RADIO radio control interface

HI JUNO Program Support

Installation

Download the Windows 32 bit D2XX driver using this link. This driver is needed to use channel-B in a bit-bang mode for accessing JTAG or SPI devices.

Read the installation guide and follow the procedure for your version of Windows to install the drivers and plug the device in for the first time! Newer version of Windows do not require that the D2XX driver be installed separately making access to the JTAG port much easier.

Linux kernels prior to 2.6.31 do not recgonize the FT4232. You would need to upgrade the driver to access the serial devices as serial termianls. This kernel version is not required for access to the bit-bang modes or to use libftdi.

Checkout Status

• Software Progress
  • Flash File System
        The flash file system is used to load the initial radio configuration. The "INIT" setup is loaded when the reset button is pressed.
        The flash file system is divided into an internal partition and an external partition. The external system is searched first when looking for a setup as the internal flash file system is loaded as part of the eZ8 program image (i.e. it is not writeable)
        CW messages are also stored in the flash file system. The CW interface scrolls through all messages in the flash file system.
  • COMMAND Handler (WORKING)
        This is the code that allows control through the host system. This gives access to some all of the controls (only a subset are accessible through the front panel).
        The additional functions can be accessed through the "Hyperterminal" utility (i.e. no need for a specific application), the control interface can be hand typed as well as controlled through a computer.
  • (GPIO) Switch/Button Handler: (WORKING)
        Switch handler working
        Button handler working
  • (GPIO) LED Handler: (WORKING)
        working
  • (GPIO) Gain Handler: (WORKING)
        Now that the motherboard has arrived, the buttons are available to step the gain setting, and they appear to work. Some changes required to the artwork to keep power dissipation in the MAX5388 to a minimum (requires 5V logic levels from 3.3V eZ8 so pull-ups are needed). RDB025 artwork addresses this issue. RDB015 patches are trivial.
  • (GPIO) Keying Handler: (WORKING)
        Opto/HV circuits operat independently
  • CW (Code generator) Handler: (WORKING)
        Code generator configurable for rate and gap timing
        Generates key closure and tone.
        Tone used for VHF operation
  • TIMER Handlers & ISRs (WORKING)
        Interrupt routine working
        (Timer 0) VOX hang timer working
        (Timer 1) CW timer working (CW generator depends on the timer to send code, timer period determines chip rate)
  • Analog Handler (WORKING)
        (Timer 2) Tone generator for CW over VHF working.
        "Continuous" Mode working
          VOX detect working
        A/D Channel reselect working
          Receive level detect working (this disables the VOX feature due to the method of accessing the A/D controller)
  • UART Handler (serial interface) (WORKING)
        Transmit data is polled (working)
        Receive data is interrupt driven and working.
        Display working
  • (SPI) Flash Handler (Arrgh!)
        Scope Images
  • Host Command Handler
        Working. All test but the flash write routines
  • OVEN Handler (WORKING)
        The oven control loop now employs the OS= records in the flash file system to control the oven. This means we are ready to run the oven to see what need to be changed in the profile before trying a real board.
  
  TODO (Software)
  Flash Handler (we have both eZ8 internal and an external device).
  
  
• Motherboard
      Boards arrived and are populated
      The RMB015 artwork has the TUSB2036 port configuration pins reversed (makes the device look like there are 2 external USB devices but it should look like only 1 is external). This doesn't seem to affect anything.
  
