[Elecraft] [KPA500] Rear power switch thread

[David Herring]

Olli,

This is a bit of an oversimplification, but I think it will convey the point good enough to address your very valid question without getting into what could otherwise be a very long answer.

On most other rigs on the planet, the settings are dictated by the position of the knobs and switches.  Pull the plug on them and whatever computing faculties are present in the rig will simply reboot their software and continue on as normal the next time power is applied.

The K3 is more software defined than that.  The settings are NOT necessarily dictated by the position of the knobs and switches.  The settings are defined by what's been stored in memory, which is a result of the last change in knob and switch position, not necessarily where the knob or switch is now.

When you power down the K3 using the front panel power button, this sends an instruction to the computer to save all this information in an orderly and proper manner for next time, and then power off.

When you pull the plug, the computer in the K3 doesn't get the opportunity to save this stuff out in an orderly fashion.  99% of the time it's no problem.  But pull the plug while the computer happens to be doing a routine save of this information, so that not all gets saved or saved properly (as an example), and you could wind up with a collection of settings that are inconsistent or self-contradicting.  At that point, when you power on next time the computer hasn't got a hope of figuring out what to do.  Your rig has just become hosed.  You'll need to reset everything back to a generic state and start over.

I don't have first hand knowledge of other SDR rigs, but I imagine Elecraft is not the only one with this "feature."  (I don't call it a problem because it isn't...it's exactly how the architecture is designed to work)

I hope that helps.

Dave
AH6TD



On Nov 30, 2011, at 12:35 PM, Oliver Dröse wrote:

> Hi Ron,
> 
> the arguments are told over and over again ("it is like a computer, etc.") 
> for the K3 and KPA500. Still I do not see WHY it is possible with every 
> other transceiver and PA on earth to simply shut down power (disconnecting 
> from mains) without first switching it off and without any possible 
> problems? They use the same "computer technique" inside ...
> 
> Just curious. ;-))
> 
> 73, Olli - DH8BQA
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Ron D'Eau Claire" <ron at cobi.biz>
> To: <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 4:42 PM
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] [KPA500] Rear power switch thread
> 
> 
>> Just to be clear - the Elecraft equipment should be turned off using the
>> front panel switch *before* it is disconnected from the mains supply so 
>> the
>> logic system can do a proper shut-down. You can get away with "pulling the
>> plug" much of the time, but sooner or later you'll catch the logic in the
>> process do doing something critical - writing data to memory, etc. - and
>> will end up with scrambled data. That can be corrected by reloading the
>> firmware, but it's a hassle easily avoided by powering down with the front
>> panel switch first.
>> 
>> Ron AC7AC
>> 
>> 
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