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K3 / P3 Bug?

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David McClain

K3 / P3 Bug?

Hi,

A few weeks ago I upgraded my P3 and K3 to firmware P3 MCU: 1.16 and K3 MCU: 4.48. Since then, when I try to observe my Rb oscillator's 5th harmonic at 50 MHz, the P3 flatlines (no baseline noise at all, just a flat line), and when I try to adjust the Span of the P3 display it shows "nan" next to the span readout and refuses to adjust.

Is this a known bug?

Dr. David McClain
[hidden email]

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Alan Bloom

Re: K3 / P3 Bug?

Hi David,

On Wed, 2012-05-30 at 21:14 -0700, David McClain wrote:
> Hi,
>
> A few weeks ago I upgraded my P3 and K3 to firmware P3 MCU: 1.16 and
> K3 MCU: 4.48. Since then, when I try to observe my Rb oscillator's 5th
> harmonic at 50 MHz, the P3 flatlines (no baseline noise at all, just a
> flat line), and when I try to adjust the Span of the P3 display it
> shows "nan" next to the span readout and refuses to adjust.

"nan" means "not a number." It sounds like somehow the span value got
set to an illegal floating-point number. Try doing a "Parameter
Initialization" as described in the manual. (Basically hold the LABELS
key and tap the POWER key.) Be aware that a param init resets all your
function keys and other settings.

> Is this a known bug?

No I've never heard of that one before. Congratulations on being the
first. :=)

Alan

> Dr. David McClain
> [hidden email]
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
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> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>

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Pete Lascell

P3 on 6 meters

Just got the P3 assembled from Dayton purchase. Hoped it might help during
VHF contest. I still have to figure out what is what, but the first
observation was on 50 MHz band as I tuned the K3 higher in freq the P3
seemed to indicate I was tuning lower, the other direction.

I checked several other HF bands and they seem to indicate the correct
direction I was tuning, for both USB, LSB and CW,

Is this normal for 50 MHz band set up with the K3 / P3 ?

Pete W4WWQ

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Iain MacDonnell - N6ML-2

Re: P3 on 6 meters

The K3 IF is inverted on 6m. I'm sure the P3 is supposed to handle
that (I don't have one), but it would have to know what frequency the
K3 is on. Do you have the serial connection place between the K3 and
P3? Is the P3 displaying the correct dial-frequency from the K3?

73,

~iain / N6ML

On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 4:05 PM, Pete Lascell <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Just got the P3 assembled from Dayton purchase. Hoped it might help during
> VHF contest. I still have to figure out what is what, but the first
> observation was on 50 MHz band as I tuned the K3 higher in freq the P3
> seemed to indicate I was tuning lower, the other direction.
>
> I checked several other HF bands and they seem to indicate the correct
> direction I was tuning, for both USB, LSB and CW,
>
> Is this normal for 50 MHz band set up with the K3 / P3 ?
>
> Pete W4WWQ
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

Pete Lascell

Re: P3 on 6 meters

I was in a hurry to see it play. No the serial cable isn't connected.
I will read the book :-(

Pete W4WWQ

----- Original Message -----
From: "iain macdonnell - N6ML" <[hidden email]>
To: "Pete Lascell" <[hidden email]>
Cc: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2012 7:03 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] P3 on 6 meters

The K3 IF is inverted on 6m. I'm sure the P3 is supposed to handle
that (I don't have one), but it would have to know what frequency the
K3 is on. Do you have the serial connection place between the K3 and
P3? Is the P3 displaying the correct dial-frequency from the K3?

73,

~iain / N6ML

On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 4:05 PM, Pete Lascell <[hidden email]> wrote:

David McClain

Re: K3 / P3 Bug?

In reply to this post by Alan Bloom

Hi Alan,

I did the reset on the K3, but to no avail. I'll try on the P3. But I'm suspicious that the P3 is not the problem since it merely examines a fixed IF bandpass. No doubt the P3 *is* the problem for the NaN math error, but not about the flat-line showing in the display. Eh?

So it really looks like there are two separate issues here. Somehow the P3 has to know what frequencies it is looking at, so it can show numeric band edges, center frequencies, and marker positions. All of these are messed up on the 6m band. Hence the K3 must be sending information that either (A) is badly hosed up, or (B) the P3 can no longer handle properly.

The second issue is the apparent lack of signal coming from the K3 to the P3 for display in the spectrum analyzer and waterfall. Surely the P3 is not in charge of the signal arriving, or is it?

This problem did not exist in older revs (about a year ago), as far as I can recall. I just noticed it recently when I tried to zero-beat the reference oscillator to the 5th harmonic of my Rb oscillator in the shack. But I could be wrong about distant memories too....

- 73 de Dave, N7AIG

On May 31, 2012, at 12:22 PM, Alan Bloom wrote:

> Hi David,
>
> On Wed, 2012-05-30 at 21:14 -0700, David McClain wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> A few weeks ago I upgraded my P3 and K3 to firmware P3 MCU: 1.16 and
>> K3 MCU: 4.48. Since then, when I try to observe my Rb oscillator's 5th
>> harmonic at 50 MHz, the P3 flatlines (no baseline noise at all, just a
>> flat line), and when I try to adjust the Span of the P3 display it
>> shows "nan" next to the span readout and refuses to adjust.
>
> "nan" means "not a number." It sounds like somehow the span value got
> set to an illegal floating-point number. Try doing a "Parameter
> Initialization" as described in the manual. (Basically hold the LABELS
> key and tap the POWER key.) Be aware that a param init resets all your
> function keys and other settings.
>
>> Is this a known bug?
>
> No I've never heard of that one before. Congratulations on being the
> first. :=)
>
> Alan
>
>
>> Dr. David McClain
>> [hidden email]
>>
>>
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>>
>
>
>

Dr. David McClain
[hidden email]

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David McClain

Re: K3 / P3 Bug?

In reply to this post by Alan Bloom

Yep... resetting the P3 did the trick. I resisted because there is no simple save / restore of the configuration like there is on the K3. But resetting the P3 fixed the problems in all areas at 6m.

Thanks for prompting me to do a more complete troubleshooting!

- 73 de Dave, N7AIG

On May 31, 2012, at 12:22 PM, Alan Bloom wrote: