LA6TPA.com

PowerSDR-IQ\USB2SDR\Dream Setup

Geir — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 11:14:29 +0000

Here’s a short and mainly visual explanation of my Dream DRM setup.

PowerSDR-IQ and Dream

Here I’m using Dream version 1.12b. I have had trouble with the current (1.14) release crashing. For CAT control between Dream and PowerSDR you must make sure that your Dream has the HamLib included. Sound output is depending on the faad dll, AAC audio Codec file which is not included in the Dream package do to some rights issues.

VAC

You will need a Virtual Audio Cable (VAC) for passing the receiver spectrum from PowerSDR to Dream.

VSP Manager by K5FR

For CAT control you will need a set of Virtual COM Ports. Here I’m using the VSP Manager by K5FR.

Dream -> Sound in

Dream -> Sound out

Dream - Select COM port

Dream - Select type of CAT device - I use TS-2000, it works!!

CAT setup in PowerSDR

VAC setup in PowerSDR

PowerSDR-IQ USB2SDR Dream-DRM-Demo

Geir — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 21:53:41 +0000

Here I’m using PowerSDR-IQ, USB2SDR, LA6NCA QSD and Dream DRM software. Sorry for the drop-outs but DRM needs a good SNR and the load of the video capture ain’t helping either.

Site statistics – 10th of march 2012

Geir — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 13:31:23 +0000

Here some statistics from the begining of this year to this day. Good old XP is still alive and kicking…..

Site statistics - 10th of march 2012

CH-528 5.25″ Media Dashboard

Geir — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 13:01:47 +0000

Bought this nice media interface of eBay for around 33USD and I must say I’ve got value for my money.
It does not have any brand but it is marked as the moddel CH-528 though.
Anyway, it can read several kinds of memory cards, it has several usb ports and audio jacks in its front.
What makes it very useful for me is that I now can connect both old IDE drives and newer SATA drives on the fly without opening my computer or rebooting. This is a very good thing as friends and family constantly drops by with a “computer problem” which needs to be rectified. Hooking up a drive for data recovery is now very easy.

Here’s some pix…

Box	Cable for external drives	Front view
Rear view	Power, SATA, USB x 2 & Audio cables	Lid removed
Upper PCB removed	Another close up with the upper PCB removed	Unit in place
Simultaneously testing a IDE & SATA drive	View of disk manager with SD card, USB pen drive, IDE & SATA drive

Lightbox trouble

Geir — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 11:35:05 +0000

~~Once again i’ve got problems with the Lightbox 3 plugin stopping.~~
Problem resolved, another plug-in interfered with lightbox.

A simple usb2sdr receiver

Geir — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 21:01:23 +0000

Here’s the SV1EIA usb2sdr board controlling the Si570 chip on the vfo kit from K5JHF/K5BCQ, the MCU and display unit are of course removed. And the Si570 board is clocking the LA6NCA QSD unit. I haven’t calibrated anything yet, but it works fine.

Simple usb2sdr receiver setup. Top: K5JHF/K5BCQ Si570 board. Left: LA6NCA QSD board. Right: SV1EIA USB2SDR board.

Receiving wspr with the simple sdr setup.

Si570 Controller and Frequency Generator Kit by K5JHF and K5BCQ

Geir — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 19:49:52 +0000

Yesterday I received the Si570 Controller and Frequency Generator Kit by K5JHF and K5BCQ.
And today, after 3 to 4 hours work the kit was ready for a test spin. My unit has the LVDS Si570 chip, the FIN-1002 LVDS to LVTTL converter with the TC1-1TG2+ output transformer. Here are a few pix…..

The Si570 kit

A few hours work and the kit is ready and working.

Generator output @ 56.320Mhz

Welltech wireless headphones – batteries replacement

Geir — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 19:49:17 +0000

I’ve got these cheap but good working wireless headphones branded Welltech 40699/FKH51a.
After several years of use the two AAA NiMH Rechargeable Batteries dies and I replace them with new ones. But hey, they will not recharge, what is wrong? Having a closer look at the headphones I discover that the battery cases have a protective device to prevent non-rechargeable batteries getting charged. This device is a simple contact spring that has to be grounded to the battery minus potential to enable recharging. So the solution was to remove some of the insulation material at the bottom of the batteries, and now the headphones again are recharging the batteries.

I have also done a small modification to the base unit. I have removed the small internal wire antenna and fed the signal to an external sma connector. This enables use of a better antenna which improves coverage when moving around. A simple antenna for the 850 or 900 Mhz GSM bands works god for this unit which operates on the 860 Mhz LPD band.

Here are some pix…

Battery holder. Upper left: Safety contact spring.

insulation prevents grounding of contact spring.

Bottom insulation removed from battery.

Modified battery on the right

External antenna connector mod

Technical Error

Geir — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:39:54 +0000

Problem now resolved.

A minor technical error has appeared on this website. Problem is that the Lightbox 3 plugin suddenly has stopped working. The penalty for this is that clickable images displays in an annoying manner, sorry for the inconvenience. But a team of highly trained monkeys has been dispatched to deal with this situation and hopefully they will straighten out this hiccup in a jiffy.

