Product Support

Chip Upgrades

Many upgrades for PicoKeyer and ID-O-Matic chips can be done at little or no cost. Below is a list of possible upgrades:

PicoKeyer
- White dot chips: No updates available. Upgrading would require a new chip and re-wiring.
- Silver dot chips: No updates available. Upgrading requires new chip, but no re-wiring. The new chip is a drop-in direct replacement for the old one.
- Gold dot chips: Updates available, V3.8 is the latest.
ID-O-Matic
- PIC16F628A: No updates available. Because of hardware changes made prior to V2.0, a chip upgrade is not practical.
- PIC16F648A: Update available, latest is V2.10. (note that this is more recent than V2.7).
ID-O-Matic II
- All ID-O-Matic IIs use a PIC16F648A chip. This chip can be re-programmed.
- The most recent firmware version is 3.30

To upgrade your chip, pack it in a box or mailing tube. Please DO NOT ship chips in any type of envelope, padded or not. Chips shipped in padded envelopes arrive badly damaged and cannot be upgraded. Be sure to include your name and address, and a note explaining what you need.

Mail your chip along with $2.00 to cover return postage and packaging. The mailing address is:

Dale Botkin
16624 Elm St.
Omaha, NE 68130-1826
USA

Your chip will be returned to you with the latest available firmware, along with a new CD with the latest manual.

If your chip cannot be updated, you can order an upgraded replacement chip instead. Please see the "Ham Radio" category for details and cost. Note that if your circuit board uses a significantly older chip version, you may need to modify your circuit board for the new chip. One example would be upgrading from an older PicoKeyer chip with a white dot to the latest version. Some minor changes to the PCB would be required. On the other hand, replacing an older ID-O-Matic chip on a PCB that does not have a crystal with a new one would require enough modifications that it would not be practical. You can email me with questions if you are not sure whether your kit can be upgraded.

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Masterkeyer Firmware Downloads

New firmware is available for the Masterkeyer. The current version as of September 26, 2011 is V1.32 (V1.32R). This release corrects a couple of minor message playback bugs, and increases USB keyboard buffer to 250 characters. You can download the latest firmware by clicking here. This is a ZIP file containing the firmware image and instructions for upgrading your MasterKeyer. The upgrade procedure is simple and only takes a few minutes.

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PicoKeyer and PicoKeyer-Plus

I have had a few requests for additional features and changes. In general, the PicoKeyer has reached the limits of what can be done with the available hardware. If Microchip produces a new 8-pin chip with all of the current chip's features and more memory, we may see some improvements and new features... but I've been waiting a few years for that!

In the mean time, the PK-Plus and original PicoKeyer have been very popular and relatively trouble free. Probably the most common issue I hear about is people having trouble recording messages. If you can't seem to get your PicoKeyer to understand what you're sending, or if your message sounds wrong - like a Morse code C being sent as NN or something else - you may want to turn the speed down to a little slower than you normally send. You want to let the keyer do the spacing between dots and dashes, not try to do it yourself, at least while recording.