In ham-radio digital mode transmissions some protocols (WSPR, FT8, …) require a synchronization of the order of one second between all stations.
To have an accurate time on ESP32 there are several solutions: – the connection to an NTP server, – the connection to a GPS, – the use of a saved real-time clock, – a combination of several methods.
The first two solutions involve either being connected to a network (WiFi, …) or to be able to receive GPS signals which is not always possible.
This article presents the realization of a date-time display on an ESP32 TTGO T-Display using a saved DS3231 real-time clock.
This article describes the solution adopted to set up a Bluetooth serial link between a Raspberry Pi and an HC05 module. This allows me to connect the FT857 radio via Bluetooth to the Raspberry Pi.
The control of a radio station is usually done by an application installed on a target machine, this application being often developed specifically for an operating system (Windows, Unix, …). After a description of the functional aspects in a previous article, this video presents the technical aspects of the implementation of the FT-857D CAT in a web browser.
There are currently proven solutions using a Raspberry Pi to operate a remote radio station whether industrial or open source; those include MFJ’s RIGPI solution or RemoteQTH’s Open Source developments.
Owning a Raspberry Pi 3B with a sound card, I wanted to make a remote control prototype of my FT-1000 Mark V Field that does not require any developments and uses only open source software, free or low cost softwares. I call it a prototype because an operational solution must take into account the remote radio ON/OFF, the reset of the Raspberry Pi, computer security (anti-intrusion, …) and possible remote switches of devices (amp, antennas, …)
I already used my Raspberry Pi to run WSJT-X in FT8 remotely controlled by my PC using VNC Viewer. So I looked for a software solution to transmit the sound between the radio and the PC and a simple and user-friendly solution to control the radio: – for the sound I chose the Mumble suite that has the shortest latency, the other solutions leading to latency of more than a second, – for the the radio control I chose flrig that supports 60 different radios and that has a user-friendly interface (GRIG and rigctl were also tested).
The solution described was successfully used to make phone QSOs with the Yaesu FT-1000 Mark V Field on a WiFi LAN. It also works with a Yaesu FT-857D.
I also tested a second solution that uses the usual software suites on the PC (DXLab, HAMRadio Deluxe, N1MM) to control the radio using COM TCP ports. It will be described in another presentation.
This page contains a video presentation of the first solution and a file providing all the commands to install the softwares.
A hamradio station remote control is usually done by an application installed on a dedicated machine, this application being often developed according to an operating system (Windows, Unix, …). This video shows a FT-857D remote control using an application developed on a web browser and therefore independent of the system. The web server is an ESP32 TTGO micro-controller board connected to the FT-857D.
The developments are based on those described in the article on FT-857D parameters display on an ESP32 board.
The video presents the developments functional aspects.
The video is in French but is subtitled in English.
The work was to port the FT-857D CAT library and the corresponding display application on the ESP32 T-Display. This software was originally developed on an Arduino Nano (see article) The goal was to have a platform of the same size as the Arduino Nano but with in addition to the serial link, an on-board WiFi and Bluetooth.
This application: – displays an image and then a timed sequence of screens of different colors (red, blue, green), – displays the power voltage on short-pressed GPIO 35 button, – puts the ESP32 to sleep on the GPIO 35 button long press, – launches a WiFi scan on short press of the GPIO 0 button and displays the result.
A display of some Yaesu FT-857D’s parameters was developed for a 4×20 LCD screen. The software implements via the serial link the FT-857D CAT (Computer Aided Transceiver) controls and additional readings of the transceiver’s EEPROM. The developments were made from a source code developed for Arduino by VE3BUX.
