[ICOM] Splitting the remote stream

[Dave AA6YQ]

Commander 8.4.0, release earlier today, can be configured to generate a
private CI-V bus with its secondary CAT port. This enables a PW-1 attached
to the private CI-V bus to track the primary transceiver's frequency and
mode without generating collisions that produce invalid frequencies.

Like all members of the DXLab Suite, Commander is free and available via
www.dxlabsuite.com .

    73,

       Dave, AA6YQ

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave AA6YQ [mailto:aa6yq at ambersoft.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2010 11:28 PM
To: ICOM Reflector
Cc: Punderson, IV, James [jpunderson at k12usa.com]
Subject: RE: [ICOM] Splitting the remote stream


Your question was not at all dumb, Paul, but given the way the CI-V bus
works it was a bit ambiguous. As one response noted, it's possible to
"split" the CI-V bus with a simple Y connector, but that will not solve the
problem you've described.

The PW-1 monitors CI-V bus transactions for frequency and mode information.
The difficulty is that if 10 seconds go by without a frequency or mode
transaction, the PW-1 itself issues CI-V commands directing the transceiver
to report its frequency and mode. These commands and their responses can
collide with commands issues by a transceiver control application, causing
the PW-1 to jump around in frequency even while transmitting. The PW-1
designers evidently neglected to include the collision detection logic
required by this scenario, perhaps because they assumed that only the PW-1
and transceiver would be present on the CI-V bus.

Jamie W2QO solved this problem by arranging for his PW-1 to have a private
CI-V bus where its demands for frequency and mode reports would cause no
harm. He did this using the MicroHAM Band Decoder, which provides an
isolated CI-V bus specifically for use with a PW-1. Evidently there are
other MicroHAM products that provide this capability.

I recently added a Secondary CAT port to Commander, the transceiver control
component in the DXLab Suite. This Secondary CAT port enables a second
transceiver to be controlled by the primary transceiver, and supports
interoperation with SDR consoles and panadaptors. It occurs to me that this
Secondary CAT port could also be used to generate a private CI-V bus to keep
a PW-1 happy. I will investigate...

    73,

       Dave, AA6YQ



-----Original Message-----
From: icom-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:icom-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of Paul Beringer
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2010 11:03 PM
To: icom at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [ICOM] Splitting the remote stream


Here's the deal. Awhile back on the PW-1 reflector, someone posted a note
saying that they had multiple devices using the CI-V output of the radio and
were experiencing some problems with the amp making band jumps
intermittently. The problem seemed to be associated with remote jack being
split. One person suggested that due to bit collisions, some data gets
corrupted while being sent after a request from the outboard devices. I use
a splitter so the CI-V signal can be sent to the Microkeyer and the amp and
am experiencing the same thing. So I thought it would be interesting to see
if someone had invented a device to prevent data corruption. I didn't think
it was a dumb thing to ask but perhaps I was wrong. Maybe this reflector was
designed for those who are more intelligent than I am, if so my apologies.
73 Paul NG7Z

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