[WriteLog] Thanks to Joe, Keith (Kregli), and Wayne!

Ray Day rayday at cox.net
Tue May 31 20:50:34 EDT 2016


Ray N6HE here..

 

Been having trouble getting WL ( V12.03G) to work through a microKEYER II to
an Icom IC-7300, but all is well here in the N6HE shack now.

 

Both Joe and Keith were instrumental in getting the overall picture through
my thick skull and Wayne was able to add the final touches to the info I
needed to get it all together..thanks you to you all!

 

In case someone else is going down this path, the keys, as I see them, are:

 

Setting the serial comms rate at 9600 FIXED in the radio (normal for the
stock 7300) and MK2 (there is a choice) and Writelog (9600 rather than
default). There is no "IC-7300" rig choice in WL, but more on that later..

 

microKEYER II: Be sure under the Ports tab, you have 9600 bps and CI-V
address set to 94; and under the System Settings tab, CI-V set to 9600 bps,
address 6A. 

 

7300: nothing else to do.

 

In Writelog Help File: search for "address override" and select [RIGS] (this
for help in the [RIGS] section of writelog.ini): look for "The following
entries override WL's default setting..." and the examples shown are "Icom
IC-781=0x33" and "Icom IC-756PRO=0x12" to get the idea of telling WL how to
set Icom rig addresses from within writelog.ini by entering formatted info
in the [RIGS] section. A key point: the Icom address referred to in
microKEYER are of the format 94  - the WL help file refers to 0x94. They are
for the same address; one is abbreviated, one isn't. News to me!

 

Another key: the WL rig selection list doesn't have an IC-7300, but does
have a IC-7410 choice. So the plan is to select IC-7410 in WL ports setup,
then tell WL via the writelog.ini file what that means.in this case, we set
the 7300's address (94 / 0x04) as the address WL will use for the "7410"
selection.so we pick the IC-7410 choice in WL ports setup, but under the
hood, the data is actually what'll work for the IC-7300. Ta-daaaa! Thus the
concept of "address override." The comms rate will need to be set at 9600,
not default, later.

 

My writelog.ini file didn't even have a [RIGS] section. So I quote Wayne
here for the next steps: 

 

The "completely documented" information Joe refers to is available from the
WriteLog help file. Use the "Index" tab on the left and notice the [RIGS]
entry and click on it. Scroll down to see how it sets up Icom rigs. The help
file info is generic . I also see in your email trail that Keith has done
the legwork to determine that your IC-7300 uses the same rig protocol (or
close enough) as the IC-7410, which does appear in WriteLog's selection. The
other key bit of information Keith provides is that the "Icom address" for
your 7300 is 0x94 and the Icom address for the 7410 is 0x80.

To make WriteLog happy, there are two ways to proceed. Based on the email
trail, your microKEYER wants to know your rig's Icom address and you have
already set your microKEYER to 0x94. To keep that microKEYER setting, you
have change a writelog.ini setting to make WriteLog accept 0x94. Here is the
step-by-step to do that (assuming you are running WriteLog V12. Version 11
has a different way to access writelog.ini)

1.	When you start WriteLog, notice the Settings on the right side of
its startup screen and click the "Edit" button.
2.	WriteLog offers you a file selection dialog. The file you choose is
temporarily used only for editing these settings.
3.	When your editor comes up, look through the file for the string
[RIGS] (use a case-insensitive search). If you don't find one, then go to
the bottom of the file and type in a new line like this:
[RIGS]
4.	After that [RIGS] line, add the following line:
Icom IC-7410=0x94
5.	Finally, go to WriteLog's Setup/Ports menu and choose the "IC-7410"
rig selection. Don't forget to Setup/Save-Configuration afterwards.

The second way to make WriteLog happy (which would break your current
microKEYER setup) is to leave writelog.ini alone, and instead look in your
IC-7300 instruction manual page 12-8 and change the "CI-V Address" of your
7300 to 0x80 (so that your rig now impersonates the IC-7410). (I chose the
first method)

 

So after the initial setup I did above, I followed Wayne's "final" detailed
instructions (needed for simple me), added a [RIGS] line to writelog.ini and
added "Icom IC-7410=0x94" as a line just under the [RIGS] line in
writlog.ini. I then closed/saved writelog.ini and restarted WL and selected
IC-7410 as the rig in WL's setup/ports screen. ..and voila' - all three
units talking happily to each other. Then in WL, set the "7410"comms rate at
9600, and save configuration.

 

So thank you Joe, Keith, and Wayne. I've not owned an Icom with all this
CI-V / address business before and your guidance was critical in making me a
happy camper! Thanks for hanging in with me!

 

All the best and 73,

Ray N6HE

 



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