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CAT Port For BITX40

 

Hi:

I'm a fairly new ham and I ordered a BITX40 module late last year - pre Raduino. ?It's my one and only HF transceiver and it works great. Congratulations Farhan!!! ?

One thing that I think is unique about my build is that the rig provides a CAT port that allows it to be controlled by programs like Ham Radio Deluxe, Commander, and logger software. ?I built my VFO board using a Teensy 3.2 controller/Si5351a/OLED display/rotary encoder and I use the USB port in serial mode to talk to a PC running the control software. ?

I'm not a contester at all, but I accidentally stumbled into the "Virginia QSO party" last weekend and, man, things were going fast and furious with those guys! ?Once I learned the lingo, I logged 15 contacts from Massachusetts to Virginia as fast as I could fill out my paper log book. But it was obvious to me that those big stations in the contest had some serious automation going on, and that led to an investigation of the N1MM+ logger, and that led to the discovery of the computer control concept. ?BITX40 operators should not be disadvantaged in any radio sports. :-)

My code makes the rig emulate a Yaesu FT-817. ?I guess the choice is pretty arbitrary, but I chose that one because the radio appears to be fairly simple and because there is very good documentation of its implementation of the CAT protocol at?? Huge thanks to KA7OEI for the great reference.

I realize the crew on this net is Arduino-oriented, so my stuff might not be completely relevant. ?But the link to the code is below in case anyone wants to look. ?Does a Raduino have a USB port? Hopefully it does.

The Teensy 3.2 is mostly Arduino-compatible and I highly recommend it for ham projects. I am using the Teensy instead of the Arduino because it is roughly the same size, has a much faster processor (72 MHz), has more memory, and has some hardware assist for DSP code. ?I use the DSP for integrated, PC-less support for digital modes, but that's a topic for a different post ...

I built my BITX40 into a candy box I got over the holidays, so I'm calling it the Peppermint Bark BITX40. ?Here it is being controlled by Ham Radio Deluxe checking into the NATA net on 7185:



The code is here for anyone who is interested:?

73s,

Bruce KC1FSZ?





IMG_1600.JPG

Simon Thompson
 

¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

Cool!

On Mar 23, 2017, at 7:03 PM, bruce@... wrote:

Hi:

I'm a fairly new ham and I ordered a BITX40 module late last year - pre Raduino. ?It's my one and only HF transceiver and it works great. Congratulations Farhan!!! ?

One thing that I think is unique about my build is that the rig provides a CAT port that allows it to be controlled by programs like Ham Radio Deluxe, Commander, and logger software. ?I built my VFO board using a Teensy 3.2 controller/Si5351a/OLED display/rotary encoder and I use the USB port in serial mode to talk to a PC running the control software. ?

I'm not a contester at all, but I accidentally stumbled into the "Virginia QSO party" last weekend and, man, things were going fast and furious with those guys! ?Once I learned the lingo, I logged 15 contacts from Massachusetts to Virginia as fast as I could fill out my paper log book. But it was obvious to me that those big stations in the contest had some serious automation going on, and that led to an investigation of the N1MM+ logger, and that led to the discovery of the computer control concept. ?BITX40 operators should not be disadvantaged in any radio sports. :-)

My code makes the rig emulate a Yaesu FT-817. ?I guess the choice is pretty arbitrary, but I chose that one because the radio appears to be fairly simple and because there is very good documentation of its implementation of the CAT protocol at?? Huge thanks to KA7OEI for the great reference.

I realize the crew on this net is Arduino-oriented, so my stuff might not be completely relevant. ?But the link to the code is below in case anyone wants to look. ?Does a Raduino have a USB port? Hopefully it does.

The Teensy 3.2 is mostly Arduino-compatible and I highly recommend it for ham projects. I am using the Teensy instead of the Arduino because it is roughly the same size, has a much faster processor (72 MHz), has more memory, and has some hardware assist for DSP code. ?I use the DSP for integrated, PC-less support for digital modes, but that's a topic for a different post ...

I built my BITX40 into a candy box I got over the holidays, so I'm calling it the Peppermint Bark BITX40. ?Here it is being controlled by Ham Radio Deluxe checking into the NATA net on 7185:

<IMG_1600.JPG>


The code is here for anyone who is interested:?

73s,

Bruce KC1FSZ?





<IMG_1600.JPG>
Jack Purdum
 

Hi Bruce:

The Raduino is based on the Arduino Nano so it does have a USB port. I've had sketches that have the Nano talking to both C# and C++ code under Visual Studio for Windows, so I'm pretty sure the CAT would work. I can't think of any Teensy code I've tried to compile that didn't work through the Arduino IDE, including 3.5 and 3.6.

The new microBITX that Farhan is working on would be better able to take advantage of the horsepower that the Teensy family bring to the table.?

Anyway, welcome to the group!

