This is a known issue with older K3's. The contacts between the PC Board and the front panel and lose conectivity. I do not recall all the details, so don't quote me, but I believe the materials were either dis-similar, or just not a reliable material. Elecraft started using silver plated contacts later in the production of K3's. You can take it apart, and clean them, but this will re-occur.
- I have used a product called "Stabilant 22", not in the K3, but in my work on computers. This is a very good product, and not only cleans the contact, but prevents them from corroding again. The down-side is it leaves a sticky substance on the pins, which is why they do not corrode, but it will pick up other dirt making the next cleaning more difficult. - You can replace the pins, as these are available from Elecraft (Beware, as there are 40, I think) - You can send in your radio, and they will replace them. Fortunately my K3 was sent in by the previous owner, and mod'd up to the current level, which included the pin replacement. Keith KB9WMJ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Downs" <k...@verizon.net> To: "Dave Hachadorian" <k6ll.d...@gmail.com> Cc: "Elecraft Reflector" <elecraft@mailman.qth.net> Sent: Saturday, August 03, 2013 7:36 PM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 Front Panel Problem Thanks Dave, I tried rotating the four knobs and tapping them. Found out rotating the knobs works as expected, but the tap and hold functions do not work at all. None of the other buttons on the front panel work as expected except the POWER button. Tapping many of the buttons has no effect, but others cause unrelated functions to execute. For example, tapping the PRE button causes NTCH to turn on or off. Tapping the ANT button causes NR to turn on or off. Tapping the SPOT button or AFX button causes the SHIFT/LO control to switch from SHIFT to LO and the HI/WIDTH control to shift from HI to WIDTH. This behavior causes me to believe the Parameter Initialization procedure needs to be activated, but I can't get it to initiate because the SHIFT/LO control doesn't work as expected. Oops! I just got it to work by holding the SPOT button while tapping the POWER button. Weird. Anyway, I restored the K3 Configuration but none of the front panels problems have been resolved. On Aug 3, 2013, at 7:51 PM, Dave Hachadorian <k6ll.d...@gmail.com> wrote: > Sometimes the pushbuttons on the four controls to the left of the > main VFO knob get stuck. Tap and rotate these four controls and > everything will probably start working again. One of the factory > guys gave me that advice and it worked for me, about two years > ago. I bought replacements for the four encoder/switches (about > $2 each) but never installed them, because everything has been > totally solid ever since, and installation seemed like a PITA. > As I remember, it took about ten minutes of fiddling with the > controls until everything started working again. > > > Dave Hachadorian, K6LL > Big Bear Lake, CA > > > > -----Original Message----- From: Michael Downs > Sent: Saturday, August 03, 2013 4:24 PM > To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Reflector > Subject: [Elecraft] K3 Front Panel Problem > > Elecraft List, > > I haven't used my K3 for quite a while as I have been playing > with the KX3 (the K3 has been sitting on the desk totally > disconnected from everything). Now when I fire up the K3, none of > the front panel buttons and dual-purpose controls work, except > volume and VFO A. I thought maybe the menu parameters got altered > somehow preventing the firmware from operating correctly, so I > tried to do a parameter initialization. But that failed because > the Shift/Lo knob is not working (The other dual-purpose knobs: > Hi/Width, Speed/Mic, and Cmp/Pwr don't work either). Therefore, I > figured the contacts between the front panel and the radio had > become corroded and weren't making a good electrical connection > anymore. So, I removed the front panel and inspected the pins. > Everything looked normal and I put the radio back together again. > Still not working. > > Anyone want to make suggestions on what else I should try? I can > communicate with the radio using the K3 Utility and I did > reinstall the MCU firmware, DSP firmware and front panel > firmware. None of that helped. I still think there must be a > communication problem between the front panel and the radio, but > don't know how to fix it. Suggestions? Thanks in advance. > > 73, > Mike ks7d ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
