Ramblings of yet another nerd…
Over the past couple weeks, I have been tinkering more with the soundcard interface. I started using FreePCB (http://www.freepcb.com/) – which is a VERY nice PCB drawing program with gerber file output, and, well, i couldn’t complain about the price! Once I got the “as built” drawing done, I ended up ordering a set of …
Read More USB Soundcard Interface… update 4Yesterday I posted the project… now I’ve made some updates…. a few minor things, and one major thing. First, the minor things- I made the schematic a bit cleaner, and got it down to a single page. I also cleaned up aa few traces and some other minor formatting things. I improved the power supply …
Read More USB Soundcard interface…. version 3 – Update
Many life changes have resulted in a change of shack configuration. I’ve also acquired an Icom 706 again (thanks, Lou). In tinkering, and deciding how I want to operate, I decided that I’d like to have the ability to do “soundcard” digital modes with the 706 either while portable, or just at the dining …
Read More USB Soundcard interface…. version 3I’m not the first person to need accessory power in a Chevy truck – but it took a while to find a solution. One possible solution is to just put a tap splice on the stereo ignition wire – but this is iffy. In this case, I’m not posting something I engineered – but rather, …
Read More 2014 Chevy Truck Accessory Power
One of the interesting things about equipment on the market today is the commonality between different models and bands of radio equipment. In years past, it was just the basic housings and controls that were common, maybe some control parts – but RF boards varied widely. Not so much anymore…. but they still have some …
Read More Motorola MTR2000 Band Change
Today, I tackled interrupts. I’m not so sure I tackled interrupts, so much as i worked on determining the dynamic tuning step timing. I needed a routine to wait for an encoder pulse, and then determine how long since the last pulse. This isn’t too bad, but the previous attempt was sampling loop timing more …
Read More CI-V EXTERNAL VFO CONTROL, PART 4
well, there’s been some small progress…. I started tinkering with the rotary encoder. I found a great example here: http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_Encoder.html one thing, though – encoder.h must be added to the Arduino Libraries folder /* Encoder Library – TwoKnobs Example * http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_Encoder.html * This example code is in the public domain. */ #include <Encoder.h> //Copal RMS20-250-201-1G …
Read More CI-V EXTERNAL VFO CONTROL, PART 3
OK, this update won’t have any videos… those will come shortly, so you’ll need to take my word for it. I learned a few things since the last post… so here goes… If I either flat display the BCD bytes or slow down and use the following code, the glitches go away, and the display …
Read More CI-V External VFO Control, Part 2
Many years ago, Sam, K9SD, added some interesting functionality to his Icom 781 radios – an external encoder wired in parallel to the VFO control. This may seem trivial, but his modification actually wired an encoder in parallel to the radio’s internal encoder. The benefit and beauty to this arrangement is that the radio could …
Read More CI-V External VFO Control, Part 1
after much work, I got the VX1700 interface working. It would appear that the connection convention is a bit strange. From the service manual, Data OUT on the Data Jack (6 pin mini-Din) should be connected to the computer’s speaker jack. This is how I had it wired originally. The Data IN jack was connected …
Read More Soundcard Interface Update