[aprssig] Re: PK-232 Stuck In KISS Mode]

[Stephen H. Smith]

shortsheep at worldnet.att.net wrote:
>
> I’ve just acquired a few PK-232MBX’s.
>
> One I can’t seem to talk to. All combinations of parity, baud etc
> don’t seem to work. It doesn’t want to autobaud either. I’ve tried
>
> PC-PackRatt and it can’t find the TNC. The same identical setup
>
> Talks to the other PK-232’s fine. Both STBY LED’s illuminate after
> power on. I suspect it’s stuck in KISS. Can’t remove the battery because
>
> It’s soldered in. Isn’t there some sort of utility to slap the TNC out 
> of KISS?
>
> Or how do you perform a hard reset?
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------


1) Units with soldered-in batteries have a small black jumper, like the 
ones on PC motherboards or hard drives, connected across two 
one-tenth-inch-spaced pins. Remove this jumper to open the battery 
connection.


2) If the device is truly stuck in KISS mode (rather than AEA's 
proprietary "host mode"), the standard KISS escape sequence command 
should work. You can download a simple KISS escape utility I wrote in 
compiled QuickBasic (meaning it's a ready-to-run stand-alone .EXE file) 
from web site at:

<http://wa8lmf.net/miscinfo >

Scroll down the resulting list and click on the link "TNC_KISSOFF.exe" 
to download the utility.

Note that since this is a DOS-based utility (that works fine in Windows) 
that it can only access COM1 thru COM4. If you are using a virtual com 
port created by a USB-to-serial dongle, you will have to force it to one 
of the first four com numbers. (Typically, these devices try to avoid 
the legacy COM port numbers and often try to configure as "COM5" or 
higher by default.)


3) Finally, are your sure it's in KISS mode rather than AEA's "host" 
mode. Many apps for the PK-232 were notorious for initializing the TNC 
into host mode and then NOT returning the TNC to normal command mode on 
exit. In this case, disconnecting he battery jumper as described above 
is the most likely way to recover.



--

Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) aol.com
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