[Elecraft] K3 power loss: Last settings forgotten

[Erik N Basilier]

Guy,

I am very familiar with the internals of computers, more than enough to know 
that these behaviors can be expected unless one pointedly designs to 
eliminate them, and that *can* be done. There is no fundamental reasons that 
any machine that contains a computer needs to behave like a PC. I do not 
mean to criticize the design of the K3, particularly since we know that 
there are more important goals for the designers. My objective was just to 
find out whether the behavior of my K3 was consistent with the K3 design. In 
general, I find the K3 to be much more free from those "computerish" 
characteristics than a PC is, and that is one reason I am using a K3 and not 
a radio that depends on a PC to function.

73,
Erik K7TV

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Guy Olinger, K2AV" <olinger at bellsouth.net>
To: "Erik N Basilier" <ebasilier at cox.net>; <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, March 01, 2009 7:35 AM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 power loss: Last settings forgotten


> What you experienced is not a bug.  Do you turn off your PC by unplugging 
> it?
>
> The K3 has a CPU in it, and in order to clean up and go to a power down 
> state, it needs to be RUNNING to stage itself down. Ever try unloading the 
> groceries the car while it's rolling away from you?  Put yourself in the 
> mind of the CPU, who has detected that the power is going down, and now 
> trying to clean up while the circuits go dead, trying to remember the last 
> state, and the disappearing DC has rendered the memory erratic containing 
> the bits in question.
>
> The worst kind of computer interruption around here is a power hit, which 
> can go down in ways that leave circuits in indeterminate states.  We have 
> UPS on our two main PC's, just so the PC's can do an orderly shutdown. But 
> there are all the boxes (washer, dryer, TVs, Microwaves, clock radios) 
> that have CPUs in them and sometimes come up quite wierd depending on the 
> timing of the hit.
>
> It's a new world.  Hit the K3 power button (it sends a signal to the CPU, 
> doesn't break the DC) and let the K3 clean up before it turns itself off 
> in an orderly fashion.
>
> 73, Guy.