N1MM CAT Control and Keying

[W1UE]

I spent about an hour working on this today and couldn't find settings that worked, so I thought I'd ask to see if someone had already invented this wheel.

I have the Remote Rig setup using Program Mode 14, K3 Twin.  I have Two K3s linked together; they change frequency, key, basically do everything that I want to do.  Now, I want to tie the Remote Rig setup into the N1MM Logger Program to retrieve frequency/mode/send CW/send RTTY.  I have the following ports available in the Control RRC:
Com1 (real serial port)
Com2 (real serial port)
RRC1258 Com0 (com3)
RRC1258 Com1 (com4)
RRC1258 Com2 (com5)
RRC1258 Comfsk (com6)
In N1MM, I can reference and connect to any of those ports.  I also have the USB cable that could provide another path into
the Control RRC.

I have gone over the documentation several times, but apparently don't understand the connections between the virtual ports and the real ports.  My understanding is that the Com0, Com1, and Com2 are the Control RRC ports, and the Com1,2,3,4,5,6 are computer ports separate and distinct from the Control RRC ports, and are the port numbers that I would reference in N1MM.  I am using MMTTY, but haven't gotten as far as configuring it yet, so I don't know if I can find the info I need in the setups that are already in the documentation,  but if someone has a setup that works for all 3 areas I would appreciate a copy of it.

BTW, the basic Remote Rig setup works great.  So far, I only have it on my home network; I think the part in the documentation about getting it all working before you install the remote setup was great advice.  Once I have this all working, I know I have a working setup and only have to add in the Internet path between the rigs.

Thanks in advance.

Dennis W1UE

[dj0qn]

Dennis,

It is actually very easy to get this working, it just looks more complicated than it is. I have a
short CAT checklist that I send to people who need help, but in the case of the K3 Twin, it
is slightly different. Here is all you need to do:

- Make sure that you have the Microbit Setup Manager installed (for the drivers)
Under Serial settings:
- Change COM1 to "Mode 6 - CAT to COM2 (local)" (note the baud rate you use here)
- Change "Use USB Com port as COM1" to YES
- Submit and restart the RRC
- Plug the USB cable in between the RRC and PC
- Go to the Windows Device Manager and drop down the ports list
- Look for the the four Microbit virtual serial ports (COM0, COM1, COM2 & COMFSK)
- Write down the COM port number under the Microbit COM2 port that is at the end of that line, e.g. (COM5)
- Go to your logging program and use that port number as your CAT port (remember to use the same baud rate you
   have under the serial settings for COM1). In your list below, that was COM5.

This should now work as you wish.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[SM0SHG]

Hi Mitch,

I have the K3 Twin set-up (K3/0 -> K3/100). Works great on Phone. I don't do CW but would like to try RTTY. I have (almost...) everything setup. RX works, but the TX wont. MMTTY keys the radio but there are no modulation going out.

Any suggestions?

73 de Adde, SM0SHG

[dj0qn]

Hi Adde,

A couple of questions first:

1) Are you trying FS through the virtual FSK COM port, or AFSK through the microphone input?
2) If FSK, do you have the cable that has the FSK pins connected, either self-made or from RemoteRig?
3) What are your I/O settings?

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[SM0SHG]

Hi,

1. I use the FSK COM port
2. I have the RemoteRig cables (icluded in the K3 Twin package). Are there different?
3. I/O settings in Control RRC = USB RTS as PTT is DISABLED (hmmm... Could this be something??)

Adde

Check the manual (again...). The I/O settings in the Contro RRC does not have any function in all this. The I/O settings in Radio RRC is as follows:

OUT0 Connect
OOU1 Baudot/45
OUT2 Keyer

Adde

[dj0qn]

Hi Adde,

Just got back home again.....

Looks ok to me. I have COM0 set to PTT, otherwise the same.

I am not sure if the Elecraft made cables support FSK, but I assume they do. I know for sure
that the Swedish cables support FSK. That is why I asked before.

I would think that unless for some reason the COM0 makes a difference, that the problem is in
your software configuration. I assume that you went through the MMTTY config in the manual,
since they did a good job with this. Especially important is the part to "slow down" the USB
serial port within MMTTY.

