Elecraft › [K3]

Tone/"Low Bat" indication?

Classic

List

Threaded

4 messages Options

S Sacco

Tone/"Low Bat" indication?

I was working a station on 40M CW (qsk) this afternoon, and suddenly - and
only for a moment, my K3 got stuck and put a high pitched tone into the
speaker, while at the same time, indication "Low Bat" (perhaps "Low
Batt"?). It then returned to normal operation.

I've experienced this "getting stuck" thing a few times, but never looked at
the display while it was happening.

I'm running 3.04 right now.

Has anyone seen this behavior? If so, is there a way to address it?

Thank you & 73,

Steve
NN4X
EL98jh
______________________________________________________________
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

S Sacco

Re: Tone/"Low Bat" indication?

Hi Dave -

OK, sorry for the misunderstanding; I thought you were talking about the
K3's internal battery.

Now that we have that out of the way:

1) "BAT MIN" is set to 11.0 v

2) When I measured the voltage using the K3's internal metering:
a) It was 13.6 v at receive
b) It was 10.8 v while transmitting 95 watts output **** Clearly, 10.8
< "BAT MIN" ****

3) I measured disconnected and reconnected the Anderson Power Pole connector
at the back of the K3, and the voltage increased to 10.9.

4) I have the power from the power supply (an Alinco DM-330MV) running to a
set of fuses before continuing on to the K3. It's one of those gold-plated
dressy looking deals that car audio folks use to bling-out their
installation (I got them cheap at Skycraft Surplus here in Orlando about 10
years ago).
a) I removed both fuses (one for +, one for - ) and treated both the fuse
and the holder with DeoxIT.
b) At the same time, I treated the PowerPole with DeoxIT.
c) I also noted the the - lug on the back of the Alinco was slightly
loose, so I tightened it.
d) My apologies for not doing one thing at a time, and then measuring the
result; that would have been the proper procedure.
e) Upon the above treatment and actions:
i) The voltage rose to 13.7 v at receive
ii) The voltage rose to 11.4 v while transmitting 95 watts
iii) To add another datapoint, I reduced the power to 45 watts
(typical power when driving my amp) and the voltage was 12.0 v.

Conclusion: Voltage drop due to I squared R losses.

I didn't measure the voltage on both side of the fuses before the DeoxIT
treatment, which was another mistake in my diagnostic approach. I did so
after the treatment, and noted a voltage drop of only .1 volt (from 12.9 to
12.8) across the fuses while under load.

Thanks for the tip Dave; it was much appreciated!

I've Cced the reflector, and hope this serves as a good example for everyone
to mind their connections.

73,
Steve
NN4X

On Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 8:56 PM, David Gilbert <[hidden email]>wrote:

>
>
> The age of the battery doesn't mean much, and if it is weak it will be
> while you're transmitting that the voltage will sag. To check it, all you
> need to do is tap the DISP button, and then spin the VFO B knob to monitor
> the battery voltage right on the K3. If it falls below the value set for
> BAT MIN in the CONFIG menu, you're going to get a warning ... and probably a
> glitch if the warning happens while you're sending.
>
> Dave AB7E
>
>
>
> S Sacco wrote:
>
> David -
>
> Given that my K3 is about 9 months old (thus, the battery is pretty fresh,
> no doubt), and that it happens irregularly and momentarily, while
> transmitting, leads me to suspect this is not a "low battery" condition.
> Given that, I have not checked the battery.
>
> 73,
> Steve
> NN4X
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 7:57 PM, David Gilbert <[hidden email]>wrote:
>
>>
>> Have you checked the actual battery voltage that you're using? It seems
>> to me that the K3 is trying to tell you something.
>>
>> Dave AB7E
>>
>>
>> S Sacco wrote:
>>
>> I was working a station on 40M CW (qsk) this afternoon, and suddenly - and
>> only for a moment, my K3 got stuck and put a high pitched tone into the
>> speaker, while at the same time, indication "Low Bat" (perhaps "Low
>> Batt"?). It then returned to normal operation.
>>
>> I've experienced this "getting stuck" thing a few times, but never looked at
>> the display while it was happening.
>>
>> I'm running 3.04 right now.
>>
>> Has anyone seen this behavior? If so, is there a way to address it?
>>
>> Thank you & 73,
>>
>> Steve
>> NN4X
>> EL98jh
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:[hidden email] <[hidden email]>
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>>
>>
>

______________________________________________________________
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

David Gilbert

Re: Tone/"Low Bat" indication?

Glad that helped, Steve.

You might want to continue your troubleshooting, though. I use exactly
the same Alinco DM-330MV power supply with the same stock Power Pole
connectors that came with the K3, and while I have considered shortening
the power cable that Elecraft provides I have not yet done so. I
normally have my DM-330MV set for 14.5 volts per the earlier discussions
here on the reflector about SSB linearity, but I temporarily adjusted
the voltage back down to 13.6 volts in receive to match your
conditions. With the K3 set to 95 watts, I show 13.0 volts in
transmit. At 45 watts, I'm holding 13.3 volts.

I'm not sure what the difference might be, but we're getting
significantly different results from the same power supply. For what it
might be worth, I carefully soldered the connections between the cable
and the Power Pole connectors when I assembled it.

