flrig settings?

[jtlyles]

I have my (tr)uSDX working, transmitting and receiving with WSJT-X (FT*) software. I am trying to set up flrig 1.4.5 for rig control/CAT. However, the settings aren't working. They are posted below. I can change the frequency etc. The rig will go into transmit from flrig, but it never unkeys.

Does anyone have CAT working with flrig? Thanks, James

Configuration Xcvr
Rig-TS-480SAT
COM3
baud-38400
1 stop bit
unchecked: echo, RTS/CTS, RTS +12V un
checked DTR +12V

Configuration PTT-Generic
unchecked: disable PTT in CW mode
Under PTT on CAT serial Port: CAT-both, RTS-off, DTR-off, RTS +12V unchecked, DTR +12V checked
under PTT control on Separate Serial Port
Port-none

[Dr.T]

My rig was working well (Aliexpress approved supplier) until I tried to get the USB to work.

Now although RX is fine I have zero output on TX.

The rig locked up after I had connected the USB lead and tried to get it to work (The rig was unpowered when I plugged in the lead)
I was running the latest version of fLRig on a win 10 machine.

I can still hear the TX carrier on my K3 on the right frequency but no power output.
I suspect -- for whatever reason, the PA Fets have blown.
I've ordered some more and dismantled the rig in preparation for their arrival.
I've not yet de-soldered the FETs

Pity. I wanted to do another SOTA with the rig this weekend

73
Bruce G4ABX

[EI3HIB]

I can connect using FLdigi/FLrig using TS-480, Baud: 38400 and 2 StopBits.

I was having an issue with PTT release that seemed to resolve itself when I updated to the latest version of FLRig (1.4.5).

Away from CAT controls, I picked up a small & cheap Sabrent USB-C soundcard that I have tested with my Android phone and it seems to work perfectly with Andflmsg, the Android implentation of FLDigi, just using VOX for transmit.

It makes an extremely portable option for digital modes.

[Dr.T]

Interesting.
I'll check my version of FLRig.

I've just spent the past hour replacing the 3 PA Fets pinched from another kit I have to build!

Not a difficult job and the rig is back working on all bands. I'm not sure how many replacement cycles the PCB will take however!

I'm not sure if I now have another problem in terms of efficiency.
The readout is giving me 71% - 75% on 60, 40 30 and 20M but only 50% on 80M.
I had not checked this before the PA transistors failed so I don't know if its a product of my repair or an inherent issue with my particular rig.
I'll start a new thread and ask folks

I have the same sound card plugged into my Raspi-4 -- which is my portable computer.
It wasn't happy to play with the trUSDX either -- which is why I tried my Win PC -- and (for some reason) overloaded the PA.

Stay safe. Have fun
73 Bruce G4ABX
Dr.T(G4ABX)
@G4ABX
g4abx.co.uk

[EI3HIB]

You may already be aware of this, but DL2MAN has an excellent video on adjusting the toroids for best power & efficiency which might help with your issue on 80M:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN7hHsv ... nel=DL2MAN

It would be nice to have some kind of on-screen indication to see how hard the radio is being driven when using sideband/data modes - what I've done so far is simply listened with another radio and adjusted the input volume down until any artifacts/ugliness were removed from the transmitted signal.

Have been testing the rig with FLRig/FLDigi and JS8Call today using Windows 11 and all seems to behave properly.

I had tried it with my RasPi 4 and noted some issues with the PTT, so I started to use VOX instead - I'll try it with the RasPi4 again shortly and see if I can get it working satisfactorily.

[Dr.T]

Thanks for the reply David.

I've seen the video.
Now I need to find my NanoVNA -- but not today.

I'm relieved to get the rig working again and have been celebrating with a bunch of CW contacts on 40M

Having read all the posts on 'Efficiency' it sees the 80M figures are not too far away from what I'm achieving.

When building and adjusting something I'm always minded by a proverb my Dad used to say - when we were building model aeroplanes together: 'The Better is the enemy of the Good'
This is sound advice as in the past I've destroyed items I've built trying to adjust stuff for the last 5%

I need to do some updates on the PC and Raspi as I'm still running "Buster' as the Raspi OS and I need to upgrade to "Bullseye" in order to update my applications to the latest level.

73
Bruce G4ABX

[EI3HIB]

Will have to organise a CW sked - have already had a few contacts with mine - it's a lot of fun to use.

To illustrate that - while doing my CAT testing today, I was playing with JS8Call on Win11 and got out ok and had a few responses from the continent.

In the course of switching over to the RasPi and compiling FLRig 1.4.5 I realised I had been running the radio with W11 on USB power!

Still running into a few gremlins using JS8Call with the RasPi and FLRig.. doesn't like sending multi-segment messages apparently and there's a delay in JS8Call going back into receive mode, even though it appears PTT has been properly released and the radio is in receive mode.

Hopefully will figure it out soon.

