any component part.