Once upon a time, the FT-817 was being programmed by chirp in a way Yaesu didn't envision, apparently touching memory locations that should not have been touched. Those locations were on a write-limited device (only good for so many updates), and were destroyed after a number of updates.
Yaesu used to repair the parts, but then they couldn't source the part anymore and stopped being able to fix that very particular problem.
Once the issue was identified, chirp changed the way it programmed the radio going forward.
At one time, radios were bricked, but it's a resolved issue now.
It seems Yaesu adopted a party line based on its experience and has not changed its opinion.
I glossed over a lot of details, but I think those are the salient points.
Ken, N2VIP
On Oct 1, 2024, at 18:14, Stiv Ostenberg via Users users@lists.chirpmyradio.com wrote:
I dunno. I talked to the rep from Yaesu who warned me that Chirp could permanently brick my radio. He did not appreciate my feedback that if a user program could permanently disable a device, that struck ME as a pretty clear design flaw. Most devices are designed to protect core OS functions. That remains my opinion, but since I have not heard from any Yaesu users that this actually happened, I am going to use Chirp anyway. If the radio dies, I will just stop using or recommending Yaesu.