[Elecraft] K3 - Steppir interfacing

[Ray Albers]

Joe,  you're right of course - and thank you. I have no clue why I typed
DTR!  Google sources did indeed say RXD (received data, pin 2) and that is
in fact how I wired the cable.  I guess I was looking at my hand drawn
schematic notes and my eyes got a little dyslexic.

Also, thanks to you and others for mentioning that pins 7 and 9 need to be
shorted (as shown in the schematic you sent).  I did that, and - voila!

Everything's working now - SteppIR, MixW, N1MM+.  (the latter programs one
at a time, or course).

Thanks, everyone.

73
Ray K2HYD

On Wed, Aug 14, 2019 at 10:44 PM Joe Subich, W4TV <lists at subich.com> wrote:

>
> > I made up a Y cable to interconnect K3, SteppIR controller and
> > computer. Lots of Googling told me that the connections to SteppIR
> > controller should be only DTR and Gnd, so I made sure that was how it
> > was wired.
> Your Google "sources" are nonsense.  The direct version of this e-mail
> includes the schematic for the *STEPPIR* Y cable.
>
>
> 73,
>
>     ... Joe, W4TV
>
>
> On 2019-08-14 8:47 PM, Ray Albers wrote:
> > So a couple of days ago I posted tale of woe, trying to get my newly
> > acquired K3 to work with MixW - well, thanks to a few off line e-mails
> and
> > some stumbling around, I got that working. Ditto, got N1MM+ working
> great.
> >
> > Next - how to get the K3 to play with my SteppIR vertical antenna
> > controller. Worked fine with my ICOM 746PRO, where I had both MixW and
> > SteppIR autotracking working fine with the radio.
> >
> > So:  My computer is a Windows XP thing that I bought specifically because
> > it has an actual RS232 (9 pin) serial interface, so no need to struggle
> > with a serial to USB adapter.  I made up a Y cable to interconnect K3,
> > SteppIR controller and computer. Lots of Googling told me that the
> > connections to SteppIR controller should be only DTR and Gnd, so I made
> > sure that was how it was wired. Other posts point out that the CONFIG
> > AutoInf should be set to Auto1 (one post said it should be set to Norm,
> so
> > I tried it both ways). I even tried setting K3, SteppIR and computer to a
> > slower data rate (9600) in case the 38k rate was too fast. No joy. Did
> the
> > obvious newbie stuff like turning things on and off, plugging and
> > unplugging cables - still NG.
> >
> > As I said, my logging program and N1MM are working just fine (one at a
> > time, of course), and I could live without having the SteppIR do
> > autotracking as I change bands/frequencies, but dagnabbit!!! it's the
> > principle of the thing!  I ought to be able to have everything working.
> >
> > Any suggestions would be appreciated.
> >
> > 73
> > Ray K2HYD
>
>