  
• Power Subsystem
  9V/2A supply makes a world of difference in the temperature of the heatsinks, so this is going to be the strongly reccomended choice for powering the radio interface.
      Note that if you power a Raspberry PI from the USB-A connector it will probably be necessary to change values on the RMB board to handle the additional current requirements. The instrface by itself draws less than 500mA with most of that going to the LCD display (it has an LED backlight). Power the unit through the RMB P100 connector, replace F100 with a larger device, perhaps an RXAEF135 or RXEF160. R100 will probably want to be changed to a 500mOhm device. D100 will also want to be changed to a Schotty 2A device to reduce the power dissipation in the diode (SB220).
      Need to change protection diodes so they don't start to crowbar (replace all 5.1V Zener with 6.2V Zener)
      Schematic, boards & partslists updates
  3.3V Regulator runs cool to the touch.
  5V regulator is just noticeable with the 1st. regulator trimmed to 7V. This regulator on RDB may be installed as either a TO220 or SOT223 (the SOT223 has more coppper to dissipate heat on the RDB031 board).
  Keep in mind trhat one of the 5V regualtors is going to carry the display and will run warmer due to the greater current passed.
      Resistor values changed to get the voltage close to 5.07V
  first regulator trimmed to 7V
  Add heatsink to all of the TO220 regulators.
      This keeps the temperature rise to below 10 C
      The Display is a major power hog, accounting for most of the power consumption. The 5V pins on the display are, unfortunately, located on diffetrent pins, so we'll populate only one of the display connectors. It looks like we will operate the display from the daughterboard to allow the 5V regualtors on the motherboard to be used to supply power to the downstream USB port.
  
  
• CODEC
  seen by Linux & Windows
  FLDigi and DigiPan see it and work!
  
  
  Spectrum from Spectrum Lab, unit connected to an HP33250 signal generator. Sample rate set to 48KHz, HP33250 set to generate random noise a 1.9VRMS.
  
  
  Spectrum from Spectrum Lab, unit connected to an HP33250 signal generator. Sample rate set to 48KHz, HP33250 set to generate 500Hz square wave at 100mV RMS.
  
  
  Spectrum from Spectrum Lab, unit connected to a Kenwood TM-D700 that is powered on.
  
  
  Spectrum from Spectrum Lab, unit connected to a Kenwood TM-D700 that is powered off.
  
  
  Spectrum from Spectrum Lab, unit connected to an ICOM IC-706 that is powered on.
  
  
  Spectrum from Spectrum Lab, unit connected to an ICOM IC-706 that is powered off.
  This is a 4K point FFT, note birdie at 1KHz is -110dB.
  
  

  October 30th. Noise Level Plots

  
  Spectrum from Spectrum Lab, unit connected to an ICOM IC-7200 that is powered off.
  This is a 4K point FFT, note birdie at 1KHz is -110dB. The 1KHz spike is present when the eZ8 is held in reset, so the eZ8 doesn't appear to be the source of 1KHz.
  The left channel does not have isolation transformers installed, note the 60Hz line seen on the left edge of the right channel does not appear in the left channel.
  
  
  Spectrum from Spectrum Lab, unit connected to an ICOM IC-7200 that is powered on with the antenna disconnected. The audio filter, set to 3.6KHz is plainly visible.
  This is a 4K point FFT
  
  
  Spectrum from Spectrum Lab, unit connected to an ICOM IC-7200 that is powered on with 20M antenna connected. Spikes are PSK31 signals. As with the previous samples, the 3.6KHz filter is plainly visible.
  This is a 4K point FFT.
  
  
  Spectrum Lab is the software used to generate the FFTs displayed above.
  
  
• eZ8
  Able to program device
  All driver are current with the exception of the flash driver. There is a file system in eZ8 program memory to allow development on the external flash device driver to be deferred for a bit.
  
  
• Audio Monitor
  RDB015 artwork wrong, not repairable.
  Patchboard on RMB026 (remove parts for the audio monitor from RDB015 moving them to the patch board to restore full function).
  
  
• Transmit Audio
  Looks like it is going to be flat from below 300Hz to above 20KHz.
  gain control working.
  
  
• Receive Audio
  Looks like it is going to be flat from below 300Hz to above 20KHz.
  gain control working.
  
