[Xastir] {Disarmed} KAM not transmitting and solution

[Tom Russo]

On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 01:13:29PM -0600, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <russo at bogodyn.org> flavor, containing:
> On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 09:01:36PM +0200, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <sinageruk at gmail.com> flavor, containing:
> >    2012/7/27 Tom Russo <[1]russo at bogodyn.org>
> > 
> >    CMD:[0x03].k
> >    CMD:=4151.13N/01225.45ExXASTIR-Linux
> >    >X:1<=4151.13N/01225.45ExXASTIR-Linux
> > 
> >    So the oddballs, without Ctrl-C, are the "MYCALL" line and the seemingly
> >    not going in CONVerse (k) mode of the TNC. Or possibly going and exiting
> >    immediately after.
> >    I'm not sure why the statup script lines appear twice.
> 
> Yow.  Clearly the TNC is not going into converse mode when Xastir tells it
> to.  I have not seen this problem on any TNC I know of, except for the rare
> one that doesn't recognize "K" as a synonym for "CONV."
> 
> Is the "." before "k" in your example above actually there, or is that an
> artifact of how you copied it into the mail?
> 
> Does "K" put the KAM into converse mode if you connect to it through a 
> terminal emulator instead of Xastir?  Does Control-C take it out?
> 
> What happens if you open the Interface Control dialog for the TNC and
> change the "Converse CMD" from "k" to "CONV"?  Does it still say "?EH" 
> 
> > 
> >    Oh, by the way here is somebody else with exactly the same issue:
> >    [2]http://tech-tut.com/?p=1624
> 
> Pity he chose to slam the code on a blog instead of asking the user community
> for a little help.

FWIW, I have discovered exactly one post on the web that has a modification for
Xastir that the user states has definitely solved his KAM issues.

It appears that the KAM has issues with the way Xastir sends the posit 
immediately after the K<CR> --- this user states that by inserting a short
sleep right after Xastir sends the K<CR> and right before it sends the actual
posit, that the KAM goes into converse mode properly.

This would jibe with Stefano's experience that the KAM goes into converse mode
when he enters the K or CONV command through minicom --- if the needed
delay is short enough, one might not even notice that the KAM has taken
a breath.

If Stefano is still paying attention to this list, then maybe he can uncomment
the "sleep(1)" that is in fact already there in the right place, and see if
that fixes the problem.  If so, we can start dialing down the delay with
usleeps of a few tens of milliseconds and see what the threshold really is.
If it's short enough, then we can just leave it there in the source, and if
it's too long we can make it an option that one can turn on and off in the
interface dialog.

If anyone else here has been frustrated by the KAM not going into converse mode
when Xastir tells it to, please post and let's try to get this fixed up.
-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY   SAR502   DM64ux          http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236        http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM
"And, isn't sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean all you get is
 one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and crazy, oooh, oooh,
 oooh, the sky is the limit!"  --- The Tick