Well said! 73, Mike NF4L
> On Sep 9, 2015, at 5:32 PM, Guy Olinger K2AV <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Wed, Sep 9, 2015 at 11:29 AM, K8TE <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> In my case, the Mic gain is normally set to 8-9 (CM500 headset). The >> anomaly decreases the Mic Gain to zero. I manually reset it to 8-9 which >> restores SSB power output to normal. I haven’t tried any other actions to >> restore the Mic gain. All indications I have this is a Mic Gain problem. >> > > Since the mic gain, displayed in a digit format, is reported as > literally going to the digit zero, we must remember that everything > inside a dotted line within the K3 is entirely SDR. We must carefully > avoid our decades-ground-in tendency to think of troubles in our > familiar and comfortable analog fashion. I do include myself in this > habit and sometimes catch myself going retrograde, having to do a > brainwave CTL-ALT-DEL, and start over from the beginning. > > This trouble is presenting inside the K3's SDR dotted line. Of the > eight "pots" on six shaft centers on the left side K3 front panel, all > those rotational functions *advise* the CPU of their state via > multiplexed one and zero state data lines. There is no gain > potentiometer inserted anywhere in the various audio paths, nor is > there a steady state control voltage from a potentiometer controlling > a linear pass transistor in the audio string anywhere, thank your > lucky stars. Remember "scratchy" audio? Just another of the analog > bugaboos happily banned forever by the K3's mostly SDR hybrid scheme. > > The MIC control function uses a *shared* encoder assigned three > separate unrelated settings. If the encoder or its physical data > connection to the CPU was a problem, it would affect all three > functions MIC, SPEED and DELAY on the front panel. I have heard of the > encoder going bad and needing to be replaced. If the encoder is > miscellaneously sending a string of "decrease" encoder signals, it > should also happen in SPEED or DELAY mode. All the encoder can do is > send increase or decrease signals. You would have your CW and VOX > delays going to nothing, or your CW speed going to the 8 WPM minimum. > > The CPU knows what function is currently "on the knob" and the static > values in force for the three lower left encoder functions. Exactly > one function at a time is currently assigned to the knob, and the CPU > interprets a "decrease signal" accordingly. The decrease signal > travels to the CPU over a multiplexed data line which is either there > and properly working for many diverse functions or is not for all > those functions. > > Doesn't this really start to smell like a program issue? That gets you > to the next thing -- if it is a firmware bug, then the trouble is > present for ALL K3 users running the affected firmware version(s). And > we should have lots of reports because every single user of the > firmware could be experiencing the same problem intermittently. > > The only program code that could isolate the trouble to a *few* users > would have to be external to the K3. Is it possible for an external > program to set the MIC gain? This of course is impossible in an analog > radio priced for ham customers, so analog thinking would not suggest > that. The trouble would have to be IN an analog radio. But since the > K3 is digital, we note that page 1 of the K3 programmer's guide has > "MG * Mic gain" cell in the command table cheet sheet. That just might > be an "Aha" moment. > > If an external program intermittently sent an MG 000 command to the > K3, you would inconveniently find the MIC gain set to zero, > intermittently. Not a K3 intermittent physical problem, but a K3 > *commanded* to set MIC gain at zero, a command which the K3 mindlessly > obeys, as yet unable to read a contrary indication from the mind of > the operator. Let me know when the mind-reading K7 shows up. I want > one. Get rid of a lot of cables and input devices. > > I, myself, with my terribly soft and mumbly radio voice, with > extensive trials managed to get a good setting for K3 SSB MIC gain, > compression and TX EQ settings. I was directed to those settings, and > had those settings confirmed as clear, punchy and understandable over > the air, by the PVRC contest guru crowd. Predictably I haven't myself > touched those settings in maybe three or four YEARS now. They are > still where I put them. They better stay there, too. People don't hear > me nearly as well when I'm non-K3-processed. It's like turning off the > amplifier. > > Repeating myself, if it's a third party program on someone's > particularly configured PC, or with a particular parallel combination > of running third party programs, then the mic gain to zero problem > would be scattered and rare. If it's in K3 firmware, it probably would > have been caught in alpha or beta testing. If if got to the general > field in a production release, Big E would have been buried in > complaints. > > Myself, I would suspect something incoming on the control serial line > like "MIC 010" losing ASCII digits and arriving as "MIC 0", or mangled > to "MIC 000" or something like that. Does the K3 process a "MIC 0" > command or consider that an invalid command? I don't know. But poor > physical connections for external serial lines, or overloading USB > hubs have resulted in mangled command strings, or two programs > fighting for exclusive use of the serial line, and those kinds of > problems far beyond Elecraft's control, are as common as nails. And by > my reading of this reflector those troubles are frequently first > blamed on the K3, even if the true chances of that actually being > correct are worse than hitting the lottery. > > Do follow the support advice to disconnect all the external programs > and see what happens. > > The complete list of all possible combinations of third party programs > that can drive a K3 over a serial connection is an absolute witches > brew of widely scattered quality, from the sublime to the simply > awful, sometimes implemented in a hamshack with grotesque physical > arrangements. There are programs in distribution that have known > problems that the coder has no intention of ever fixing, for any > number of reasons, and some have publicly stated such. What you got is > all you are ever going to get with these. Meaning that your particular > problem could have been reported to the author a thousand times > without effect. That in a programming world that swiftly keeps moving > on. And of course this is without mentioning the ubiquitous > fallibility in PC Bios programs and operating systems. > > Elecraft is your friend. Respect the Elecraft. > > 73, Guy K2AV > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 > Message delivered to [email protected] ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [email protected]