  
• Isolated area
  need 10UF ceramic caps, some resistors missing
  
  
• Key LV (opto-isolator)
  opto-isolator closes
  
  
• Key HV (reed relay)
  reed relay closes
  
  
• Panel Switchs
  Both Switches work
  
  
• Panel LEDs
  both LEDS work
  
  
• Buzzer (Oven operation and CW)
  Buzzer works
  
  
• MAX5388 (digital pot) gain control
  One of the digital pots failed. Seems to have occurred when moving the unit. Must use formal static controls when rooting around inside the box!!!
  RDB025 artwork adds zeners on to the audio lines to somewhat address transients on these lines.
  
  After more testing, it appears the problem lies with the logic levels presented to the MAX5388. The device is powered from the 5V rail and requires a logic high level of greater than 3.5V (whic we don't get from the eZ8 which is powered from the 3.3V rail). Pullups have been added to the control signals and the eZ8 must configure the chip select lines as open-drain ourputs (the CLK and DOUT lines are isolated with an open-drain driver so the EEPROM doesn't see 5V).
  
  And, after some head-scratching, it apperas that the MAX5388 is far more tolerant of 3.3V levels than I realized. This allows the shortcoming on the RDB015 artwork to be addressed with pullups on the select lines (leaving the clock and data as is).
  
  
• J800/JP801 Radio Interconnect.
  A couple of additional minor changes for the new artwork.
      Change the programming headers that are laid out in the area that is removed for the LCD display. Now there are 4 radio specific programming layouts and a couple of generic connectors.
      The power pin on the inside of the jumper field (JP801-17) is routed to an isolated section of the power plane leading to a jumper (JP150) up by the power connector. This jumper can be used to provide 5V power to the J800 connector or to connect the 12V power connector to the radio through J800 (12V can flow either way, so this could be used to power the interface from the radio or to provide 12V to the radio from P150, see schematic RAD150 and RAD800).
      There were some late changes on RDB031 to allow the RLSD (squelch) signal to be routed to the eZ8 although there is no current software in the eZ8 to look at this signal.
     
  
  
• MAX31855K (Oven operation only) "K" amplifier
  MAX31855K now works with improved performance and a larger range of thermocouple compatibility and lower cost.
  May be used on production boards to measure internal temperature of the board (the MAX31855K has a die temperature readout).
  
  
• Reflow Oven
  fitted with SSR, Relay circuit controls oven
  (reflow control requires D810 removal).
  A prototype lead solder profile is on place in the internal file system. The reflow control code ia now in place and ready to test.
  Reflow profile tested and updated and is looking workable.
  RDB031 also reworked to make removing parts unnecessary. The 1/4" phone jack cah now be configured to be used as oven control without having to ground the radio ground to logic ground.

Brief Overview

Operational Features

• USB based (single USB connection to computer)
• Internal Soundcard (USB 2-channel Audio Codec)
• Serial Interfaces: CI-V, RS232, and JTAG.
• Keyer
        This refers to the hardware that keys the transmitter, not an interface to a bug.
• VOX (serial channel not required for operation)
• Display for configuration and monitoring.
• 1 external downstream USB port

Hardware Features

• 4 channel Serial interfaces
  • Isolated CI-V
    • >100V isolation
    • Optically Isolated
    • CI-V may be jumpered for half duplex operation (this is CI-V)
    • Jumpers also provided to allow the use of a stereo jumper (should a mono cable prove difficult to find).
    • May be jumpered for full duplex operation when using a stereo type cable.
  • Serial bit-bang port (JTAG/SPI/I2C)
    • May be used for JTAG (i.e. un-brick a wireless router)
    • May be used as a TTL/CMOS level serial interface (i.e. for accessing the serial port on a wireless router).
    • Program port for the eZ8 (part of the interface is supplied in the cutout area of the board.
  • Host Control
    • Host to eZ8
    • Command & Configuration
      • Audio path control: gain and VOX level
      • CW Message store
      • Oven Profile
    • Status
      • EEPROM dump
      • status
      • Oven temperature log
  • Isolated RS-232
    • 50V Isolation
    • DE-9P connector DTE pinout (male, like on PC).
    • Partial modem control (RTS/CTS). May be used for flow control.
    • Can be built for full modem control by swapping level shifters at the expense of having an isolated interface.

