Remote Rig Winkeyer and N1MMPlus

[K3TN]

The "all of a sudden" I mentioned really meant "the first time I used N1MM+ in a contest where I called CQ, the problem happened..."!

I loaded the latest 2.85 beta and it seems to have fixed the problem - if I am calling CQ and K4RUM calls me,  I can type in K4RU hit enter. N1MM will start to send and I can enter the last letter M and N1MM+ will send K4RUM - all is good.

I tested it out a bit last night in the CWT test it worked fine, but I was able to cause one bad crash. Not quite sure, I couldn't seem to repeat it, but it crashed N1MM and trashed my Com Ports, had to restart PC.

I *think* the actions that caused the crash: I called CQ (hitting F1), W3ABC answers. I start typing W3AB and then hit SPACEBAR by mistake, which advances cursor to next entry box (in this case that is the NAME field). Hitting SPACEBAR doesn't not initiate response, so I hit ENTER key - kerplooey. The ability to keep entering a callsign while CW is being sent I think should only happen after the ENTER key or LOG command is given - the cursor is still in the callsign entry box. If the cursor has been advanced, should not be going back to callsign  buffer unless cursor was moved back there.

I dunno if that makes sense - tonight will try it again in the NS Sprint and see what happens.

Thanks for all the updates on this.

73 John K3TN

[Jan (Microbit)]

OK John 

As for the N1MM+ crash I do not see how the RRC could have caused it. Seems more like a problem within N1MM+ itself.

But the COM port giving up when that happened is (sadly) what normally happens when a program does not close a USB based COM port correctly. It might work to temporarily unplug the RRC's USB cable as Windows then has to re-enumerate the USB COM port.

[K3TN]

Yes, agree - that crash was probably an N1MM crash.

Been playing with it a lot - I have hit a WinKey issue: N1MM has CW speed control and WinKey has a potentiometer for speed control. There seems to be some interaction happening - change speed on N1MM and it starts a message at the N1MM speed but then starts sending at the RRC CW potentiometer setting, or just ignores one of the other.

N1MM has a "ignore WinKey speed control" setting. Tried turning that on but doesn't seem to cure the problem.

Is there a RRC setting to essentially disable the hardware speed control? Or have programmatic control take precedence cleanly?

[Jan (Microbit)]

OK, folks - here we go again with a new attempt! 

www.remoterig.com/firmwares/RRC1258-CRC-v2.85_2015-02-06-BETA.zip

Thanks to you John and also to Frank I managed to find (and fix it seems) what caused the RRC to return to hardware speed control under certain conditions. I did not see it at first as it took a certain location of the RRC's speed pot to see it. It should now be possible to either set the speed using the pot or from for ex. N1MM+.

[K3TN]

Thanks, Jan - i will load that version and try. I think I have also found another CW keying problem, perhaps this is related:

In N1MM+, in S&P mode in a Sprint contest I answer a CQ by hitting enter and it sends my call. The other station sends their info, I enter it and hit enter - N1MM+ sends my info by sending the F2 exchange message. I wait for the other station to acknowledge, he does and I hit enter which should send CQ - nothing happens. No Fkeys work - unless I hit a dit on the paddle and then the CQ starts.

The F2 message ends in the {RUN} macro, which tells N1MM+ to go to RUN mode - it does that. But that seems to then prevent Fkeys from sending unless I hit the paddle. I also found if a put a spurious character (like an e for a single dit) after the {RUN} command, it would send that dit and then the F Keys *would* work - just as if I hit the paddle!

Or this might be related to my other posted problem, where using the {END} and {CAT1ASC} macros seem to prevent cw from being sent.

[K3TN]

Jan - very quick test here at lunch time: that build seems to have fixed the WinKey pot issue. I can choose to ignore the pot, or only use it for paddle and keyboard and use N1MM for Fkey speed!

It also seems to have fixed the "need to send a dit" issue in my last post! Tried that several times, seems to be working. Will pound on it more since the CW Sprint is tomorrow night and want to be rock solid.

