Thanks all for all the advice: I ordered a Y connector from Winford Engineering. Straight through, so no worries. Also some straight through cables from the same source. I have always had good results from these folks in the past. The microKEYER will plug into one socket, the other into the KPAK3AUX cable for amplifier control. Hope the microKEYER wont mind (Im sure if it did, I would have heard from W4TV by now...)
Good to know I dont need any serial control of the amp at all. That was not well explained in the manual, or I was not looking closely enough (Anybody know what the AUX button labled #13 on the KPA500 front panel does? hi hi). I have many spare USB to Serial dongles from a valued source that work perfectly. One of the dongles will be put into use, attaching it directly to the amp, and I will continue my daisy chain rig control via the P3 socket downstream of my mechanical serial switch. I will continue to use one USB port for the microKEYER and the other from a direct "real" serial port on my computer. And I have many spare USB ports available on my Ham computer, so that is an easy addition. The dongles I have, which I use at work, stay put on their assigned ports as well, and uRouter creates its own virtual ones for the microHAM stuff, so all is good there. I think I am good to go... Will find out in a day or two once I get the whole station reconfigured and back in operation. If anyone needs a very good used Ameritron ALS600, I have one that needs a new home! Thanks again for the help, fellow Elecrafters! Lu Romero - W4LT K3/P3/KRX3/KPA500/K1 --------=======--------=========---------=======------ Message: 32 Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2012 10:50:11 -0500 From: "David Little" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K-Line system integration questions Message-ID: <FA8842F8D1E449BDA2E059F3A8075655@davidhp> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" FWIW, you can find InsideOut Edgeport interfaces on eBay that are usually quite reasonable. I have them in 2 port, 4 port and 8 port configurations. The use a single USB connector and provide what the computer sees as stable serial ports that stay where you put them. Each port can be configured, port number renamed, etc via the Control panel - System... The USB ports have a tendency to wander around if you use them in real world situations. With all the problems associated by a difference in ground potential, mechanical switchboxes increase the chances for ground loop. I am coming into this thread late, so apologies if this has already been covered. David KD4NUE ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
