K3 Meter for Windows XP/Vista 1.2MB ZIP

K3 Meter for Windows 98/2000/NT/ME 2.1MB ZIP

K3 Meter for Mac OS X version 2.4MB ZIP

Version History:

Version	Release Date	Notes
0.3	11-9-08	Added edgewise meter style Sped up moving average calculation
0.2	11-5-08	Fixed several bugs Added moving average code to make needle movement more realistic Began using GDI+ graphics API to add anti-aliasing to needle drawing in Windows
0.1	11-2-08	Initial alpha release

Overview:

K3 Meter emulates an analog S-Meter for the Elecraft K3. It displays an image of the meter in one of two different styles (traditional or edgewise) and then draws the "needle" deflection based on data received from the K3 in response to the "SM;" command. The SM; command provides only 22 data points (0000-0021 in K31 extended format), so the resolution will be no where near as high as a real analog meter. I was concerned the needle movement would be course and jerky but it turned out okay. It looks quite realistic despite the low resolution.

There are both OS X and Windows versions of the program. I've tested only on OS X 10.5.2 and Windows XP. It should run fine on any version of OS X (10.2 or greater), but I'm not sure how it will do on Windows versions prior to XP.

The first time you run the program you will need to click the "Setup" button and select your serial port and baud rate. You can also select the meter style and set the color and width of the needle. I prefer the traditional style meter with a red needle and a width of 1 pixel, so these are the defaults. If you are not able to see the needle very well on your display, try changing the width to 2 pixels and/or try another color. The polling rate defaults to 10 polls per second. This is how often the program sends the SM; command to the K3. The poll rate can be set as high as 20 times per second, or as low as 1 time per second. 20/sec will give the most accurate tracking, but 10/sec works fine and won't tie up the K3 as much if you are using other rig control software. It is possible to run the program along with other rig control software if you use a serial port redirector such as LP-Bridge. Unfortunately there is not an OS X solution at this time. It's on my list. :)

To change the size of the meter, click and hold the lower right corner of the window and drag it to the desired size. Click the "Reset" button to return to the default size. The quality of the meter image will degrade as the size is scaled. The larger the size, the worse the degradation. It remains readable even at full screen on my 23 inch monitor, but it gets quite blurry. The default size should be large enough for most folks.

Thanks to Beppe, IK3VIG, for the excellent meter image.

Let me hear from you if you find the meter useful..or if you find any bugs!
email: dflem @ yahoo . com (remove the spaces)

73,
David, W4SMT