[Elecraft] K-Pod: A failure to Communicate

[Bob Wilson, N6TV]

On Wed, Mar 1, 2017 at 5:29 AM, Wes Stewart <wes_n7ws at triconet.org> wrote:

> Just for completeness, since the K-Pod utility was on the same computer, I
> decided to reload the firmware.  I restarted the K3 utility and for giggles
> placed a space in front of the M1 command string.  It functioned normally.
> If I put a space after the command before the semi-colon, nothing was
> executed.  I re-saved all of the macros and loaded them back into the
> radio. Things actually appeared to be better. I thought that maybe I fixed
> it.  But sadly that's not the case.  Like all intermittents,
> it's...well...intermittent.
>

When you see this happen, is there any software talking to the radio, like
HRD or the K3 Utility?  If you shut down the computer completely, so
nothing is sending commands to the serial port, does the delay still occur?

Is CONFIG:AUTOINF set to NOR or to 1 (for a SteppIR, perhaps)?  Maybe all
those AI command outputs interfere with simultaneous commands sent from the
K-POD?

Note that if anything closes the PTT line after you press a memory button,
the memory will halt immediately.  Is that a possibility?  Amp. keys radio?

Does this intermittent behavior happen on both Phone and CW?  Of course
this won't apply to Phone unless you have the KDVR3 voice memory installed.

I also discovered that there is another idiosyncrasy (IMO).  Perhaps it is
> intended, but when I tap M1 on the K3 for example, multiple times, the
> message (my call) is chained and sent as many times as I tapped the
> button.  Doing this from the computer via the command tester works the same
> way.  However, tapping the function key on the K-Pod a second time
> immediately ends the message.  So I can't chain messages.  Furthermore this
> seems to exacerbate the intermittent condition
>

I'm seeing this also, and it doesn't make sense to me either.  If tapping a
K-POD button simply sends "SWT21;" to the radio (tap M1), why should it
work any different when software sends SWT21; to the radio?  Seems like
message chaining should work the same as tapping M1.

Perhaps it is a K-POD button de-bounce bug of some sort; with the K-POD
occasionally seeing a double-tap of the button when only single tap is
intended?

73,
Bob, N6TV