[NA-User] Interface problem

[David A. Pruett]

I think this problem is related to the communications protocol Yaesu uses 
to talk to the radio.  It's different (and IMO, inferior) to that used by 
the other manufacturers.

The communication protocol varies between manufacturers, but most are 
similar.  The data packet starts with some sort of an ID byte, and ends 
with a termination character.  With this type of protocol, NA knows the 
message has ended when it receives the termination character.  When this 
happens, it starts back at the beginning of the buffer looking for the ID 
byte, parses the data based on the type of packet indicated by the ID byte.

Yaesu uses no termination character.  Instead, Yaesu's protocol exists of 
five bytes for every data packet with the first byte as the ID byte.  The 
other characters can be anything, so there is no way to detect the end of 
the packet other than by keeping track of the count of received characters.

I've seen the problem Ray and others have described with my FT-1000Ds.  I 
think that when you turn the radio on or off with NA running is that the 
program and the radio are getting out of synch.  I'm not sure of the exact 
mechanism for the problem.  I did try to account for errors which would 
upset the process by clearing the COM receive buffer each time the radio is 
polled, but there must be something I've overlooked.

EVERY time this has happened to me I would exit NA, then restart the 
program and all would be well.  (Note: you don't have to reboot) I'll admit 
this is a little more awkward than Alt-F1 then Alt-F2 but it works every time.

73,

Dave/K8CC


At 09:58 PM 12/10/03 -0800, Ray wrote:
>I am having a problem that occurs when I turn off my FT1000MP that is 
>interfaced to NA logging software. I keep the computer running since it is 
>my interface to Packet. Later, when I turn on the FT1000MP, the software 
>does not sync with the band & mode displayed on NA. The CAT LED does flash 
>as it should.
>
>The only way I can get the two to sync is to press the ALT/F1 or ALT/F2 
>(band up/down) a number of times, then it may sync. Pressing the band / 
>mode buttons on the radio does not do it.
>
>Is there a command, procedure or other process that will get the radio and 
>software to sync? It is more likely to be an NA problem or FT1000MP 
>problem? Anyone else have this problem.
>
>Ray,
>N6VR
>
>
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