Topics

1

General discussion forum / USB Device not recognized Windows XP and Microbit Setup Manager Install

« on: 2013-03-27, 19:06:29 »

Hi Group,

I am out of ideas on this one. I have tried 3 PC's of which 2 of them I have wiped clean with fresh install of XP Pro, EVERY single update available to the OS including additional/optional and hardware updates. I think netframework 4 is installed. I cannot get the microbit manager to see the RRC! I have tried different RRC's and still same issue. When I plug the RRC into the PC, windows pops up a message "USB Device Not recognized" One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned.

So, perfectly clean XP install, every update, latest version of Microbit setup utility (Which installs fine) the PC(s) WILL NOT see the RRC.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Lee
WW2DX

2

Configuration, RRC 1258 / RRC Reboots in K3-TWIN Setup only during SSB TX *** SOLVED ***

« on: 2013-02-10, 21:35:59 »

Greetings,

I have some very odd behavior with a K3/0 and RRC unit. Both units are new (Within last month) and the RRC was purchased directly from RemoteRig.

K3/0 and RRC have latest firmware versions and match the Station end settings as well.
All settings have been confirmed multiple times and compared to working configurations.
We have swapped internet connections as well as power supplies to the K3/0/RRC.
We have also confirmed all the jumpers in the RRC.


The control K3/0 connects to the station without any problems. The K3/0 is using a Elecraft MH2 microphone. CW works perfectly. When attempting SSB, as soon you key the mic and start to talk the RRC power cycles and the Site K3 reboots. When the Site K3 comes back the connection is restored. This behavior is consistent.

We know this is specific to this particular K3/0/RRC as there are many other "users" connecting to the site without problems.

Another interesting test is, if we pull the PTT IN RCA cable from the K3/0 and use the XMIT button to key the radio and then talk into the mic the radio again resets. Same is true if we pull the MIC/MONO plug out of the K3 and keep the PTT IN connected, just keying the MIC resets the Site K3.

I am beginning to feel that its something with the MIC/AUX cable or something internal to the RRC. We have also confirmed the cables (as best we could visually) on the AUX/MIC cable supplied from Elecraft. Actually, we should test the cables with a meter now that I think of it. We will do this this evening and I will post what we find.

In any event, has anyone seen this before or have any other suggestions to try?

73 Lee
WW2DX


UPDATE - -

The user luckily had another RRC setup with a TS-480. We rewired this RRC for the K3 twin and we have the same exact problem!!

OK this is good, we are fairly confident that its not the RRC. The next thing we are testing is the AUX/MIC cable from Elecraft. Unfortunately the user does not have a multi-meter available so I will overnight a new AUX/MIC cable and test that. The only two items left are the K3/0 and the AUX/MIC cable. Lets hope its the cable.

Update when I have it.

73 Lee
WW2DX


UPDATE 2.19.13

Thanks to the USPO the cable was lost.

The problem has been solved! I am not happy about why this happens but at the very least we understand the problem.

If the LOCAL K3 or K3/0 VFO is set to a freq on the display OUTSIDE of the ham bands before it connected to the remote site then this causes the above problem!

Hey Elecraft, can you place a "OUT OF BAND" message on the display?

I REALLY hope this helps someone else.

73 Lee
WW2DX
www.RemoteHamRadio.com

3

General discussion forum / Which USB Chip in RRC?

« on: 2012-11-15, 16:43:36 »

Hi Guys,

Which driver should I download FTDI, prolific other?

73 Lee
WW2DX

4

Hardware, Cabling, Installations / Trouble with WIFI Modules

« on: 2012-08-30, 20:18:12 »

Greetings,

Received two WIFI kits and attempted to install one. I first used solder wick to "pull" the solder out of the pin holes. Both of my RRC's are "Old style" and only have 10 PINS. After I used solder wick I then used a "Solder Sucker" to pull the rest of the solder from the holes so I could visibly see through the board. The only two pins I could not see through were pins 3 and 4. For these pins I tried both wick and the sucker and with difficulty I was able to pull some solder out of pins 3/4 with the sucker but only enough to make an "indent". I then inserted the 10 pin header and continued to heat the holes and set the header into the board. Since pins 3/4 are very difficult to deal with I left a fair amount of space between the pin header and the board so I could solder pins 3/4 from the top as well as the bottom of the board to make sure they have contact. I then installed the wire jumper from pin 8 for the reset signal.

My RRC's have firmware 2.60, installed. I powered up the unit and used the Microbit Manager to connect to the RRC.

Upon power on I get the RED LED on the WIFI board. Success so far.

From the Microbit manager, I then open the WIFI console, when I click scan I can successfully see a couple WIFI networks in the area. If I hit SCAN a second time I then receive the error message "WIFI module not installed". If I power cycle the RRC sometimes I am successful with scanning and other times I still get "WIFI module not installed".

I then attempted to duplicate this process with my 2nd RRC and I also get the exact same results. I am able to scan and see WIFI networks on the first power up then "WIFI module not installed" error after the initial power on.

