[SD-User] CW keying using SD 17.14 on Win 7 Laptop

[Paul Bigwood]

Hi,

I’ve migrated to an ASUS 1GHz CPU/ 1GB RAM laptop running Window 7 Home Professional, and am having problems getting CW keying to work with SD including on the latest version (17.14). Radio is a FT450D and a SCU-17 dual USB Com port and integrated sound card. The SCU-17 uses Silicon Labs CP210X USB Comport bridge that creates two com ports with full control of the RTS and DTR pins using a standard driver.

SD CAT frequency control works fine but external keying is non existent and unintelligible when the internal sidetone command is used.

Logger 32 works flawlessly for CW keying, frequency and mode control, which makes me think that the problem is with SD and the way it handles USB comports. I have used the FTDX3000.SD profile as it is the same as the FT450 for reading the frequency. I need to mofiy it for the FT450D for readng mode, but that is for after i have got the keying working.

Does SD use DTR or RTS for CW keying and is it selectable? Status does not indicate which is used?

Why is CW from the internal sidetone so bad? 

Is there something  I can do in the windows configuration ( run in XP or Win98 mode? ) that will make it work OK?

Laptop was originally supplied with Windows 7 starter and SD was a non starter with that. Sometimes it would run OK for just logging, no COM CAT or keying and suddenly it would start to misbehave where the callsign entry area was continually being overwritten. so typing STATUS for example was impossible. as soon as you typed ST the screen would flash around the callsign entry area and the ATUS would then appear overwriting the ST. This was one of the reasons for deciding  to upgrade to Win 7 Home Premium.

Is SD not supported on Windows 7 ? This would be a shame as I have used SD for many years and have always  preferred its simple clear interface.

Any pointers or assistance in getting SD to work reliably on Windows 7 with USB serial port keying appreciated.

73 Paul G3WYW