I had this same problem with an 847 that I had loaned out to another ham. This person somehow pushed in one of the pins in the RS-232 DB9 connector just enough that it would sometime's work. I was taking the 847 apart to prepare to replace the 232 chip when I noticed the pushed in pin. I simply pushed the pin back out and problem went away. I hope your problem resolution is as simple...
73 Jeff kb2m
-----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Breitner Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2016 3:15 PM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] FT-847 CAT
I have been troubleshooting CAT control problems of my 847 ahead of Field Day, and the oddest situation has come to light and wondered if anyone has seen this situation.
I used to run Gpredict on my Mac, and on a Linux netbook with the 847, and both worked fine. In testing the setup in portable operation over Memorial Day weekend (on one of the XA birds), CAT control stopped working with the Netbook. Flatly refused to work. Before I started transmitting, however it had been running all day prior to moving to the portable setup.
I moved to the Mac, and it too wasn't working. Puzzled, I tried a reset of the CPU in the radio. Nothing changed. Tried a different Prolific and FTDI USB adapter. Nothing.
The shack computer, a desktop, works fine both Linux and Ham Radio Deluxe under Windows 10, with all three USB adapters. I also dragged out an ancient Sony laptop with a real RS-232 port. That works. I made some test scripts on the desktop Linux machine to initiate CAT commands, they worked at all possible port speeds. Tried the scripts on the netbook and Mac, they do not work. Hamlib reports a communication error.
I also have a 5 year old i5 Windows machine, never ran HRD and that does not work either.
I am not sure if the radio is on its way out, or if there is just some strange incompatibility between the USB serial adapters, but the desktop box works very reliably where the others do not. And the last thing I want to do is drag that beast out to FD.
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