The P3 should operate normally down to 8V or les. I have successfully
powered it from a 9V battery.
Alan N1AL
On 9/1/2024 2:55 PM, Corky wrote:
I was having trouble with my P3 going into brownout mode when transmitting 50
Watt digital. This used to be fine, but seems to have been getting worse over
the past several months. When I monitored the power on the front panel of the
K3 I found it was dropping about 1.5 V when transmitting digital signals. This
would occasionally drop below 12 V and cause the P3 to go to brownout and shut
down.
I immediately assumed this was a problem with my distribution system and/or DC
power cables, however, on further examination, that does not appear to be the
case. The voltage at the distribution system shows no change in voltage when
transmitting. I tried replacing the power cables from the distributions system
and using alternate terminals with essentially no change in the behavior.
Next I cleaned the terminals on the radio with de-oxit, and moved to AWG 10
wire for the power connection (I had been using AWG 14). I also shortened the
power cable to 3 ft and used a separate power supply so that the radio is
connected directly to the power supply. This improved the situation a bit, but
the voltage still drops 0.6 to 0.9 V on TX (digital or key down CW).
While I am now in the range that I no longer get P3 brownouts, this still seems
excessive. At this point, it appears that the problem is somewhere at the K3
power connector or somewhere inside the radio. Has anyone else experienced this
and if so are there any suggested resolutions or things to test. I know,
especially since I am now using a separate supply I can increase the supply
voltage to address the problem, but there is still a lot of heat/energy being
wasted somewhere.
Thanks and 73,
-Corky, AF4PM
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