[Elecraft] Serial Port Question...

[David Cole]

Tom,

Thank you for looking that over, it would have taken me a day or more as
I have not looked at serial output for a decade or more... :)

I will investigate MixW and see what I can find...  If I find a fix, I
will post it here.

-- 
Thanks and 73's,
For equipment, and software setups and reviews see:
www.nk7z.net
for MixW support see;
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/mixw/info
for Dopplergram information see:
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/dopplergram/info
for MM-SSTV see:
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MM-SSTV/info


On Mon, 2014-07-07 at 00:06 -0400, Tom Blahovici wrote:
> Dave sent me a log of the serial port activity from MixW, showing the
> steady state and the situation when he is tuning using the software
> and  the K3.
> 
> 
> The steady state polling form MixW to the K3 consists of the commands:
> IF; and FB;
> So basically it is polling the radio for the transceiver information
> (IF) which includes info such as the VFO A frequency and other items
> and for the frequency of VFO B (FB;).
> It continues to do this indefinitely.
> 
> 
> However, when the frequency is changed in the software, then the
> programs issues the following command each time the frequency is
> changed:
> 
> 
> FR0; FT0; FA00021014700
> 
> 
> and then it continues to send these commands for as long as the
> frequency is requested to change.
> 
> 
> In the example I was sent, dave changed the frequency from 21014700
> until 21009100.  During this time, 150 commands were issued to the K3
> over a period of 5 seconds. When this was complete, it took an
> additional three seconds before a response  was returned to a
> subsequent IF; command.
> 
> 
> So, what does this indicate:  First of all during the time that the
> frequency was being changed, no commands occurred to read the current
> frequency of the radio.  That in itself may not necessarily be bad IF
> the program updates the VFO display in the program each time.  Of
> course at the end of the update, if the radio did not keep up, the
> final frequency will change as soon as the new IF; command arrives.  
> 
> 
> Now, since it took a full 3 seconds after the sequence of frequency
> changes, it is pretty clear that the command rate of 100ms is too
> short.  The program had to wait for all 150 commands to complete
> before it could get it’s updated frequency.
> 
> 
> So, first thing is to increase the command rate in MixW to something
> higher.  experimentation might be required.  Ultimately though, if the
> display is not updated with the frequency during the changes, it might
> seem that the software can not keep up.
> 
> 
> Second, I would look in the setup of MixW and see  if there is an
> option to enable the AI1 command (AUTOINF).  If not, the software may
> actually respond to it, but it should be documented.  You can try to
> set CONFIG:AUTOINF = AUTO 1 in the tech mode entries but this can have
> consequences for software than does not support this.
> 
> 
> The bottom line is you are polling too quick, but if the software does
> not update the display during the frequency updates you are out of
> luck.
> No need to look at HRD, it “works”.
> Hope this helps.
> Tom
> va2fsq.com
>