Conclusion, with two separate RRC's and WIFI modules I get the same exact behavior.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks, 73
Lee
WW2DX

5

General discussion forum / Fun in Dayton and some feature requests :)

« on: 2012-06-28, 05:56:58 »

Hello group,

I wanted to share some pics from Dayton this year. I had the honor of meeting SM2O and DJ0QN at the Crowne Plaza with a couple a cold ones



SM20 and WW2DX

We actually setup a K3/0 in a empty banquet hall adjacent to the party running over a AT&T 4G LTE card and had a blast operating the W2RE.com contest station all night

Guys operating the remoterig setup, good times!




K3WW running Russians on 20m CW. You can see the 4G LTE card on the table to the right.



OK, so been a busy bee and have some feature requests that I would like put out there for consideration.

1. Enable the power LED to send in morse code the last octet of the IP address if DHCP and/or use the built in CW keyer to send the tones.
    Longer stretch : On the K3/0, the ability for the RRC to generate the CAT commands and send the IP address to the K3's CW Decode display.

2. Move the "Profiles" out of the password restricted area of the menu system. Pretty please with sugar on top.

3. Ability to export EVERYTHING in the RRC config. We have multiple profiles and need to be able to import/export these in the bin files.

4. Possible to sample the serial data passing through the RRC and post radio band/mode/freq in the RRC webpage.

5. Enable the dyndns utility in the LOCAL RRC firmware. Yes, would like to be able to get to the local side as well as the remote side.

6. With the K3/0, use the keyer speed control on the K3 to control the speed control in the RRC keyer.

7. Embed the RRC into the K3/0. Would like to see just a 12v power source and a wifi antenna, thats it.

8. Get the wireless adapter manufacturer to put a fire under it

I hope I embedded the pics correctly.

Thanks guys, 73!

Lee
WW2DX

6

Hardware, Cabling, Installations / K3 Twins + Expert Amp + Band Decoder + Steppir ..O my...

« on: 2012-03-22, 16:37:55 »

Hello Group,

I hope someone can help with some configuration questions. We are in the process of remoting two stations. I have some questions about how to wire up the com ports between multiple devices and making them play well together.
Both stations will be setup in "Twin Mode".

Station 1:

Elecraft K3 + RRC + Steppir + Expert Amp

I assume that I will need a Y cable coming out of the K3 , one side goes to the COM port on the RRC and the other side to the DATA IN on the Steppir Controller then DATA OUT to the expert Amps CAT IN.

Sound right?

Station 2:

Elecraft K3 + RRC + Expert Amp + Array Solutions Band Decoder

Not sure about this one. I figure another Y cable out of the K3, one side to the RRC. I may need to place another Y cable on the Band Decoder then one side of the Y cable on the Band Decoder to the 2nd side of the Y cable off of the K3 and the last connection hanging off of the Band Decoder to the Expert CAT IN?

Seems a little scary with Y cables, collisions?

Thanks, 73!

Lee
WW2DX

7

Configuration, RRC 1258 / K3 Twins - Initial Feedback

« on: 2012-01-27, 22:42:17 »

Hello Group,

Just setup the K3 twins and my initial response after holding down the Config key on the Control side was....WOW

Things are looking great but I have a few questions and I have experienced some unexpected behaviors.

CW/SSB problems:

1. CW is not working yet.
     When in CW mode, I start sending CW with the paddle, both radio's go into TX but no CW is sent. What is really strange is if I place the K3 into "Data" mode then the paddle sends CW perfectly.

2. Microphone is not passing audio.
     I have an adapter that I use for the front mic connector that goes from the 8 pin mic connector to a 1/4" PTT(not used) and a 1/8" Audio. When this adapter is plugged directly into the front panel on the K3 the audio works fine. When I plug into the RRC there is no audio passed to the remote K3.



I followed the settings in the manual for the K3 twins for the RRC configs.





Unexpected Behaviors:

1. The local K3 uses ANT1 connected to a dummyload when used in Twins mode. ANT2 is used for the local station amp/tower/antennas etc. This is very nice to be able to switch between local antennas and "remote" antennas.
     
        a. Perhaps its possible to simply not TX real RF on the Control side via Firmware?
 
        b. When the Control side K3 is NOT in TWIN mode, and the Control K3 is powered off, the remote (Radio)  K3 still powers off.
Ideally, when the control K3 is taken OUT of TWIN mode I would expect the RRC to be completely invisible. When the Control K3 is taken out of Twin mode, you still hear the Radio K3's audio.  Better yet, I would love to see the connection between the two RRC terminated all together. When the Config button is held down and the Control K3 enters Twin mode, the RRC's would attempt the connection. We will be using this in a situation where multiple users will be connecting to the Radio K3 at a mountain top QTH at different times.

I am running latest Elecraft firmware MCU 4.47 on both K3's .

