[WT-support] K3 Internal Keyer support, Prosign characters

[Toby Deinhardt]

Hi Bob,

> Have you tried using the K3 Utility as a CW Keyboard program?  When I 
> tried it, the behavior was very erratic.  It would send some characters 
> fine, then pause for a long time, then send some more characters.  The 
> connection was through a microHAM MK2R+'s virtual serial port, but I 
> doubt that's the problem.  Could you please try it on yours?  Type fast. :-)

I haven't but...

> The K3 CW protocol calls for 24-ASCII-characters at a time, max (see KY 
> command in K3 Programmer's Reference 
> <http://www.elecraft.com/manual/K3_Pgmrs_Ref_Rev_B16.pdf>).  I wonder if 
> that's part of the problem.

...I did write a small bit of experimental software years ago for my K2 
and if you pay attention to keeping the buffer of the K2 in a healthy 
state, then it worked nicely.

But I must be honest, and say my CW is not the best by a long shot.

I've always been skeptical about USB to RS-232 adapters, because USB 
will not allow the same kind of clean timing as talking directly to the 
serial IO chip. You can get close but not perfect. The MicroHAM USB 
Interface II, which I use, behaves rather well as far timing and data 
transfer is involved. I use it, among other things, for firmware updates 
of my K3.

> I also wonder if the K3 CW protocol is rich enough to support the 
> precise timing requirements currently supported by Win-Test during data 

I doubt it, meaning some might be happier using the current methods. On 
the other hand, the K3 does offer 38400bit/s communication, so a high 
level of flexibility might be possible. I am sure that if WinTest needed 
firmware changes to improve their support of the K3, Wayne, N6KR, would 
be very helpful indeed.

For people who go on one man expeditions, like myself, reduction of 
weight is an important factor. I can imagine that with WinTest on an 
inexpensive netbook, keying CW with CTS/RTS via an USB to serial adapter 
would not be as clean as sending short strings to a K2 and/or K3.

vy 73 de toby