[Elecraft] N1MM & K3

[K4IA at aol.com]

As a general rule - subject to a million "it  works for me's" serial port 
keying has timing issues.  Going through a USB  to serial converter doesn't 
help.

I found a USB keyer such as MicroHam's,  K1EL WKUSB, etc. works much better 
because it accepts a USB command from the  software to the keyer (very 
fast) and the keyer coverts the USB command to  on/offs (dits/dahs).  The keyer 
has a built-in buffer that makes sure the  CW is sent correctly.

Such a device also frees your radio's serial com  ports from the 
conflicting responsibilities of controlling keying, PTT  etc.  

Your mileage may vary ...

Buck
k4ia



In a message dated 3/31/2010 10:33:51 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
jmcbee at km5ps.com writes:
On 3/31/2010 9:25 PM, Vic K2VCO  wrote:
>From what I have found out, yes some USB  adapters do not work 
right.  Mine must be one of the ones that did not  work.
I believe I tried to connect directly to my  serial port but had 
problems.  It could also have been my serial port,  now that is
where I have my RS232 cable connected  for the K3 utility program to 
run, and it runs fine.  I kept on getting  an error in N1MM that would open
about 10-20  windows.  I always had to go in and kill the program.  
The cable  that I used, was one that I had made for my other  radio,
and it did work at first, but I think I  messed up the transistor in 
the cable, because it would not work with my old  radio either after 
that.  But
a lot of  people said that they were using the Winkey and had no 
problems, so that is  what I started to use.
John
> I'm not the one  who originally asked the question, but it's true that 
some USB adapters
>  may not work properly with this function. I have a real serial port on 
my  computer, and
> have had very good luck generating CW directly from  N1MM.
>
> But YMMV, especially with USB adapters.
>
> On  3/31/2010 7:06 PM, john wrote:
>    
>> On  3/31/2010 7:26 PM, Vic K2VCO wrote:
>>  Vic
>>        I had asked the same  question when I got my K3.  I tried using a
>> com port via usb  cable but had problems.  sometimes it would work right
>> but not  all of the time.
>> So I started using my Winkey and everything works  great.  But I had
>> already purchased a Winkey for another radio,  so had one on hand.
>> Hope that helped.
>>
>>  John
>>
>>      
>>> On  3/31/2010 4:54 PM, gdaught6 at stanford.edu  wrote:
>>>
>>>         
>>>> Good evening to  all.
>>>>
>>>> I have a new computer, and I've  installed N1MM logger.  My
>>>> question du jour  is:
>>>>
>>>> Has anyone used N1MM to provide CW  keying via a COM port?  Is
>>>> it satisfactory?  Are  there any  "gotcha's"?
>>>>
>>>>           
>>> I'm using it with DTR keying. I've set CONFIG: PTT KEY to  OFF-DTR and 
I have set N1MM to
>>> key via the DTR line. I allow the  VOX to do the t/r switching; it 
works with semi- and
>>> full QSK.  No connection is needed except for the regular RS232 cable 
between the  computer
>>> and the K3.
>>>
>>> The only  gotcha is that during bootup the computer toggles the DTR 
line several times.  So
>>> between contests I turn the CONFIG parameter off; and when  it's on I'm 
careful to set TX
>>> TEST whenever I boot the  computer.
>>>
>>> I'm using a 2.5 GHz single-core cpu  running XP. I have absolutely no 
problems with the CW
>>> generated  by N1MM, but I don't use spotting or SO2R or anything  fancy.
>>>         
>
>     

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