[Elecraft] KPA500 Utility

Dick Dievendorff dieven at comcast.net
Sun May 15 11:33:45 EDT 2011 

Not a problem at all.  It's a reasonable observation, and I'm not sure the
reasons are well understood.

We wrangled with this issue the P3 Utility effort began.  I wanted to put P3
Utility functions into the K3 Utility, particularly as they use the same
serial port and to some degree the K3/P3 combination works as one unit.  

We also would need a standalone P3 Utility for P3 customers using other
transceivers.   We deferred the combination at that time, we hadn't really
thought it through for other products and we had a full plate (although not
as full as it is now...)

The K144XV is an internal K3 accessory. But the K144XV's firmware is loaded
through a separate serial port connector (even a different cable style), not
through the K3.  Explaining when to plug which cable into which device would
be a whole lot messier if the utilities were combined.

The perceived and real complexity,  potential for customer confusion and
support workload, and test matrix issues then became the dominating issues.
Help text would have to be less specific, referring to "the appropriate
serial connector on your Elecraft device" instead of "the upper DB-9
connector on the back panel of your KPA500".  

Using multiple functions concurrently (K3 terminal tab and KPA operate page)
would require a very different user interface.  It's difficult to make a
major course change when you have a number of existing products, a fair
sized customer base, and the task list is never empty. I can't stop
everything and start over to redesign for single utility (with multiple
independent windows).  

With the full array of products supported, the tab list and help text could
get pretty hefty. The Utility could easily become quite cluttered.  What
would a first-time Elecraft customer with his brand new XG3, think of all
this?  It could easily be overwhelming.

I sometimes have several products in early development stages at the same
time.  For a while I had K3, P3, W2, K144XV utilities "in the field", in use
by customers.  I was supporting a KPA field test group (with its evolving
utility) and a separate XG3 test group (with its evolving utility).  And in
the midst of this several-month period, I had to continue to make K3 and P3
Utility changes without disclosing to K3 and P3 customers that there was
such a thing as an XG3.  You can do this sort of thing with a larger
development team with things like "source code forks" and separate source
code "trees". But then when it's time to bring them all together you have a
potential for major disruption of what used to work separately.

It just seemed like the potential problems overtook the potential
advantages. 

But I do spend a lot of time resolving changes between the source code bases
for all these utilities.  I'm actively working on techniques to make that
easier. But that’s a programmer productivity issue affecting mostly me.

73 de Dick, K6KR



-----Original Message-----
From: Rob May [mailto:roblitespeed at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2011 7:40 AM
To: dieven at comcast.net; elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: RE: [Elecraft] KPA500 Utility


Dick,
Thanks for explaining the thinking in choosing to do separate utilities.  My
comment about cluttering up the desktop with Elecraft icons was tongue in
cheek.  Half the desktop is taken up with radio related programs!  Sorry if
I came off more serious that I really meant to be.  Thanks for the great job
you do.
Rob
NV5E

----------------------------------------
> From: dieven at comcast.net
> To: roblitespeed at hotmail.com; elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: RE: [Elecraft] KPA500 Utility
> Date: Sun, 15 May 2011 07:32:14 -0700
>
> Rob:
>
> There are separate utilities for the K3, W2, P3, K144XV, KPA500 and XG3.
> Yes, a couple more of them are on the radar.
>
> We considered putting these all into one larger software offering, but 
> I couldn't think of a way to keep it simple and focused.
>
> If I made one utility that could communicate with just one device at a 
> time, then users of the K3 and KPA500 who might want both utilities 
> running concurrently (say for the K3's terminal page and the KPA500 
> operate page) would have to choose which tab they're viewing.
>
> We'd also need quite an array of serial port choices to satisfy users 
> who have multiple serial ports connected to different devices.
>
> If you're on the "save configuration" tab page, would it be the K3 or 
> the KPA500's configuration you're saving?
>
> I fear that new users of just one Elecraft product (say just a P3) 
> would be find a uber-utility confusing. Confusing means "$upport calls".
>
> The utilities progress at different times and in different ways. The 
> KPA Utility's "operate" page requires a very internal different 
> technique than anything in the K3 Utility. I'm making large changes 
> right now to just the KPA Utility to more smoothly handle the 
> transitions between "not communicating" to "back panel power switch 
> on, front panel switch off" to "front panel power on". Eventually 
> these techniques will influence the other utilities. But I can now 
> make sweeping changes to one at a time only.
>
> Making changes to a single "uber utility" risks breaking unrelated 
> functions whenever I change anything. Testing is easier if they're 
> separate: when I release a version of the KPA Utility, I don't have to 
> test K3-only functionality like TxGain or RF Gain calibration. The 
> test matrix for a larger utility would be daunting and would make it 
> impossible to release anything in a hurry.
>
> You can delete some or all of the Elecraft desktop icons if you find 
> them cluttering your desktop, they're not essential. Just right click 
> the desktop icon and choose "delete. The Utilities can be found on the 
> Start Menu under "Elecraft".
>
> Or you might also want to create a single desktop folder, perhaps 
> named "Elecraft Cornucopia" and drag all the Elecraft Utility desktop 
> icons into that folder.
>
> 73 de Dick, K6KR
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net 
> [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Rob May
> Sent: Friday, May 13, 2011 8:37 PM
> To: hb9anm at bluewin.ch; elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KPA500 Utility
>
>
> Surely we don't need 3 separate utilities for the K3, P3 and KPA500.  
> I could accept a separate utility short term for the P3, but this is 
> getting out of hand.  Will there be yet another utility for the high 
> power antenna tuner?  My desktop is getting crowded with Elecraft
utilities.
>
> Rob
> NV5E
>
>
> ----------------------------------------
> > Date: Fri, 13 May 2011 13:12:08 -0700
> > From: hb9anm at bluewin.ch
> > To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> > Subject: [Elecraft] KPA500 Utility
> >
> > The FW page for KPA Utility (Windows Version 1.4.5.4) May 4, 2011 reads:
> >
> > "Download and run the file from the above link.
> > Use this utility to check for the latest releases of new features 
> > for your K3.
> > Requires either a RS-232 cable or KUSB Serial-USB Cable to download 
> > from your PC to the K3."
> >
> > To the K3??? Or to the KPA500?
> > Is this a typo?
> >
> > It's a bit early (still waiting for my KPA500 and it will have the 
> > initial FW anyway) but I'm curious!
> >
> > 73
> > Richard
> >
> > -----
> > Richard - HB9ANM
> > --
> > View this message in context:
> > http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/KPA500-Utility-tp6361039p6361039.
> > html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
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