[TenTec] N4PY Orion Control Program Version 1.12 Released

[Steve N4LQ]

There has to be more to this XP/Keyboard thing than meets the eye. I run XP 
and CW Type to generate Morse. Attached to my LPT is a simple adapter that 
isolates the port via optical coupling from Hose Nose. I can run this up to 
any speed, 100 wpm, and it keys beautifully and evenly with no hesitation no 
matter what programs I'm running including N4PY.
The only justification I can find for installing WinKey is so N4PY's 
software will work with a keyboard. So what's the deal? Do other 
Pegasus/Jupiter control programs have the same problem with cw keyboards? 
Why does CW TYPE work so well and for that matter, other logging and contest 
softwares too? Can we still blame the OS?

Steve N4LQ
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Duane Grotophorst" <n9dg at yahoo.com>
To: <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2004 8:43 PM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] N4PY Orion Control Program Version 1.12 Released


>
> I've never seen any lag here either, even with 4 N4PY
> sessions running simultaneously controlling 6 Pegasus
> radios, - 4 of which are sweeping (sweeping is more
> CPU and serial port traffic intensive). I'm running
> all of this under Windows 2000 on an AMD Athlon
> XP2600/512MB with 3 video displays. The CPU usage
> typically hovers in the 40-60% region. The CPU spikes
> up some while tuning fast but all of the other radios
> continue to sweep uniformly and steady. My older
> 750Mhz machine would occasionally lag a bit with this
> same basic software setup, to fix it I simply
> bought/built a better computer. The last thing I
> wanted to do was compromise my multi radio system's
> performance by using an under powered PC.
>
> As for the CW keying in XP it is because the NT/W2K/XP
> OS's are all preemptive multitasking, which is a good
> thing. The down side is that programs like CW sending
> routines can be interrupted by the OS handing the
> processor off to another app while it is in the middle
> of sending a code element, the Win9x OS's won't do
> that, but then they are *far* more prone to crash the
> *entire* PC if an app freezes or misbehaves otherwise.
> Also I don't believe that multiple instances of Carl's
> program would perform very uniformly on Win9x either.
>
> I applaud Carl for integrating the K1EL keyer, and I
> see that many of the other ham software writers are
> also doing likewise, - bravo to all of them. The LPT
> and RS232 ports were never meant to be used as a
> semi-precision on/off switch that the computer
> generated CW programs try to make them into.
>
> Duane
> N9DG
>
>
> --- Steve N4LQ <n4lq at iglou.com> wrote:
>
>> Interesting contrast. My readout follows the mouse
>> instantly but the cw
>> keyboard keying is horrible. N4PY says it's an XP
>> issue. I wonder if Win98
>> would work better overall? If so, I could press my
>> old laptop into service just for this job.
>>
>> Steve N4LQ
>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Vince Santis" <vsantis at earthlink.net>
>> To: <roncasa at verizon.net>; <tentec at contesting.com>
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2004 4:18 PM
>> Subject: RE: [TenTec] N4PY Orion Control Program
>> Version 1.12 Released
>>
>>
>> > Hi Ron,
>> >
>> > Unless you are using an Orion what you want is the
>> Pegasus software from
>> > N4PY. I use it and it works fine with one
>> exception. Because of a port
>> > speed issue tuning the radio lags the screen
>> display on the computer.
>> > However, if yu are into cw, the keyboard keying is
>> great and also the
>> > ability to scan a range of frequencies.
>> >
>> > 73,
>> >
>> > Vince Santis, N1VS
>> > Winsted, CT 06098
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Check out the new Yahoo! Front Page.
> www.yahoo.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TenTec mailing list
> TenTec at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>