This page displays an up-to-date listing of changes to our customer support web. We'll also place notices here regarding product updates, scheduled releases, or problems and work-arounds that may affect all users. When bugs reported by our users get fixed, we'll place a notice here, along with the fix on the download page.

  

3/05/2024

• Changes to these web pages.  Mostly the Products page has been completely overhauled.  There are many new pictures and explanations.  Some new prices too...
• There is another new product as well.  See Products and new Products pages for information on the SEQ-2K connector kit.

2/17/2024

• New DrzTrack.exe Version  5.31. Firmware remains at version 5.30 See the download page.
• This fixes a bug in the calibrate dialog for Absolute encoders only, and only when using an absolute encoder for the vertical plane.
• When using an absolute encoder for vertical, the calibrate dialog would show the compass arrow in the wrong compass quadrant.  Fixed,

1/07/2024

• New DrzTrack.exe Version  5.30. and new firmware also version 5.30 See the download page.
• Version 5.30 is a maintenance and bug fix upgrade. No new features are added.
• There were some problems with fixed Azimuth offsets.  Both fixed and positional offsets were using the same variable space in the controller.  Thus everything worked ok if only using one type of offset, but did not work when using both.  Fixed, but this means that the new firmware version (5.30) cannot be used with any prior version of DrzTrack (and vice versa).
• There was a bad error message that would show up if a valid com port was not stored in settings.  This mainly would come up when first starting version 5.27.  Now if no valid port is saved in settings, the system will revert to COM1, and then let you know if it cannot connect to the controller.
• There was also a bug fix for use of the south stop with the Azimuth control.

11/27/2022

• New DrzTrack.exe Version  5.27. and new firmware also version 5.27 See the download page.
• Alright!  In version 5.26 there were still a couple of small bugs that I needed to fix.  So, version 5.27 replaces v 5.25 and 5.26.
• There was a problem with absolute elevation encoders that happened when the antenna went below 0 degrees (overshoot).  When that happened it was impossible to move the antenna back up, as the reported position was in the 350 degree range. Thus the firmware calculated that it was already above the position you wanted it to go to.  That is fixed.  Now elevations below zero are calculated and shown as negative numbers.  This required a change to both DrzTrack and the firmware.
• Due to popular request, I also added the ability to specify a 'Park' position for the antenna, and a menu item on the main page to tell it to 'Park',  Use the setup menu to set the desired park position.

10/21/2022

• New DrzTrack.exe Version  5.26. and new firmware also version 5.26 See the download page.
• In version 5.25, we added a new encoder type for the W2HRO Slew drives. Now we have renamed this encoder type to be called "Incremental 360".  The reason for the change is that the Incremental 360 type can be used with any incremental encoder that we support, as long as it is geared 1:1 with the rotation of the antenna.  See the Encoders page for more details.
• Changes in the calibration windows for Absolute, and Incremental 360 encoders.
• Removed the option to have a scaled Absolute encoder.  This caused more problems than it was worth!
• A small change to the Local Panel dialog operation.  If the controller times out on movement, the local dialog immediately exits to the main window instead of first showing a message that must be clicked on before exiting.
• More fixes to the Azimuth South Stop operation.  Working now as far as I can see.  Please report any problems with South Stop.

9/22/2022

• New DrzTrack.exe Version  5.25. and new firmware also version 5.25 See the download page.
• Added a new encoder type for the W2HRO Slew drives.  This allows simplified calibration of incremental encoders. See Slew Drive Encoders in the Encoders page.
• Note: Version 5.24 DrzTrack and 5.24 firmware were available on this site for about a week, prior to 9/22/22.  Version 5.25 is a replacement.  The only difference is the fixing of a calibration bug that can happen in the case of using a Slew Drive encoder for azimuth, and an A/D (potentiometer) for elevation.  If you have version 5.24, please update to 5.25 immediately if you intend to use that configuration (Slew + A/D).
• Fixed a bug that occurs when the azimuth encoder is set up to rotate more than 360 degrees.  In the case where the current heading was greater than 360 and a command to move to a position less than the current, but still greater than 360, the antenna would rotate CCW all the way around to the non-overlap area.
• Made some improvements to handling of south stop, for azimuth control.

9/01/2021

• New DrzTrack.exe Version  5.22. and new firmware also version 5.22 See the download page.
• Added a new feature to be able to manually or automatically switch polarization for crossed Yagi antennas.  See Polarization Control.
• Added functionality in the Configuration Restore dialog, to find and display saved configurations from previous DrzTrack versions.
  Versions are displayed in a list, and saved settings for each version can be seen or loaded by clicking on a version in the list.
• Note: The version 5.22 controller firmware does not significantly differ from version 5.20 except for the added Polarization Control code.

2/11/2019

• New DrzTrack.exe Version  5.20. and new firmware also version 5.20 See the download page.
• DrzTrack now checks to see if it is already running from it's installation folder and notifies you if so.
• A new option in the Setup dialog allows setting a title for each copy of DrzTrack that you are running.
  For example a title could be "Two Meters".  That title will be displayed at the top of the main dialog and also on the local control panel.
• A change was made to how the Movement controls in the Calibrate dialogs are handled.  Now the antennas will move, in the requested direction, even if the current heading is invalid.
• A slight change was made to the Absolute encoder read code in the firmware.  It attempts to read and discard any extra characters that might be present on the serial data line before actually requesting and reading new data.  This was done after discovering a situation where some encoders were outputting extra data, which would not be normally be consumed. This was probably caused by a defective encoder, but the extra code does not seem to impair normal operation at all so I have left it in.
• The greatest change is in defining and handling a number of the data fields in the encoder configuration dialog as "Motion Controls".  It is now possible to define a separate set of motion controls for each band that you will use.  See Detailed Settings for more information.

