Changing Frequency with a Griffin PowerMate

The 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,

    1. With Commander running, open the PowerMate control panel

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

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

  2. To configure the actions that PowerMate takes when you rotate its knob clockwise,

    1. In PowerMate's Action panel, set the User Action selector to Rotate Right and then select Send Key in the Computer Action list

    2. Click the Change Key... button in the Action panel

    3. When the Enter Keystroke window appears, strike the Page Up key on your keyboard; the words Page Up should appear in the Keystroke panel input area

    4. Check the Win box in the Modifier Keys panel and then click the OK button

  3. To configure the actions that PowerMate takes when you rotate its knob counterclockwise,

    1. In PowerMate's Action panel, set the User Action selector to Rotate Left and then select Send Key in the Computer Action list

    2. Click the Change Key... button in the Action panel

    3. When the Enter Keystroke window appears, strike the Page Down key on your keyboard; the words Page Down should appear in the Keystroke panel input area

    4. Check the Win box in the Modifier Keys panel and then click the OK button

This setup will cause the VFO to step at the slowest rate, 10 hz. You can substitute a different rate by checking one of the following boxes in steps 2d and 3d above:

Alternatively, you can press the Shift, Ctl, Alt, or Win key while rotating the PowerMate and the VFO step rate will change to correspond with the key pressed; this rate will persist as long as you hold the key down.

You also can control the knob sensitivity in the PowerMate control panel; good knob action can be attained with the sensitivity control set at the second mark to the right of Slow.

For the PowerMate knob to control Commander, either Commander's Main or Bandspread window must have focus; to give focus to a window, left-click in its title bar.

If rotating the PowerMate knob doesn't change Commander's frequency, check the PowerMate icon on the Windows task bar. If this icon displays an X, the PowerMate software is no longer communicating with the knob. To correct this, unplug the knob's USB cable, and then reconnect it. If that doesn't work, reboot your PC (with the knob's USB cable connected to your PC).

Note that Windows may mistake the PowerMate for a user interface device and install incorrect drivers; if this happens, select the Windows Control Panel's System applet and select the System Properties window's Hardware tab. Click the Device Manager button, locate the new device under the "Universal Serial Bus controllers" entry, and manually install the .inf and .sys files from the media supplied with your PowerMate.


Changing Frequency

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ChangingFrequencyPowerMate (last edited 2023-03-06 00:30:32 by AA6YQ)