RRC-Control:

Info

Name   Value
Company   Microbit
Product   1258
PID   4
Hardware   6
Software   2.50
Bootloader   1.9
Compiler   4.1.2 (WinARM 4/2007)
Build   Dec 15 2011 15:15:54
ROM/RAM   372540/50740
ETH-RAM   2944 (max 3kB!)
ResetSrc   0 [3]
Uptime   6874
    
Serial number   4003
MAC address   00:1e:fd:01:86:43
IP address   10.0.10.227
Netmask   255.255.255.0
Gateway   10.0.10.1
DNS   10.0.10.1


RRC- Radio

Info

Name   Value
Company   Microbit
Product   1258
PID   4
Hardware   6
Software   2.50
Bootloader   1.8
Compiler   4.1.2 (WinARM 4/2007)
Build   Dec 15 2011 15:15:54
ROM/RAM   372540/50740
ETH-RAM   2944 (max 3kB!)
ResetSrc   0 [3]
Uptime   7097
    
Serial number   3706
MAC address   00:1e:fd:01:85:1a
IP address   10.0.10.228
Netmask   255.255.255.0
Gateway   10.0.10.1
DNS   10.0.10.1

OK, let me stop here. I would like to get the SSB/CW working first obviously.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

73 Lee
WW2DX

8

Configuration, RRC 1258 / IC-706mk2g separation cable cw configs and other questions

« on: 2011-11-30, 21:40:46 »

Hello group,

I have been testing out the remoterig for the past week or so and things have been working very well! A very elegant solution indeed.

Here is my first contact with it with ZS6CCY Thanksgiving night when I tweaked the final firewall rule.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeLc-b3UEek

What works:

SSB works flawlessly. The current test setup consists of the following setup.

Operating Shack: Pawling, NY FN31en with the face of the IC-706MK2G with the RR between the Separation cable.

Transmitting station is in Summit, NY W2RE.com a contest station in the northern catskills mountains of NY about 120 miles away.
We have the 706 at this end connected to a IC-PW1 and on the 4 antenna ports on the amplifier we have

Port 1 - 5/5/5 on 10m
Port 2 - 5/5/5 on 15m
Port 2 - C321Xr @ 35m
Port 4 - 3 ele mono 40 @ 35m

As you can imagine its completely insane! The real win with the Summit QTH is there is ZERO QRN and being at 700m ASL does not hurt either.

I spent a number of months looking at options on how to remote the station and settled on the remoterig because of its elegant solution and moreover its "unique" method of doing CW which is the preferred method for us.

What Doesn't work (so well).

CW:

I am having a heck of a time getting CW to work properly. Let me start off with the specs of the RR boxes.

Both boxes are running 2.46 Firmware

Control side:

Info

Name   Value
Company   Microbit
Product   1258
PID   4
Hardware   6
Software   2.46
Bootloader   1.9
Compiler   4.1.2 (WinARM 4/2007)
Build   Nov 3 2011 13:11:42
ROM/RAM   368932/50680
ETH-RAM   2944 (max 3kB!)
ResetSrc   0 [3]
Uptime   60255

Serial number   4259

Radio Side:

Name   Value
Company   Microbit
Product   1258
PID   4
Hardware   6
Software   2.46
Bootloader   1.9
Compiler   4.1.2 (WinARM 4/2007)
Build   Nov 3 2011 13:11:42
ROM/RAM   368932/50680
ETH-RAM   2944 (max 3kB!)
ResetSrc   0 [3]
Uptime   61678
    
Serial number   4045

I have the CW keyer in the 706 disabled (OFF).

On the control side I have these I/O settings:
IN0 mode   I/O
OUT0 mode IO   
OUT1 mode I/O   
OUT2 mode Keyer   
USB RTS as PTT     Disabled
USB DTR as CW    Disabled

On the Radio side I have these settings in I/O:

OUT0 mode   I/O
OUT0 on/off   Off
    
OUT1 mode   I/O
OUT1 on/off   Off
    
OUT2 mode   Keyer
OUT2 on/off      Off

In the Keyer settings I have:

PTT activated by Keyer   No


At the present time I can send CW with the paddle but its horrible. First off the delay is too great and there is no way to get the timing right with the paddle with the sidetone coming from the remoterig. I do have the speaker hooked to the 706 face and not the RRC-1258 (Just thought of this while writing). Also I get a "Buzzing" sound along with the sidetone when transmitting. If I send a series of dits then transmit fine and same for a series of Dah's while some of them will "mold together". I have played around with the LF delay and Key delay, trying different combinations but no luck. My ping times look like this:

8 packets transmitted, 8 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 79.470/81.679/83.668/1.386 ms

So I hope someone can enlighten me on what I may have misconfigured or needs to be tweaked so that CW is useable.


Looking forward:

I have a Green Heron RT21d connected to the COM2 port on the back of the Radio end. I would like to know how people control rotors and other devices on the control end using these ports. My assumption is I hook at PC to com2 then run some rotor control software and magic happens?
Also can I hook the PC to com1 and have the logging software read band data in the similar way? I would enjoy hearing about how others are using these com ports.

OK, enough for my first post! Thanks for a really cool product!

Looking forward to seeing it grow.

73 Lee
WW2DX