[Elecraft] Help! I have bricked my K3.

[Fred Jensen]

Hmmm ... OK Bill.  Here's my experience, yours may vary for a variety of 
reasons but for what it's worth:

I've never had a Mac and know nothing about them.  I *have* had 
occasional problems with the uploads from my Windoze XP and subsequently 
Windoze 7 laptops.  So far, in all cases, methodically deleting the 
downloaded HEX files [actually all the files], reverting to the previous 
version of the K3 Utility ... if I had upgraded since the last firmware 
update ... pretending like I'd never done a download and doing it for 
the first time, and it has worked, except once.  I wish I knew why.

I don't update firmware much, usually only if I have a good reason to. 
Consequently, I'm not exactly an expert at this.  Your problem sure 
doesn't sound like OS or USB-Serial adapter.  Obviously the MCP load 
worked.  Normally the utility loads all the files, one after another, in 
an order that I guess makes sense.  I did once have to uncheck the FPF 
and MCP box [after the MCP loaded], and do the DSP alone followed by the 
FPF.  That worked, and I think the reason was that in loading the FPF, 
it was looking for a response it would get from the DSP which would only 
come if the new version was loaded.  Or something like that.

If I sound like I know what I'm talking about, you've misread me. :-) 
Hope you can find the issue, please post to the reflector, it could 
affect a lot of folks.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2014 Cal QSO Party 4-5 Oct 2014
- www.cqp.org

On 3/31/2014 6:59 PM, Bill Coleman wrote:
>
> Yes, if course I’m using a USB/Serial adapter. This is a MacBook,
> after all.
>
> I don’t have one of a different type handy. It’s just weird that the
> MCU firmware downloads 100% ok each time, but the FPF does not. Why
> that would be a serial port problem is beyond me….
>
> Unfortunately, Macs have never had COM ports, and have lacked “real”
> serial ports since about 1999.