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KPA500 - Fan running fast

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Michael Walker

KPA500 - Fan running fast

I run my KPA500 remotely... very remotely

There are times when I am running at full power in a carrier mode that I
turn the fan on high manually. Which is pretty funny when it is blowing
-10C air through it.

Then, when I am done, I turn it down.

But.. there are times when I actually get to the remote station and find
that that fan is still running at high speed even though all the remote
controls show it at low speed.

Has anyone else notices this?

Mike va3mw
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Rick Tavan-2

Re: KPA500 - Fan running fast

Yes, I think I've seen something like that but wasn't able to characterize
it succinctly. I often set the fan on 1 or 2 when operating remotely. If I
power cycle the amp, it seems to come up with KPA500 Remote saying the fan
is on 0 when in fact it's still on 1 or 2 ... I think. Two possibilities:

1. It might be best to reset the fan to zero when it powers up. Then the
KPA500 Remote display would be correct, albeit only by coincidence. I don't
know how many people prefer the fan setting to persist through power
cycles, though.
2. It might be best for KPA500 Remote to read the current fan setting at
power up and display it correctly intentionally. I don't know if that
setting is readable, though.

73,

/Rick N6XI

Rick Tavan
Truckee, CA

On Sun, Dec 24, 2017 at 9:32 AM, Michael Walker <[hidden email]>
wrote:

> I run my KPA500 remotely... very remotely
>
> There are times when I am running at full power in a carrier mode that I
> turn the fan on high manually. Which is pretty funny when it is blowing
> -10C air through it.
>
> Then, when I am done, I turn it down.
>
> But.. there are times when I actually get to the remote station and find
> that that fan is still running at high speed even though all the remote
> controls show it at low speed.
>
> Has anyone else notices this?
>
> Mike va3mw
> ______________________________________________________________
> 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
> Message delivered to [hidden email]
>

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Jack Brindle-2

Re: KPA500 - Fan running fast

Rick;

I am suspecting that the remote software isn’t checking for fan control properly.

The ^FC; command can both set and read the fan setting; the remote software
should certainly be reading it. There is a command that has not yet been added
to the KPA500 Programmer’s document to report fan speed. It is:
^FS;
The response will be:
^FSn;
where n is an integer from 0 to 6 indicating the current fan speed.

The Fan Control setting is saved in EEPROM and is sticky. It will be preserved
across power cycles.

And now I will spend some of my holidays updating the KPA programmer’s reference.
It is a far better experience than going to the mall…

73!

Jack, W6FB

> On Dec 24, 2017, at 2:28 PM, Rick Tavan <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Yes, I think I've seen something like that but wasn't able to characterize
> it succinctly. I often set the fan on 1 or 2 when operating remotely. If I
> power cycle the amp, it seems to come up with KPA500 Remote saying the fan
> is on 0 when in fact it's still on 1 or 2 ... I think. Two possibilities:
>
> 1. It might be best to reset the fan to zero when it powers up. Then the
> KPA500 Remote display would be correct, albeit only by coincidence. I don't
> know how many people prefer the fan setting to persist through power
> cycles, though.
> 2. It might be best for KPA500 Remote to read the current fan setting at
> power up and display it correctly intentionally. I don't know if that
> setting is readable, though.
>
> 73,
>
> /Rick N6XI
>
>
> Rick Tavan
> Truckee, CA
>
> On Sun, Dec 24, 2017 at 9:32 AM, Michael Walker <[hidden email]>
> wrote:
>
>> I run my KPA500 remotely... very remotely
>>
>> There are times when I am running at full power in a carrier mode that I
>> turn the fan on high manually. Which is pretty funny when it is blowing
>> -10C air through it.
>>
>> Then, when I am done, I turn it down.
>>
>> But.. there are times when I actually get to the remote station and find
>> that that fan is still running at high speed even though all the remote
>> controls show it at low speed.
>>
>> Has anyone else notices this?
>>
>> Mike va3mw
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> 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
>> Message delivered to [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
> Message delivered to [hidden email]

Rick Tavan-2

Re: KPA500 - Fan running fast

:-) By all means stay far away from shopping areas for the next few weeks. They're worse after Christmas than before!

I think you're right about KPA500 Remote. Although I'm not at my KPA500 QTH today, I just powered it up using KPA500 Remote, set fan speed to 2, power cycled it the amp, and Remote came back showing fan speed 0. Please note the issue to whomever is maintaining KPA500 Remote these days.

Have a happy,

/Rick

On 12/24/17 2:44 PM, Jack Brindle wrote:

> Rick;
>
> I am suspecting that the remote software isn’t checking for fan control properly.
>
> The ^FC; command can both set and read the fan setting; the remote software
> should certainly be reading it. There is a command that has not yet been added
> to the KPA500 Programmer’s document to report fan speed. It is:
> ^FS;
> The response will be:
> ^FSn;
> where n is an integer from 0 to 6 indicating the current fan speed.
>
> The Fan Control setting is saved in EEPROM and is sticky. It will be preserved
> across power cycles.
>
> And now I will spend some of my holidays updating the KPA programmer’s reference.
> It is a far better experience than going to the mall…
>
> 73!
>
> Jack, W6FB
>
>> On Dec 24, 2017, at 2:28 PM, Rick Tavan <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>
>> Yes, I think I've seen something like that but wasn't able to characterize
>> it succinctly. I often set the fan on 1 or 2 when operating remotely. If I
>> power cycle the amp, it seems to come up with KPA500 Remote saying the fan
>> is on 0 when in fact it's still on 1 or 2 ... I think. Two possibilities:
>>
>> 1. It might be best to reset the fan to zero when it powers up. Then the
>> KPA500 Remote display would be correct, albeit only by coincidence. I don't
>> know how many people prefer the fan setting to persist through power
>> cycles, though.
>> 2. It might be best for KPA500 Remote to read the current fan setting at
>> power up and display it correctly intentionally. I don't know if that
>> setting is readable, though.
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> /Rick N6XI
>>
>>
>> Rick Tavan
>> Truckee, CA
>>
>> On Sun, Dec 24, 2017 at 9:32 AM, Michael Walker <[hidden email]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I run my KPA500 remotely... very remotely
>>>
>>> There are times when I am running at full power in a carrier mode that I
>>> turn the fan on high manually. Which is pretty funny when it is blowing
>>> -10C air through it.
>>>
>>> Then, when I am done, I turn it down.
>>>
>>> But.. there are times when I actually get to the remote station and find
>>> that that fan is still running at high speed even though all the remote
>>> controls show it at low speed.
>>>
>>> Has anyone else notices this?
>>>
>>> Mike va3mw
>>> ______________________________________________________________
>>> 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
>>> Message delivered to [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
>> Message delivered to [hidden email]