Since you are receiving fine, the problem is clearly on the FSK side. I would focus on the software
and maybe double-check to make sure the cable is properly connected (this comes off easily).

Good luck!

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[SM0SHG]

Hi,
I have followed the manual step by step (I think...)... Do you have any experience checking the communication with a telnet connection? I connected, via telnet, to the ControlRRC and I see the commands when the PTT is "grounded" and when it's released. But I don't see any "RYRYRYRY" communication. Do you know if the datacom should be visible there?
Adde

[dj0qn]

I don't know about using telnet to monitor that, maybe Mike can add some comments
about where the problem may lie.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[W1UE]

Thanks for the tip.  After several hours work, I finally got a stable setup that will allow communications between the K3s and N1mM Logger and send CW via the program.  I can also report that the Elecraft K3 cables do provide RTTY signals to the radio, as I was able to key RTTY on the first try.  I still don't have the PTT releasing the transmitter when the RTTY message is finished, but
that's tomorrow's job.

I find it takes a relatively long time to do things by trial and error.  Once I make a change, or several changes to any of the RRC setups, I have to apply it and let the unit restart.  That takes 10 seconds or so, then I found I needed to turn the Control K3 off and then back on to restart the unit.  When I did that, the control K3 was still in TERM mode, and when turned back on the speaker audio (although it wasn't the audio from the remote radio) was on, so to mute it I had to take the K3 out of TERM mode and then put it back into TERM mode for the speaker to be muted.  To make one small change might take 5 minutes to see the effect.  I chased my tail for awhile until I finally had the procedure down pat.

Thanks for your help.  I came up with a slightly different configuration, but your reply pointed me in the right direction.

Dennis W1UE

[VE6SH]

Dennis

I followed your tips (and from Mitch) on setting up my K3/0-K3/100 setup. Very helpful. Thank you. I am using DXLab/Win-Test and both CW and SSb are fine. I too have the issue with PTT not releasing TX when the RTTY message is finished. Did you find a solution?

The only other issue is that when using DXLab/Win-Test to send CW it is sometimes not possible to use the keyer plugged into the RCC (it triggers the PTT, but no RF). This only happens every so often and can be fixed by rebooting the Radio RCC.

Tim VE6SH

[W1UE]

Tim

See my posting of 9/25 under Configuration- I resolved almost all the issues
at that time, including the RTTY issue.  For RTTY, I was transmitting without
having an audio decoder hooked up; once I ran the audio stream to a USB
soundcard and decoded it, the transmitter would unkey when the RX command
was passed to it.  It occasionally still hangs up, as I noted below, but it isn't
just when run in RTTY.

Somewhere on the Elecraft website I found a statement that there are 2
known bugs in the Elecraft firmware- one is the releasing of the Xmit LED on the
front of the control K3; the radio drops transmit, but the LED stays lit.  There
was one other bug, but I don't recall what it was.

Since the unit has been set up, I've made over 2000 QSOs in various contests
using SSB, CW, and RTTY.   I've probably lost contact with the Remote Unit
maybe twice every contest, and turning the control K3 off and turning it back
on has re-established communications each time. 

 Hope to work you this weekend in RTTY RU.  I'll be at the remote station,
doing a full SO2R test.

Dennis W1UE

[VE6SH]

Tnx Dennis. I will search out your other post.

73

Tim

[VE6SH]

The only other issue is that I cannot get the K3 Utility to connect using this setup. I am somewhat baffled as to why it will not if the CAT is working, but it may be an issue I am not aware of.

Tim VE6SH

[dj0qn]

Hi Tim,

That is correct, it only seems to work when connected directly to the K3, although all other
CAT software appears to work with no problem. Consider that a feature 

Just be make sure; to get local and remote CAT using the K3 Twin, you need to change both
RRC's COM1 to mode-7 "CAT to COM2 (remote)". Then you can connect your CAT to COM1
in either or both location for CAT control. In the case of the Yaesu and K3 "Twin" products,
this is necessary, because the two rigs speak to each other over the COM2 port.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[sm2o]

Hi

K3 Utility works over the RRC.s but you can not update the firmawares that way, thats a different protocol.

73 de mike