VB6 and Winkeyer Emulation

GHafler

I am writing a vb6 program to interface with SmartSDR winkey emulation. I've had this program for years and it work fine with the actual winkeyer but I am having trouble with SmartSDR. I've monitored the output of N1MM with a serial port monitor and My program sends out exactly the same start up code. The program rarely works but not always. When I open the com port and send the 00 02 code to wake up the winkeyer sometimes SmartSDR will respond but will not respond most of the time. If the SmartSDR does respond then the keyer will work. Thank you for any suggestion.

Jeff_W4DD

On some work I did a few years back with some RFI mapping software, I found it necessary to :

Set baud rates and parity

set CTS/RTS options

clear the input buffer.

send a CR in case there was any garbage in the far end input buffer.

GL

GHafler

Thank you for your input. Yes I have done those things. The software works fine when talking to an actual winkeyer. It is when I talk to SmartSDR winkeyer emulation that I have the problem. My software is similar to N1MM. It is a ham radio contesting software program that I've been working on for years. It is AIO32 and can be seen at ghafler.com/wd8knc.html. Like I say I ran a serial monitor on the port and the output from my system looks identical to N1MM but it does not work. I set DTR high and RTS low which is all winkey asks for. When I send the 00 02 command the winkey emulation should echo back a response and it doesn't. On rare occasions it will echo back a response and if it does all works fine after that. Thanks

KD0RC

Just a wild shot in the dark here... Do you need two stop bits? I had a similar situation communicating with a radio (long ago...), and setting two stop bits fixed it.

Lasse SM5GLC

I have a ticket regarding s/w control and built-in WinKeyer. The only s/w that can adjust the speed is N1MM+... all my other s/w cannot. Something has changed over the years as it did work with SSDR V1.9.13, I verified this back in 2017.

I have had contact with a developer (for another contest logging s/w) and he said: They (N1MM developers) did try everything and finally found something that worked, but did not know why.

This story may, or may not be true, but the fact stands, something odd is going on with the CAT and the built-in WinKey.

You seems to have even more basic problems, as I can transmit, just not adjust the speed.

/Lasse SM5GLC

GHafler

I found my problem. I was setting RTS and DTR before I set the port to Open. The real winkeyer didn't seem to mind. Thanks for all of your input.

KD0RC

Thanks for posting the solution!

Lasse SM5GLC

Great!

I would be very interested to hear if you can adjust the speed of the keyer, or if you have to do something "special" to get it working. My logging of the CAT commands shows that N1MM+ seems to send the command twice, DX4Win does not.... i.e.

2020-11-08 15:55:55.253 COM8 (N1MMLogger) [sent]: <02><14><02><14> //Works!

2020-11-08 15:54:31.644 COM8 (dx4win) [sent]: <02><08> //Does not work!!

GHafler

Yes I am able to change the speed. Here is the VB6 code: TT = ConvertHex("02") + ConvertHex(Hex(Val(CWspeed1.Text))). IF MSCOMM1.Portopen Then mscomm1.output = TT. So I am sending hex 02 then the speed in hex format one time.