• USB HUB
  • 1 external downstream USB port
  • 3-port USB 2.0 HUB.
    • 1st port is to the audio CODEC (PCM2906)
    • 2nd port is to the serial chip (FT4232)
    • 3rd port is to external connector
  • external USB-A connector (standard host connector)
  • Current control that is USB 2.0 compliant.
  • The full USB power allocation available on this port when using 9V power into unit.
        (limit power dissipation in regulators)
  • Jumper override to defeat current control (Raspberry PI)
        this also requires the use of a lower voltage supply to limit power dissipation in the linear regulators.
  
  
• Standard USB Audio Codec
  • 2-channel (supports I/Q mod/demod)
  • S/PDIF (for what it's worth, the CODEC supports it directly)
  • Transformer isolated.
  • Digitally programmed gain.
  • Drivers already exist in Windows/Linux
  • RDB031 has MUTE and VOL-UP pins connected to the eZ8. eZ8 could, potentially, force volume full so you don't have to horse around with it all the time.
  
  
• Isolated Keying interface
  • 2 separate control paths. 1 opto-isolated darlington connected to the RJ45, 1 isolated relay connected to a 1/4" phone jack.
  • Relay may be jumpered into the RJ45 path.
  • Relay provides >1000V of isolation (for tube radio)
  • RTS or CTS from serial port may be used to drive either keying circuit (jumpers).
  
  
• Transmitter Keying
  • DTR and RTS may be used to control keying from either the CI-V port of the port that connected to the eZ8.
  • DTR and RTS polarity may be inverted by changing a 2-gate package (SOT23)
  • control path from the eZ8 in addition to DTR/RTS keying
  • Hang timer in eZ8 software, continues to key radio after audio stops for a programmable period.
  
  
• Buffered Audio Monitors
  • Monitor doesn't alter levels to the CODEC
        (plug/unplug without having to adjust gain)
    NO gain control adjust on the audio monitor.
  
  
• Level control using digital potentiometers
  • no low-level audio signals routed across the board
  • setting can be saved/recalled (saved in EEPROM)
  
  
• Large memory footprint microcontroller
  • 64K program space
  • Plenty of room to add functions
  • 29 I/O pins (all unused)
  
  
• NO Power Out Jack
  • Both Motherboard and Daughterboard have power jacks that are interconnected. Polarity Protection prevents using them as power-out.
  
  
• Shielded housing available
  • The inexpensive plastic housing may be replaced with a copper flashed plastic housing for additional shielding.
  
  
• Quiet
  • Good noise floor (look at the plots)
    • 4-layer board; 2 signal and 2 power.
    • power and ground split on RDB to keep digital noise away from the analog section.
    • 2 stage linear regulator provides good power supply filtering
    • Generous power supply bypass (over 70 individual capacitors on each board on the power supply lines)

Latent Hardware Features

• PS2 Keyboard Connector
  A 6-pin mini din connector is provisioned on the board and connected to the eZ8. It is located on the side, that is not roiuted to the rear panel.
  Given appropriate software a keyboard could be used to drive the code generator in the eZ8.
  This connector is simply 2 pins on the eZ8, so it could also be used to implement an iambic keyer. The connector provides power and ground and the 2 signals to the eZ8 have pull-up resistors.
  
• S/PDIF inpout & output
  The PCM2906 has S/PDIF in and out. These pins are presented on vertical mount RCA connectors. Using this set of connectors is intended to be experimental as there is no room left on the panels to route them to the outside world. To use them with the case closed requires drilling holes in the top cover.
  
