[Elecraft] AUTOINF Auto 1 Anomaly

[Tony Estep]

Rick, obviously if it worked before, and it's working now, your hookup can
not be the problem and never could have been.

One possible cause: The communication chips that send and receive this sort
of message have a little bit of on-board memory, which is used as a ring
buffer. Sometimes, due to a static blip or an accident of timing or
whatever, these buffers can get hosed. A hardware reboot will fix it. This
might have been what happened in your case; the computer and the steppir
chips were working okay and could talk to each other, but the k3 had gotten
into a frozen state. This sort of thing can also be caused by rf in the
shack. Anyway, you're up and going, so all is well.

73,
Tony KT0NY


On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 10:57 AM, Rick Tavan <rtavan at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks, Don. That's what I thought.
>
> Cycling AUTOINF Off, then On got it working again. But after that it kept
> cycling between 14.000 and 14.050 as if the K3 were sending bogus IF;
> messages. It did this several times during most minutes until I power
> cycled the radio. So now I have seen two styles of AUTOINF misbehavior, not
> readily reproducible. I'm off to the other QTH now for a few days and won't
> be able to work on it but will try to characterize it better when I get
> back.
>
> Meanwhile, if others have seen errant AUTOINF operation, please let me
> know.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Rick
>
> --
> Rick Tavan
> iPhone
>
> > On Mar 26, 2015, at 5:00 AM, Don Wilhelm <w3fpr at embarqmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I have been informed by those who really know that my statement is
> incorrect.
> > If the K3 is set to AUTOINFO=1, the SteppIR should receive the K3 band
> and frequency information without a logger being active.
> >
> > 73,
> > Don W3FPR
> >
> >> On 3/25/2015 10:29 PM, Don Wilhelm wrote:
> >> Rick,
> >>
> >> When used with a logging program, the SteppIR controller only listens
> on the RS-232 signalling - it does not initiate any data requests from the
> K3 (it depends on the logging program to poll for that data.
> >> If the logging program is not active, then SteppIR must poll for band
> information - there is a setting in the SteppIR application to allow or
> disallow the SteppIR direct polling for K3 data. Check the SteppIR
> information for the details.
> >>
> >> It does come down to the fact that RS-232 buss definitions do not allow
> for multiple drivers on a signalling line.  When in use with other com port
> oriented applications (such as a logger), the SteppIR controlled must
> disable its drivers (but not the receivers).  When the logger application
> is not present, the SteppIR controller must issue commands (A driver must
> be enabled) to the K3 and apparently in your case, that is not happening.
> Check your settings for the SteppIR application.
> >>
> >> 73,
> >> Don W3FPR
> >>
> >>> On 3/25/2015 9:32 PM, Rick Tavan wrote:
> >>> All of a sudden, my SteppIR stopped tracking my K3 even though the
> SteppIR controller was in General Mode. This has been working for years and
> I had made no recent changes to cabling.  I confirmed that CONFIG AUTOINF
> was set to Auto 1. Then I ran a logging program that polls the radio and
> the SteppIR began tracking just fine. I turned off the logger and it
> stopped tracking again. It was exactly as if AUTOINF was set to nor. So I
> cycled that setting, changing AUTOINF to nor and then back to Auto 1.
> Finally, the SteppIR resumed tracking without the logger. Has anyone else
> seen this or have an idea why Auto 1 quietly stopped sending frequency
> messages until I cycled it?
> >
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