You may want to look at my free LP-Bridge program. It acts as a clearing house for the K3. There is just one cable between the PC and K3. All your loggers and other programs (up to 5 of them) connect to the K3 through virtual ports in LP-Bridge. You can also connect two devices such as a SteppIR through additional PC ports. You will, of course, need to create some serial ports for your laptop using multiple USB to serial adapters, or one adapter with multiple serial ports. Byterunner.com has reasonably priced ones with one or more serial ports. I recommend picking one with an FTDI chipset.
The advantage of LP-Bridge over generic port splitters is that the data to the K3 is filtered for redundant traffic, collisions, etc. Also, the SteppIR ports are conditioned so that only the transmit frequency is reported to SteppIR when running split, and I add hysteresis to the reported frequency so that the SteppIR doesn't constantly retune when you're near a tuning boundary. LP-Bridge also provides linking to the PowerSDR program for external panadapter use with the K3, but you can just ignore this section of the program. 73, Larry N8LP Paul-30 wrote: > > I am working on the BESCOTP award--the Bought Every Single Cable On The > Planet award... > > The DB-9 serial port on the back of the K-3 here has a special cable > running to the Steppir antenna controller. Now I need to access the same > port from the computer for another application, mainly my contest > logger/keying. I have a Micro Keyer and my old cable for it was for a Icom > Pro II. I have to buy a new one for the K-3, but it is $85 ! I'd go ahead > and do it, but I'm not sure how to hook all this up! > > So, how are you contesters out there doing that? Is there a Y cable made > for DB-9? If so, wouldn't that pin out be different than the one for the > SteppIR and cause problems? > > A secondary problem is that the computer only has USB ports, no serial > port. It's an IBM Thinkpad. I believe it has 4 USB 2.0 ports available. > > Any info would help! > > Thanks, > > Paul > WY7I > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 > > -- View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/Need-more-than-one-serial-port-tp3800125p3803298.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ______________________________________________________________ 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
