Changing Frequency with a Griffin PowerMate

The [http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powermate/ Griffin PowerMate] can be used to tune the VFO of your transceiver that's connected to Commander. Depending upon how you set up the PowerMate, you can tune in 10 Hz (recommended), 100 Hz, 1 Khz or 10 KHz steps. Here's how it's done:

1. To make PowerMate aware of Commander

2. With Commander running, open the PowerMate control panel

3. In PowerMate's “Setting” panel, press the Add Setting... button and you'll see a list of the applications currently running on your PC

4. Select CI-V Commander.exe from this list, and click the OK button

5. To configure the actions that PowerMate takes when you rotate its knob clockwise and counterclockwise,

In the “Action” panel of PowerMate, select a User Action of Rotate Right and then select Send Key in the Computer Action list. Then press the “Change Key...” button in the Action panel. When the Enter Keystroke window opens, press the Page Up key on your keyboard. You should see the words “Page Up” appear in the Keystroke panel input area. Check the “Win” box in the Modifier Keys panel and then hit OK.

1. Now we'll set up the counterclockwise rotation. Select Rotate Left in the User Action box and select Send Key in the Computer Action box. Press the Change Key button and then in the Enter Keystroke window check the Win box and press the Page Down key on the keyboard. You'll see “Page Down” appear in the Keystroke panel and you can then hit OK.

This setup will cause the VFO to step at the slowest rate, 10 Khz. You can substitute a different rate by specifying one of the following when you set up the Send Key sequence:

Shift – 100 Hz Ctl – 1 KHz Alt – 10 KHz Win – 10 Hz

At any time you can press one of the above keys and the VFO step rate will change to correspond with the key pressed and that rate will hold as long as you hold the key down.

You also can control the knob sensitivity in the PowerMate control panel and I've found good knob action with the sensitivity control set at the second mark to the right of “Slow”.

For the PowerMate knob to work with Commander, the Commander window must have the focus. You can left click the mouse with the cursor in the Commander window to give it focus, and then rotate the knob both directions to see if the frequency changes. Since we checked the Win box in the send key definitions, the rightmost digit of the VFO frequency should change as you rotate the knob. If that doesn't happen, make sure that the PowerMate icon on the task bar does not have an X through it. I've found that sometimes that occurs and it means that the PowerMate software is not communicating with the knob. If that happens, try unplugging and replugging the knob USB cable and if that doesn't work, reboot with the knob USB cable plugged in.

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