Picaxe GPS NMEA-0183 Decoder

Geir — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 21:34:34 +0000

There has been some interest in the Picaxe GPS NMEA-0183 Decoder which I use to time the keying of my wpsr beacon.
The Picaxe chip decodes the time data in the $GPGGA sentence from the GPS unit and then print the UTC time on the lcd display. In addition it set a output at the start of every even minute for keying the wspr beacon. That’s all it do with the current 18X chip.
I am planning an upgrade to the 18M2 chip which is a lot more powerful and has got more functions then the current 18X chip.
With the 18M2 I am planning to display some of the other GPS information, like position, signal strength, number of satellites, etc. It’s not that the 18X chip can’t do this extra information bit. But these task will put a lot more strain on processing and communication so I fear the accuracy of the keying will suffer.

Picaxe GPS NMEA-0183 Decoder

>> Download full size scheme <<

; *****************************************************************
; ************************* Picaxe Project ************************
; *****************************************************************
; Filename: GPSDO Display unit v0.4.bas
; Date: 25.02.2012
; File Version: 0
; Written by: LA6TPA Geir Aarnes
; Function: Decode NMEA data from GPS unit
; Last Revision: 4
; Target PICAXE: 18X
; *****************************************************************
;
; Revision history
;
; Intitial code GPSDO Display unit v0.1.bas
; First working version GPSDO Display unit v0.2.bas
; WSPR trigger added GPSDO Display unit v0.3.bas
; Code cleanup GPSDO Display unit v0.4.bas
; *****************************************************************

#Picaxe 18X
SETFREQ m8

symbol GPS_RxD = 0 ;NMEA data from GPS module
symbol GPS_1PPS = pin7 ;1PPS signal from GPS
symbol GPS_TxD = B.0 ;NMEA data to GPS module
symbol WSPRtrig = B.1 ;Triger output for WSPR tx start
symbol tByte00 = b0 ;Byte for temorary data
symbol LcdByte1 = b1 ;Byte used by LCD routine
symbol LcdByte2 = b2 ;Byte used by LCD routine
symbol tByte03 = b3 ;Byte used by LCD routine
symbol tByte04 = b4 ;Byte for temorary data

gosub init    ;initialise LCD

pause 10000 ;wait for GPS to boot
serout GPS_TxD,T4800_8,(13)
serout GPS_TxD,T4800_8,("$PRWIILOG,???,V,,,",13,10) ;turn off all GPS output
serout GPS_TxD,T4800_8,("$PRWIILOG,GGA,A,T,1,0",13,10) ;activate GGA sentence

let LcdByte1 = 1    ;set b1 to �clear display� instruction
gosub wrins ;send instruction to LCD

main: serin GPS_RxD,T4800_8,("$GPGGA,"),B8,B9,B10,B11,B12,B13 ;wait for $GPGGA then receive 6 bytes into B8..B13

;debug

IF b13 <> "0" THEN GOTO LBL01 ;Check lower part of seconds, skip if not == 9
IF b12 <> "0" THEN GOTO LBL01 ;Check upper part of seconds, skip if not == 5
tByte00 = B11 - 48 ;Read lower part of minute and convert ASCII to binary
tByte00 = tByte00 & %00000001 ;Mask bit 0 which indicates an ODD minute
IF tByte00 <> 0 THEN GOTO LBL01

high WSPRtrig
pause 500
low WSPRtrig

LBL01: LcdByte1 = 1
gosub wrins
LcdByte1 = "U"
gosub wrchr
LcdByte1 = "T"
gosub wrchr
LcdByte1 = "C"
gosub wrchr
LcdByte1 = " "
gosub wrchr
LcdByte1 = b8
gosub wrchr
LcdByte1 = b9
gosub wrchr
LcdByte1 = ":"
gosub wrchr
LcdByte1 = b10
gosub wrchr
LcdByte1 = b11
gosub wrchr
LcdByte1 = ":"
gosub wrchr
LcdByte1 = b12
gosub wrchr
LcdByte1 = b13
gosub wrchr

goto main

init: let pins = 0 ;Clear all output lines
let b4 = 0 ;Reset variable b4
pause 200 ;Wait 200 ms for LCD to reset.
let pins = 48 ;Set to 8-bit operation.
pulsout 3,1 ;Send data by pulsing �enable�
pause 10    ;Wait 10 ms
pulsout 3,1 ;Send data again
pulsout 3,1 ;Send data again
let pins = 32 ;Set to 4-bit operation.
pulsout 3,1 ;Send data.
pulsout 3,1 ;Send data again.
let pins = 128    ;Set to two line operation
pulsout 3,1 ;Send data.
let b1 = 12 ;Screen on, cursor off instruction
gosub wrins ;Write instruction to LCD
return

wrchr: let pins = b1 & 240 ;Mask the high nibble of b1 into b2.
high 2    ;Make sure RS is high
pulsout 3,1 ;Pulse the enable pin to send data.
let b2 = b1 * 16    ;Put low nibble of b1 into b2.
let pins = b2 & 240 ;Mask the high nibble of b2
high 2    ;Make sure RS is high
pulsout 3,1 ;Pulse enable pin to send data.
return

wrins: let pins = b1 & 240 ;Mask the high nibble of b1 into b2.
pulsout 3,1 ;Pulse the enable pin to send data.
let b2 = b1 * 16    ;Put low nibble of b1 into b2.
let pins = b2 & 240 ;Mask the high nibble of b2
pulsout 3,1 ;Pulse enable pin to send data.
high 2    ;Back to character mode
return

>> Download source code file <<