Jack, W8TEE


From: Simon Thompson <simonthompson67@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2017 10:59 PM
Subject: Re: [BITX20] CAT Port For BITX40

Cool!
On Mar 23, 2017, at 7:03 PM, bruce@... wrote:

Hi:
I'm a fairly new ham and I ordered a BITX40 module late last year - pre Raduino. ?It's my one and only HF transceiver and it works great. Congratulations Farhan!!! ?
One thing that I think is unique about my build is that the rig provides a CAT port that allows it to be controlled by programs like Ham Radio Deluxe, Commander, and logger software. ?I built my VFO board using a Teensy 3.2 controller/Si5351a/OLED display/rotary encoder and I use the USB port in serial mode to talk to a PC running the control software. ?
I'm not a contester at all, but I accidentally stumbled into the "Virginia QSO party" last weekend and, man, things were going fast and furious with those guys! ?Once I learned the lingo, I logged 15 contacts from Massachusetts to Virginia as fast as I could fill out my paper log book. But it was obvious to me that those big stations in the contest had some serious automation going on, and that led to an investigation of the N1MM+ logger, and that led to the discovery of the computer control concept. ?BITX40 operators should not be disadvantaged in any radio sports. :-)
My code makes the rig emulate a Yaesu FT-817. ?I guess the choice is pretty arbitrary, but I chose that one because the radio appears to be fairly simple and because there is very good documentation of its implementation of the CAT protocol at?? Huge thanks to KA7OEI for the great reference.

I realize the crew on this net is Arduino-oriented, so my stuff might not be completely relevant. ?But the link to the code is below in case anyone wants to look. ?Does a Raduino have a USB port? Hopefully it does.

The Teensy 3.2 is mostly Arduino-compatible and I highly recommend it for ham projects. I am using the Teensy instead of the Arduino because it is roughly the same size, has a much faster processor (72 MHz), has more memory, and has some hardware assist for DSP code. ?I use the DSP for integrated, PC-less support for digital modes, but that's a topic for a different post ...

I built my BITX40 into a candy box I got over the holidays, so I'm calling it the Peppermint Bark BITX40. ?Here it is being controlled by Ham Radio Deluxe checking into the NATA net on 7185:
<IMG_1600.JPG>

The code is here for anyone who is interested:?

73s,
Bruce KC1FSZ?




<IMG_1600.JPG>
 

This library uses "SoftwareSerial" instead of the hardware uart ports.
I don't know how hard it would be to change that if it matters.


I think you can load this lib directly from within the Arduino IDE, if not here is the github.


Here is some firmware that can be adapted to the Raduino that uses that same library.


Hope this helps, cause I would love to see this working well for connecting the bitx to FLDIGI.
 

damn! I just wish someone could be the 'benevolent dictator' for the bitx40 repository to test and integrate all these gems.

- f

On Fri, Mar 24, 2017 at 10:10 AM, Cory Clemmer <cclemmer@...> wrote:

This library uses "SoftwareSerial" instead of the hardware uart ports.
I don't know how hard it would be to change that if it matters.


I think you can load this lib directly from within the Arduino IDE, if not here is the github.


Here is some firmware that can be adapted to the Raduino that uses that same library.


Hope this helps, cause I would love to see this working well for connecting the bitx to FLDIGI.
 

Thanks Jack,

OK, that's good to know. ?If it's Nano-based that should be easy. ?I have the parts to make up a "genuine" Raduino so I'll get the real code and add in the CAT feature to see how it goes. ??

The part will add a few dollars to the price, but I think there's something to be said for the Teensy-class processor. ?Once you have a more robust DSP capability you open up a whole world of things that can be added to the BITX40. ?I've been experimenting a lot with equalization, RTTY/PSK-31/JT65, and similar things on my BITX40 that are pretty easy when you've got that extra juice from the 32-bit ARM chip.

73s,

Bruce KC1FSZ



Bruce KC1FSZ
 

Instead of Teensy, how about an STM32 "blue pill", very cheap?

John

VK5COR
 

I was also thinking about?STM32 cheap modules, but the code certainly will require porting of some of the libraries.

Dimiter,
LZ1NEF
Dimitar Pavlov
 

Great Job Bruce !


On Saturday, March 25, 2017 9:39 AM, "selfy.dtp@..." <selfy.dtp@...> wrote:


I was also thinking about?STM32 cheap modules, but the code certainly will require porting of some of the libraries.

Dimiter,
LZ1NEF
 

The mcHF SDR kits sold by Chris in the UK (M0NKA) use the STM32, and are CAT enabled using the same command set as the Yaesu FT-817.

Rich
KC8MWG



On Saturday, March 25, 2017 3:57 AM, Dimitar Pavlov via Groups.Io <lz1dpn@...> wrote:


Great Job Bruce !


On Saturday, March 25, 2017 9:39 AM, "selfy.dtp@..." <selfy.dtp@...> wrote:


I was also thinking about?STM32 cheap modules, but the code certainly will require porting of some of the libraries.

Dimiter,
LZ1NEF
 

I just stumbled on this thread while searching for a way of implementing CAT control using a Raspberry pi v3 with the bitx40. Is this feasible and how would I start to go about this? Thank you for any help.
Felix,
KD0LMR

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