Tag: Arduino Nano

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tl922f updateJust an update from the PA1JIM studio. I realize it is a bit quite on my blog lately. Not that there is nothing going on in the shack but I did not think it is post worthy. None the less I could put little things in one blog post.

Arduino CW keyer
I made some changes to the Arduino CW keyer, add a volume potentiometer to the speaker line and add a tx key line for the TS-590. Unfortunately the line seems closed and the rig is on tx all the time. Need to figure out what that problem is.

Mexican RTTY contest
First contest this year (for me)was a little one: the Mexican RTTY contest. I did not had a lot of time this weekend but I did manage to put some hours in. There were not a whole lot of participants, I only managed to make 50 Q’s. But it was great fun to do a RTTY-contest again. It reminded me I need to spend more time doing these.

Kenwood TL-922
This weekend is the most important contest for us Dutchies: PACC. Once every year we ‘100 watts and a wire’-HAM’s turn the tables and we will switch from Search & Pounce to Run and calling CQ.
If you are participating in a contest as calling station, you have other problems then when you are in S&P-modus. For instance: on a crowded band it is hard to hold a frequency, especially with only 100 watts. This year I borrowed a very beautiful classic linear amplifier from a good friend, a Kenwood TL-922. Before I can use it, I need to make a remote cable between my 590 and the amplifier.
Even if I got it up and running, I need to be very careful making too much RF. I’m in the middle of a residential area so there is a great change there will be RF interference. But none the less it is interesting to give it a try and see how it works. Will I be able to run my legal limit of 400 Watts without any problems?

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After a second test resulting in a working display yesterday evening, my 2nd attempt to get a breadboard version of K3NG’s Arduino CW keyer up and running turns out to be a success!
This morning I soldered a female mini-jack and a speaker to the Arduino Nano and set the right pins in the Arduino IDE. After a upload/reboot the keyer came up and it works perfectly!
I really like this Arduino stuff. It is simple to figure out and the fact that it is open source (software as well as hardware) makes things easy and quick to work with. Hats off to the author of the keyer code: K3NG Radio Artisan.

I still have to try connect the keyer to a rig. The fact that you can use one paddle to key multiple rigs, I think is ideal. That way I never have to unplug my paddle from the TS-590 and plug it in the Elecraft K1 or the other way around. You can even connect as much as eight rigs! I don’t think a Arduino Nano has enough connections for it, but the software can do it.
Actually I think I will buy a Arduino Uno for this project so I have enough connections for all kind of options to activate. As controller I considering a rotary encoder. A separate power supply is needed too as you can see the display dimmed when the speaker makes sound.
And then the hardest part; find and build the whole thing in a nice case!

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Arduino Keyer 1st attemptLast night at the radio-club I did some puzzling for my 1st attempt to build the K3NG’s Arduino CW Keyer. I want to build one especially to train Morse code keying. Therefor I need a display attached to the keyer and some training software.
I have a Hoxo 1621 4-bit 16×2 display laying around so I want to attach that to the Arduino Nano. After a breadboard session and some soldering smoke I have made the connection. Gave my first Sketch on Arduino a go, downloaded the source code of the K3NG Arduino CW Keyer from Github and walked by all settings. When I gave the compile a try, it error-ed on some libs missing. After some copy + paste the code compiled without problems (white smoke!). But when uploading to the Arduino I got again errors. The IDE did not see the Arduino although all port settings where correct. By then it was almost midnight and I wanted to go home for some sleep.
This morning I gave the compiling a second try on my Ubuntu desktop. This time compiling and uploading went without errors! Hopefully I was watching the display, but accept for the back-light nothing appeared 🙁
I don’t know if I made a mistake with this 1st attempt in pinout or if the HOXO 1621 is too much of a difference from a 1602. But some further investigation has to be done. I will be back with a 2nd attempt.