Bill, Just out of curiosity, I tried it here too. Your momentary action may be 'normal' I tried it in CW mode and set the K3 menu to key on DTR. When I issued the command mode com1 dtr=on, the K3 keyed for a very brief time and then went back to receive - it did not stay key-down as I expected.
It may be that your Dell has the on and off states of the control lines backwards for the default (inactive) state. I would suggest trying another computer to verify. 73, Don W3FPR Bill W5WVO wrote: > Hi Julian, > > Fascinating! (as Mr Spock would say). > > I first enabled PTT=RTS on the K3. The rig keyed up as usual. > > I then asserted the command line you suggested in a command window, and the > RTS > line dropped but then immediately reasserted itself -- I would say the > dropped > time was maybe 200 ms. > > As an aside, any application that actually had control of the serial port > would > block the user's attempt to control it through the command line. I verified > this > by running my logging program (which talks with the K3) and then trying the > command. Windows responded that the serial port was not available. I closed > the > logging program and tried again, and it worked as described above. > > I'm beginning to think this is some kind of weird-ass Dell snafu... Great! :-( > > Thanks, > > Bill W5WVO > > > Julian, G4ILO wrote: > >> Bill W5WVO wrote: >> >>> Julian et al., >>> >>> I have always used VOX for WSJT keying, so I tried setting it up for >>> RTS control >>> as you suggest above. But when I try to configure the K3 for ether >>> PTT=RTS or >>> PTT=DTR with NO RS232-controlling application (like WSJT) running, >>> the rig keys >>> up (and switches into TEST mode automatically as per the manual). If >>> I then >>> disconnect the serial cable at the laptop serial connector, the keyed >>> condition >>> disappears. >>> >>> My conclusion is that the laptop's serial port is asserting RTS and >>> DTR full-time for some reason. It's a 2-year-old Dell Latitude D820, >>> Core2 processor, 2 GHz, 2 GB RAM, running XP Home. It has one true >>> RS232 port (COM1), >>> the one I'm using. Flow control is set to NONE, so it should not be >>> asserting >>> these lines by default. Has anyone ever encountered this? >>> >>> >>> >> For many years I have used RTS for PTT and CW keying with various >> software and radios and I have never come across this. Normally if >> the rig is switched on when the computer starts up the RTS (PTT) is >> briefly toggled three times during the startup procedures but it is >> always left on the off position. It seems an unlikely thing for Dell >> to deliberately do, so I wonder if you have some program or driver >> that tries to scan the serial ports at start-up and leaves RTS / DTR >> in the wrong state afterwards. >> >> There is one program I find that leaves RTS on when it closes and very >> annoyingly it is Fldigi for Windows which I use rather a lot. But >> apart from WSJT there is WSPR and the AGWPE packet engine that all >> use simple PTT control so I really need to leave that K3 option >> enabled. >> >> While typing this I had a stroke of inspiration. If you type the >> command: >> >> mode com1 rts=off dtr=off >> >> in a command window that should turn RTS and DTR off. So if you could >> put that command into whatever the Windows XP equivalent of >> autoexec.bat is (assuming there is one) that should solve the problem. >> >> ----- >> Julian, G4ILO. K2 #392 K3 #222. >> * G4ILO's Shack - http://www.g4ilo.com >> * KComm - http://www.g4ilo.com/kcomm.html >> * KTune - http://www.g4ilo.com/ktune.html >> > ______________________________________________________________ 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