• Thermocouple amplifier & A/D
  This is implemented using a single device to allow the eZ8 to be used to control a small convection oven, effectively turning it into a reflow oven. Adding the chip & connector is all that is required to make use of this feature.
  MAX31855 is less than $10 and available calibrated for several thermocouple types.

Construction Features

• Almost all surface mount
  (In for a dime, in for a dollar) Many of the parts are only available in surface mount. By moving to predominantly surface mount, all of the features fit on the board.
  BUT, all resistors and capacitors are 0805 packages, so you can at least see them if your bench is clean.
  
• Multi layer circuit boards
  Ground and power plane improve noise immunity and allow for greater parts and routing density.
  On the soundcard (daughterboard) board, the ground and power planes are split to isolate and segregate noise.
  
• Isolated serial interfaces
  50V isolation with flow control on the RS232 interface.
  1000V isolation, data only, on the TTL interface
  
• Isolated Keying
  one Isolated darlington
  separate Isolated contact closure using a reed relay

FAQ

1. Are there Technical Details?
   Full schematics, layouts, panelwork and software are found here.
   
   
2. Drive Levels
   In order to provide a clean signal to the radio and to the host system we would like to keep the buffer amps in the audio path close to unity gain. If it becomes necessary to set the level control to a very small value, noise levels will begin to rise. Setting the drive level too high will result in clipping as the amplifier stage is limited in the voltage swing that it can support.
   Ideally, a setting or 50 would be used for both transmit and receive. This keeps the amplifier operating at unity gain.
   1. Transmit Drive Level
      The transmit drive level presented to the radio is passed through a simple resistive divider on the programming header. The parallel resistor resides on the bottom of the board and will typically have an installed calue of 1K. The series resistor resides on the top of the header circuit board providing conveninet access to allow replacement.
   2. Receive Drive Level
      The receive drive level presented to the CODEC is also passed through a simple resistive divider on the programming header. The parallel resistor resides on the bottom of the board and will typically have an installed calue of 1K. The series resistor resides on the top of the header circuit board providing conveninet access to allow replacement.
   
   
   
3. Host Drivers
   The USB HUB, Serial chip and Audio CODEC are all standard devices with existing support alrady in Windows and Linux. The Audio CODEC is a PCM2906 which is the same device used in the Signalink-USB.
   IMPORTANT Visit the FTDI wesite and review steps to install drivers for the FT4232 before attaching the interface to your computer for the first time.
   The HUB and CODEC are all so old that drivers have been resident in both Linux and Windows for ages.
   
   
4. Serial Interfaces
   These are presented to the outside world on the motherboard.
   One has 50V of isolation, RTS/CTS control lines and is presented on a DE9P (almost the same connector that used to be on the back of your PC, when they were still there... same pinout, wrong sex on RDB015). Signal levels are fully RS232 compliant.
   A second port is data only and optically isolated. It is presented on a 3.5mm stereo jack and is TTL levels (i.e. 0 to about 5V). This interface may be jumpered to operate half-duplex (ICOM CI-V interface) or full duplex.
   A third is presented as raw signals from the FT4232 chip. THis can be used as a JTAG programmer or to program SPI EEPROMS or to program the eZ8 on the daughterboard.
   A fourth port is used to communicates with the eZ8.
   
   
5. VOX
   The VOX circuit, implemented in a microcontroler, activates the keyer when signals are present on the transmit audio line.
   Trip Level is controlled by software and can be changed by host command. Once the CODEC output has been characterized, this parameter should not require changes (i.e. it should be the same for all units).
   VOX control is disabled for several of the operating modes. As an example, if the interface is in CW mode it ignores the CODEC and will not key the radio. This can be used to suppress spurious keying when connecting the interface or restarting software.
   
