Home K-POD Remote Control Module Firmware and Utility

K-POD Remote Control Module Firmware and Utility

Current Production Firmware
MCU 1.12

All K-Pod radios ordered today will have Product Firmware loaded as they come out of the box. Monitor the Elecraft Email Reflector where announcements are made when new releases become available.

Elecraft delivers new features in firmware. As a result, you should consider the Release Notes as an extension of the Owners Manual. Documentation for the new features will be found there and will not appear in the Owner’s Manual until the next major manual revision is released.

Current Production Firmware Release Notes

  • 1.12 10/20/2021
    Holding down F4 on power up selects encoder 1:1 rate.
    Holding down F5 on power up selects 1:0.5 rate.
    Encoder rates can now be configured via USB (for K4 use).
  • 1.11 06/29/2020
    Adds hold of F4 key on power-up selects 800 counts per revolution.
  • See K-Pod Firmware Release Notes for complete revision history
  • Download the latest K-Pod Firmware.

Important - Please read before installing the latest Production Firmware

If you have firmware older than indicated below, please be sure to follow the steps below.

Production Firmware Installation Instructions are found in the Utility

  • All Production Firmware is loaded with the K-Pod Utility. It will take care of the download and installing Production Firmware
  • All steps to load Production Firmware is found in the latest version of the K-POD Owners Manual found on our web site.
  • Before loading Production Firmware, please ensure you have installed the latest version of the K-Pod Utility

 

Download and Install the K-Pod Utility for your Operating System

Follow the links below to download and install the latest version of the Utility for your Operating System.

Minimum Operating System Requirements for Elecraft Utilities

Microsoft Windows: XP Service Pack 3 or later, including Vista, 7, 8, and 8.1 and 10.
Apple Mac: OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or later

Windows  K-Pod Utility (Windows Version 1.16.7.5) October 25, 2016
  • Requires a USB A/B cable to download from your PC to the K-Pod.
Macintosh K-Pod Utility (MAC OSX 64BIT Version 1.19.9.6) September 13, 2019
  • Files are in universal binary in .zip file.
  • Use this utility to check for the latest releases of new features for your K-Pod.
  • Requires a USB A/B cable to download from your PC to the K-Pod.
X86 Linux K-Pod Utility (Linux 64bit Version 1.19.9.6) September 13, 2019
  • Files are in TAR archive (gzip-compressed) format.
  • Use this utility to check for the latest releases of new features for your K-Pod.
  • Requires a USB A/B cable to download from your PC to the K-Pod.

Dependencies

The following libraries and dependencies should be installed on your Linux distro:

GTK+ 2.8 or later, glibc-2.4, libstdc++.so.6 and cURL. 64-bit Linux requires 32-bit compatibility libraries.
Installing the FTDI driver

Follow this link to the FTDI Site for drivers: http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

Depending on the Operating System you have, the driver needed for the Utility to communicate with the K-Pod will need to be loaded.

All Elecraft products in production use the FTDI chipset for this function. The FTDI driver allows your computer to create a virtual COM port so that the Utility can communicate with the Elecraft product.

For the K-Pod, if your KUSB cable has a silver sheath on the wire, it is no longer supported. Elecraft recommends that a KUSB cable be purchased for full support.

 

Beta Firmware Installation and Release Notes

Beta Firmware Release Notes

 --Not available at this time--

Beta Test Firmware Installation Procedures

NOTE: Beta test firmware may have new issues that we haven't caught during field testing. Please report them to support@elecraft.com.

A little more detail

We make it a little harder to load Beta firmware mainly because we want you to be sure you want to do this. Beta firmware means that, while the K-Pod engineering team has fully tested the firmware, it has not yet been deemed ready for Production status. You can always return to the last firmware you have downloaded by following the steps in the K-Pod Utility’s Help section.

To load Beta Firmware, follow the steps below:

1. Create a new folder for the beta firmware on your Desktop or some other easily found location. Use the a different folder than the default folder found in the Firmware tab of the Utility. In this way, you can revert to the last Production firmware easily.

2. Now, we will download the firmware in Zip file format. In a web browser, type in this URL:

https://ftp.elecraft.com/K-Pod/firmware/beta

If you do not see the correct version of the zip file, press the RELOAD / REFRESH button on your browser to update your browser cache.

3. Right-click on the .zip file containing the beta firmware (e.g. k3fwXrYZ.zip for revision MCU X.YZ and all associated files). Save the file to your beta folder you just created.

4. Unzip the files into the beta folder.

5. Enter the path to the beta folder in K-Pod Utility → Firmware tab → "Local folder for firmware files".

6. After you have made the change in Step 5, make sure you *DO NOT* check the K-Pod Utility box titled "Copy new files from Elecraft server". This will overwrite the Beta firmware if clicked.

7. Connect the K-Pod to your computer and be sure it is turned on. Select the Firmware tab and Click on "Check versions now" button.

8. Review the release notes. To find them, select the "Help" pull-down menu.

9. Click "Send all firmware to K-Pod." This will cause the firmware to be sent to the K-Pod. You will see that the K-Pod appears to restart itself. Monitor the Activity Log until it is complete.

10. After completing a new software download to your product, please power cycle the K-Pod OFF and then back ON before using it.

11. Please report any new firmware issues to support@elecraft.com