Ham Gadgets Ultra PicoKeyer

I have been using the AA0ZZ EZKeyer II for several years (see my earlier post).  It has worked well with my K1, which I typically use portable.  There are shortcomings, however:  No easy speed control and only 3 memories. 

I tried a keyer with 8 memories, but had so many problems with missing, broken or incorrect parts, odd i/o design and sporadic support that I gave up - sadder but wi$er.

 Then I found the Ham Gadgets Ultra PicoKeyer.
 

The price was right - and I could even chose a color!  Woo-hoo!  

The construction was pretty easy (and the manual is very good).  It was ready to go in under two hours (I work very slowly).

I hooked it up to the Elecraft K1, switched the K1 to 'straight key' mode and gave it a try...

Semi-gibberish.

After several tries and careful inspection - to no conclusion - I decided to give it a try with my K2.  Again semi-gibberish. 

More experiments and some searching of the Elecraft e-mail list archives suggested that the 'ring' connection was live. 

Note:  Elecraft requires a 1/8" three-conductor (stereo) plug for CW input to their K1 and K2 transceivers.  If used in straight key mode, nothing can be connected to the 'ring', just the tip and the shell.  Straight Key mode allows control by an external keyer.

I sacrificed a cable and opened the 'ring' wire.  Everything worked just fine!   How odd.

Then I decided to take a very close look at the PCB for potential shorts.  None found, but there was a PCB connection to the 'collar' pin on the output jack.  It was NOT on the schematic, but it's there:

Since it seemed to be the cause of the problem, I cut that trace.  Success! 

Everything worked normally for both the K1 and the K2. 

I did communicate my findings with Ham Gadgets, but I am not sure they fully understood the issue when the PicoKeyer was used with these Elecraft rigs. 

Hence, this entry.

I filled in the embossing on the front of the keyer.  Looks nice.

This is a neat little keyer.

cln - Nick
WB5BKL