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P3 - Power up glitches with K3

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Phil Westover

P3 - Power up glitches with K3

I've got a P3 connected to my K3 with all the proper connections.

K3 info:
s/n 1206
Firmware: MCU 4.36, DSP 2.73, Flash Parameters 1.14
P3 info:
s/n 1490
Firmware: 1.09

When I first hooked up the P3 a few months ago, I set the jumpers (and connected a power cable) to power it up from the K3. At that time, I got immediate connection and immediate "talking" between the P3 and the K3. Frequency and filter width showed up correctly immediately at power up.

After a couple of months, it appears to not immediately 'talk' with the K3 upon power up. Sometimes no frequency nor filter bandwidth are displayed. Sometimes frequency is displayed, but no filter bandwidth. Sometimes the bandwidth shows up and is shifted off the right. In all cases, I can manually power down the P3 and toggle it back up, and all those things eventually show up properly. Sometimes it takes several on-off toggles (5 or more). In one instance, it didn't come up after several toggles, then about 10 minutes later they started talking correctly.

Cables are tightly attached. There is no movement to the rigs during use. This appears to be software related, not mechanical.

Ideas?

- Phil, WA7URV

Matt Zilmer

Re: P3 - Power up glitches with K3

Software doesn't age over time. It could be a problem with pin
contact resistance. You can clean the connector pins off and see if
this helps.

73,
matt W6NIA

On Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:40:35 -0800 (PST), you wrote:

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Alan Bloom

Re: P3 - Power up glitches with K3

In reply to this post by Phil Westover

Hi Phil,

It does take several seconds for the K3 to initialize the P3 at power up
but if some parameters are not getting initialized it must be a hardware
problem with the serial interface. It sounds like you have already
confirmed that the locking screws on both ends of the serial cable are
tight. If you have a spare cable you might try that. Another
possibility is a bad KIO3 board in the K3. Some units have a marginal
negative power supply that can affect signal integrity. If you can
borrow another K3, you could temporarily substitute it to tell if the
problem is with the K3 or P3.

I would contact Elecraft support to see what they recommend.
[hidden email]

Alan N1AL

On Fri, 2011-12-23 at 17:40 -0800, Phil Westover wrote:

> I've got a P3 connected to my K3 with all the proper connections.
>
> K3 info:
> s/n 1206
> Firmware: MCU 4.36, DSP 2.73, Flash Parameters 1.14
> P3 info:
> s/n 1490
> Firmware: 1.09
>
> When I first hooked up the P3 a few months ago, I set the jumpers (and
> connected a power cable) to power it up from the K3. At that time, I got
> immediate connection and immediate "talking" between the P3 and the K3.
> Frequency and filter width showed up correctly immediately at power up.
>
> After a couple of months, it appears to not immediately 'talk' with the K3
> upon power up. Sometimes no frequency nor filter bandwidth are displayed.
> Sometimes frequency is displayed, but no filter bandwidth. Sometimes the
> bandwidth shows up and is shifted off the right. In all cases, I can
> manually power down the P3 and toggle it back up, and all those things
> eventually show up properly. Sometimes it takes several on-off toggles (5
> or more). In one instance, it didn't come up after several toggles, then
> about 10 minutes later they started talking correctly.
>
> Cables are tightly attached. There is no movement to the rigs during use.
> This appears to be software related, not mechanical.
>
> Ideas?
>
> - Phil, WA7URV
>
> --
> View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/P3-Power-up-glitches-with-K3-tp7122888p7122888.html
> Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
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>
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Mike K2MK

Re: P3 - Power up glitches with K3

In reply to this post by Phil Westover

Hi Phil,

My time proven technique to find the source of K3 or P3 behavior abnormalities is to blame the computer first. Disconnect the serial cable to your PC then see if the problem still exists.

73,
Mike K2MK

Phil Westover wrote

I've got a P3 connected to my K3 with all the proper connections.

K3 info:
s/n 1206
Firmware: MCU 4.36, DSP 2.73, Flash Parameters 1.14
P3 info:
s/n 1490
Firmware: 1.09

When I first hooked up the P3 a few months ago, I set the jumpers (and connected a power cable) to power it up from the K3. At that time, I got immediate connection and immediate "talking" between the P3 and the K3. Frequency and filter width showed up correctly immediately at power up.

After a couple of months, it appears to not immediately 'talk' with the K3 upon power up. Sometimes no frequency nor filter bandwidth are displayed. Sometimes frequency is displayed, but no filter bandwidth. Sometimes the bandwidth shows up and is shifted off the right. In all cases, I can manually power down the P3 and toggle it back up, and all those things eventually show up properly. Sometimes it takes several on-off toggles (5 or more). In one instance, it didn't come up after several toggles, then about 10 minutes later they started talking correctly.

Cables are tightly attached. There is no movement to the rigs during use. This appears to be software related, not mechanical.

Ideas?

- Phil, WA7URV