[M5AEI]

Hi,

Here are my settings for JS8Call and WSJT-X that I run on Raspberry Pi3 with USB soundcard.
I haven't got on too well with Flrig but have had great success with these settings direct from the programs 'radio settings'.
JS8Call

Screenshot_20220424-032527_1.jpg (136.27 KiB) Viewed 2719 times

Screenshot_20220424-032549_1.jpg (165.29 KiB) Viewed 2719 times

WSJT-X

Screenshot_20220424-032309_1_1.jpg (80.8 KiB) Viewed 2719 times

Hope this helps somebody.

73 Ellis M5AEI

[EI3HIB]

@M5AEI - interesting & thanks for sharing.

Unfortunately I get a "Hamlib error: Communication timed out while opening connection to rig" when trying those settings in WSJT-X or JS8Call, I can hear the relays click in the radio when it attempts to connect, but that's as far as it gets.

Conversely, FLRig seems to easily connect with the settings in the attached image below.

Note: this is FLRig 1.4.5, I had difficulties with an older version.

I am encountering some strange behaviour with JS8Call but I think it's on the soundcard side, so I'll set up another thread.

[r4hdc]

Unfortunately I get a "Hamlib error: Communication timed out while opening connection to rig" when trying those settings in WSJT-X...

I think you should try using the latest https://sourceforge.net/projects/wsjt/f ... jtx-2.5.4/ version WSJT-X. The hamlib code was last fixed in release 2.5.2...

[EI3HIB]

@R4HDC thanks - I tried upgrading to the latest version of WSJT-X this evening, but unfortunately the problem persists.

Not a big deal, but a little frustrating.

Everything works fine in Windows - WSJT-X, JS8Call and even Winlink Express + VaraHF - kind of neat checking emails over HF using a radio slightly larger than a box of cigarettes

[M5AEI]

@EI3HIB

Thanks for the reply, I too want to get flrig working as I am stuck on only using JS8call and WSJT-X and cannot experiment elsewhere. I may get a chance Monday to try again with flrig but previous attempts just lock up the (tr)uSDX. I have to say that with JS8call and WSJT-X I thought that it wasn't working when I pressed the 'test CAT' it looked like it had failed. When I backed out of settings I saw that the green connected light was illuminated and it let me change frequency and both have worked fine since.

good luck,

[lostcaggy]

Have managed to get flrig working using settings shown above, having no luck with hamlib. As previous poster has stated I can hear the relays switching but hamlib returns no connection.

[EI3HIB]

Hi all,

Just a quick update - on my RasPi4 running Bullseye WSJT 2.5.4 now works fine for me and with a little persuasion so does JS8Call.

So I'm controlling both via FLrig and I've since adjusted the settings to tick 1 StopBit and RTS/CTS, but I don't know how critical this is.

More critical: I was running into a problem where the software wasn't immediately getting an audio receiver signal after a transmission - there was a delay of about 8-10 seconds, meaning I could miss replies.

To fix this, it seems like all I had to do was insert the soundcard before the RasPi booted, now that problem is gone.

With JS8Call I had another problem where it wouldn't reliably send multi-part messages, e.g. if a message was sent in three parts it would drop the second.

To fix this, I adjusted the TX delay to 0.1 seconds. Problem solved!

Next I wanted to see if I could get Pat Winlink & Ardop working - I ran into more problems here, specifically the PTT would jam in the transmit position. So I downloaded an updated version of Hamlib but the problem persisted, the fix however was downloading an updated version of piardopc, see here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/ardop-ptt-issue-65086586

So now I have one of my (tr)uSDX's working perfectly with digital modes on Linux.

The other is still exhibiting some gremlins when I try to connect it via CAT on either Windows or Linux, it's running 2.00i, so I don't know whether something has changed with CAT handling between the H and I versions, or whether (perhaps more likely) there's something a bit off with the second radio, like a stray solder joint or something - but I'm going to inspect the board later today.

Anyway, hope this info helps people.

73,
Dave

[EI3HIB]

Well, unfortunately I got pretty much nowhere trying to figure out the CAT control problems on my second (tr)uSDX.

I found that increasing the Polling Interval to 200 in FLRig at least allowed an initial connection and read of the frequency, but it was otherwise unusable - things lock up.

Cutting the polling frequency down leads to all sorts of weirdness - the display goes crazy with random things appearing on it, the CAT cycles connections and eventually weird tones start emanating from the speaker.

So, I don't know what's going on - it seems like the CAT signals are being corrupted somehow.

I've retouched solder connections that looked in any way suspicious, re-installed the latest firmware and tried a variety of cables that all work fine with the other (tr)uSDX - but without any noticeable improvement.

Would be glad if anyone has any further suggestions. I'll be honest and say replacing the SMD chips would be beyond my skill level.

Even if I can't fix it, it's still perfectly useable as an SSB/CW rig and by using VOX, would be useable with many digital modes.

73,
Dave