IW7DMH FlexController

George Steube

Here is my version of IW7DMH's Flex Controller.  Enzo, IW7DMH, has done a fantastic job of putting this together. It incorporates both knobs and a touch screen to control a Flex 6000 series radio.  The interface is via ethernet and use an Arduino DUE board along with a couple of Arduino shields to provide the ethernet interface and screen control.  Check out Enzo's website for more information on this project.
73, George
W2GS

Steve Belcak

George....it looks great....u did a nice job....do u have an estimate of material costs......this could be a nice winter project!

Steve

James Whiteway

Great job! I too plan to build one of Enzo's controllers. James WD5GWY

N3NER

That's great!  Where did you get the parts? Does he sell it as a kit?  What was the cost?

Mike va3mw

Google is your friend. http://iw7dmh.jimdo.com/arduino-flex-controller/

N3NER

So this looks like the cost is about $225 USD unless I'm missing something.

IW7DMH, Enzo

Hello dear friends,

George did a better job than me as he used cheaper rotary encoders and built and dedicate board for debouncing circuit.



Also, during the days George built his controller, he helped me to revisit and correct each assembly and testing procedure.

I would like to say that I am only aimed by interest in Flex techonologies. Building devices is only a secondary effect, but, as you can see, my experiment can be repeated.
Now I am in vacancy and I can't have full access to Internet, but as soon as I can, I'll publish a new version of my libraries.

These new libraries will be used for my next project, and can be compiled also on AVR platforms, like the Mega board. I worked on them to expose events for each object's properties. Also you'll find "setter methods" for each property and this will help you to interact with Flex objects at a higher level.

I hope this can help other friends that would like to experiment with the powerful Flex technologies.

73' Enzo
iw7dmh

Anthony Bowyer

Looks very interesting. Any part numbers for the encoders??

Steve Belcak

It looks like there may be a number of us who would be interested in this project....I corresponded with Enzo and George with the idea we start a Google Group. It would ease the emails going to Enzo and George from all of us and we could all share our knowledge...parts lists....success and failures....construction techniques and maybe even a vol. discount on hardware etc.

Enzo and George thought it was a good idea and both agreed to participate.....

so the question is what does everyone think.....is a Google Group the best approach? How many of you would participate.....what should we call the group?

look forward to your response....

Steve
K3WKM

IW7DMH, Enzo

I used CTS288V, while George used this ones that do a fine job as well.
You can find all hardware references on this page

Anthony Bowyer

Might be a good idea

Anthony Bowyer

Thank for the info. I assume a different encoder for slice/vfo tuning?

IW7DMH, Enzo

Oh, yes,
also these encoders are listed in the hardware page. You have to search for "incremental 400 pulse rotary encoders" or "high speed rotary encoder". It seems EBay is plenty of these NOS VFO encoders.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Incremental-Optical-Rotary-Encoder-400-pulse-CNC-Servo-Stepper-Motor-Control...

Another better, but more expensive, alternative is a 256 pulse optical encoder like the one used in the Elecraft K3
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/optical-rotary-encoders/1642633/

73' Enzo
iw7dmh

Peter

I think a group would be a great idea. I am also very interested in this project.

Peter
ve3pcd

Claus, OE6CLD/EI7JZ

I'm very interested as well - great job!

Claus
OE6CLD/EI7JZ