Installing and running the Elecraft W1 Visual Basic program.

This software has been tested on Windows XP, SP2.

Installing:

Our VisualBasic version of the W1 program comes in a "deployment" package.  Copy the zipped file into a temporary directory, unzip the contents into a sub folder and run setup.exe.  The default destination for the installed program is C:\Program Files\Elecraft_W1.  It will create program icons in the Start Menu area only; no icons will be added to your desktop.  Also, any DLL programs will remain within the W1's own program directory, not your Windows system folders.


Running:

The default COM port is COM1. This can be changed in the "Com Port" pull-down menu.  The program sets up the COM port to 9600 baud, 8 data bits, No Parity, 1 stop bit, No Handshake.


When the program is started it begins to display Forward Power in the upper bar graph and SWR data in the lower bar graph.  Click the "Hold" button to pause the program.

In the pause mode you can change the lower bar graph to display either SWR data or Reverse Power.  Clicking "Run" resumes the real time update of the bar graph displays.

Other features to try when in the "Hold" mode:

  1. You can turn the LEDs on the W1 off or on by clicking the button on the lower right corner.
  2. You can set the Range of the W1 to "Auto" (default), "1.4", "14", or "140".  Use the "Range" pull-down menu to access these settings.
  3. There are a number of W1 options you can adjust in the "Settings" pull-down menu.  This allows you to customize the performance of the W1 to suite your personal taste.  The settings can be saved in the nonvolatile W1 EEPROM.
  4. You can see the firmware version of your W1 through the "Help"..."About" pull-down menu.


The VisualBasic version 6.0 source code for this program is also available on our Elecraft website.  If you enjoy writing programs you may want to download this as well.  Here are a couple of suggestions for new W1 applications you could write. Plot the bandwidth of an antenna with the W1 and a pc controlled HF transceiver (such as a K2!).  Make a "High SWR Warning" screen that is visible across the room from your pc monitor (and drops the transceiver's power if the warning is ignored after a few seconds).  Let us know if you create a "killer app", and we can add it to our website to share with others.


Thank you and have fun!