MX-P50A interfacing

Stuart Woodcock

I've just purchased a MX-P50A amp to try get a little more "oomph" into my TX, but it comes with a cable for a Yaseu FT-817 for auto band switching (although manual switching can be done).  Do any of the more knowledgeable people know if i can modify this to do the same via the ACC socket on my 1500?

TIA

Jon_KF2E

Probably not. I don't believe the BCD data that Yaesu radios use to band change is available on the ACC port. You can probably do it with a parallel port on your computer and DDutil but I don't know the details.

Jon...kf2e

Michael VE3WMB

From what I recall the FT-817 outputs a voltage in the 0 to 5V range to convey band information. I am in a similar boat with my THP HL-45B amp as it is designed to auto band switch with an FT-817. I have been considering building a interface using an Arduino Nano to convert band info from PowerSDR into an analog voltage that mimics what would be provided by an FT-817 for the same band.  
I did find the following project, which is a similar idea but provides band info from PowerSDR to an Elecraft T1auto tuner.  

http://blog.zensunni.org/blog/2011/01/19/arduino-elecraft-t1-interface/

This looks like it could be a good starting point. Notice that the author chose to set up the Arduino Nano (built-in USB interface) to listen for band info from DDUTIL rather than trying to build something that interfaced to the Flexwire port on the back of the 1500.

I think I have all of the pieces, I just need to make some time and see if I can prototype something that will work. 

Cheers 

Michael VE3WMB