ID-O-Matic II Manual
02/27/2010
Page 10 of 14
Setting Up the ID-O-Matic II
For beacon, foxhunt or repeater use, connect your ID-O-Matic II to a PC or other serial terminal device
using a straight-through 9 pin serial cable. If using a PC you can use the HyperTerminal program
provided with some versions of Windows, or just about any other serial communications program such as
PuTTY or Minicom. Set your communication parameters for 9600 baud, eight bits, no parity, one or two
stop bits and no handshake or flow control. As a quick check to see if your serial port and communication
software is set up correctly, you can connect a serial cable to the computer but not to the ID-O-Matic II.
Connect pins 2 & 3 together at the end of your serial cable. Anything you type should be echoed back to
your computer. If this quick test works, you’re set up properly to connect to your ID-O-Matic II and
perform the next steps.
Connect the ID-O-Matic II and turn the power on. You should see the firmware version number
displayed on your screen. Tap the ENTER key twice to enter the setup menu. You will be prompted for
several bits of information. In each case you can hit RETURN to keep the current setting, which will be
displayed in parenthesis after the prompt.
•
ID Time: Enter the delay time, in seconds. This will be the time between ID reminders or Morse
announcements. Note that a setting of less than a second or two may make it quite challenging to
get into the setup menu.
•
Yellow time: Enter the number of seconds from zero at which you want the LED to turn solid
yellow. Setting this value to zero disables turning the LED yellow.
•
Blink time: Enter the number of seconds from zero at which you want the LED to begin blinking
red/yellow. Setting this value to zero disables red/yellow blinking.
•
ID Msg: Enter up to 64 characters for your desired Morse code ID. Common punctuation and
prosigns are supported:
o
Type a dash (–) for BT
o
Type a semicolon (;) for AR
o
Type a greater-than (>) for SK
o
@ will be sent as the new Morse @ sign character (.--.-.)
o
Comma, period, slash and question mark signs are sent as typed
o
To send a steady tone or CW carrier for a specified length of time (such as for a
propagation beacon), type :nnn: where nnn is the number of seconds from 1 to 255. For a
5 second key-down, for example, you would use :5: or :005:.
o
Less-than (<) and other characters will be ignored.
o
Spaces, including trailing spaces, will be sent. Note that entering a space as the first
character of a message will delete the message.
•
Beacon Msg: Similar to the ID message, this message will be sent if the beacon time is set. If the
beacon time is set and this message is empty, the ID message will be sent at beacon time instead.
•
Alternate Msg: This message, if present, will be send in place of the ID msg if the TEST/ALT
MSG input is active (low) when the timer expires.
•
Auto CW ID: Type Y to use the Morse code ID, or N for a simple beeping ID reminder.
•
CW Speed: Enter the desired Morse code speed in words per minute. This will also affect the
rate of beeping if Auto CW ID is off.
•
ID Audio Tone: Enter the desired Morse ID audio frequency in Hz between 250 and 2500.
•
Repeater mode?: Type Y if you intend to use the COR input. Type N if you do NOT plan to use
the COR input, even if it will be used in a repeater.