73,
Dave AB7E

S Sacco wrote:

> Hi Dave -
>
> OK, sorry for the misunderstanding; I thought you were talking about
> the K3's internal battery.
>
> Now that we have that out of the way:
>
> 1) "BAT MIN" is set to 11.0 v
>
> 2) When I measured the voltage using the K3's internal metering:
> a) It was 13.6 v at receive
> b) It was 10.8 v while transmitting 95 watts output **** Clearly,
> 10.8 < "BAT MIN" ****
>
> 3) I measured disconnected and reconnected the Anderson Power Pole
> connector at the back of the K3, and the voltage increased to 10.9.
>
> 4) I have the power from the power supply (an Alinco DM-330MV) running
> to a set of fuses before continuing on to the K3. It's one of those
> gold-plated dressy looking deals that car audio folks use to bling-out
> their installation (I got them cheap at Skycraft Surplus here in
> Orlando about 10 years ago).
> a) I removed both fuses (one for +, one for - ) and treated both
> the fuse and the holder with DeoxIT.
> b) At the same time, I treated the PowerPole with DeoxIT.
> c) I also noted the the - lug on the back of the Alinco was
> slightly loose, so I tightened it.
> d) My apologies for not doing one thing at a time, and then
> measuring the result; that would have been the proper procedure.
> e) Upon the above treatment and actions:
> i) The voltage rose to 13.7 v at receive
> ii) The voltage rose to 11.4 v while transmitting 95 watts
> iii) To add another datapoint, I reduced the power to 45 watts
> (typical power when driving my amp) and the voltage was 12.0 v.
>
> Conclusion: Voltage drop due to I squared R losses.
>
> I didn't measure the voltage on both side of the fuses before the
> DeoxIT treatment, which was another mistake in my diagnostic
> approach. I did so after the treatment, and noted a voltage drop of
> only .1 volt (from 12.9 to 12.8) across the fuses while under load.
>
> Thanks for the tip Dave; it was much appreciated!
>
> I've Cced the reflector, and hope this serves as a good example for
> everyone to mind their connections.
>
> 73,
> Steve
> NN4X
>
>

S Sacco

Re: Tone/"Low Bat" indication?

Dave -

About 5 minutes after I hit [SEND] on that last e-mail, I remembered that
I'm not using the supplied DC cable, but instead have a rather long DC cable
running to the K3; I'm sure that's where the loss is coming from. I'll
look into shortening it.

I also soldered the PP connections.

I've left my DM-330MV set to the default 13.8 v, but raising it is certainly
easily doable.

Thanks again & 73,

Steve
NN4X

On Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 12:08 AM, David Gilbert <[hidden email]>wrote:

>
> Glad that helped, Steve.
>
> You might want to continue your troubleshooting, though. I use exactly the
> same Alinco DM-330MV power supply with the same stock Power Pole connectors
> that came with the K3, and while I have considered shortening the power
> cable that Elecraft provides I have not yet done so. I normally have my
> DM-330MV set for 14.5 volts per the earlier discussions here on the
> reflector about SSB linearity, but I temporarily adjusted the voltage back
> down to 13.6 volts in receive to match your conditions. With the K3 set to
> 95 watts, I show 13.0 volts in transmit. At 45 watts, I'm holding 13.3
> volts.
>
> I'm not sure what the difference might be, but we're getting significantly
> different results from the same power supply. For what it might be worth, I
> carefully soldered the connections between the cable and the Power Pole
> connectors when I assembled it.
>
> 73,
> Dave AB7E
>
>
>
>
> S Sacco wrote:
>
> Hi Dave -
>
> OK, sorry for the misunderstanding; I thought you were talking about the
> K3's internal battery.
>
> Now that we have that out of the way:
>
> 1) "BAT MIN" is set to 11.0 v
>
> 2) When I measured the voltage using the K3's internal metering:
> a) It was 13.6 v at receive
> b) It was 10.8 v while transmitting 95 watts output **** Clearly, 10.8
> < "BAT MIN" ****
>
> 3) I measured disconnected and reconnected the Anderson Power Pole
> connector at the back of the K3, and the voltage increased to 10.9.
>
> 4) I have the power from the power supply (an Alinco DM-330MV) running to a
> set of fuses before continuing on to the K3. It's one of those gold-plated
> dressy looking deals that car audio folks use to bling-out their
> installation (I got them cheap at Skycraft Surplus here in Orlando about 10
> years ago).
> a) I removed both fuses (one for +, one for - ) and treated both the
> fuse and the holder with DeoxIT.
> b) At the same time, I treated the PowerPole with DeoxIT.
> c) I also noted the the - lug on the back of the Alinco was slightly
> loose, so I tightened it.
> d) My apologies for not doing one thing at a time, and then measuring
> the result; that would have been the proper procedure.
> e) Upon the above treatment and actions:
> i) The voltage rose to 13.7 v at receive
> ii) The voltage rose to 11.4 v while transmitting 95 watts
> iii) To add another datapoint, I reduced the power to 45 watts
> (typical power when driving my amp) and the voltage was 12.0 v.
>
> Conclusion: Voltage drop due to I squared R losses.
>
> I didn't measure the voltage on both side of the fuses before the DeoxIT
> treatment, which was another mistake in my diagnostic approach. I did so
> after the treatment, and noted a voltage drop of only .1 volt (from 12.9 to
> 12.8) across the fuses while under load.
>
> Thanks for the tip Dave; it was much appreciated!
>
> I've Cced the reflector, and hope this serves as a good example for
> everyone to mind their connections.
>
> 73,
> Steve
> NN4X
>
>
>