All,

I am attempting to use the Winkey in my RigExpert Plus interface with Logic 9. I use the rigexpert supplied software to set up the vitrual serial ports. This set up works well with N1MM contest logger, WinWarbler and the Winkey Demo program. However, when I startup Logic 9 the Winkey goes to the keyed state and stays there. I can close the Winkeyer window in Logic and nothing changes. I do not believe this issue is RFI related because it occurs even when my rig (ICOM IC 7000)is not set up to transmit (not in the BRK or FBRK modes). I have selected the same virtual port (COM 7)in Logic 9 as the I have selected in the other software with which the Winkeyer functions properly.

I am using Logic 9 latest version and Windows XP SP 3.

Any trouble shooting suggestions would be appreciated,

Robie -AJ4F

Ok, I have been scratching my head with on this one. I don't see how LOGic could tell WinKey to hold the key down indefinately. There is a tune mode, but closing the WinKey window should close Winkey, and it should know to take it out of tune mode if that is what is happening. What if you close LOGic?

I checked the WinKey initialization code in LOGic and it resets Winkey with the 0x0a command.

Here is the only thing I can think of-- are you SURE that you are using a WinKey? It SOUNDS like you may have a simple electronic switch like this one: http://hosenose.com/stor...mp;PrimaryCatID=47& The RTS line that LOGic turns on to power WinKey would be the signal to put a regular dumb keyer in transmit mode. The way to test this would be to use LOGic's Keyer form, not WinKey.

Allen: Does N1MM use WinKey's echo feature? (What LOGic uses to hilite characters as they are sent). That is the only difference I can think of between LOGic & N1MM. Why that would upset the weighting I have no idea. From a programming standpoint, all I do is send it characters, and Winkey is responsible for forming those characters.

As we have illustrated from the intermittant skipping of characters, there are apparently issues with WinKey.
When you "adjust weighting", do you have to set LOGic to different numbers to get it to send properly, or does just moving the control up and back to where it was fix it? When the weight gets out of whack, does closing the Winkey window in LOGic then resetting WinKey by unplugging the serial line set it back to proper default weighting?

I can try disabling the echo feature.

Tnx & 73,

Dennis WN4AZY

Well, glad you got it to work.


Right, if the keyer window is closed when exiting LOGic, it will be closed on restart. No surprise there.

There are no registry entries in LOGic with respect to WinKeyer, and of course WinKeyer has none itself -- there are no drivers or anything. The setup for WinKey is stored in WinKeyer.INI. There are probably drivers for RigExpert of course.

So I don't have any suggestions other than to make sure you have the latest RigExpert drivers. As long as it is working, enjoy!

73,

DH

Dennis,

I failed to clearly communicate the situation. By opening and closing the Keyer window I got WinKey to work only once! My situation is as follows:

WinKeyer - when the window opens my rig is keyed, it remains keyed after I close the Winkeyr window, it also remains keyed after I shutdown Logic 9

Using Wkdemo I open the Winkey and clear it - the rig is now unkeyed!

Keyer - every time I try to open this window I get the error I described in my previous post!!


Using Logic 8 - both Keyer and Winkeyer works properly

Because the WinKey works properly with Logic 8, WKdemo, N1MM, Writelog,and WinWarbler I feel something is "wrong" with my Logic9 installation.

Can I uninstall and re-install it?


Robie - AJ4F

Dennis,

I am using a Rigexpert Plus interface and the Rigexpert supplied software to create virtual serial ports for rig control (com5), WinKeyer (com7), PTT (com6) and FSK (Com8) for RTTY. My paddle is connected tothe RigExpert Plus.

In Logic8 I have the Keyer form set up for LPT1, nothing connected to the port, and the Winkey form set up for COM7. When I open the Keyer form it works properly (however the rig is not actually keyed). I close the Keyer form and open the Winkeyer form, it functions properly from my paddle, etc as well as CW messages from the WinKey form.

Based on this I say Logic8 works properly!!!



In Logic9, to the best of my knowledge, I have never attempted to setup the Keyer form. The WinKeyer form is setup for COM7 just as in Logic 8.

In Logic9 every time I open the Keyer form I get the following error:

Logic9

Unhandled structured exception

ErrorNO: 2071

Message: User thrown error

User Value: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation

Details:

Procedure: INT

Line No: 0

At this point I have two options, Help and OK. If I click on Help nothing happens. If I click on OK Logic9 shuts down. When I restart Logic9 I do not have to go through the Clean process.


