CAT don't work Power Genius XL with Kenwood 990 RS232

Alex - IK5PWJ

Hi, I bought the Power Genius and paired it with the Flexradio 6500. Once the settings are made, everything works perfectly.

I also have a Kenwood 990 and would like to be able to use it by connecting the cat from the COM RS232 of the Kenwood 990 rear panel to the cat A of the Power Genius XL. I Prepared a 9pin female to 9pin straight female cable, connecting: pin 2 RXD, pin3 TXD and pin5 gnd

I then opened the setup to select the Kenwood radio, the speed 19,200 for as set also on the 990 and saved on the power genius.

Unfortunately, however, the cat does not work. I also tried to swap the cables from the 990 to the genius from rxd to txd and from txd to rxd, but it doesn't work. The frequency set on the 990 radio does not appear on the power Genius screen.

Where is the mistake? Can anyone tell me if the rs232 cable should be straight or cross? and which pins of the db9 must be connected to the 990 and to the Power genius? or what other setting is needed?

Thank you in advance.

73 Alex ik5pwj

Mike-VA3MW

I'll open a support ticket for this, but I would try a lower baud radio. 4800 is plenty fast enough. Or even 9600.

Not sure if a Null modem cable is required, but since you made your own cable, have you tried swapping 2 and 3? You won't damage anything if you are wrong.

Make sure you do not have the B side assigned to the FLEX radio at the same time.

Those are some of the things I would look for.

There is a new version for the PGXL coming out shortly with more streamlined CAT control.

David Decoons, wo2x

It should be a straight through cable from Kenwood to amplifier. Make sure in Kenwood that the serial port is enabled and baud rate matches the amp. In the amp setup make sure CAT for port A is checked and Kenwood and baud rate are set.

In FlexRadio tab of amp setup make sure it is unchecked

73 Dave wo2x

David Decoons, wo2x

In the Kenwood TS-990 it is menu 7-00 and default is 9600 baud.

73

Dave wo2x

Alex - IK5PWJ

Hi, thanks to VA3MW and WO2X ....

I understood where the problem was ....

Having also an ICOM 7851 radio I had connected with the 3.5mm Jack. in the CI-V cat Port A and this unfortunately prohibits the dialogue on the RS232 port. Removing the 3.5mm Jack the cat via rs232 works with a straight Pin9 female to Pin9 female cable from Kenwood 990 to PowerGenius. I then tried to insert a mono connector without connections to any wire to understand if the rs232 could work but it does not work because the jack inserted even without contacts between the central unit and the gnd, disables the rs-232. I don't understand why they did this. In this way I am obliged to remove the connector from the CI-V to make the Cat work via RS232.

I use a matrix system which by selecting the Kenwood 990 radio blocks the other cat by blocking the protocol traffic on the CI-V and therefore I could leave the 3.5 mm jack. inserted without problems. But unfortunately the 3.5 CI-V port A or B has to be removed from the female on the rear panel of the PowerGenius. I would like to know from the flexradio technicians if and how it is possible to remove the inhibition of the RS232 since the Jack is inserted in the CI-V. In this way it would be possible to change the settings only from the PowerGenius software, without having to remove the 3.5mm jack from the CI-V.

Thanks for your help, 73 Alex ik5pwj

David Decoons, wo2x

Hi Alex,

I believe the amp is designed to have only one connection at a time, CAT or CI-V.

you could send the Kenwood CAT and Icom CI-V into Node Red then have Node Red send band and mode info to the amp. Node Red could be set up with a gate node to allow only one connection to pass frequency data to the amp.

73

Dave wo2x

Alex - IK5PWJ

Hi Dave, tnx for msg. in any case, the Flexradio cat is managed via RJ45 and the Flexradio program and then it is possible to set the CI-V or RS232 cat, always setting the data in the PowerGeniusXL program.

So I don't understand why the RS232 is blocked if a jack is inserted in the 3.4mm CI-V connector (even if not connected to any wire).

If this did not happen, it would be possible to change the setting for 3 radios: Flexradio via rj45, Icom via CI-V and Kenwood or Yaesu via RS232 without having to physically act by disconnecting the CI-V, but only by changing the configuration in the PowerGeniusXL management program.

Okay .... I try again to leave a msg. in the comunity and let's see if a technical administrator will answer, at least to understand the reason for this block.

73 Alex ik5pwj.

David Decoons, wo2x

It is the design of the amp. When he 3.5 mm CI-V is plugged in it takes priority over the RS232. The amp is designed for only one radio per port (A and B) at a time.

You can contact 4O3A at https://4o3a.com/forum/power-genius

They designed the amp and can explain why they designed it to have CI-V have priority.

73 Dave wo2x

Mike-VA3MW

The other option might be to have the BandMaster V that can handle multiple inputs and 1 output.

https://www.arraysolutions.com/bandmaster-5