[Elecraft] Upgrading K3 firmware through the P3

[Alan Bloom]

On Sun, 2010-09-19 at 09:06 -1000, John Buck wrote:
> 
> Given a number of reports about trouble downloading the latest K3 and P3 firmware, I decided to report my success conditions.

Currently, in order to update K3 firmware with the P3 in line, you first
have to turn off the P3.  That can be done by simply tapping the POWER
switch unless you have the internal power-on jumper set to the "always
on" position.  In that case you have to remove the power cable to the P3
to turn it off.

If you forget to turn off the P3, then when you try to load K3 firmware
the K3 Utility will give a warning message and you can turn it off at
that time.

The problem occurs if somehow the P3 gets turned back on again after
that.  One way that can happen is if you cycle power to the K3 and the
P3 is getting its power from the K3's auxiliary power output jack.  If
the P3's power-on jumper is set to turn on automatically when power is
applied, then the K3 download process is disrupted which causes the K3
to hang up.  There is now a section in the manual with a step-by-step
procedure to recover from that.

We plan to add a feature to the P3 so that you don't have to turn it off
to upgrade K3 firmware.  It's high on the list.

Alan N1AL