In Logic9 when I open the WinKeyer window, it opens and my rig is keyed. The paddle does not work, nothing in the WinKeyer form responds. I can close the WinKeyer form and the rig remains keyed. I can shut down Logic9 and the rig remains keyed. I have to open the WinKey with WKDemo and reset it to unkey the rig.

I hope this is more clear!


Let me know if I can clarify further,


Robie - AJ4F

No, not yet. It will be an option in the next update -- hopefully it will be a simple thing to do. I can't get it to break here now BTW.

All,

With the some time off work for the Holidays I have taken some time to troubleshoot the Logic 9/WinKey problem. As I have stated in previous forum posts my set up works well with other software including Logic 8, so I do not believe I have a true hardware problem. I have been testing various serial port settings and have found that I can get Logic 9 and WinKey to work reliably after I made the following changes to COM 7 (the port assigned to WinKey, I use XP sp3):

1. Change the USB Transfer size on both transmit and receive from the default value to 2048

2. Change the Latency Timer (msec) from the default value to 255

My set up has been operating several days now without any problems.

I hope this helps anyone else who might have problems.

Robie - AJ4F

Thanks Robie -- how did you ever figure that out? Great detective work. Thanks!

That doesn't explain why N1MM would work with the same settings tho. Are you using a FTDI or Prolific USB=>RS232 adapter? I wouldn't put anything past a Prolific driver.



I guess this is immaterial now, but you got my curiosity up and I checked the code. So if anyone cares, here it is: Yes, it still sets weight and farnsworth even if set to 0 in LOGic. Sent when first enabled:

When initializing WinKeyer, LOGic opens, the port, powers up DTR, waits 300 ms, clears the receive buffer, then calibrates as described in the WinKeyer manual (It sends 0x0 twice, waits 100 ms, then sends 0xff).

Then LOGic sends 0x0 0x4 0x55 to test the serial interface. It should get a byte back. If not, LOGic says "Improper initialization echo response from WinKey"

Then LOGic sends 0x0 0x2 to open winker. It reads one byte which is the WInkey version number, and displays it.

LOGic sends 0x18 0x0 (force PTT off)

LOGic sends 0x0e to turn on serial echo.

LOGic sends 0x4 0x8 or 0x4 0x0 to reverse paddles or not.

LOGic sends Chr(5) + Chr(Thisform.minwpm) + Chr(Thisform.maxwpm - Thisform.minwpm) + Chr(255)) to set the pot range.

LOGic sends 0x7 to read the pot and set speed.

LOGic sends CHR(0x10) + CHR(.firstext)) set First Extension

LOGic sends CHR(0x11) + CHR(.keycomp)) set precompensation

Now it sets WPM, farnsworth, and weight:

Chr(02) + Chr(.spinWPM.Value ) && WPM

&& We set farnsworth to WPM, but using the percentage control
Chr(0xd) + Chr(.spinWPM.Value + (.spinWPM.Value * (.spinFarnsworth.Value / 100)))) && farnsworth

Chr(3) + Chr(50 - .spinWeight.Value) && weight

Are you sorry you asked? hihi.

Happy new year!

Dennis -

> LOGic sends 0x0e to turn on serial echo.

Any thought to also turning on paddle echo (I like to monitor my sending quality)?

Happy New Year!

73 de K1ESE
John

That could be done using our loopback tester in binary mode I suppose. The difficult part would be responding to N1MM as WinKeyer would.

Anyway, I did some more playing around with it, and was again having problems with skipping characters. It wouldn't even send VVV WN4AZY properly. I would reset, and could easily reproduce it. Then it quit working altogether unless I opened the port twice by closing the WinKeyer form, then reselecting COM1.

So I increased the power-up delay from 300 ms to a full half-second, and it is SOLID now. Knock on wood.

I also improved the calibration routine. I was using GetTickCount to time the needed 100ms. It returns the time in milliseconds, which should be close enough. However, I did some research and found that the accuracy may be only 15 ms or so. So I switched to the hi-rez multimedia timer that we use to generate the timing in LOGic's keyer. So for those of you with golden ears complaining that it sounds slightly off -- it may be fixed now.

I also found that I was sending one of the commands twice -- shouldn't hurt anything, but I fixed it.

Look for an update late today.

BTW, my setup is a basic Winkeyer, built my K1EL himself, and an RS-232 port on my motherboard. As simple as it gets.

73 & Happy New Year!

DH