[P3] **** FATAL ERROR ****

[Allan G Duncan]

Hi All,

My recently purchased P3 (it also has a P3SVGA fitted) has let me down this
weekend.

I purchased a P3 and P3SVGA recently for use with my K3. It has been working
correctly for some time until today.

Today the display froze and no button presses responded. I cycled the power
supply to the P3 and it now displays:-

**** FATAL ERROR ****
In: ddc_set_coef()
Span=0
Press any active key to escape


It does not respond to any key presses except the power button.

I have attempted to follow the procedure on page 23 of the revision C manual
and I can initiate the "Boot loader" screen and the P3 states that it is
ready for a firmware download. I am running P3 Utility version 1.12..3.11
under Windows XP and using COM1 (which is a real serial port - not
USB/Serial). I have successfully used this PC and utility to carry out
firmware updates in the past but it is unable to communicate with the P3 and
therefore is unable to reload the firmware. It just continually goes through
each baud rate in turn and is unable to communicate. I have tried a second
PC with different cables etc (which successfully communicates with my K3)
and have the same result.

Has anyone come across this problem before and come up with a solution? I
have emailed support - hopefully I will get an answer from them during the
week.

Thanks,

Allan

GM4ZUK

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[Alan Bloom]

On Sun, 2012-06-03 at 19:44 +0100, Allan G Duncan wrote:

> Today the display froze and no button presses responded. I cycled the power
> supply to the P3 and it now displays:-
>
> **** FATAL ERROR ****
> In: ddc_set_coef()
> Span=0
> Press any active key to escape

That is caused by a bug in version 1.13 that shows up when you upgrade
to 1.15.  The solution is to turn off power to the P3 and then do a
"Parameter Initialization" as described in the manual.

Alan N1AL


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[Allan G Duncan]

Thanks for that information. A Parameter Initialization (as described on page 28 of the current P3 manual) was the solution. My firmware version was 1.13 and I have now upgraded to 1.16. Now that I have performed the upgrade this problem should not re-occur.

Thanks to all those who took the time to email me off-reflector too.

Despite comments in another thread, I am very grateful for the friendly advice found in this reflector which I have been reading since 2005 when I built my first K2. This really is a great resource with the most helpful people you could wish for.

73

Allan
GM4ZUK


> Today the display froze and no button presses responded. I cycled the
> power supply to the P3 and it now displays:-
>
> **** FATAL ERROR ****
> In: ddc_set_coef()
> Span=0
> Press any active key to escape

That is caused by a bug in version 1.13 that shows up when you upgrade to 1.15.  The solution is to turn off power to the P3 and then do a "Parameter Initialization" as described in the manual.

Alan N1AL


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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