If you have an ID-O-Matic II, please check for an updated manual. The original version (100227) had a couple of errors. The schematic diagram was incorrect, and the table on p. 5-6 showing the terminal block connections was wrong. The corrected manual is here. My apologies for any confusion.
We will once again be at Dayton in May 2010. We’re in booth BA0482, right down the aisle a bit from ARRL and not far from Begali, Marconi and QCWA. Be sure to stop by and say hello! Of course we’ll have plenty of kits and MasterKeyers on hand, as well as some yet-to-be-determined Dayton specials.
After a 17-hour day on Saturday and another 8 hours on Sunday, I now have all of the ID-O-Matic II backorders filled and shipped. I also have all orders placed while I was gone last week on their way. As of this morning I’m current on all shipping, just waiting on the MasterKeyer boards so I can start shipping those. With any luck I’ll have all of those cleared out by the end of the week as well.
So… as of now, we’re back to normal. If you place an order for anything other than a MasterKeyer it will be shipped within a day or so as usual. MK-1 orders will ship in the order they were received, starting later this week.
Today I posted the documentation for the ID-O-Matic II, built the first unit using a production PCB, and finished the last few tweaks to the firmware. I’ll be bagging kits this weekend to start shipping Monday. Pictures of the assembled kit and a link to the documentation in PDF format are now available on the web site.
I managed to fix a couple of firmware issues that had been bugging me, mostly centered around the new PWM audio and code speed. I now have everything working well, though I did have to lower the upper limit on audio frequency to 2500 Hz. The original ID-O-Matic would allow audio tones up to 5 kHz, but that was the result of a request for a special application. I believe the vast majority of users will be perfectly happy with an audio range of 250-2500 Hz. I also discovered a couple of minor errors on the PCB that will be corrected in the future with Rev. B. Only one requires cutting a trace and running one wire, and that is only needed for those keying handheld transceivers. The other is a silkscreen marking error on the board.
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been stacking up FAR more backorders than I am comfortable with. For that, I apologize. Demand for the MK-1 after the QST product review exceeded even my best-case assumptions, and a PCB redesign to speed up build time and increase reliability complicated matters even further.
On top of that, the design phase fo the ID-O-Matic II dragged on for a few weeks longer than I expected – meaning there was not only no overlap in availability of the two kits, I ran out of the original ID-O-Matic kits entirely.
The good news is, I should be able to start clearing out the backorders next week (3/1). ID-O-Matic II baords will be waiting for me when I get home from my current business trip. The MK-1 cabinets and PCBs should be arriving shortly thereafter, and I’ll ship them as fast as I can get them assembled and thoroughly tested. I can’t make any guarantees about how soon I will have all the backorders shipped, but rest assured it will be as soon as I can do so without sacrificing quality. In the mean time, THANKS to all of you for hanging in there with me!
I have made the V1.21 firmware release for the MasterKeyer MK-1 available for general use. I would encourage all MK-1 owners to upgrade to the new release, which adds or improves several features and has a few bug fixes as well. You can download the new firmware along with the new manual by visiting the Support page.
FEATURES:
BUGFIXES/ENHANCEMENTS:
We’ll be out on a much needed vacation and will not be shipping orders from 2/8 through 2/14. I’ll start shipping orders beginning Tuesday, 2/16 (Monday, 2/15 is a Federal holiday so no postal service that day). Of course the web site will be up and taking orders.
The boards are ordered for the ID-O-Matic II, and we’re down to the last few ID-O-Matic kits. I’m working on the last few changes to the firmware, trying to get it “just right”… and of course still need to write a good share of the manual. I think this is going to be a very nice step up from the original kit. A few hardware changes were needed, and I couldn’t see the benefit to keeping the ID-O-Matic and its companion Connection Kit separate any more. I’ve managed to incorporate most of the hardware features people have asked for, even a couple I didn’t think I would be able to – like adjustable audio level and de-emphasis for the audio input.
So far I’ve been pretty happy with the result. The switch to PWM audio has resulted in a smoother sounding tone, not as smooth as the MK-1 but still not bad. I’m having to sacrifice some speed; it probably won’t go to 60 WPM like the original, but then who needs an IDer to do 60 WPM? I’m working on solving an issue that slows the ID down some if high audio frequencies are used, and hope to have that fixed before the boards arrive.
I have uploaded a new ZIP file with the latest Version 1.21 Beta firmware. The file includes the new manual in draft form. A couple of minor changes have been made over the past couple of weeks. These include a minor timing change to iambic Mode A (most people won’t notice any difference). I also added stuck button/key detection during the power-on tests, and fixed the /Y command (MYCALL) in PC terminal mode.
Unless any problems are found in this release, I’ll release it for general use on 2/15. It will also be loaded on the next production run of MasterKeyers, which are being built now. As always, please let me know immediately if you find any problems.
I’m also out of stock until the new batch is ready – probably late February. Cabinets are in manufacturing now, and the internals will be ready before they arrive.
Response to the MK-1 over the past couple of months has been unexpectedly good. I had planned on the stock of MK-1s from the last production run to last for another month or so; this hasn’t turned out to be the case. As of today I have only a few units left, and I anticipate those will be gone in a few days.
Unfortunately, this means it looks like we’ll be out of stock on them for a while. The next batch of cabinets is being built now, and the circuit boards will be done a week or two before they arrive. As soon as the sheet metal is finished we’ll be shipping MasterKeyers again. Given the lead times involved, I expect that will be toward the end of February. I’ll post more reliable dates here as soon as I have them The new boards will have a lot more SMT components, making assembly quicker and easier.
In the mean time, firmware development continues. Today I found out about a bug in using the Y command (MYCALL) from the terminal – in short, don’t use it. I am fixing that in V1.21, and hope to have a new Beta release on the web site later today or possibly tomorrow. By the time the new production run of MasterKeyers begins shipping, they will be loaded with the 1.21 release.