FGR3-CE/C Data Sheet

FGR3-C radios are backward compatible with the DGR, FGR, and FGR2 series of FreeWave serial radios, enabling customers to leverage and extend their existing investment.

• Secure - Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) technology; 128/256-bit AES encryption options

• Industrial Grade - Class I, Division 2 certified; operating in temperatures from -40°C to +75°C

• Serial Protocols supported: RS232 / RS422 / RS485 / TTL

Known Issues:

• Interacting with an FGR3/MM3 through an older version of Tool Suite (prior to 2.11.0) and through an FGR2 configuration file can render the FGR3/MM3 radios inoperable. Older Tool Suite versions can inadvertently write to a memory address that disables the radio’s transmit function. This memory address is not normally accessible to end users and therefore cannot be corrected by the end user. As you can imagine, it’s very common for customers to use older versions of Tool Suite as well as use older configuration files.

  This issue can be prevented by using the latest version of Tool Suite (2.11.0 or newer) when interacting with FGR3 radios.

  This impacts all Tool Suite versions prior to 2.11.0.  Version 2.11.0 of Tool Suite enabled support for the FGR3 units.    Older version of Tool Suite (2.10.x and before) are the cause of this.   This also affects all FGR3 firmware up to 11.0.11 (Feb 25th, 2020)

  • If an older version of Tool Suite is used with an FGR3/MM3 unit please open a support ticket at https://support.freewave.com.   We can repair the unit without having to RMA it.
• On some units, the middle TX LED does not light up green when in setup mode.
• The LEDs dim if the Transmission Characteristics → Remote LED setting is set to (3) LOCAL ONLY.  To see the LED's set this to  (1) REMOTE and LOCAL or (2) REMOTE ONLY
• Compatibility:
  • FGR3 does not support the following items from FGR/FGR2 series:
    
    • Point-to-Point Master/Slave Switchable Operation Mode (obscure and rarely used Mode 6)
    • Mirror-bit
• Cannot configure AES encryption (if ordered with this feature) for FGR3/FGR2/MM2/MM3 radios thru Tool Suite. This must be done from a Terminal session only.
• The "Use Break to Access Setup" feature in the BAUD rate tab does NOT work when the radio is configured as a repeaters in modes 4, 5, and 7.

• Tool Suite will periodically report zero (0) values for Noise and Signal in the Device Information diagnostics window  for FGR3 radios.   This is valid for all FGR3 units with firmware 11.0.11 or older.
  
  

  The problem is the FGR3 radios are reporting these values in Hexadecimal instead of as integers in the (4) Show Radio Statistics menu.   Tool Suite is expecting a integer number and any hexadecimal value that has a letter in it, causes the data returned to default to a zero (0) value.

  In addition, the value reported thru Tool Suite is a hexadecimal value and NOT an integer value, so the value reported is deceptively small.   In the screen shot above, the value is -74 in hexadecimal and the true value as an integer would be -116.

FreeWave Tool Suite Management software for the FGR3 Series of Radios:

FreeWave complimentary radio network management software

You can download Tool Suite 2.13.2 (which provides support for FGR3-IO product series) and its User Manual from the below link:

• Password (for this week's download link):    g8RmseuqEU
• Login will be your email address
• URL:    Tool Suite Download - via separate SFTP site in a new tab (password is above this link and highlighted in green) 

Note:  The system this is installed on must have Internet access during the installation, since the installer pulls libraries from the Microsoft site.

PDF Documents for the FGR3-CE/C Series of radios: