[Elecraft] Computer control issues - unreliable firmware?

[Rich Lentz]

The K2 has a great built in serial bus called the AUX BUS.  All
communications between various modules take place over this bus except =
for
the I/O. I believe elsewhere it would be called the 1-Wire or Single =
Wire
Bus and the capabilities of the 1-Wire Bus are limitless.  Someone that
knows what is going on could probably interface directly to the aux bus =
and
not even use the K2IO.  The K2 serial I/O (pseudo RS-232) uses 2 of the =
MCU
ports and the needed overhead of code, memory, parts, etc. to talk to =
the
K2IO, which in turn talks to a USB/serial converter, which in-turn talks =
to
the PC (And who knows what inside there). =20

As a long time comm. engineer then you should know the virtues of =
getting
rid of three (four) devices in series that do nothing more than convert =
a
signal back and forth, up and down, so that two devices can talk to each
other. Especially when they could talk to each other directly. My =
thought is
get rid of the K2IO, the daisy chain of converters, free up the wasted
memory, two MCU ports and do two things: 1) use a USB chip fed directly =
by
the AUX Bus to provide USB interface. 2) take that freed up memory and =
add
more useful features, e.g. switches that could be used to activate amps, =
or,
monitoring of various aspects of the K2 (Temp, etc.) and maybe even free =
up
memory for other features.  This would be an "Option," the K2IO would =
still
be available (for those that don't want to change) BUT there would also =
be a
K2USB (or whatever) for those of us that don=92t like dongles plugged =
into
dongles plugged into adapters to talk to the K2. =20

As I said in the first, the newer lap tops have no serial port, and =
other
than a dongle it is cost prohibitive to add one.  The new PC I just =
bought
ONLY has a PCI express slot open, there is no PCI slot and I have been
unable to find a PCIexpress serial adapter. I guess a could take out the
four port USB/3 port 1394 adapter and buy a new four port USB/3 port =
1394/2
port serial adapter ($$$) but the cost is almost 1/4th the price of the =
PC -
thus no way.   In the future new PCs will be even harder to use serial =
other
than the dongle - and I HATE dongles.

Rich,
KE0X




-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Phil Kane
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2006 9:21 PM
To: Elecraft Reflector
Subject: RE: [Elecraft] Computer control issues - unreliable firmware?

On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 12:22:31 -0600, Rich Lentz wrote:

>We went through this a few years ago, but it sure would be nice for=20
>Elecraft to make a USB interface and scrap the serial adapter=20
>altogether. I think now is the time as the last two computers I bought=20
>have NO SERIAL PORT and no way of adding a card.

  I don't want to re-kick a dead horse, but you are making a bad
  assumption that everyone has or likes USB ports.  I keep mine
  turned off because they interfere with other on-board adapters in my
  main machine which has 8 serial ports in use running IBM Warp OS/2,
  and I don;t have any external devices whoch run on USB.

  My newest computer (6 months old) running Win XP has 1 built-in
  serial port, and I have three multi-port cards and the slots
  available to use them.  Right now I have three ports in use on that
  machine.

  As aa long-time comm engineer I "speak" serial quite well, and
  would not buy a computer that did not have capability to add or
  enlarge same.

  Pardon my rant - I'll shut up now.

--
   73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane

   K2/100 5402 - coming to a
   HF band near you real soon

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