Gordon - Thanks for the feedback! The way your note started out I thought it was not going to be good! But it turned out nicely.
re: your results ...
1) Bencher paddle into Sbitx in "Iambic" mode -- seems to key perfectly, very responsive. [The polling rate for the paddle contacts is increased the same as the polling rate for straight key, so good to hear that]
2) Bencher paddle into "lil Bugger" ancient transistor/integrated circuit keyer (no longer on the market) -- with sBitx set to "straight key mode" and the "lil Bugger" doing all the electronic wizardry. This keyer COULD NOT PREVIOUSLY SEND GOOD CODE WITH THE SBITX -- IT JUST ACTED LIKE IT HAD BAD LENGTH CODE ELEMENTS -- I THOUGHT IT WAS NOT PROPERLY SHORTING OUT THE SBITX INPUTS OR SOMETHING AND HAD PLANS TO REBUILD THE OUTPUT CIRCUITRY -- Now, it is sending GREAT CODE! The sBitx is now responding quite well to the Lil Bugger's code. This suggests your fix is a huge improvement to the Straight Key input. [This has been the "acid test", using an electronic keyer to input arguably pefect code into the straigh key jack, and then seeing how bad it gets mangled ... ]
3) Switched to a homebrew Arduino emulator of a WINKEYER (K3NG code) that our group has laid out boards and built. Bencher paddle into Arduino emulator, output into "straight key" mode of sBitx. This is a confirmatory test of the straight key input -- I sent several sentences and the response of the sBitx was snappy and correct! [good, same as your second test]
I'd like to give you 2 cents worth on the T/R switch, but I hate to get too many topics going. I'm assuming you are looking at the changes in the 64-bit repo? It might be a good example of code that evolved over time, and several iterations of hardware, that still carries the remnants of good (and less good?) problem workarounds ... My attempt to make things better (I especially like the idea that it seems to get all sbitx hardware back on the same T/R code) should ideally be reviewed and blessed by the original developers.
--
Mike KB2ML
