Hi group, For some months now, I had the same intermittent problems as Ian: after the K3 has been running for a few hours, it stops working with ERR PL1 (and PL2). The next morning, after cooling off, things are back to normal. Up to yesterday, I was always able to make this issue go away instantly by opening up the K3 and giving all cables going to the KREF3 board a twist. But not yesterday...
Thanks to Ians email, I tried removing the KREF3 board, and removing and reseating the oscillator. I also gave all connectors (they were a bit oxidized) a very light scrub with fine sandpaper and then wiped them with a cloth with some anti-corrosive spray. After building things together again and doing the synthesizer re-calibration, my K3 now is back in working order. 73 de Frank PA4N On 28 okt. 2010, at 14:41, Ian White GM3SEK wrote: > Yesterday morning, I wrote: >> >> After the K3 had been running for a few hours yesterday evening, just >> listening to the bands, it stopped working with ERR PL1 (and PL2). These >> were genuine hardware errors - neither of the two VFOs would tune and >> both receivers were dead. Attempts to re-calibrate the VCOs ended with >> ERR VCO and ERR VC4. >> >> I switched off and left the problem overnight, and this morning both >> VCOs calibrated successfully with no further errors so far. (A notable >> difference was the successful calibrations took much longer over some of >> the steps. The failed attempts had rattled through all the steps at the >> same high speed.) >> >> The firmware was MCU 4.12 / DSP 2.60 / FPF 1.13. After everything was >> working correctly again, I have updated to MCU 4.14. >> >> Hardware is K3/100 #724, with KAT3, KRX3, KXV3 and all modifications to >> date. >> >> The question is: why did this happen? And with CQWW SSB coming up, could >> it happen again? >> > > By 10am Aptos time, answers from Elecraft were in my inbox! > > Dale confirmed that the faults as described were almost certainly due to > loss of signal from the 48MHz reference oscillator on the KREF3 board. > Since I had been doing some unrelated mods that required the removal and > replacement of the KRX3 (several times over) it is very possible that > the oscillator module had been knocked, and that contact in the socket > had become marginal. > > Eric added that the Clock to Data timing on the internal serial bus is > critical to proper operation, and that recent firmware releases include > an additional timing margin. > > On opening up the K3 again, there wasn't any obvious problem with the > seating of the oscillator module, but I removed and re-inserted it > anyway. Instead of the single tie-wrap that was provided in the kit to > secure the module in its socket, I tried using two slightly thinner ones > which ensure that the module is pulled firmly downward at *both* ends of > the package. > > Grateful thanks to Dale and Eric for such a rapid and accurate response! > > Cross fingers for the weekend... and good luck in the contest to all K3 > users. ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