It did *not* however solve the {END}{CAT1ASC} issue in my other post

Thanks for all these rapid fixes!

73 John K3TN

[dl2cc]

just testing this with N1MM+, latest Version.

Speed issue fixed! Thanks.
But:
Unfortunately remoterig crashes after a few characters of sending, Setting the K3 to transmit and rebooting, loosing the CAT / COM Connections...
I flashed the Radio site with the same Version btw.
Sorry!
73

[Jan (Microbit)]

This is starting to get ridiculous...  For every issue I find it seems to pop up one or even two or more.

The most surprising is the reboots the RRC seems to do in ways that are not easily re-produced either. It "smells" timing issues and/or combinations of commands issued I have not tested. Since I am a novice at using this kind of software it is very helpful if you find ways of re-producing the things you encounter, and them describes as detailed as possible what you did.

[K3TN]

I am not seeing the crashing after a few characters of sending, but tonight will get a major test in the 4 hour NA Sprint!

[dl2cc]

I am sorry Jan about that.
I switched on the remoterig device half an hour ago and was not able to reproduce the error so far.
The only thing I've tuned the Audio jitter buffer Settings a bit (bigger buffer / more delay).
But that is probably unrelated.
So at least for now it's looking good.

Anyway, here is one more:
I just sent an E-Mail to N2IC who handles the Serial stuff in N1MM+ - I found another thing which might be totally unrelated to RemoteRig - if you try to use the "PTT via Radio command CW mode" Setting on the K3 PTT hangs 8 out of 10 times when using WinKey.
PTT stays on indefinitely after sending.  Let's see what he replies, maybe indeed a N1MM+ issue.


73
Frank DL2CC

[K3TN]

I ran the latest beta firmware in the 4 hour NA CW Sprint this past Saturday night. That contest hardware and software the most of any contest (although only over 4 hours) as there is constant QSYing and calling and speeds are 30+ wpm. I made 290 QSOs in my first remote effort, down a bit from when I am physically at the station but i think the speed of the Sprint does penalize  you for any delays.

I had one N1MM+ crash - a bad one, related to moving between entry window boxes when hitting enter - that I don't think had anything to do with RemoteRig.

The CW sending worked flawlessly - type ahead worked, hitting F1 or Enter multiple times never failed, etc. - fantastic.

One possible small thing: it seems when I first start N1MM+,nothing happens the first time I hit an Fkey. The second time it works and then works continuously there after.

On the END, CATDELAY and CAT1ASC issues - I left those in and during the 4  hours there were perhaps 3-5 times when those commands worked! So, sometimes they are getting passed on to the K3 but very rarely.

Once again, thanks for all the effort on the WinKey sending with N1MM+ - if I couldn't break it during the CW Sprint, it is pretty hard to break!

73 John K3TN

[Jan (Microbit)]

Well, I found a nasty not-always-there-bug which caused the RRC to reboot when using N1MM+'s "on-the-fly-editing" feature, but I seem to have got rid of it in this version:

http://www.remoterig.com/firmwares/RRC1258-CRC-v2.85_2015-02-10-BETA.zip

Crossing my fingers that it will work now! (Though I am not sure I've addressed all issues, as there are too many issues going on simultaneously!  )

[Jan (Microbit)]

Well, I found a nasty not-always-there-bug which caused the RRC to reboot when using N1MM+'s "on-the-fly-editing" feature, but I seem to have got rid of it in this version:

http://www.remoterig.com/firmwares/RRC1258-CRC-v2.85_2015-02-10-BETA.zip

Crossing my fingers that it will work now! (Though I am not sure I've addressed all issues, as there are too many issues going on simultaneously!  )

No one have given the new version a try?

[K3TN]

i will be able to test it this afternoon US East Coast time. I think I actually had that crash the other day.

73 John K3TN

[W1UE]

I just downloaded and installed the Beat 2.85.  I'll be using it the rest of the weekend and reporting back any problems.