[Elecraft] K3 Beta Firmware Rev. 3.59: Misc. improvements

[Dick Dievendorff]

The K3 Utility reads each .hex file into RAM (and validates it there) before
starting to send it to the K3. If the file is unreadable because of a
network glitch, we want to discover that before beginning a firmware load.
This was fixed almost a year ago.

Dick, K6KR


-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Guy Olinger K2AV
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 8:41 AM
To: Wayne Burdick
Cc: Elecraft Reflector; elecraft_k3 at yahoogroups.com;
elecraft at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 Beta Firmware Rev. 3.59: Misc. improvements

In 3.59 -- Sync AM listening to music on HF BC, the sync search usually
kicks in and resettles at the bottom of a carrier fadeout, which will almost
always involve a near 180 degree phase shift at the bottom. The transition
is MUCH better than 3.58 for listening to music, the one or two cycle "woop"
neatly blending into the other spectral changes at the bottom of the fade,
MINUS the no-carrier distortion.

I found myself enjoying a story reading on 7440 (?, didn't write it down)
where using the shift to listen on the upper side got rid of some grindy
stuff on low side, and the considerable fades were handled.

<-Nice->     :>)

On the firmware loads...

Standard advice if any firmware load issues, on PC shut down all programs
except the utility, do nothing else when loading firmware. Do NOT try to
load firmware with the download as a virtual directory. If the utility
starts up funny, takes too long, or comes up on 9k serial speed, kill it and
restart it.

When the utility comes up quick and clean, start the firmware, get up and
take a break.  Leave PC alone, don't touch, no browsing, no mouse moves.

When it's done, kill the utility, power off the K3 for at least 15 seconds.
THEN power on and see how it's working.

Various occasional wierdness has ceased since rigidly sticking to this
policy.  Windows has always been hostile to timing sensitive hardware
drivers and utilities.

73, Guy.

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 9:41 PM, Wayne Burdick <n6kr at elecraft.com> wrote:

> K3 beta-test firmware revision 3.59 (with DSP rev. 2.46) is now
> available. See release notes below.
>
> Rev. 3.59 does _not_ include any changes to DVR message playback and
> cancel. These are still in the works and will be made available in
> time for the phone contest this weekend.
>
> Please send any questions to k3support at elecraft.com. For instructions
> on how to load beta firmware, see:
>
>      http://www.elecraft.com/K3/k3_software.htm
>
> 73,
> Wayne
> N6KR
>
> * * *
>
> MCU 3.59 / DSP 2.46, 11-18-2009
>
> * FSK-D WAS CHANGING TO AFSK-A ON A/B or REV: Fixed.
>
> * SYNC AM VFO TRACKING ACCURACY IMPROVED (DSP 2.46). The offset
> contributed by the synchronous AM detector's PLL should be only
> a few Hz, max.
>
> * SWR INDICATOR TONES AFTER ATU TUNE: If switch tones
> are enabled, a second tone will be emitted following an ATU TUNE.
> This tone provides a rough idea of the SWR that the KAT3 was
> able to obtain:
>
>   Lower pitch than 1st tone: Unknown SWR (ant. may be shorted)
>   Same pitch as 1st tone: SWR <= 2.0:1
>   Medium-high pitch: SWR <= 3.0:1
>   High pitch: SWR > 3.0:1.
>
> This feature was added primarily for our blind customers, but it's
> useful whenever you tap ATU TUNE without looking at the final SWR
> reading.
>
> Remote Control Command Changes:
>
> * IC COMMAND (ICON status): Now returning correct message
> bank in voice modes (byte a, bit 3).
>
>
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