[WT-support] MK2R+ Windows 8 and Win-test

[Bob Wilson, N6TV]

Many people have reported trouble getting the MK2R+ to reliably stay
connected to a K3 while running Win-Test.  Part of the problem may be that
Win-Test, unlike Writelog, polls the K3 as fast as it possibly can (that's
the default).  You can try changing the polling rate in Win-test from
"Auto" to 500 ms, but it may not cure the problem 100%.  You can also try
using OmniRig instead of the K3 support built-in to Win-Test.

Make sure the second COM port option (two COM ports talking to same radio)
is set to "None" in the microHAM Router dialog, for the K3 port.  There may
also be an option to set the radio type to "Elecraft K3 patched" instead of
"Elecraft K3" in the microHAM router.  That may also help.  Of course your
K3 should also be running the latest firmware, and you may need to upgrade
or replace your KIO3 board if it is a very old one.  You can isolate the
problem to the K3 or MK2R+ by temporarily bypassing the MK2R+ using a real
serial port connection to the radio, instead of a virtual one (don't use a
USB-to-Serial adapter for this test).

See this post<http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/Serial-Port-on-K3-tp7329189p7329336.html>
by
IK2BCP which claims that the KIO3 board can fail to operate properly when
the power supply voltage drops below 13VDC.

Certainly if your IC-7800 (Radio 1) is powered down, you should set Radio 1
to "None" in Win-Test.

FYI, both copies of your email were flagged as Spam for some unknown reason.

73,
Bob, N6TV

On Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 8:44 AM, W2LE <w2le at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Last weekend I was doing the REF CW contest, and with radio 1 powered off
> the MK2R+ Busy led would start blinking for no apparent reason, resulting
> in no radio control.  Switching the W-T active radio to #1 would make it
> stop. Or powering the MK2R off then on would fix it.  And now while I'm
> typing this with W-T running in the background (with the log from last
> year's ARRL DX CW loaded) the blinking will start and stop by itself.  It
> happens at random times.
>
> It's not RF related - I'm typing email and it's happening.
>
> Later in the weekend I was doing the CQ 160 using Writelog and it never
> happened.  Writelog and Win-Test were never running at the same time.
>
> Setup - WIndows 8 (that might have been my first mistake), Router 8.1.4,
> MK2R+ fw 6.1, Win-test 4.10.0, Writelog 11.90B.
>
> Radio 1 is an IC-7800, radio 2 is a K3 with P3.
>
>
> Paul  W2LE
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.f5mzn.org/pipermail/support/attachments/20130128/243434f3/attachment.html>