[Elecraft] K2 S-meter/LED display flickers, alignment fails

[Douglas Furton]

Hello.  I'm building K2 #6761 and have reached the first operational checkpoint.  My K2 started right up and works normally except for S-meter/LED display problem I describe here.

When working through the first S-meter alignment, I find that the LED display behaves erratically.  First, it only operates when I'm in the menu -- the none of the LED elements light when I exit the menu.  Second, when I go through the process to set the meter's low and high points, several elements -- and not adjacent elements -- light and flicker.  While I seem to be able to set the low point for the S-meter, I cannot set the high point because of the way the display flickers.  I can't get just a single element (9 or 10) to light.

I have the meter set to 'dot' mode, but do note that the LED display seems to behave close to normal in 'bar' mode, although I still can't align it properly and it doesn't work once I exit the menu.

I'll note also that my 8V regulator seems to be on the low end of specs, but I can get 3.80 Volts on pin 5 of U2.

Any suggestions?

Doug
K8EXB