10/22/2018

• New DrzTrack.exe Version  5.12. See the download page.
• Replaces version 5.11, using same firmware version.
• Added offset buttons to the main dialog to allow instant setting of tracking offsets.  See Band Offsets.
• Fixed a bug where the Call3.txt file was not found until the path was manually set.
• Eliminated exiting the program with the Escape key.
• Removed the Local Panel button and added Local Panel to the top menu in main dialog.

10/04/2018 New DrzTrack.exe Version  5.11 and firmware version 5.10. See the download page. Fixed a bug where reading saved band information would fail. Fixed a bug in the local control panel that caused failure to rewrite the correct location of the Call3.txt file when adding a call. Fixed a bug in the main dialog that caused call sign lookup to fail. The previous 3 bugs were introduced in version 5.10 Moved the boot loader dialog from the main dialog setup menu to a tab on the setup dialog. This makes it less likely to enter the boot loader by mistake. Added the ability to disable the motion sensor for AZ or EL. See Move Precision Added the ability do disable motion control for AZ or EL. See  Disable Azimuth or Elevation NOTE:  Starting with firmware version 5.10, PIC18F4580 processors do not have enough program memory to include the F1EHN optional feature.  If you need to use the F1EHN tracker then specify the use of the PIC18F4680 processor when you order processors or controller boards. 7/12/2018 DrzTrack.exe Version  5.10. See the download page. Changes to how absolute encoders are programmed and used. See Absolute Encoder Programming. Fixed a bug that caused boot loading to fail on fast computers. Changes to how Jogging the antenna position works. See Jogging, Changes to how DrzTrack stores settings. Now allows selecting location of Call3.txt file so as to use same file as used by WSJT and other programs. Updated DrzTrack to be built using the latest version Microsoft Visual Studio. General code and error handling improvements. 3/15/2017 DrzTrack.exe Version  5.03. See the download page. Fixed a bug that caused position offsets to be applied even when the offset table was disabled. Fixed some tracking message errors. 3/08/2017 DrzTrack.exe Version  5.02. See the download page, minor changes from 5.01 Removed Sending message after updating encoder configuration. Changed boot loader to be backward compatible with firmware version 5.00 boot loader. 2/20/2017 DrzTrack.exe (Version  5.01, and firmware Version 5.01). See the download page. This version features a boot loader. It can be used to upgrade the firmware in the controller. Also this version has positional offsets.  See the DrzTrack page for details. 12/10/2016 DrzTrack.exe (Version  3.20). See the download page. This replaces version 3.19. There are very few changes. A small bug when displaying negative headings was fixed, and there was a problem with the polarization rotation display that was fixed. 5/09/2016 DrzTrack.exe and hex files for CT-2 controller (Version 3.19 and 4.08 firmware).  See the download page. This supersedes version 3.18 and 4.07 described below.  All of the comments for the pervious version are correct, but there was a serious bug in the release for users who needed to use negative antenna elevation values.  This is fixed in this release. 5/06/2016 DrzTrack.exe and hex files for CT-2 controller (Version 3.18 and 4.07 firmware).  See the download page. More fixes for US Digital Absolute encoders.  There were still problems due to interference between the communications between DrzTrack and the controller when running low baud rates.  A new, smaller, data format and some sequencing changes fixes the problem. A problem when entering an invalid call or grid square in the DxCall field in the main dialog has been fixed. When entering a new call in the calls database in the local dialog, the new call would not be available in the main dialog until the program was restarted - fixed. 4/12/2016 DrzTrack.exe and hex files for CT-2 controller (Version 3.11 and 4.01 firmware).  See the download page. This version primarily fixes some problems with US Digital Absolute encoders.  US Digital has made some revisions to their product and we have had some difficulty keeping up with it.  This version should fix all issues. Also, a newer band interface is provided with this release.  Now users can specify an offset, in degrees, for Azimuth and Elevation, for each band through 26 GHz.  This is mainly to facilitate dish users who have multiple feeds and require different offsets for the various bands.  The band information is entered in the program setup dialog, but the active band can be changed right from the main DrzTrack window. There have been fixes and changes to the Local Control Panel as well. Azimuth rotor control buttons have been added to allow moving the antenna without entering a stop position (it will not attempt to move past the set tracking maximum). A bug in the mechanism to add a new call to the calls database has been fixed, and memory dialog has been added that allows users to enter up to 12 station calls in a memory database for quick positioning for those stations. The program setup dialog now has a control to specify the usage of the signal field on the main dialog.  The default setting is 'OFF' so that the signal field does not appear at all.  It can be set to show 'Signal' or 'Polarization', with appropriate fields to calibrate the values shown in either case. 3/12/2016 New SEQ-2 Sequencer board added. See Products page. 1/02/2015 Now Controller hex files are available for download. See the download page. 12/2014 New DrzTrack version 3.11. Added or improved many features. (See the DrzTrack and Detailed Settings pages.) New protocol for native tracking mode and DrzTrack to controller communications, improves reliability and speed. Added a Local Control Panel for use with terrestrial communications, see Local Control Panel. New indicators for current antenna position in all windows, position is now shown with an interactive compass display. Added "Move on Click" functionality to allow quick manual moves. (See the DrzTrack and Local Control Panel for details.) Added editing and adding items in the Call3.txt file. (See Local Control Panel for details.) Will only work with CT-2 firmware version 4 or above. See the Products Page for information on upgrading firmware. DrzTrack now remembers the last screen position for its main dialog, and for the local control panel. Added the ability to set up US Digital Absolute encoders in the Setup Dialog.