   
6. Keyer
   NOT for connecting a bug and generating dit/dah timing!
   The keyer provides and isolated darlington (open collector) and a reed relay (tube radio).
   The key-down is controlled by the microcontroller as well as the RST and DTR lines from one of the serial ports. RST and DTR may be jumpered to control either key output as needed. The CI-V serial is routed to the keying circuit.
   
   
7. USB Hub (1 external downstream port)
   There is a 3-port HUB on the motherboard. One port feeds the USB-to-Serial chip, a second feeds the daughterboard (where the USB Audio CODEC is located), and the third port feeds the downstream USB port on the motherboard.
   The downstream port has USB current control but there is also a bypass jumper that disables the current limit feature of this port to allow it to be used to power something like a Raspberry-PI. 5 Volt power passes through both on-board regulators and the USB power switch, so care must be exercised when using the port in this manner to not overstress the IC's in the current path.
   
   
8. Power
   Power is NOT derived from the USB port. This keeps the host computer power noise out of the interface box as much as possible.
   Nominally power is supplied by a 12V wall-wart. Voltage regulation within the interface box is using linear regualtors. The use of linear regualtors, although wasteful of power, avoids generating additional switching noise in the box. The regulation scheme is multi-level to improve heat dissipation and improve isolation.
   The minimum input voltage is 9 volts. Using this rather than 12V will reduce heat dissipation by 25%
   
   
9. Why the eZ8
   Although still a Harvard Architecture machine, it provides reasonable methods of accessing program memory (so text strings can be stored in the large program memory). Stack is in memory so we're not artificially limited in the subroutine call depth. Cost is in line with others (such a the Microchip PIC processors). Most importantly, the development system with the C-compiler is available at no cost from ZiLOG.
   The eZ8 has a reasonable complement of peripherals (in particular multi-channel A/D, two serial ports (one for host and another for the display), and multiple timers (one is used to manage the VOX hang timer and another is used to generate the CW timing.
   If the eZ80 had A/D controller built in, it might well be on the board rather than the eZ8 (although it currently is about $20 each rather then $4.5 for the eZ8).
   The 44PLC package is avaialable with up to 64K of program flash. It can be had with less, but not at a significant cost savings. The large program flash may make eliminating the external EEPROM possible, but that only saves about $1 per board.
   
   
10. RTTY
    Is it possible to configure to use FSK rather than AFSK to take advantage of the narrow RTTY filters?
    All the parts are there, and there are connections between the boards to allow you to take advantage of the hardware.
    The CI-V interface provides the isolated serial interface that can be configured to operate at the target bit rate and workd length if you ar willing to give up the rig control through that interface. There is also a connection between the two boards call VBATT that is not used in this project. J20, also not use din this project, provides access (on pin 5) to this signal.
    Install a 5 pin header in the J20 location on the bottom board and then use wire-wrap from J20-5 to pin 2 of either JP923 or JP924. This connects the logic level serial data of the CI-V interface to the daughterboard through J10.
    Install a 5 pin header in the J20 location on the top board as well. The JP150 position also needs to be populated with a header. As on the bottom board, connect J20 pin 5 to JP150 pin 2 using wire-wrap techniques. This routes the transmit data to pin-17 of the programming header (labeled as VCCR on thge schematics).
    Now the transmit data can be passed on to the radio using the radio interface cable. radio using the

Initial Build

• Audio Transformers on RDB changed.
      The part in the parts list was about $3 each. The new part is about $10 each. This is about a $28 increase per board. You can save $10 by only populating half of them (which retains all of the functionality of the Signalink device).
      The second 2 transformers are only required for SDR applications where both channels (Left and Right) are required (most modes are single channel only). The SP-70 frequency response is 300Hz to 100,000Hz so you can take advantage of the bandwidth available in the CODEC (i.e you're not limited to voice bandwidth).
      When connecting to the data port on a radio, the radio will limit the useable bandwidth. Also keep in mind that the CODEC has some digital filtering that is visible in the noise spectrum as roloff at the top of the band.