i2c connection

Mark Erbaugh

Is there any documentation on using the i2c signals on the 6300? I assume that an Arduino or similar micro controller could be used to provide band or sequencing information for external devices ( amps, auto tuners), 73, Mark

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Mark,
Nothing available or supported currently,  If you do a search on BAND DATA you will see quite a few posts going back a year or so asking about using I2C or USB or a network attached device for peripheral control.  Here is one example:

https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/looking_all_over_for_band_data

Eventually this will be needed to allow WAN remote without requiring a "local PC" for peripheral control.  Otherwise stations with amplifiers, antenna switches, tuners, etc will still need to deal with PC reboots and other issues.  

Maybe when the V2.0 road map comes out we'll see something.   Or maybe it will be in V3.0.

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com

Al K0VM

Mark,
  No I2C yet implemented in SSDR.. You might look at DDUtil for serial output options

AL, K0VM

Tim - W4TME

Or use the API to subscribe to a frequency change event which would tell an Ethernet Shield enabled Arduino to perform the sequencing. 

Al_NN4ZZ

DDUtil in a box --- If someone builds a network attached, dedicated peripheral control box, I'll be first in line.   

The external box could provide multiple protocols with several connectors for each 
- BCD 
- CAT 
- CiV 

Maybe someone can partner up with Steve / K5FR to put together this FB accessory for us.  

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Ok - I'll bite - the box costs $200 - would you buy?
Stu K6TU

Al_NN4ZZ

Yes, that would be a very reasonable price.  Just let me know when and where to send the money.......

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com
    

pa0bie

With DDutil there are three different ways to use band data from the Flex 6000. You can use a 8 relay USB card , a 16 relay BCD controlled LPT card and there are amplifiers as the Expert 1K-2K which can directconnected through RS232/USB to a com port. All three possibilities are working perfect for me.

Jan , pa0bie.

AE0MW

I've got a BeagleBone Black doing this job right now, it subscribes to TX Frequency events and tunes my SteppIR antenna. Eventually I planned to have it pre-set my KPA-500 and handle the TX Lockout while the SteppIR is moving along with rudimentary rotator control but I made some poor design decisions that are limiting my functionality.

My ultimate goal was to replace DDUtil for my station and include HRD emulation for Logging and DM780, but I need to code it again in a different language.

Stu, I'd pay $200 for DD-Util in a box. I'd also volunteer to test if for you and happily chat about what I've done and why.

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Thanks for the feedback from Al and AE0MW...

I think with DDUtil in a box (including CAT), the price would likely have to be higher just thinking about the cost of the hardware required.

I was curious what price point you would pay rather than thinking about a new project.

A big challenge for ham radio related products is that the overall market isn't huge...

Stu K6TU

Al_NN4ZZ

Hi Stu,
Agree it would be a bargain at $200.   I think even $250 or $300 would be reasonable if it has all the capabilities of DDUtil.   Besides controlling my amplifier, antenna switch and eventually an Alpha 4040 autotuner, I use DDUtil to control one of my 2 FlexControls also.  

A dedicated and reliable peripheral controller would be a nice addition to the Flex radios even for those not planning to work remote.   And for the remote users, it would be nice to not have to rely on a PC at the station.    

Thanks for thinking about it, I figured if someone takes it on, and could leverage Steve's experience that might make the development effort a little easier.   

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com

Stu Phillips - K6TU

I suspect the pricing is way off... the nearest product I have seen is this:

http://www.4o3a.com/index.php/products/ssc-xl

from the 4O3A folks - this unit lists on their web site for the basic unit as EUR 690. That's about USD 1K.

Stu K6TU

KY6LA_Howard

The other issue is that not only is the market small. But Hams are cheap.

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Agree with a caveat...

Hams in general are cheap... serious contesters and DXers are not.  But that further shrinks the market...

Stu K6TU

Jon_KF2E

How hard would it be to port ddutil to run on a Raspberry Pi? They are cheap $40 and could be packaged as a stand alone box.

Jon...kf2e

AE0MW

That's essentially what I set out to do except I decided on a BeagleBone Black.

The BBB with case and sundry parts and a decent multiport USB to Serial adapter is about $100.

However you can't simply port DDUtil. It's not public domain code, I'm pretty sure it's not even opensource. It's Steve's creation. Even if it were OSS, it would only give you a decent idea of how to talk to various hardware bits (and very few if anyone has them to actually test).

You would also have to devise an entire new user interface, probably web-based, for configuration and status monitoring.

I was able to skip most of that because I'm not packaging it for anyone else. I can edit my code to reflect my hardware and ports and options I want myself, and I only need to implement hardware that I own.

Things get much more complicated when you want to have end users configuring a stand alone box.

Nigel

I do believe there is an open source C lib for cat control of most modern cat enabled radios on github.

Nigel G0JKN/W2

Marc Lalonde

i use telnet command from a script running on a Raspberry-Pi  for Read Radio Band data then PI GPIO to activate relay for PTT and IF to the Right Transverter

just connect to telnet pout 4992 and send command  c1|sub slice all
then radio will send every change in VFO frequency whit something look like 
slice 0 in_use=1 RF_frequency=1296.098400  
i also include web based interface  ;-)   will put whole project open source when i finish testing in couple of day ..    

that my blog whit detail  and hardware i use   http://alphatronique.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7

W5XZ - dan

bon travail, Marc!  73, w5xz, dan

WA6FXT Mike

Marc,

  VERY NICE!!

  Thank you for this.

Mike

WA6FXT Mike

Jan,

  Using DDUtil on the PC won't work in remote mode. Whereas, the RaspberryPi or BBB based setup would.

pa0bie

Mike

I think You can be right.  But I have no plans for remote LAN or WAN. I am sure that others are very interested in it , but as long I do not see it working , I can not make plans with it.

Marc Lalonde

i just upload the SD-Card image and the file to add to a stock image 

the interesting stuff was on telnet.py  the pyont script that talk to radio
then index.php grab back result and put it into the webpage

same way may used for almost do anything you whant whit the radio 

Best 73!  Marc  VE2OLM